4.5 Preparing raw fruit and vegetables

Raw produce needs the right tool for each task, and its own set of techniques. Two aims guide the work: to know which utensil suits each kind of preparation, and to build skill with particular fruits and vegetables.

Tools for raw produce

Beyond the chef's knife, these tools are used to prepare fruit and vegetables:

• a garlic press
  ▶ Watch
• a vegetable parer, or peeler
  ▶ Watch
• a coarse grater, and a fine grater or rasp grater
  ▶ Watch
• a corer
  ▶ Watch
• a zester
  ▶ Watch

Words for preparing produce

These kitchen terms are used when you work with raw fruit and vegetables.

• Peel or pare: take the skin off a fruit or vegetable.
  ▶ Watch
• Zest: small bits of the skin of a lemon, lime or orange, used to add flavor. A zester is the usual tool.
  ▶ Watch
• Slice: a flat piece, often thin, cut from something larger.
  ▶ Watch
• Blanch: put food into boiling water for a short time, then lift it out and plunge it into ice water.
  ▶ Watch

Techniques for particular foods

Each fruit and vegetable has its own way of being cleaned, opened or cut. Techniques worth learning include:

• soaking produce in salt water
• cleaning mushrooms
  ▶ Watch
• preparing broccoli stems
  ▶ Watch
• preparing vegetables that have a wax coating
  ▶ Watch
• cutting a grapefruit into sections
  ▶ Watch
• cleaning and dicing a mango
  ▶ Watch
• cutting an avocado in half
  ▶ Watch
• taking the core out of lettuce
  ▶ Watch
• cleaning and slicing a cantaloupe
  ▶ Watch
• blanching tomatoes or peaches
  ▶ Watch

What happens inside the produce

Raw fruit and vegetables differ in color, flavor and texture. Five terms describe what happens inside them:

• Pigments give the colors: chlorophyll, carotenoids, anthocyanin and anthoxanthin.
  ▶ Watch
• Flavors fall into three groups: mild, Brassica and Allium.
  ▶ Watch
• Texture depends on cellulose, pectin and hemicellulose.
  ▶ Watch
• Enzymatic browning
  ▶ Watch
• Osmosis
  ▶ Watch