Old line cook swore by blanching green beans in salted ice water before service

Worked at this spot in Austin called The Broken Spoke Kitchen back in 2019, and this 60 year old line cook named Carl told me to drop green beans in salted ice water right after blanching. I thought he was nuts until I tried it on a 60 pound order for a catering gig and they stayed bright green and snappy for 4 hours on the pass. Anyone else got weird prep tricks from old timers that actually worked out?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbara42912d ago

That salted ice water trick is basically a shock treatment on steroids. The salt actually lowers the freezing point of the water so it stays colder than regular ice water without turning into a solid block. Carl probably learned that from some old school French technique where they used brine for preserving vegetables. The salt also helps pull out any bitterness and keeps the cell walls from collapsing so the beans stay crunchy way longer than normal. Most cooks just dunk in plain ice water and wonder why their veggies get mushy after an hour. Your catering manager probably thought you were some kind of wizard when those beans came out looking perfect hours later.

danieljenkins12d ago

I actually read about this in a food science blog last month. The writer said brine ice water can keep veggie temps around 28 degrees instead of 32 because of the freezing point drop. That extra few degrees makes a big difference for keeping that snap in green beans or asparagus. My buddy runs a meal prep kitchen and he swears by adding a small handful of salt to his ice bath every time now.