Lady Lydia is boilin' water for Jesus!

[VooDooChild]

I alway look forward to LL's posts for the lulz. A strange breed that one. A "mature" women who makes kindergarten level crafts. :roll: I always boil water in the microwave for my hot beverages. Thank Jebus for Lady Lydia to tell me I was doing it wrong.

[Cran]

This article actually told me something I never do: Always use cold water to bring it to a boil. If I want to cook pasta, rice or something like that, I use hot tap water and bring it to a boil, because the wait is shorter.

Shouldn't I? I can't fathom a reason for it, but perhaps there is. :?:

[SisiL78]

I will say that for cooking many people don't understand the difference between simmer and boil. So, if you're referencing cooking (not tea making) I can say that its useful. I had to teach my FH about simmer (which he didn't know was a different setting) after he burned soup... soup from a mix. But, LL seems to be referencing just boiling water for a lipton tea bag, that shouldn't be brain surgery.

But, in relation to just boiling? Seriously? I wonder what Lady Lydia would say about my fancy new hot water pot? Its electric (tres European!) and has different settings for different kinds of tea! White tea needs cooler water than black tea, and green tea is in the middle. Coffee in a french press has its own setting too! And my darling FH often makes me a cup of tea at the end of the day. Lady Lydia would be aghast!

There are tea blogs and sites that focus on different water temps for different types of tea but her instruction seems rather juvenile in comparison.

She is obviously stuck in a fantasy world of decoupaging roses cut from napkins onto dollar store candles (I kid you not). She believes that she would live in a fairytale if she could just jump back in time. Its really sad. No sense of reality. Its nice to go to a contra dance and dress up. Heck, I know a lot of secular liberals who sew Regency style dresses and don their finery to go replicate a ball. That's an awesome hobby, but Lydia strikes me as someone who has let fantasy invade every aspect of her life and she's lost touch with reality.

[formergothardite]

Good god, boiling water is not that hard. It does not deserve a whole blog post.

[bananacat]

It really doesn't matter if you start with hot or cold water. For some people there is a taste difference because of the pipes, but the difference in time to boil is negligible.

Also, simmering water is the same temperature as a rolling boil. During the phase transition, energy input goes toward the phase change instead of increasing temperature. The only practical difference is how fast the liquid is reduced.

And I know that from thermodynamics, which is much more useful than a PhD in homemaking.

[Sobeknofret]

It took me a while to dig up but in my first year of history in college we had to fill out a chart to figure out where we sould stand in Victorian/Edwardian society. This was all based on what our father's made and their place in the work force. The vast majority of the girls would either be nannies or servants. There was one or two prostitutes in there. There weren't any real ones high up on the social scale. The boys had just about the same rankings and "died" in WWI.

For the girls ranked as servants they had to start at the very bottom and work their way up. It was mentioned they were lucky if they didn't get caught up in an affair and/or raped by a male servant or one of the male members of the family.

Only one or two was able to make it up to the rank of lady's maid. About half never married and for those who did some "died" in childbirth. Others died from botched abortions.

My character got married at age 32 and later died in the Spanish Flu epidemic.

There was no mention of housekeeping or half of the stuff Lady Lydia spouts off. I do notice how it is not mentioned how many people were alcoholics and morphine addicts or the drugs that were widely used back then. Accidental suicides from over doses did happen. There's stories of a lot of prostitutes and other women dying as they took too much of some drug to keep from getting pregnant. There's also stories of women dying from botched abortions because they couldn't handle another arrow being crammed into that quiver.

I'd love to see that chart! Is it online somewhere? I'm sure I would have been a prostitute or a scrubwoman, because we were quite poor when I was a kid.

[SisiL78]

It really doesn't matter if you start with hot or cold water. For some people there is a taste difference because of the pipes, but the difference in time to boil is negligible.

Also, simmering water is the same temperature as a rolling boil. During the phase transition, energy input goes toward the phase change instead of increasing temperature. The only practical difference is how fast the liquid is reduced.

And I know that from thermodynamics, which is much more useful than a PhD in homemaking.

There is this myth that boiling from cold is faster. Some people don't understand the idea of rate versus the overall time. Cold water increases by 1 degree at a faster rate than already hot water. I had this conversation with an otherwise very intelligent friend not too long ago. I pointed out to her that her cold water will eventually get to the temperature of the hot tap water and from there still have to get to boiling. So while the overall rate of heating will be greater, you will still wait longer for the boiled water.

