Boiling skill - Kids' Kitchen
Boiling is a key cooking method used for cooking pasta, rice, stews, sauces and countless other foods and recipes. BBC Good Food's Kids' Kitchen videos, recipes and advice will guide you and your children through essential skills.
BBC Good Food’s series of Kids' Kitchen videos, recipes and advice will help you and your children learn essential skills for cooking, teaching you and them how to use these skills to create a variety of delicious dishes from scratch.
Boiling is a key cooking method used for cooking pasta, rice, stews, sauces and many other foods and recipes. It’s important to learn how to boil food safely as accidents can easily happen when you’re working with hot liquids. It’s also one of the simplest and oldest cooking methods – all you need is a pot and a heat source, be it a gas or electric hob or even a campfire.
Recipes that use the boiling skill
Golden noodle soup with soft-boiled eggs
Before you start
Make sure your pot or pan is large enough for the recipe or food you’re cooking; never fill a pot more than three-quarters full as it may boil over. Your saucepan should have a long, heat-resistant handle, which you can hold to steady the pot as you stir. Large casserole dishes can be heavy, so you don’t need a handle to keep them from moving as you stir. Read the recipe through before you start to check if you’ll need a lid for your pot or pan and if it will need to go in the oven. Find a long wooden spoon, whisk or spatula for stirring.
Boiling safely
- The safest way to bring a pan of water to the boil is to fill the pan with cold water, then place it on the hob over a high heat. To speed up the process and save energy, you can fill the pan with hot water from the kettle.
- Once the liquid is boiling, reduce the heat to maintain a steady boil (sometimes called a rolling boil) and monitor the pan at all times.
- When stirring liquid in a saucepan, hold the handle to keep the pan steady. Use a small cloth to hold the handle if the heat from the hob is too intense, but make sure it doesn’t hang down near a naked flame.
- When stirring the liquid, keep your hands and wrists away from the edge of the pan, which will be extremely hot. Stir in a slow motion to prevent splashes.
- If you need to drain the liquid (when cooking pasta or vegetables, for example), make sure the colander is ready in the sink and your path to the sink is clear. Hold the pan with a cloth in two hands and carefully pour the contents away from your body into the colander.
Recipes that use the boiling skill
Golden noodle soup with soft-boiled eggs
Visit the Kids' Kitchen hub to learn even more skills.
We’d love to see what you’ve been cooking. Send your pictures to us at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk or tag us online with #gfkidskitchen.
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