Parboiling

Parboiling (from Old French parbouillir, ‘to boil thoroughly’; the sense ‘partial boiling’ arose by mistaken association with ‘part’) is a technique in which a product is boiled not to full doneness but only partly, and then finished by another method — frying, roasting, braising, or grilling. It is an intermediate step that helps to achieve a perfect result.

Parboiling is used for several practical reasons. Firstly, it helps to cook evenly products with different cooking times: dense vegetables (potato, carrot, broccoli) or rice are pre-boiled so that later, at the final stage, they reach doneness at the same time as more tender ingredients. Secondly, parboiling creates an ideal texture: the classic example is roast potatoes, which are first boiled until soft inside, and then fried or roasted, giving an unsurpassed contrast of a crisp crust and a fluffy centre. Besides, pre-boiling shortens the overall time of the final cooking and can remove excess bitterness or substances from the product. Rice is also parboiled, after which it stays fluffy. This simple but useful technique is the cook's tool for controlling texture and evenness of cooking, helping to avoid the situation where a dish is done outside but still raw within.