It has come increasingly to my attention that friends and coworkers either don't cook or have kids that don't cook, or they are learning to cook late in life as a means of cutting costs. Mother's sometimes chase kids out of the kitchen, boys are effectively and subtly discouraged from cooking as if it were women's work (ever mind that most of the famous chefs are guys) yet they are likely to find it increasingly hard to find wives who cook due to changes in our culture.
It used to be that young men were either expected to go from Mom to wife in one easy step or that they might live on their own a short while, at which time they would be desperate enough that they would quickly marry for the cooking, cleaning, and other roles of a wife besides the role of lover. (Of course, nothing so conscious as that; culture is a pattern of behavior, not consciously thought out reasoning, but most cultural elements can be explained as such because they develop out of a combination of natural urges and needs, each of which can be explained, in my observation).
As I see it these days, Moms are often not stay-at-home Moms, don't expect their children to be, and so aren't interacting with their kids all day in such a way that they naturally learn to cook. Instead, Mom or Dad cooks after work (if they cook at all) and it needs to be quick. Teaching starts to take a noticeable and not necessarily available chunk of time, packaged, prepared, and restaurant food is readily available if not as cheap as home-cooked money-wise, but time is even more valuable until the budget gets tight and kids grow up into adults who neither cook nor teach their kids to cook.
Which is all to explain why I decided to try to include some basics that most cookbooks don't bother with, like how to boil water. I may actually write it more than once over time, and feedback is appreciated, because it never occurred to me until recently to put something I learned by watching and doing into words.
So, are you one of those people who, for whatever reason, never learned to cook? Here's lesson one:
Some recipes call for a certain amount of water, some just for a panful of water. For practice, add some apple pie spice, clove, or potpouri to a pan a water and the practice session(s) can serve the added purpose of moistening and freshening the air.
Fill the pan about 2/3 full (more will encourage spill overs)
Place the pan on the stove burner.
Set the heat for the correct burner to high. (Stoves vary but the symbology is usually fairly clear. Electric stoves will often glow when they get hot or a gas stove will have a visible flame under most lighting conditions)
Set a timer to 5 minutes for a small to medium sized pan, 7 minutes for a large one.
Go away from the stove unless you are utterly fascinated by water until the timer beeps or rings. Then return and look at the water.
There are several degrees of "boiling" normally based on a description of the behavior of the water.
Boiling--really just means bubbling. This is the primary indicator that liquid water is turning to vapor water. Since this happens first closest to the heat, and heat (or hot things) rise, the resulting vapor forms visible bubbles that come up to the top, usually along the sides of the pan and disappear into the air.
--As a test, stir the water gently until bubbles continue even while stirring. (Stirring takes the cooler water on top to the bottom of the pan and the hotter water to the top even if stirring around). This means all the water is just barely at the boiling temperature.
Full boil or rapid boil means that even the surface of the water is hot enough to be creating bubbles without stirring the water. The water at the bottom of the pan is then so hot that it is turning to vapor very rapidly which makes bubbles from all over the bottom of the pan no amount of stirring will cause the bubbles to cease.
Rolling boil means the water at the bottom of the pan is almost instantaneously turning to vapor as the vapor below it gets out of the way, which causes big bubbles which makes the top surface of the water slosh (and can spill over if the pan is too full).
For recipes, be ready for whatever the recipe calls for next. If you forgot to look, turn the water down about half way so that the water doesn't entirely turn to vapor and leave the pan dry while you are reading. Boiling away is the main problem associate with boiling water and very bad for the pan and any ingredients besides water in the pan (like pot pouri).
For pot pouri/scented water, turn the heat down slowly just until bubbles stop forming so that steam (which may or may not be visible) continues to form. This is called a Simmer and many recipes call for bringing the water to a boil (which causes ingredients to change behavior), then turn down to a simmer, often with a cover, which calls for even lower temperature settings because a cover keeps heat in. To scent and steam the air, a cover is undesirable, so for a small pan, set the timer to 10 minutes, for a large pan, 15 minutes.
Gradually the water will evaporate. You don't want all of it to evaporate, however with the heat still on. When the water gets down to about one inch in the bottom of the pan, turn water off or add more water (for example, if the air is very dry). Note how much time it takes the water to get this low for this pan and this temperature setting. In later repetitions it may be possible to set the timer for longer periods of time so that you don't have to check quite as often, but pans vary and you will need to experiment or check more frequently.
Beginner Cook's challenge: Follow the recipe for cooked pasta on a box of pasta. (A half cup of dry pasta makes a modest serving for one person). Drain water off the cooked pasta and add butter, parmesan cheese, and a sprinkle of oregano leaves. Enjoy!
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