This is one of the simplest ways of cooking. It implies immersing the food to be cooked in boiling liquid, not necessarily water, for a certain length of time.

Boiling has three objects:

I. To Retain All Flavour And Nourishment in the food, instead of allowing it to escape into the water - e.g., a boiled fowl, boiled mutton, boiled cod; these must be put into boiling water and allowed to boil for about ten minutes only.

This hardens and seals the outside albumen, or white-of-egg-like substance, and so prevents the escape into the water of the juices.

When this is accomplished, the food must be cooked slowly, otherwise it will be tough. So it will be seen that so-called "boiled fowl" is not, strictly speaking, a correct term.

2. To Extract The Flavour And Nourishment from the food, as in soup, broth, etc. This is done by putting the meat, bone, and vegetables into cold water, allowing them to stand for about half an hour, and then gradually bringing them to boiling-point. This boiling is then steadily continued until all goodness is extracted.

3. To Draw Out Part Of The Nourishment into the liquid, leaving part in the solid food, as in the case of Irish stew. To do this the meat must be put in cold water and brought quickly to boiling-point, kept at that temperature from five to ten minutes, then allowed to simmer gently until the meat is tender.

The cold water will draw out part of the goodness, which will later help to form gravy. Then, when boiling-point is reached, the outside of the meat is hardened and will retain the rest of the flavour and nourishment.

Result, the meat will be juicy and well flavoured.

The following list of foods must be kept actually boiling all the time of cooking:

1. All green vegetables and most other kinds of vegetables.

2. All bone and meat soups.

3. All boiled puddings.

4. When cooking starch grains in the form of rice, macaroni, flour (in sauces), etc.

After the liquid has reached boiling-point - that is, when its surface is covered with bubbles - no amount of fire can make it hotter; therefore it only wastes fuel, causes an unpleasantly hot room, renders walls, furniture, etc, damp, and the atmosphere unhealthily steamy by continuing to make up a large fire.

Steaming is to cook foods in the vapour arising from boiling water. It is the slowest of all methods of cookery, but it need not be an expensive one if several articles are steamed over one vessel of boiling water.

Special steamers can be bought containing several compartments, so that it is possible to cook a complete meal in one vessel.