To Blanch Vegetables

Vegetables are blanched in more or less time according to their nature, and not only to correct their bitterness, but to soften them as well; the blanching is the prologue of the cooking and is accomplished in boiling, salted water, either in a saucepan, a tinned copper pan, a copper untinned pan, or an untinned saucepan. In the copper and untinned pans, only the green vegetables should be cooked, such as spinach, green peas, string beans, fresh asparagus, in fact all vegetables that must retain a pretty, pale green color. Artichokes should be cooked in a very clean welltinned saucepan. To blanch parsley, chervil, tarragon, onions, shallots, etc., plunge them in boiling water several times.