Pages

Blanching & Understanding What It Does

By Michael Robert Peterson


In the simplest of terms, blanching is a cooking process in which food is placed into boiling water for a certain period of time before it is removed and set into cooler water. The latter step is done in order for the cooking process to be halted but what exactly does this do? For those who are unfamiliar with blanching, you may be curious as to what can be gained by following through with this culinary process. In order to better understand blanching, make note of these specifics.

Blanching can be utilized in order to retain the distinct colors associated with vegetables. Let's say that you want to prepare a vegetable platter but you are concerned with the idea of products like asparagus and carrots losing their distinct appearances. This is where blanching can come into effect and to say that it has a strong impact would be an understatement. However, the benefits of this culinary process are rooted in more than appearance alone and many others will agree.

The removal of skin from certain food products can be made easier because of blanching as well. For instance, what if you want to peel tomatoes but you fear going about it in the wrong way? With blanching, all you have to do is set your products into the hot liquid - as referenced earlier - and then set them into a cooler environment after some time has passed. You may be surprised by how much easier peeling can be done if you follow through with careful blanching.

Did you know that blanching can also be done in order to help lower certain levels of taste in ingredients? For instance, maybe you would like to create an omelet but you do not want the taste of bacon to be overpowering. In this case, you can utilize blanching in order to keep the same basic taste to the bacon in question without it taking precedence over the other ingredients. In order to alter taste for the better, it's hard to overlook blanching.

Blanching is one of the most helpful culinary methods to consider and there are many reasons for this. Not only can it come into effect for better peeling but it is able to help various products keep their appearances, colors in particular. It's very likely that you will make use of other culinary methods, though, so do not think that this will be the only one. What can be said, though, is that blanching can prove to be one of the most surprisingly useful processes imaginable.




About the Author: