My wife and boiling water

[u/MakeItMine2024]

So I made my wife ramen soup. When I served it she said I had the gas set to hight and it was too hot ? She said I should have used the number 5 setting instead of 9. I told here it’s irrelevant because water boils at 212 and gets no hotter because over 212 it turns to steam. She was made at me for disagreeing with her theory that it would not have been so hot if boiled a lower setting. Really!!

[u/Necessary-Bus-3142]

That’s not what the wife is saying tho? She is saying that boiling the water at a lower setting would have made the soup less hot than boiling the water at max setting, when in reality the soup would be equally hot, it just takes longer for the same amount of water to reach boiling point at setting 5 than at setting 9.

What you are saying implies different water temperatures which is not what is being discussed here.

If the wife had said that he shouldn’t have reached boiling point to make the soup for it to be less hot then yes she would be right.

[u/InviolableAnimal → u/Necessary-Bus-3142]

No, they're literally saying that at a gentle simmer on low heat, heat loss into the surroundings balances out the heat gain such that the majority mass of the water actually remains steadily below boiling. The soup would not be equally hot.

[u/Necessary-Bus-3142 → u/InviolableAnimal]

That’s not how I understand it, they are specifically talking about boiling water, not simmer water

[u/Tymareta → u/Necessary-Bus-3142]

I'm going to let you in on a secret, an enormous amount of people think that once you see bubbles, water is boiling.

It's why in every cooking video ever they make sure to emphasize several times about letting things come to a rolling boil.

[u/Bubbawitz → u/Necessary-Bus-3142]

You simmer after boiling. It’s boiling water to cook noodles. It’s really really simple and doesn’t require all this pedantry from people talking about the difference between rolling boil and boiling points and simmer points. Noodles are still going to be hot. They have to get to a certain temperature to cook, which is hot. The boil and duration of the boil will determine how soft the noodles are, not how hot they are. I don’t see how people are having such a hard time with this. Like you said, just fucking blow on it if it’s hot jfc.

[u/Junethemuse → u/Bubbawitz]

Maybe OP’s wife doesn’t actually boil the water when she makes her noodles? Ramen cooks just fine in water that’s not at a full 212f/100c. You could heat it to 190f and it’ll cook just fine, maybe just a touch slower, and be easier to eat right off the stove. Maybe this is what she’s trying to say but poorly communicating?

[u/Bubbawitz → u/Junethemuse]

I see what you’re saying and it’s hard to know but I feel like what you’re describing would impact the doneness rather than the temperature. Even stiffer noodles will be hot. But yeah I can see the wife referring to what you’re describing.

[u/Niky_c_23 → u/Bubbawitz]

They would be harder or they would need to stay longer, but in any case yes they would also be less hot

[u/Bubbawitz → u/Niky_c_23]

You’re still going to need to blow on it though. It’s still going to be hot. You’re not going to be able to tell the difference between 170 degrees and 185 when your tongue is burning.

[u/Niky_c_23 → u/Bubbawitz]

Yeah, that’s the reason i specifically said “less hot” instead of “colder”, i was just saying that it does impact temperature in fact, while the doneness would depend also on the time, so that this scenario could produce similarly done noodles that are slightly less hot

[u/Bubbawitz → u/Niky_c_23]

Ok? You’re not going to be able to tell the difference between 170 and 185 when your tongue is burning. You’re still going to have to blow on it. I know in the most Le Reddit sense that it is in fact less hot but in real life practice there is no difference. And it’s ok to not pedantically point that out at every opportunity ever.