In the Ask our Chef section we have received the following question:
“I have a question regarding asparagus. I place them in a vacuum bag with brine and cook them in the cooker for 20 minutes at 65 degrees. After cooking, the consistency of the asparagus is crunchy. However, once frozen in the blast chiller for future use and defrosted, the product loses its texture. Is that a result of freezing?”
In effect, asparagus have a high original water content and during cooking their fibrous texture opens and lets in more water. That is why white asparagus do not tolerate the freezing process well. To avoid this, it is best to cook and pasteurize the asparagus and keep them in the storage chamber with a long shelf life of approximately 45 days.