That being said, if your hot water tastes funky then I'd check out the pipes in your house. The water comes from the same source and then part of it is diverted into your hot water heater (or if you live in a super old house it may be going to the boiler). Anyhoo, that would indicate to me (a Civil engineer who has done house inspections) that something has infiltrated your water heater and/or the pipes leading from it.

[Sobeknofret]

But, LL seems to be referencing just boiling water for a lipton tea bag, that shouldn't be brain surgery.

Nooooo! Never Lipton! Only Yorkshire Gold for Lydia (I refuse to call her "lady")! Ever so proper, Yorkshire Gold, and veddy, veddy English, don't you know! I must admit I do drink British teas preferentially myself, but I'm not humping the tea box the way she does with YG (which I think tastes horrendous).

[Cran]

I'm relieved I didn't miss an essential lesson in water-boiling and will continue to use hot water for my pasta. Phew! ;)

[SisiL78]

Nooooo! Never Lipton! Only Yorkshire Gold for Lydia (I refuse to call her "lady")! Ever so proper, Yorkshire Gold, and veddy, veddy English, don't you know! I must admit I do drink British teas preferentially myself, but I'm not humping the tea box the way she does with YG (which I think tastes horrendous).

I think of YG as being a slightly upmarket version (and very slightly) of Lipton. My tea tastes run towards more high end stuff. I have an addiction. That being said I'm ADDICTED to Celestial Seasonings "Nutcracker Sweet". I order it online in multiples of six.

I think flavored and exotic teas might blow da Lady's mind. I haven't explored deeply enough into her blog to figure out what her opinion is of different teas :-) I will raise a mug of Vanilla Comoro to her tonight. :-)

[Hane]

Ex-Mr.-Hane-#2 used to insist on starting out boiling water with cold water, because he claimed bad chemicals would leach into the water from the pipes. In a house built in 1985. Thank you for proving that he, albeit an engineer, was in fact a POS (and I don't mean Point of Service).

I think of YG as being a slightly upmarket version (and very slightly) of Lipton. My tea tastes run towards more high end stuff. I have an addiction. That being said I'm ADDICTED to Celestial Seasonings "Nutcracker Sweet". I order it online in multiples of six.

I think flavored and exotic teas might blow da Lady's mind. I haven't explored deeply enough into her blog to figure out what her opinion is of different teas :-) I will raise a mug of Vanilla Comoro to her tonight. :-)

I am Hane, and I am a fancy-schmancy-tea addict. I have an honest-to-God china teapot in my cube at work, along with an electric kettle for boiling water. At home, I use an instant-read thermometer to measure water temperature when I make green or white teas. You do not want to know how much I spent on a pound of Teavana's Youthberry Wild Orange Blossom White Tea--and on tins of Republic of Tea's rooibos and hibiscus blends. Hey, I had to do something to replace coffee when it started giving me terminal agita.

[ladyamylynn]

This article actually told me something I never do: Always use cold water to bring it to a boil. If I want to cook pasta, rice or something like that, I use hot tap water and bring it to a boil, because the wait is shorter.

Shouldn't I? I can't fathom a reason for it, but perhaps there is. :?:

Potatoes are the only thing that really needs to be started in cold water- the gradual heating process helps them to cook more evenly, so the outside doesn't totally fall apart.

[Sobeknofret]

I am Hane, and I am a fancy-schmancy-tea addict. I have an honest-to-God china teapot in my cube at work, along with an electric kettle for boiling water. At home, I use an instant-read thermometer to measure water temperature when I make green or white teas. You do not want to know how much I spent on a pound of Teavana's Youthberry Wild Orange Blossom White Tea--and on tins of Republic of Tea's rooibos and hibiscus blends. Hey, I had to do something to replace coffee when it started giving me terminal agita.

Alas, my foray into fancy-schmancy teas was a disaster-- I'm too impatient to do it correctly. I love Republic of Tea and I also really love my local tea shop's peppermint, but other than that, I'm either a Celestial Seasonings girl or British black tea fan; I prefer Scottish Blend and I just bought a box of Glengettie.

[Hane]

I must say, though, that the absolute best cup of plain old black tea I've ever drunk was in a relative's farmhouse in New Brunswick. Nothing fancy--just a pot made with grocery-store teabags--but something about the technique made it magnificent. It was the tea equivalent of the morning coffee I had in Amsterdam.

