On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:03:09 -1000, dsi1
> wrote:

>On 2/29/2012 2:46 PM, marco wrote:
>> the directions for brown rice:
>>
>> Bring water to a rolling boil
>> in "uncovered" container.
>> I think I've seen these directions before
>> for frozen vegetables.
>>
>> uncovered? why?
>> it takes Longer to boil if uncovered
>>
>> marc
>
>My guess is that it's left uncovered so you can see when to turn the
>heat down. Personally, I'd just use a glass lid.
>
>Boiling water without a lid is wasteful energy-wise. Putting a lid on
>the pot cause the water to condense back into your food. This releases
>the latent heat of evaporation. My guess is that the heat returned to
>the system is significant. Why is that? Because it takes a lot of heat
>to change water to steam. You can either choose to use the steam to
>humidify and heat up your house or you can recycle that energy.

Um, if you knew anything about cooking you'd know that often one cooks
uncovered intentionally to cause a reduction. And with an
uncovered/unpressurized pot you cannot produce steam, that's water
vapor evaporating... you obviously failed JHS science.