On 2/29/2012 4:31 PM, Brooklyn1 wrote:
> 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.

Surely, you can't be serious... oh wait... you are. One does a reduction
by evaporation? Amazing! This one's a keeper!