Understanding the art of blanching is probably one of the most important basic techniques that any cook or aspiring chef can know. In this episode of the Free Culinary School Podcast, we go over the basics of blanching and the science behind the method.
We talk about why you really add salt to the blanching water, and some of the folklore surrounding it.
Discussed in this Episode:
- The Bizarre Foods tasting menu we did at the Big Water Grille.
- What is your death row meal, (mine is braised chicken thighs).
- The basics of blanching.
- And how to build your pallet.
Books Referenced For This Podcast
- My Last Supper - 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals, by Melanie Dunea
- What Einstein Told His Cook, by Robert L. Wolke
- What Einstein Told His Cook 2, by Robert L. Wolke
- The French Laundry Cookbook, by Thomas Keller and Michael Rhulman
- The Whole Beast - Nose To Tail Eating, by Fergus Henderson
If you would like to play along in the “Death Row Meal Game,” click here now to tell us what your last supper would be.
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15 users responded in this post
A great series so far! While I don’t have the ambition for fine cooking I am a long time fan of rustic goodness and this beats the hell out of “open a can of beef bullion….” ding-ding food. The knife podcast was useful, I’m the owner of a mid 50’s vintage 12 inch Sabatier Elephant that I enjoy using.
I like your style Old Fat Sailor, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the show. I too have a soft spot for rustic food. Even though I’ve always cooked fine dining for it’s technical and creative aspects, when I get off work all I want is a big hunk of braised meat with a bone for a handle. I’ll try and share some more “rustic” style recipes in the near future, (if I ever get a day off; 24 straight days of work and counting!).
Great job so far! I can tell these podcasts are going to help me understand and appreciate food more as you keep teaching. I’m currently studying to be a nutritionist and I’m also about to get married in just a few short months so being able to have insight on food from a career chef without having to spend as much time in the culinary/cook books teaching myself cooking and techniques is great.
Thanks for taking the time to do these podcasts and keep up the great work!
Nuttin like a Chicago meat lollypop! I’d like to think I have some sense of taste ( having dined at places like the Greenbrier and the Grand Bay) but I guess I’m a peasant at heart; a polenta or ratatouille well made is more to my liking. Yeah, and I understandthe time thing, Ive been home abt six hours a night for the last four days-and having to eat hospital food.
Yeah…not a bad podcast! I like to listen to it taking the train from The Bronx to Manhattan to go to work at Ramsays’. It’s hard to find a good podcast to listen to! It was great listening to the stock one, I used to be the Saucier at Guy Savoy and it just brought me back…Hey, fumet means ’smoke’ as well, no? Old Sabatiers, huh? Speaking of which, I’ve got an old (found it in my grandmothers apt.)carbon chefs knife–wood handle. Mad rustic.
Gotta love carbon steel, all my knives are flea market/yard sale finds, cleaned and reworked. Jacob, looks like you started something.
@Caponemang,
Yes it can also mean smoked but it is spelled differently, fumee with a hash mark over the first e. Also, glad to have a fellow “slave of the trade” on board; I got some cool things planned for guys like you too.
@OFS
There’s no arguing about peasant food; it took our ancestors a couple centuries to figure out how to make worthless pieces of meat and grain taste good. I’d take trotters and tongue over a fillet any day.
Rumor has it that I might be getting a day off tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be able to work on a new podcast and post some more content to the site.
Since you mentioned BWG, I just went ahead and checked out the website…. I wanted to say that it needs to catch up to atleast this or chef Jay’s blog. It seems a little outdated. One of u guys should gie it a facelift if u dont mind
Jacob or anyone that can help.
Quick question.
I am trying to freeze an omellet for long term storage. My two vegetable ingredients which I wisk into the egg are diced white onions and diced green bell peppers. Currently I saute the two veges before I add them into the eggs.
Do you think it would be beneficial for me to blanch the bell peppers or onions befote I saute them?
Thank alot!!!
Ron
Ron,
Usually when you blanch things before you freeze them it’s to remove any bacteria so it can be frozen for a longer period of time with less quality loss. I honestly don’t know the answer to this question because I’ve never even thought to freeze an omelet. My best advice is to try a couple of different methods and record any difference in quality once thawed and consumed.
Just out of curiosity, what’s your reason for wanting to freeze an omelet for an extended period of time?
Jacob,
Thank you for your reply.
Actually I am located in Asia and we are creating a line of frozen food products. It is a sandwich type product using an asian style crust and one of the ingredients is a layer of egg, along with ham and cheese.
To give the egg some more flavor we are adding in diced onions and bellpeppers, but they are diced up pretty small, so that is why I am curious if blanching them is even neccesary, since they are in such small bits.
Thanks again for your help
Ron
Interesting;
The onions and bell pepper shouldn’t be a problem if they’re really small. However, I would try the addition of locust bean gum because it retards the formation of ice crystals during long periods of freezing as well as freeze and thaw cycles (ex. bringing your frozen product home from the supermarket in a hot car and then re-freezing it in your own freezer). This should help with the overall quality of your frozen product.
Start experimenting by dissolving 1% of locust been gum by weight in you eggs and blending with a good blender. Then make your omelet as usual.
Adjust percentage of gum up or down as necessary. You goal is to get a good, non-gummy consistency while maintaining the overall quality of your product.
Let me know how this works out for you; I’d be really interested to here about your successes/failures.
Jacob,
Yea Ice crystals, ive been reading up on those, scary stuff! haha
So far I have not had them in the freezer long enough to see any form. Our product is still in the experimental stage at this point.
I posted some pictures of my sandwichs’ on flickr, you can see there are other flavors as well.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30673885@N04/?saved=1
I am trying to reach a shelf life of 9 months if possible by keeping the freezing temperature at 18 degree celius, and using airtight packaging. Do you think 9 months is attainable?
I’ll try to look for the Locust Bean Gum, but might be hard to locate where I am (Taiwan).Maybe online I can purchase it.
Do you also suggest mixing in the Bean Gum into the bread flour as well?
Thank you so much for your input and time, I feel like I have a professional consultant for my company already.
Regards,
Ron
@Ron,
Could you clarify your freezing temperature since water doesn’t freeze until it reaches 0 degrees Celsius. Did you mean negative 18 degrees Celsius?
9 months should be attainable if the proper care is taken.
As far as the locust bean gum goes, I would only mix it in your egg mixture. I’m not an expert on freezing foods for a long period of time, but I would start by looking at the ingredient labels of bread based, frozen food products and which kind of additives they use. This is a good place to start reverse engineering your product.
Good luck, and let me know how things are going.
Jacob,
Whoops, yes I meant negative 18C.
Thanks! will let you know how things go.
Regards,
Ron
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