Blanching

The partial cooking of food, generally vegetables, in rapidly boiling water to help fix colour or facilitate the removal of skins (as with tomatoes). It is often followed by the process of refreshing in cold water to arrest the cooking process. Restaurant practice often blanches vegetables to hold them almost cooked so that brief immersion in boiling water will get them ready for service.

Vegetables are also often blanched prior to freezing. Salty foods, like bacon, may be blanched to remove excess salt and some offal, notably sweetbreads, is blanched to remove impurities prior to any further cooking.