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How to boil water …
May 14, 2007 | 17 Comments
Not kidding guys – boiling water is an exact science and if practiced well enough it could even become art or really ART.
Let’s first review the vocabulary (aka what do those fancy schmancy chefs mean when they say) – cold, room temperature, tepid, warm, hot, poach, simmer, slow boil, and real boil.
Cold – 3 to 7 C
Room Temperature – 15 to 25 C
Tepid – 30 to 40 C
Warm – 46 to 49 C
Hot – 55 to 58 C
Poach – 71 to 82 C
Simmer – 85 to 93 C
Slow Boil – 96 C
Real Boil – 100 C
Throw into this mix altitude, relative humidity, solid additives, liquid additives, the kind of pan used, or even the weather and the exact boiling point changes ever so slightly to affect your well crafted recipes.
For every 300 m increase in elevation above sea level, boiling point reduces by one degree celcius.
If you live in a dry place, you will lose more water while boiling because it takes lesser energy for the water vapor to escape the surface.
If you add salt or sugar or anything solid for that matter, it will elevate the boiling point which should shorten your cooking time.
If you add alcohol, it results in a reduction of the boiling point – so you might want to increase your cooking time if you replace a cup of water with a cup of wine for example.
If you use a tall narrow vessel vs a shallow wide vessel with the same amount of water, the shallow one will boil faster. No, its not because the shallow vessel will get hotter (metal should conduct fairly evenly so the top of a tall vessel should get as hot as the edges of wide one in relatively the same time), but rather because of the increased pressure of a tall column of water. Imagine this, at ocean floors you can find water at 350 C which does not boil because the pressure of the water column above is huge.
If you are camping and need to boil water… and have no pots and pans??? You can boil water in a plastic bottle. Watch. DISCLAIMER: we haven’t tried this.
Nature’s cauldron. The ‘fishing cone’ at Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park.
It is a small geyser formed through volcanic activity. The mineral deposits emerging from the hole over the centuries have formed a crusty outer egde about three feet high, forming a cone on the shore of the lake.
It received its name from early explorers who stood on the cone and cast their lines into the lake to catch fish. Without taking the fish off the hook they parboiled them in the vent of the Fishing Cone, where the water temperature is around 75-80 C. See old postcards depicting this here.
How does water boil in space? Watch this video.
The process is reversed when ice floats. Why does ice float? Find out here. To summarise:
Like most things that float, ice floats because it is less dense than liquid water. Ice is about 9% less dense. When ice forms, it takes up about 9% more space than it did as a liquid. Thus, a 1 liter container of ice weighs less than a 1 liter container of liquid water, and the lighter material floats to the top.
- J.
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The science behind boiling water here and here.
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boil-water, HOW TO, MUSINGS, national park, TRAVEL, Yellowstone-National-Park
Nice post Jai!! Did anyone ever think there is so much to boiling water??!!! Brilliant!
I knew it had to be J! After being cooks with some skills there is still to learn always
. Reminds me about weather and temp connection.
Wow
wow wonderfull info Jai, hardly anyone imagines what is there is boiling water ……..
Yes Jai, the boiling point at a higher altitude decreases.But cooking gets done faster is not true.
Refer this site http://www.chemistry.co.nz/cooking_altitudes.htm
‘It is time and temperature that does the cooking. It has nothing to do with whether the water is boiling. That is only a physical phenomenon that you can see. You have to measure for temperature and time, as these are the two factors that determine when the egg is hardboiled’
Thats why to hardboil an egg in sea level it takes 6 min and in a flight it will take 12min.The water may boil sooner in a flight than in sea level,but cooking does take longer.
Here hardboiling an egg is given as an example but it applies to any dish even cup noodles too that you would like to cook.
So if temperature to boil reduces by 1degree every 300m,then in a flight say 12000m high,water will boil at 40 degrees lesser,that is at 60 degrees,but this temperature of just 60 degrees isnt enough to cook a dish irrespective of whether water has boiled or not.
Stand corrected on cooking at altitudes part, edited the post accordingly. Elsewhere in the post i suggested increasing cooking time if you add alcohol (which lowers the boiling point), which is the same phenomenon – so I should have noticed my slip. Thanks. Jai.
If my milk or water temp is not betn 105F to 115F,I will kill the Yeast and I will get rock had Bread!!YUP! Boiling water or anything is an art.Thank you:))
I have seen the Geyser in Yellow stone which erupts every 50mins or so,amazing!
How come you didn’t have a classic photo of J & B boiling water ?
hope tyler florence is ok with the use of his phrase
Wow!!!..Too Good …..thks for the info ….
Great article! (when I read the post title, my first thought you guys were collaborating with Tyler Florence).
It is indeed an art and especially since there is such a variety in the terms and in what they mean to everyone.
The temperature of the water (or added liquid) has to be just right when working with yeast, gelatin, chocolate, eggs, otherwise the results are disasterous, I know from experience.
Ask me about cooking at high altitude. Sigh! Takes forever. It helps to have a burner of a higher BTU. It’s very much part of the sales talk around here when you are looking for a stove. When I first visited this area 2 years ago to check it out, my American friend and I decided to make sambar. She didn’t have a pressure cooker and we were boiling and cooking the dal for over 2 hours! Pressure cookers rule at high altitude and she has one now! It also took me a while to figure out why my tea is never as hot as it used to be in Chicagoland, especially since I brew mine, as opposed to boiling the tea leaves Indian-style. The water boils at a lower temp and so it’s already cold by the time it’s ready! Baking is not simple either – baking powder is activated much quicker and so the cake rises way too fast and the whole thing flops as it cooks. But, at least we’er closer to the mountains!
Yeh Tyler Florence Kaun Hai Aur Usko Gussa Kyun Aayega?
That was good to know, esp the terms for heat levels used by cooks! A piece of info from me….the density of water is maximum at 4 degrees.
Fun read for the day
THanks!
Thanks Jai! I pick up some of this stuff from Alton Brown also. I actually have his Kitchen User’s Manual which talks about High Altitude conversion for boiling water and baking adjustments