The Genius Trick To Boil Water Faster

A watched pot never boils, or so the saying goes. If that sounds like nothing but the truth to you, maybe you haven't yet learned the trick to speed up the process. Boiling water in a kitchen pot is culinary skills 101: If you want perfect hard-boiled eggs or poached eggs, knowing how to boil water is essential. Yet, as simple as this task may be, the process can still be infuriating. The trick to getting things moving is simple: cover the pot with the right lidHeat escapes when a pot is not covered, and this is what slows the task of heating water to a boiling point.

Enter, the lid. When you cover the pot with a lid, the steam that builds up cannot escape as easily and the temperature is able to climb up the thermometer much quicker. The first step to boiling water is picking the right pot. You want a nice, shallow pot with a lid. Greater surface area means a faster heat transfer and a faster boil. But once you take it off the stove, it also means the water will cool quickly.

So, you want your water to boil faster. Using a combination of a lid and a shallow pot minimizes heat loss, but is only half of the equation. The temperature of the water you start with will also play a major role in how quickly your water boils. If you start with hot water, your water will reach its boiling point quicker than if you had started with cold water. This is simply because it takes less energy to heat it and help it reach the boiling point of ~200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once it starts to steam, you need to cover it. If you want to make your water boil faster by covering the pot with a lid, you will discover that it allows you to save a little more than a minute. Some people recommend salting the water before you turn on the burner, but this is not going to get it boiling any quicker. So, the next time you have water to boil to make tough meats softer or to cook some yummy veggies, just remember to put a lid on the pot and let it cook.