How to boil water

The college where I teach now has a culinary arts program run by a great chef. I decided that this summer I had the time and the interest so I signed up for culinary skills.

During the first class - we learned how to boil water. I laughed when I heard the topic. Come on, how hard can it be. Put some water in a pan, put it on the stove until it bubbles right? Wrong! Boiling water is a skill if you're going to do it right.

First, why are you boiling water? Poaching, simmering or boiling. Poaching is gentle ...for delicate foods like eggs or fish. Simmering is a bit hotter with little tiny bubbles. Boiling is when the liquid is as hot as it's going to get and steam rises and evaporation begins to take place.
Never put a lid on a poach or simmer otherwise it might get too hot and actually boil.


When filling the pot with water, use cold tap water. My mom always told me this when I lived at home and I thought there was something wrong with our water heater. When I moved into town, I've been using hot tap water thinking it will boil faster. It won't. Plus the hot water will loosen up any contaminants in your pipes. If you look at the hot water when it begins to boil, you'll see all sorts of nasties or the water will change color. Nasty!


Adding salt doesn't make it boil faster. Actually, salt raises the boiling point, but it doesn't take that much longer to boil - a few seconds longer is all.

Make sure your pan is big enough so that it can bubble. When you put the pot on the stove, turn the heat to high. If you cover the pot it will boil a bit faster. Once the water is boiling turn down the heat. High heat will just cause it to evaporate faster.

Those little bubbles at the bottom are air bubbles and don't necessarily mean the water is boiling.

And it really doesn't matter if you watch it or not - it takes the same amount of time to boil water whether you watch it or not.