verb
blanch
To scald food briefly in boiling water or steam.
She blanched the beans before freezing them.
Etymology
The older verb means to whiten. Cooking adopted it for briefly scalding food, a preparation process that may lighten food or help loosen a skin, though whitening is not always its purpose.
More examples
- The recipe says to blanch the tomatoes briefly.
- He transferred the blanched vegetables to cold water.
- Blanch the greens just long enough to soften them.
Forms
blanch · blanches · blanched · blanching