Cooking what does blanched mean

Oliver British. Wendy British. Fred US English. Tessa South African. How to say Blanching in sign language? Popularity rank by frequency of use Blanching Select another language:. Please enter your email address: Subscribe. Discuss these Blanching definitions with the community: 0 Comments. Notify me of new comments via email. Cancel Report. Create a new account. Log In. Different recipes will call for different blanching times, but with blanching, times are measured in terms of seconds rather than minutes.

Typical blanching times range from 30 to 60 seconds. Blanching is often done in conjunction with another step, known as shocking, which involves plunging the blanched item directly into an ice water bath, so as to stop the cooking that was initiated in the blanching phase. This is a clue that blanching is more of a prep technique than a cooking technique.

Blanching does not, and should not, cook the food. If the food is going to be cooked, that will happen later. Otherwise, blanched food is still considered raw. The key with shocking is that you don't want to let the food sit in the ice water for too long, or it will start to absorb water and become soggy.

What you want to do instead is just let it chill until the food is no longer warm, then drain it thoroughly and either store it or set it aside for whatever the next step is.

You don't need to get it fully cold all the way through, but it shouldn't be warm to the touch. As we said, blanching softens vegetables and it also intensifies their colors.

Whereas long boiling will turn green vegetables like asparagus or green beans a drab olive color, 30 seconds of blanching will turn them a bright vivid green. The same is true for the orange color of carrots. Freezing can likewise cause the colors of veggies to turn drab, so blanching is a common step as a preliminary to freezing. Oh, so many questions! We have Blanche, we have water, but no, my friends.

This is cooking, so Welcome Aboard! Blanching vegetables or fruits is essentially dropping them into a pot of boiling water or steaming. This causes the veggie to start cooking at a rapid pace, which, relieves the overall rawness of the vegetable, among other benefits. However, to avoid completely cooking the veggie, you will need to shock it. After just a few minutes for many food items , you will shock the vegetables by removing them from the boiling water and putting them directly into an ice bath.

This will immediately halt the cooking process. Some may also get by with running the veggies under extremely cold water out of the sink or blasting them with cold air if you happen to have Elsa by your side, however, an ice bath tends to work best. Foods are typically blanched before cooking. As mentioned above, this can intensify color, flavor and texture while making the fruit or vegetable in question more manageable to work with.

Blanched items are easier to peel, freeze better, are more presentable, and take some of the bite out of raw vegetables. Most recipes will tell you if blanching is a required step during the food preparation phase. As a general rule of thumb, blanching requires about 2 minutes of boiling before removal. Salt water is best for adding a little extra zest.

Many thanks for sharing! Cheers, Kathy. Are you a busy person who just never got around to learning the basics of cooking? We built startcooking. You'll learn how to make quick and tasty meals, plus learn the basic cooking skills you'll need. Get ready to start cooking!