Blanching is best described as:

• A. Rapidly boiling food for a short time.
• B. Briefly boiling food; used for vegetables before freezing.
• C. Cooking food slowly in oil at a low temperature.
• D. Steaming vegetables until tender.

Answer: (B)

Blanching is a quick heat treatment that partially cooks vegetables to set color and flavor and, importantly, to inactivate enzymes that can dull color and degrade quality during storage. The procedure is typically brief and followed by an immediate cool-down, which stops the cooking and helps preserve texture for freezing. That’s why describing blanching as briefly boiling vegetables before freezing captures both the method and the purpose.

The other options describe different cooking methods: rapid boiling without the cooling step isn’t blanching, and slow frying or steaming are distinct techniques with different goals and results.