Blanching (cooking)
cooking process / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blanching is a cooking process in which a food, usually a vegetable or fruit, is scalded in boiling water, removed after a short timed break, and then dropped into cold water to stop the cooking process.[1] Blanching foods helps reduce the loss of quality over time.[2]
People usually use blanching to treat food before freezing, drying, or canning—heating vegetables or fruits to inactivate enzymes, change texture and remove the peel.[3] Blanching is also used to preserve color, flavor, and nutritional value. The benefits of blanching include removing pesticide residues and killing of microorganisms.[4] The disadvantages of blanching can include leaching of nutrients that dissolves in water and the production of effluent.[3]