This section is from the book "The Epicurean", by Charles Ranhofer. Also available from Amazon: The Epicurean, a Complete Treatise of Analytical and Practical Studies on the Culinary Art.
Before blanching rice it should be picked, washed, then put into a saucepan and moistened with cold water; bring the liquid to boiling point, stirring it frequently with a spoon so it does not adhere to the bottom of the saucepan, and let it boil for seven or eight minutes, pour the rice into a sieve to drain, refresh in cold water and strain.
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 well-tinned saucepan. To blanch parsley, chervil, tarragon, onions, shallots, etc., plunge them in boiling water several times.
 
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