What’s Cooking is a series in which I answer questions and share advice about food and cooking that you may have but are too shy to ask, or, as in many cases, questions that you do ask.
Question: Why when cooking some ingredients are added to the pot at the same time with cold (as in room temperature) liquid to start the cooking process and in other cases, the liquid needs to come to a boil first before other ingredients are added?
The answer (or answers) here is not as straightforward as one would think. Here’s why. We learn to cook from a variety of sources – in our homes (what we grew up seeing), friends and relatives, cookbooks, videos, trained chefs, cookery institutions and the application of our own thought processes and what we think might/would work. However, for the purpose of this column, let’s focus on what I would consider a home cook’s approach to things and what we might have picked up along the way.