How to time the blanching of potatoes for freezing

freezingpotatoes

I've read numerous articles on the procedure to peel, blanch then bag and store potatoes in a freezer. The procedure states to bring a big pot of water to boil than put in the potatoes and blanch 3-5 minutes. Of course when you drop in potatoes the temperature of the pot goes down. So do you start your 3-5 minute timer for blanching after the pot with the potatoes start boiling again or do you start timing 3-5 minutes as soon as you put the potatoes in?

Best Answer

If the temperature drops, you are doing it wrong. The whole point of blanching is to bring up the temperature of the vegetables up very quickly. This means

  • slice your vegetables small
  • use a very large pot
  • blanch in small portions

A 1:10 ratio is typical, so if you use a 5 liter pot, you can blanch in 500 g portions. Put your vegetables into a strainer. Submerge the strainer in the water (which should be at a roiling boil), start the clock immediately (the water should only need several seconds to get back to full boil) and when ready, plunge into iced water to stop cooking immediately.