Blanching seeks to make pale or white by excluding light.
Several vegetables need blanching to be made them tender and remove the green parts that cause bitterness.
Celery and leeks are blanched using the process of earthing up.
Seakale and rhubarb is blanched by excluding light by an upturned pot usually covered in leaf litter.
Endives can be blanched by covering with a slate or tile to exclude light for a few days.
Chicory and lettuce may blanch if the leaves are tied together.
Exclude light from potatoes by ‘earthing up’ or drawing mounds of soil around the haulms (stems) to prevent tubers from growing near the surface and turning green.
Blanching Food Treatment
Blanch vegetable or fruit by scalding in boiling water and finally plunge into icy or very cold water.
Skin and outer shells are easier to remove on tomatoes and many nuts after quick blanching.
Fruit and vegetables are treated to minimize the bacterial content often as a precursor to freezing.
Blanching helps to retain a green color with asparagus, greens, peas and beans. Par boiling is similar to blanching but without the last step of a quick chill in cold water.
Blanching food is now a recognised industrial process about which several learned views have been published.
