How to Boil Water

If you can boil water, you can cook! When you boil an egg, simmer a soup, or blanch a vegetable, you are using ?Boiling? as a part of the cooking process.

Boiling is the action of a liquid, a various temperatures, on food. When you boil meat or poultry, there??s a chemical reaction which causes a frothy scum. This scum is usually skimmed off. This clarifies the liquid for the stew or soup that you are preparing.

There are different stages of boiling. The first stage is called ebullition, or ?boiling point.? This is when the steam starts to rise and bubbles start to rise to the surface.

As the bubbles surge faster, it becomes a ?rolling boil.? This is the boil that is used to reduce stock by evaporation, which intensifies the flavor. This is also the boiling stage for cooking pasta.

Reduce the heat from your pan of boiling water back down to where the bubbles are ?barely? there. This is called ?simmering.? Poaching and simmering are essentially the same. Simmering is used for cooking stews and pot roasts and is a slow cooking method.

?Blanching? is sometimes called boiling. It is the use of boiling water to sear foods, usually vegetables, before cooking them further by another method. For instance, you would blanch green peppers before stuffing them and baking them for Stuffed Bell Peppers.