when trying to get water to boil, do you 1. use cold water or 2. put hot water?

Question

We are debating this. lol

Haha.. I knew you use cold water!! whihoo...Man now for those who didn't know that, who's the moron now? lol

Answer 1

Use cold water. I used to use hot water, thinking it was closer to boiling (hah), but my boyfriend (a chef) told me that using hot water will boil things more consistently and thoroughly--we all hate when half the noodles/veggies are cooked and others are still a little hard, right? Additionally, yes, using cold water and heating it to a boil kills bacteria. Cold!

Answer 2

Warm or hot water is more oxygenated than cold water and can leave a funny taste in most foods when cooking.

You shouldn't even use warm or hot water for making hard boiled eggs as the cold eggs would crack in the hot water. They need to warm up together.

Also, as someone already mentioned is the fact that using cold water kills more bacteria than warm/hot.

For all these reasons I always use cold water to cook or make coffee or tea.

Answer 3

It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Using hot water will bring the water to a boil quicker but it is not recommended to use hot water for cooking as there may be issues such as rust, bacteria and/or other build up that may have accumulated in your hot water tank that may not be desirable. Typically, cold water comes straight from the source.

Answer 4

You can use either hot water or cold water. But hot water might boil faster than cold water.

Answer 5

tap water (I'm not waiting for the water to run hot to the tap. The stove/micro will heat it faster) If using the range, put a lid on the pot and water will boil faster. Better yet just zap it in the micro. It doesnt take that long to be worth a debate

Answer 6

It is not a stupid question. Hot water does boil faster than cold. But, hot water also *freezes* faster than cold water!

Answer 7

if I am just boiling water then I use hot water

you might be thinking of the hot vs cold water freezing experiment
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html
Hot water can in fact freeze faster than cold water for a wide range of experimental conditions. This phenomenon is extremely counter- intuitive, and surprising even to most scientists, but it is in fact real. It has been seen and studied in numerous experiments. While this phenomenon has been known for centuries, and was described by Aristotle, Bacon, and Descartes [1-3], it was not introduced to the modern scientific community until 1969, by a Tanzanian high school student named Mpemba. Both the early scientific history of this effect, and the story of Mpemba's rediscovery of it, are interesting in their own right -- Mpemba's story in particular provides a dramatic parable against making snap judgements about what is impossible. This is described separately below. http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html


http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=0008EB6B-6C7E-1C71-9EB7809EC588F2D7&catID=3&topicID=13 "Cold water does not boil faster than hot water. The rate of heating of a liquid depends on the magnitude of the temperature difference between the liquid and its surroundings (the flame on the stove, for instance). As a result, cold water will be absorbing heat faster while it is still cold; once it gets up to the temperature of hot water, the heating rate slows down and from there it takes just as long to bring it to a boil as the water that was hot to begin with. Because it takes cold water some time to reach the temperature of hot water, cold water clearly takes longer to boil than hot water does. There may be some psychological effect at play; cold water starts boiling sooner than one might expect because of the aforementioned greater heat absorption rate when water is colder.

Answer 8

Does it really matter? The water is going to boil, regardless...it's just that if you start off with hot water, it will take less time to reach the boiling point. I tend to start off with cold only because that is the temp that my water is usually at when I first turn on the faucet...however, if i need to boil it quicker, i start off with hot water.

Answer 9

it's indifferent to me when I have plenty of time. But when i am in hurry, i use hot water to speed up the process.

I don't think the main purpose of boiling the water is to kill bacterias as in many countries tape water is safe for drinking. Otherwise, you probably need to boil water for 2 hours in order to kill ALL the germs and bacterias!

Answer 10

If I am cooking food in the water I always use cold. You don't need the minerals and all the other crud from your hot water tank in your food.