Patience Gray, Primrose Boyd

Boiling

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By Patience Gray and Primrose Boyd

Published 1957

  • About
Water boils at a temperature of 212 deg. F. The term ‘boiling’ is commonly misused, ‘boiled ham’, ‘boiled beef’, ‘boiled mutton’, for instance, being in fact only submitted to boiling temperature for a few moments to seal the surface of the meat, before being gently simmered at a temperature well below 212 deg. F. Actual boiling is usually of short duration, and followed by a period of simmering or poaching in respect of meat or fish. It is maintained:
  1. For the rapid reduction of a sauce, for instance when the liquor, in which a joint of meat or piece of poultry has been braised, is to be reduced before serving as a sauce; or to concentrate the liquor of a court-bouillon.
  2. For blanching green vegetables, i.e. green peas, cabbage, broad beans, haricots verts, which are boiled for eight to ten minutes according to size and age before being tossed in butter.
  3. For cooking spaghetti and other forms of pasta before they are treated with a sauce; for boiling rice.
  4. In the preparation of jams and preserves. After the sugar has been added, rapid boiling is enforced to set the jam in the shortest possible time without loss of flavour.