Blanching

Blanching is a two-step preparation technique in which a vegetable or fruit is briefly scalded in boiling water for a short, timed interval and then immediately plunged into iced water or held under cold running water, a step called shocking or refreshing, to halt the cooking instantly. The brief heat deactivates enzymes that would otherwise degrade color, flavor and texture over time, which is why blanching is a standard preliminary step before freezing or canning vegetables, and it is also used to loosen the skins of tomatoes and stone fruit or to soften vegetables slightly before a second cooking method. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/