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Ice Bath
Appears in
Published 2002
You will see many recipes that call for an ice bath, usually for plunging vegetables into after they have been blanched or parboiled. I beg you to ignore this command (see also parboiling). It compromises fresh vegetables so much that you might as well save yourself the time and trouble and buy frozen ones instead, since the company packaging them has already blanched and iced the vegetables for you.
But I do think that a bowl full of ice and water (half and half) is the only way to go when you are making egg-thickened sauces, such as hollandaise or sabayon, because it instantly stops their cooking. An ice bath is also useful for cooling down delicately flavored vegetable soups and purees that would otherwise oxidize and keep cooking, consequently losing a lot of their fresh color and flavor. Simply place a metal bowl of the sauce, puree, or soup in a bowl half full of ice and water until cold.