Blanching is one of the ways of heat treatment of products

Many beginning cooks sometimes do not quite understand the word "blanching". This is in fact a rather simple term, but for those who have never encountered it, it can still pose certain difficulties. If we consider this concept as a whole, it means it is the thermal treatment of products by means of hot water or steam, in which they are not brought to the stage of complete readiness. That is, in simple terms, blanching is welding. If you go into the technological details of the process, then, depending on the product itself and the purpose of its processing, you can act in different ways.

What is blanching vegetables and what is it for ?

Unfortunately, when exposed to air, most of the vitamins and trace elements break up. At the same time, the appearance of cut vegetables and fruits is significantly affected. A vivid example - apples or pears, which become completely unattractive after just a few minutes after slicing. Blanching helps to avoid such trouble. This is the process in which oxidation occurs more rapidly. Of course, useful substances are lost much more, but the appearance of vegetables and fruits practically does not suffer.

Carry out this procedure, usually with the help of a small amount of boiling water or steam. Vegetables should be simultaneously placed in a container and just as soon as everything is taken from it, so that it does not turn out that some pieces are blanched longer, while others are smaller. Cook them should be from 2 to 5 minutes, sometimes it is enough to pass on with boiling water or steam. Typically, the recipe for cooking dishes indicate the way and time of blanching. To apples and other fruits rich in iron, do not darken, it is recommended to add a little citric acid to the water.

Blanching of pepper and tomatoes, as a rule, is carried out with the purpose of disposal of them from a thin skin, capable in the future to spoil a dish. Therefore, they are usually not boiled, but are limited to being filled with boiling water, and then immersed in ice water (sharp cooling is recommended for any vegetables and fruits after heat treatment). Some especially delicate vegetables (for example, spinach) can not be cooked at all, except for blanching. The fact is that even in a double boiler it quickly loses its color and benefits, let alone the banal cooking in a pot of water.

Before harvesting vegetables and fruits for the winter, it is also recommended that they be blanched, this will help to get rid of excess air and create a protective film, so that they will be kept better in the future.

What products do not blanch

This procedure is unacceptable when it comes to ripe berries. First, any thermal impact negatively affects their color (they will fade and become less attractive). Secondly, berries, as a rule, are rather soft and quickly cooked, so that even with short-term exposure to boiling water they can simply turn into compote.

Why blanch meat and fish

Before starting to prepare various dishes from these products, they are usually thoroughly washed in cold water to clean and disinfect. But it will be much more effective to blanch meat or fish by baking them with boiling water. In this case, useful substances are not washed away, the structure is not disturbed, and many microorganisms die under the influence of temperature.