Ken Knecht wrote:

> Why is blanching suggested for food to be frozen? For example, I looked
> up celery in a book on freezing stuff I have and it tells me to blasnch
> the celery for three minutes before freezing. Cool off, then bag and
> freeze. What does the blanching do? What would happen if I didn't bother
> to? Anyone know?
>
> TIA
>
>
Ken, blanching stops the enzyme activity in the vegetables allowing for
longer storage. IMO the colour is better and doesn't degrade during
freezing if the veggies are blanched. The proper way to blanch is to
prepare your veggies and bring a pot of water to a boil. While waiting
for the water to boil run cold water into a clean sink. Add ice cubes.
Put your veggies into the boiling water for the required amount of
time. When the timing is up, remove the veggies, strain and immediately
put into the ice water.

If you don't blanch, the veggies won't last as long. Only certain
veggies need to be blanched. Two really good sources for this
information are the Ball Blue Book and Putting Food By.

HTH

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