Fiber

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 8th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2014

  • About
The fiber structures of vegetables (including cellulose and pectins) give them shape and firmness. Cooking softens some of these components.

The amount of fiber varies:

  1. In different vegetables. Spinach and tomatoes have less fiber than carrots and turnips, for example.
  2. In different examples of the same vegetables. Old, tough carrots have more fiber than young, fresh carrots.
  3. In the same vegetable. The tender tips of asparagus and broccoli have less fiber than their tougher stalks.

Fiber is made firmer by acids or sugars: