When Do You Use Blanching?

August 1, 2024

Hello Friends,

The process of blanching is often used in the kitchen. When growing up Dad would salt cure a lot of the pork when we butchered. Dad would hang the meat and the salt would preserve it through the winter months. If you have never eaten “salt cured” meat, let me tell you that it is very salty. We used to have a lot of our bacon done like this. It is very delicious if it is processed and cooked correctly.

Depending on how much salt has been used, we would blanch it or parboil it before cooking. This would remove much of the salt. After removing it from the water, the meat would be rolled in flour with pepper and maybe other spices (No salt). It would be placed in a heavy skillet with a little hot fat to brown. This is so great on a sandwich with mustard and horseradish.

Blanching is more often used preserving food than any other area. When canning or freezing, blanching fruits and vegetables makes removing the skins very easy and also sets in the natural coloring. The heat by blanching will also retard enzyme action before the preserving process.

Making Preserves
Canning Beets
Watch Me Blanch Tomatoes

The other day I was in a hurry, so I made a big mistake. I had a lot of vegetables left over in my refrigerator. I wanted to freeze them before they went bad. Like I said, I was in a hurry. I had spinach, cauliflower with broccoli and carrot mix and some asparagus. After blanching fruits and vegetables, they need to be plunged into ice water to cool quickly. This will stop everything from further cooking.

Dropping into ice water is the step I forgot to do. I simply put everything into freezer bags and placed in the freezer. The spinach was fine but the other vegetables were not. The cauliflower and broccoli was very mushy. The carrots and asparagus were so tough that I had to throw them out. Remember when blanching to always drop fruits and vegetables in cold water after removing them from the hot water.

Your friend, Frances