alt Hacker NewsI'm not sure I understand the thing about boiling water:
1. Put a modest amount of water in the pot and turn the stove element on.
2. Put a modest amount of water in the electric kettle and turn it on.
3. If one boils before the other, either combine them (if the other is nearly boiling) or add a little more water to the already-boiling one.
What happens if they boil at the same time? Don't combine them? What happens if pot boils before kettle? Add water to the pot and forget about the kettle?
And overall boiling water seems to be the worst example to pick to show how to optimize cooking. You can't over-boil water, so depending on your appliance, if you don't start using your boiling water as soon as it boils, it will either stop heating and start loosing temperature, or it will keep boiling, water will be lost through evaporation and energy consumed needlessly. But if your focus is time, then boiling is not an issue. You can do whatever you want during heating. Furthermore, with electric kettle and induction stove, you'll hardly have time to chop a few onions or clean a few carrots before water is ready.
I've seen people needing half to a full hour to make pasta with a store-bought sauce, and thought that was crazy, but that's because they weren't doing things in parallel and/or not in the right order.
Like, if you plan to make pasta, first you put water to boil, then you get your pasta and everything else while its heating. And don't wait for your pasta to be ready to get your strainer. Same for the sauce. Get it and open it while the pasta are cooking.
Replies
> What happens if they boil at the same time?
Then they're boiled and you don't have to do anything. But the point is that they boiled in exactly half the time it would have taken using only one of the devices with the full amount of water.
> But if your focus is time, then boiling is not an issue. You can do whatever you want during heating.
If you're making a full meal, sure. If all you want to do is hard-boil a couple of eggs, then yeah you want to hurry it up.
If you really want speed, use your microwave as a third!
There's also those "always on" hot water dispensers. And your home hot water can also be put on a pumped loop for instant access.
Here’s how you optimize the time it takes for things to boil:
You spend that time prepping ingredients, cooking another dish, or cleaning the kitchen. In cooking there’s no such thing as waiting.