Talk:Blanching (cooking)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ericdcap5.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 15:56, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Chlorophyll
"Blanching enhances the color of some (particularly green) vegetables by releasing gases trapped in the cellular material that obscure the greenness of the chlorophyll. Since blanching is done - and halted - quickly, the heat does not have time to break down chlorophyll as well."

During cooking chlorophyll is not destroyed or dissociated by heat; the central magnesium cation (Mg ++) is simply substituted by ions commonly present in sink water. This heavily suppress the wonderful green tones of certain vegetables (ie, beans or broccoli). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.0.159.169 (talk) 22:17, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Effect on nutrition
"Blanching is often criticized for diminishing the nutritional content of the treated food, especially due to the fact that it significantly diminishes vitamins stored in the food."

I tagged this with "By whom?" and "fact" tags. It is a vague claim with no supporting documentation. I do not know enough about nutrition or chemistry to be able to research this claim myself, but I hope that some expert may do so and support or refute the statement. Sue D. Nymme (talk) 17:34, 28 August 2008 (UTC)


 * A cursory google search turns up ambiguous results. On the one hand, UC Davis has a pamphlet suggesting that blanching can be necessary for preserving the nutritional content of vegetables when freezing them, and that any loss is comparable to steaming them. (See also this other pamphlet.) However, there is research suggesting that blanching can sharply reduce the nutritive content of some vegetables, but this is specific to anti-oxidants in green leafy vegetables (see Effect of blanching on the antioxidant properties of some tropical green leafy vegetables). I'm sure there's more out there on this-- I found a few semi-reputable sites suggesting that there can be a slight (<15%) degradation in vitamin content when blanching or steaming, and somewhat more so when boiling vegetables, but they didn't cite their sources. Msr657 (talk) 23:55, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Purpose?
This article describes the *process* but not the purpose. I came here wanting to learn "why" blanching is used on vegetables. This is a huge omission from this *encyclopedia caliber* article. The "why" or "reason" for blanching vegetables needs to be included in this article. Hardwarefreak (talk) 02:26, 3 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Added. Nadiatalent (talk) 18:51, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Asparagus and blanching (horticulture)
I was under the impression that white asparagus is created by "hilling", not by covering it up and blanching the plant by limiting its exposure to sunlight as this article states.Riphamilton (talk) 00:47, 18 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I've simplified what is on this page, since it seems best to keep the technical discussion to the page about the gardening technique. Nadiatalent (talk) 01:15, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

title in gerund form
I had no idea of the policy that prefers a gerund over the infinitive. How unfortunate, as it makes us look amateurish, or not quite fluent in English, to have an entry term ending in -ing. Well, thanks for restoring it, I guess. Eric talk 17:40, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Can a history section get developed?
I was also interested about what is known about invention and/or deverlopment of this metod of food preparation. If I invent (this time meaning find while going around on other business, from invenio, as far as I know originaly latin invenire: in this context to come to, to find) a suitable source, I'll give notice here. Also, origin of the name 'blanching' could be briefly explained (possibly also addressing what bothered @Eric talk with presenting in infinitive the verb from which name of this food preparation practice derives ;-). If I find (see above) something suitable (well sourced) for that I'll also propose. --Marjan Tomki SI (talk) 19:59, 7 December 2020 (UTC)