Scald

To plunge food into boiling water (or to pour boiling water over food) in order to loosen its skin and facilitate peeling. Also referred to as blanch.

Noun: The dry, tan or brown area on the skin of a fruit, such as an apple. Usually caused by overexposure to sunlight, but does not affect the fruit quality.

Scalding milk: The scalding technique - bringing milk just to a boil - was traditionally done to kill the enzymes that caused milk to spoil. Now the enzyme is destroyed by the heat of pasteurization. Scalding milk is no longer be necessary when making custard, but note that warming the milk may be needed in the recipe for sake of the temperature of the ingredients as a whole. (I only use it when I am infusing flavor into the milk with vanilla beans, citrus peels, etc.) However, in bread baking, scalding the milk before cooling and adding it to the recipe is still used. It is necessary because of the whey proteins in milk need to be inactivated. They can weaken the gluten of bread dough and produce a dense loaf unless the milk is scalded. To scald milk - NOTE: with less than 1/2-cup, scalding is not necessary 1. Heat milk or reconstituted milk nonfat dry milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan under low heat, stirring occasionally. 2. Heat it, bringing it just below the boiling point without actually boiling it. 3. As soon as you start seeing milk bubbles forming around the inside edges of the pot, it forms a skin on top (if you stir it, you won't see the skin), as well as some steam rising, remove it from the heat; it is now scalded. 4. In general, cool the milk to room temperature before using; you don't want to melt or partially cook other ingredients. In bread dough, the scalded milk will kill the yeast if too cool or too hot, as well as precook the flour. Remember to cool it to around about 110 - 115 degrees F, measured with an instant read thermometer, and then add it to the recipe.