Ever run across a recipe and it asks you to peel a tomato or to blanch something? Find yourself asking what the hell that meant? So did I so here it is the down and dirty on blanching to make it quick and easy!

Hold up, what are you even talking about?

Blanching is a cooking process where a food item, usually a vegetable or fruit, is scalded in boiling water or oil, removed after a brief, timed interval, and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water to halt the cooking process. Blanching foods helps reduce quality loss over time.

But how do I blanch a tomato?

• Fill a large 7- to 8-quart pot with 1 gallon of water; bring water to boiling.
• Using a sharp knife, cut a shallow X on the bottom of each tomato. This encourages the skin to split during blanching so you’ll be able to slip off the skin easily with your fingers once the tomatoes have cooled.

• Working in 1-pound batches, immerse tomatoes in the boiling water.
• Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until the tomato skins split open.

• Using a slotted spoon, transfer tomatoes to a large bowl of ice water.

There you have it, blanching in a nutshell, or ice bath… You get the idea.