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Technique

boil

Cook in liquid at a full rolling boil -- large bubbles, the whole surface churning. Right for pasta, potatoes, and eggs; usually wrong for meat and stews, which turn tough and cloudy and want a simmer instead.

How to do it

Use a pot large enough that the liquid won't threaten to overflow once food goes in, and bring it fully up to a rolling boil first. For pasta, use enough water that it can move freely, and stir shortly after adding it so it doesn't stick together. For potatoes, it's often better to start them in cold water and bring the whole pot up to temperature gradually, giving heat more time to reach the centers before the outsides overcook. Once a strong boil is established, the burner rarely needs to stay at maximum.

Common pitfalls

  • Boiling something delicate too aggressively -- violent movement can break it apart.
  • Boiling meat or a stew hard and continuously -- it toughens the meat and clouds the liquid; both usually want a simmer instead.
  • Using too small a pot -- a boilover becomes likely.
  • Assuming a higher burner setting makes already-boiling water hotter -- past the boiling point, added heat mostly speeds up how fast the water turns to steam, not how hot the water itself gets.

Why it works

At the boiling point, liquid water undergoes a phase change into vapor, and once boiling has actually started, most of any additional heat goes into that vaporization rather than raising the liquid's temperature much further -- which is why a hard, raging boil isn't dramatically hotter than a gentle one at the same altitude. Altitude itself lowers atmospheric pressure and therefore lowers water's boiling point, so food cooked in boiling water can genuinely take longer at higher elevation.

Equipment

A heavy-bottomed pot spreads heat evenly. Leave enough headroom for bubbling, foam, and the food itself to displace liquid. A lid speeds up the initial heating by cutting down on evaporative and convective heat loss, though it may need to come off once the pot is actually boiling to prevent it from running over.

Appears in 55 recipes