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Recipes For The Month
For those who want something different
and want recipes, try this:
Ethnic Dishes from around the world hosted by the Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Includes historical recipes of different cultures, and many contemporary cultural dishes. Great Resource.
And a recipe of my own.
Recipe for boiled water
Don't go away - This is only half whimsical
There are some valuable points and references here.
Principles of evaporation
Boiling time depends on altitude
By altitude, cooking time opposite boiling time
Boiling tips - boiling temperature always same
Stages of boiling
Significance to forests of world:
Boiling time needed to purify water? None See below at end
1. Use any container which will not burn immediately
when put on top of a flame and is able to hold the amount of water you plan to boil. Boiling water in an oven or a microwave is a separate recipe.
2. Fill pan with water.
3. Let it stand over night to allow all of the heavy minerals to settle to the bottom and the other stuff to float to the top. For starters, just so you know, I do not like any recipe that tells me to let something stand over night. In fact, I do not like to think about tomorrow's meals ahead of time. They are discouraging enough when faced with their presence 10 minutes before I eat. But, in some places in the world, the above is suggested, or at the very least, strain it. Actually, the tap water where I live could be bottled and sold. Some have tried. If you want to get serious here, see guide to water filters and water treatment giving the major types of water filtration and sanitizing systems or, to get really serious The History of Water Filters from the past with projections into the future.
4. Siphon or scoop off the stuff on top and spill 95% of the water into another clean container making sure to keep back the heavy metals at the bottom, which by the way you cannot see because they are dissolved.
How much water to place in pan
Be sure not to place more than 3/4 of the pan with water. Why? If you tip it over accidentally, there is that much less water to clean up. And, if you have boiled it already, less boiling water on your foot. But, more to the point, as someone on the web said, "so that you will have room to put in whatever you are cooking" – good point and worthy of a footnote. Unfortunately, I do not have it.
Some good tips and warnings
eHow: How to boil water - like why not use hot water from the tap to start your recipe, and "boiling water remains at the same temperature for the entire time it's boiling".
5. When ready to boil, light stove and place pan over flame.
What to do while you wait depends on which height above sea level you are: (it also depends on how much heat is being applied which is why no one indicates time to boil - only temperature at which water boils.
Basically, the idea is that the higher you are above sea level, the further you can see and also, the less time it takes because the pressure on the water is lower. Which means that the water is not as hot and therefore you do not burn your lip quite as much with your first sip of , lets say, coffee. But, and this is important, this also means that it takes longer for your food to actually cook. It is better, therefore, to stay at sea level if you have very little time or patience for these things.
Effect on boiling at different levels above sea level
High Altitude Cooking - chart of temperatures at which water boils Colorado State University Cooperative Extension. No one has mentioned anything about less than sea level but lets assume that the reverse applies whether it does or not. It does, but by very little. From water boiling at 100 degrees C at sea level to 100.3 in Death Valley which is 280 feet below sea level Reference. In general, the following applies: Remember that we are not cooking anything here, just boiling water. So to repeat, the higher you go, the less time it takes.
0-500 feet – Get out your favorite book.
501-1000 feet – Sit down with the newspaper and read the first article which interests you.
1001-8,586 feet - you can stand and wait. But waiting for water to boil is time consuming – you could be doing something much more interesting.
8,612 - 8,848 feet – you are in the Himalaya's on the side of Mount Everest so it is best to stay well covered. Also keep pot well covered. Do not start anything lengthy.
As an aside, see: Wikipedia: List of highest mountains
Effects of Altitude On Cooking
An interesting study indicating the highly significant effect of altitude on cooking
Effects of altitude above sea level on the cooking time and nutritional value of common beans "Altitude influenced cooking time which increased from 78 min at 0 m, to 264 min at 2256 m." All this is the reverse of what it takes to boil the water in which the food is cooked.
6.
Watch for signs of the water getting ready to boil. See
How To Boil Water which tells you how you know when the water is boiling. That seems obvious, but it isn't. The signs are very different at each stage of the process.
7.
Once the water is boiling, remove from flame immediately so as not to lose too much water to evaporation if amount of water left is critical to whatever you plan to do. If your book was very, very interesting, you may have to start all over again by letting the water stand over night. Also, too much of that evaporation process and you have a burned pan with which to contend.
Remember that evaporation is faster when: the humidity is lower, there is wind or air movement over the surface, the surface of the water exposed to the air is greater, the temperature of the air above the water is higher, the altitude above sea level is higher, the degree of movement of the water particles is greater, and when water is not covered thereby allowing all of the above factors to operate. There are other factors here which also apply, such as the chemical makeup of a particular sample of water, amount of heat applied, etc. but I digress from ending this recipe.
Congratulations, you have just boiled water.
One further point which is of great significance to the forests of the world
Disinfecting water
Goes against all of the conventional wisdom. According to Altitude Medicine Guide, merely bringing water to a boil adequately disinfects water. People all over the world have wasted huge amounts of fuel (wood, etc.) boiling water for many minutes without necessity.
Also see how-long-do-you-need-to-boil-water for a very good discussion of this point. How long to boil water before it is safe? – the answer is 0 minutes.
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