On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 16:56:10 +0100, Broadback wrote:

Ok, I accept that I am not the sharpest tool in the box, so what does
blanch for 1 minute actually mean?

1)Plunge the subject into boiling water then leave for 1 minute
2)Plunge into boiling water with heat on high, leave for 1 minute

I doubt there's any significant difference between these two.
Both have the result that the veggies are in contact with boiling
or near-boiling water for a minute and thereby deactivate various
enzymes that would otherwise cause a loss of quality in storage.


3)Plunge into boiling water, bring back to boil and boil for 1 minute

This might be overdoing it a little.


The "one minute" time is really just a customary figure that's
been found by experience to work well enough. if anyone had done
scientific experiments, we'd be reading "for one minute and
twenty-three point seven seconds."

Likewise, the "boiling" is based on experience and is a
temperature easy to recognize without a thermometer. Scientific
studies might yield results like "broccoli, 83.2C".

Might be interesting to see what the cookbooks have to say about
blanching at high altitudes where the boiling point is below
100C.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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