[thoughtful]

I watch too many old movies -- I saw the thread title and thought "Jesus is having a baby?"

;)

[Nothing2CHere]

Ex-Mr.-Hane-#2 used to insist on starting out boiling water with cold water, because he claimed bad chemicals would leach into the water from the pipes. In a house built in 1985. Thank you for proving that he, albeit an engineer, was in fact a POS (and I don't mean Point of Service).

Wouldn't boiling the water get rid of any of those bad chemicals anyway? I mean, around here there is an occasional city-wide "boil alert" warning people to boil their tap water before using it because of possible contamination in the water supply.

As for tea, years ago I got to tour the Celestial Seasonings factory in Colorado. I got to sniff the Peppermint Room!

[SisiL78]

May I recommend Tea Forte (especially Coconut Truffle) tea?! Super pricey if you buy it in the silk bags but somewhat reasonable in loose tea form. Plus they come in lovely re-useable canisters. Also love Harney and Sons. I am usually drawn in by pretty tins :-)

I tend to buy tea every where I go. We are redoing our kitchen and I am devoting an entire Ikea cabinet drawer (doing drawers instead of reach in cabinets) to tea and tea making accouterments. I've become even more fanatical since trying to quit sugar and late night eating. I often camp out with a cup of tea or two before bed. As a result caffeine free and herbal teas have entered the collection at lighting fast speed.

[Guest Anonymous]

We had a tea thread in chatter a while ago, it was really neat.

I drink very plebeian stuff as a general rule (PG Tips, Twinings) but I do love my tea.

[Kaylee]

This article actually told me something I never do: Always use cold water to bring it to a boil. If I want to cook pasta, rice or something like that, I use hot tap water and bring it to a boil, because the wait is shorter.

Shouldn't I? I can't fathom a reason for it, but perhaps there is. :?:

Other people have touched on sediment and stuff, but the main issue is that hot water probably has sat in the pipes for longer and can be more likely to pick up impurities, especially in older homes. Lead solder was still used on pipes up until 1990 or so and that was one of the main concerns. Most cookbooks recommended starting with cold water for that reason and the myth that is boiled faster probably came from there.

[Cran]

Warm water sat in the pipes longer? Hm, I have to keep my water running for a few seconds until it is hot, so I guess for the system we use, using cold water straight from the tap would have sat in the pipes longer, but then, we don't have pipes made out of lead, either.

Thanks for all the people educating me on PROPERLY BOILING WATER! ;)

[snarkbillie]

Wouldn't boiling the water get rid of any of those bad chemicals anyway? I mean, around here there is an occasional city-wide "boil alert" warning people to boil their tap water before using it because of possible contamination in the water supply.

As for tea, years ago I got to tour the Celestial Seasonings factory in Colorado. I got to sniff the Peppermint Room!

Boiling can get rid of some bacteria, it will not get rid of the chemicals people claim to be worried about. The temperatures that they need to reach to phase change are too high and boiling will not do it. If people are concerned about chemicals in their water they should contact their local water board and/or get their water tested in their house. I've heard filtering works to varying degrees as well.

[Sobeknofret]

Wouldn't boiling the water get rid of any of those bad chemicals anyway? I mean, around here there is an occasional city-wide "boil alert" warning people to boil their tap water before using it because of possible contamination in the water supply.

As for tea, years ago I got to tour the Celestial Seasonings factory in Colorado. I got to sniff the Peppermint Room!

The boil alert is almost certainly for fecal coliform bacteria or something similar, which boiling will get rid of. Heavy metals and lead don't get boiled away; they tend to concentrate after boiling in fact.

[Guest Anonymous]

Many working women were injured from those dresses getting caught on things or even on fire.

[Guest Anonymous]

This article actually told me something I never do: Always use cold water to bring it to a boil. If I want to cook pasta, rice or something like that, I use hot tap water and bring it to a boil, because the wait is shorter.

Shouldn't I? I can't fathom a reason for it, but perhaps there is. :?:

For some old pipes, running hot water can pull minerals from the pipes that aren't very good to drink. Cold water doesn't do that. That's what it's about.

[Curly Girl]

I love the irony that is learning about homemaking from a bunch of ebil feminists, not those with "PhDs in homemaking". Heh.