Cooking Stack Exchange
Cooking Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [boiling]

Cooking either in boiling water, or by heating the food until boiling

287 questions
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Why wait for water to boil?

I've always heard that you should wait for water to boil before adding pasta/perogies/vegetables/etc. What is the reason for this? Is it because it reaches boiling point faster? If so, why?
Steve Vermeulen
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Rolling boil has barely any steam?

I'm trying to reduce a sauce I've got but I noticed something interesting. When I raise the heat so the sauce is at a full rolling boil, there is barely any steam coming out so I presume there is little reduction happening. However, when I reduce…
Trogdor
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When a recipe says, 'simmer uncovered', what's the issue?

Many a recipe or package instructs: 'cook uncovered' without stating a reason. As a general matter, is this to protect me from boilover, or does it have some more subtle purpose?
bmargulies
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7
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4 answers

Cooking at, or below, the boil. Is there any impact that the actual boil has?

When cooking in water, is there any difference between 98°C or 100°C ? In the second case water is boiling, and in the first it isn't.
OPTIMUS PRIME
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6
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Is there something special about bubbly water?

Based on this answer: Why add salt to potato water? I always thought that water boiling was about getting the water to a specific temperature. You can't really get the water to a temperature past that point because as soon as it does it becomes…
Edward Strange
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5
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2 answers

Using a wooden spoon to prevent pots from boiling over?

Someone recently told me that placing a wooden spoon across the top of a pot will prevent boilovers. Could somebody explain to me why this is the case?
Adam Eberlin
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"Lively simmer" vs "simmer"?

From what I understand, a "simmer" is when you start getting small air bubbles floating up, but only one air bubble breaks through the liquid's surface every 2 seconds. So then what is a "lively simmer" as I've seen in many recipes?
geofflee
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Does it make sense to salt water after it boils?

Does it make sense to salt water after it boils? On the one hand, salted water has a higher boiling point. On the other hand, it increases regardless of whether you salt at one point or another
Sergey Zolotarev
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What is meant by "bring to the boil"?

A lot of recipes and videos say "bring the cream/milk/etc to the boil" - but to me this would be as in a kettle at the point it turns itself off. Clearly this is wrong for boiling things like cream, but what should the cream/milk/etc look like when…
Matt W
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Half Boiling and Freezing meat

When I BBQ meat sometimes meat does not cook completely and evenly. So I came up with an idea why not half boil meat (Chicken, Beef etc), put on my marination and put in fridge to be used for BBQ later. In this way I won't have to burn my meat to be…
Sally
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2 answers

Liquefying through long boiling

Is there a name in English for the process of turning ingredients of a dish into liquid through boiling them long enough? Usually this happens as cook's errors, but at times it's the desired effect (e.g. you may create an excellent, smooth, creamy…
SF.
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Brand new - never been used stainless steel briage pot pitted with one 6 minute water boil on my gas range

I had pitting in an All-Clad pot and figured I had done something wrong ( no salt added at all just water boiled). The new pot ( received yesterday) .. washed with hot water and soap, cleaned, dried and commenced to heating.. it's already pitting..…
Kevin M Wueste
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Can one always cook food faster in a pan with water in it with the lid on and/or high heat?

In other words: Does water boil faster with the lid on? Yes. But folks often don't consider food looks cooked 'till it's browned, and will find that takes a really long time to look cooked if they don't take the lid off. How can these both be…
user1521620
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