What blanch means
Blanching is a quick dip in boiling water followed by an immediate cool-down. Placeholder text for now; the full explanation will be generated later.
Blanch
To cook food very briefly in boiling water, then plunge it into iced water to stop the cooking.
Quick facts
- Type
- Technique
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Used for
- Freezing vegetables, peeling tomatoes and almonds, setting colour
- You need
- Large pan, Slotted spoon, Bowl of iced water
- Word origin
- From French blanchir, "to whiten"
- Also seen as
- Blanching, Blanched
How to blanch
- Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil and set a bowl of iced water beside it.
- Add the food in small batches so the water stays at the boil.
- Lift it out with a slotted spoon straight into the iced water, then drain well.
Blanching times
| Vegetable | Preparation | Minutes in boiling water |
|---|---|---|
| Asparagus | Thin / medium / thick spears | 2 / 3 / 4 |
| Aubergine | — | 4 |
| Broccoli | Florets about 4 cm across | 3 (5 if steamed) |
| Brussels sprouts | Small / medium / large | 3 / 4 / 5 |
| Butter beans | Shelled: small / medium / large | 2 / 3 / 4 |
| Cabbage | Shredded | 1½ |
| Carrots | Small whole / sliced, diced or strips | 5 / 2 |
| Cauliflower | Florets about 2.5 cm across | 3 |
| Celery | — | 3 |
| Corn on the cob | Small / medium / large cobs | 7 / 9 / 11 |
| Courgettes | Listed by the source as summer squash | 3 |
| Globe artichoke | Hearts | 7 |
| Green beans | Trimmed (also wax beans) | 3 |
| Jerusalem artichoke | — | 3 to 5 |
| Kohlrabi | Whole / cubed | 3 / 1 |
| Leafy greens | Collard greens / all other greens | 3 / 2 |
| Mangetout and sugar snaps | Whole pods | 1½ to 3 |
| Mushrooms | Steamed: whole / buttons or quarters / slices | 5 / 3½ / 3 |
| New potatoes | — | 3 to 5 |
| Okra | Small pods / large pods | 3 / 4 |
| Peas | Shelled garden peas | 1½ |
| Peppers | Halves / strips or rings | 3 / 2 |
| Swede | Listed by the source as rutabaga | 3 |
| Sweetcorn kernels | Blanch the cob, then cut off the kernels | 4 |
| Turnips and parsnips | Cubed | 2 |
- Time from when the water returns to the boil.
- Steam blanching takes about one and a half times as long.
- Cool for about as long as you blanched, then drain well.
Blanch vs Parboil
Blanch
A very short boil, then iced water. The food stays mostly raw inside.
Partly cooked by boiling, then finished another way, such as roasting.
Common mistakes
- Overcrowding the pan, so the water stops boiling.
- Skipping the iced water, so the food carries on cooking.
- Not drying the food before freezing, which leads to ice crystals.
Kit for this technique
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See options on AmazonHow it appears in recipes
“Blanch the almonds, then slip off their skins.”
“Blanch the beans and refresh them under cold water.”
Questions people ask
Do you have to blanch vegetables before freezing?
Most vegetables keep their colour, texture and flavour better if blanched first, because it stops the enzymes that carry on breaking them down in the freezer. A few, such as onions and peppers, are commonly frozen raw.
What does blanching almonds mean?
It means briefly soaking or boiling whole almonds so their brown skins loosen and can be slipped off, leaving white nuts.
Related terms
Cite this entry
The Cooking Dictionary. (n.d.). Blanch. Retrieved from https://thecookingdictionary.com/blanch/