Boiling & Simmering

Chinese cooks blanch or rinse some ingredients in boiling water as a preparation step, to clean them or par-cook their exteriors. Particularly delicate ingredients may be velveted in water instead of oil.

Fast boiling uses relatively high heat to quickly make soups or stews from ingredients cut into small pieces that release their flavour readily. Regular boiling lasting from 30–90 minutes is the province of most stews and braises. Very slow simmering taking a couple of hours or more is occasionally used for soups needing a slow flavour extraction or braised items that are slow to reach tenderness.