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James Silverton[_3_] James Silverton[_3_] is offline
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Default boiling water with lid off?

On 3/2/2012 11:55 AM, dsi1 wrote:
> On 3/2/2012 2:18 AM, Krypsis wrote:
>> On 1/03/2012 1:35 PM, dsi1 wrote:
>>> 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!

>>
>> I wonder what that vapourish looking stuff is that escapes from my pot
>> when I'm boiling water? It can't be steam because I don't have a lid on
>> the pot and I should have been told in JHS science that I cannot produce
>> team in an uncovered pot. For me, JHS was a very very long time ago.
>>
>> Riddle me this... If I boil water on a stove in an uncovered pot, why
>> will it eventually boil dry if, as we have been told by Brooklyn, no
>> steam is being produced? If no steam is being produced, we cannot be
>> having any loss of liquid, can we?
>>
>> Wait, maybe Brooklyn is wrong? Could that be possible? Did he flunk JHS
>> science classes? Maybe some new discovery has been made that turns the
>> old theory that I learnt on its head in more recent times?
>>

>
> It's a strange post alright. Even little kids and high school dropouts
> know what happens when you heat water up. :-)


Yes, steam is coming off boiling water whether a lid is on the pot or
not. I think a pot of water will come to a boil faster with the lid on
since not so much heat escapes but it doesn't seem to make a lot of
difference.
--
Jim Silverton

Extraneous "not" in Reply To.