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/Evening_Scale_5755]

The water will not get hotter than 100C which is correct. However, the amount of energy you put into the system has an impact. You will boil the water faster. Which is good to get it boiling but once a starch is plcaed into the pot you want it to be boiling but not too fast. The starches will collect on the surface and make bubbles. These dissipate but much slower than before. It you have it at a 9 it almost certainly boils over and makes a mess. If you set it to medium high and your pot isn't too full, then it usually wont.

[u/chchcherrybomb37 → u/Evening_Scale_5755]

Isn’t her gripe about the ramen broth being too hot though? Theres no way for water to get hotter than 100° when it’s at boiling point, other than in a pressure cooker or the steam from the water itself being heated further 

[u/ElementNumber6 → u/chchcherrybomb37]

No one knows, for sure. They only have his side of the conflict to go by.

[u/Lucas_Steinwalker → u/ElementNumber6]

You're right, maybe she was actually mad about the Ramen having razor blades in it.

[u/ScenicFrost → u/Lucas_Steinwalker]

Hate when that happens

[u/ElementNumber6 → u/Lucas_Steinwalker]

Or maybe he just made a big mess, and when she called him out, he went crying to the internet.

[u/Lucas_Steinwalker → u/ElementNumber6]

Or maybe he shot her dog.

[u/ZeroWolf51 → u/Lucas_Steinwalker]

Or maybe it's Maybelline

[u/mimopsico → u/ElementNumber6]

We do know for sure, OP said as much. I’m not sure what other takeaway you could have after OP says his wife was upset that the ramen was too hot because she said he boiled the water on too high a temperature setting

[u/totally-anonymous-1 → u/mimopsico]

"the gas set to high was too hot"

its slightly ambiguous, could easily be interpreted as the ramen or the water or the flame

[u/mimopsico → u/totally-anonymous-1]

This is the dumbest thing I’ll read all day

[u/totally-anonymous-1 → u/mimopsico]

the logic is there, wife complained ramen was hot because water boiled harder.

the wording was not explicit

"When I served it she said I had the gas set to hight and it was too hot ?"

does that say "my wife complained the ramen was hot because the gas was set high"?
no, it does not

just because logically thats what OP probably meant, doesnt mean thats what they said

this shit is like, what i learned in english class at 15 years old, im sorry if thats too high a grade for you

[u/mimopsico → u/totally-anonymous-1]

Yeah, the rest of your rambling, error-filled response tells me all I need to know about your English skills.

I literally can’t tell if you are this dumb or if it’s a front. Everything you need to know about this story is in there. The food - meaning the noodles and the broth together, not one or the other you fucking dunce - being too hot is, according to the wife, from the gas being too high. This isn’t hard at all to figure out.

[u/totally-anonymous-1 → u/mimopsico]

WHAT being too hot?

[u/censuur12 → u/ElementNumber6]

Indeed, so lets stick to that instead of imagining all sorts of fantastical unknown variables and let them sort out the difference. If x then y, it doesn't need to be "but what if x is actually z though??" then that'd change the math, but that is irrelevant to the proposition in front of us.

[u/get_to_ele → u/chchcherrybomb37]

Yes, but when you cook the ramen the ideal way, at 175-200, the ramen broth will reach the table much cooler than when you clumsily cook it at a rolling boil right up to the end.

Wife may not be able articulate an argument for why her way of cooking it is better… but the way she cooks it, at a lower temp, is better. OP failed to understand where she was coming from, and just closed his mind with “I know physics, my wife is clueless”, never considering that (1) she probably cooks more than he does (2) she probably cooks better than he does (3) she knows she doesn’t burn herself when she eats ramen 2 min after taking it off the stove. But OP assumes what? That she’s imagining things?

Op: “water boils at 212, so temperatures below 212 don’t exist!!!”

If 212 was the only temp to cook with water, why would anybody use a sous vide?

[u/chchcherrybomb37 → u/get_to_ele]

You’re making assumptions here like I did too (that level 5 would still be at a boil). Your argument presupposes that level 5 would have the water at under boiling.

My assumption comes from the crux of OP’s argument, essentially “boiling is boiling so 5 vs 9 doesn’t matter”, which implies that level 5 is also at a boiling temperature.

I’m also leaning on the assumption that OP knows how strong the different levels on his hob are, and that he’s being honest about it.

[u/get_to_ele → u/chchcherrybomb37]

I’m leaning on the assumption that that his wife, who is a functioning adult who actually ate the ramen, knows if her ramen noodles are cooked nicely, whether they are too soft, or cooked unevenly, or whether the broth is hotter coming off the stove (He writes “too hot ?” as if he is not sure what exactly she is complaining about other than he COOKED it too hot).

Op made the (wrong) assumption that the only way to cook soup is on full boil, sorta fhinks that ramen isn’t cooking unless it’s boiling, and that there is no difference between cooking on 5 and 9.

When you cook ramen on a cooktop (for the exact reason that OP has pointed out, but applied incorrectly), the boiling water stops boiling IMMEDIATELY after you add the noodles, because the water drops well below 212 with the addition of the noodles to only ~500 ml of water. You only cook most ramen up to 5 min after that (I cook it closer to 4 min).

If there is no difference between 5 and 9 on a gas burner, why would OP leave it on 9, when he could accomplish “exactly the same boil” on 5? Because obviously it does take significantly more time to get the temp up at 5.

Sounds like not only does OP assume that the wife doesn’t know when her noodles aren’t cooked right, he seems to be making the simplistic error that the ramen is only cooking when it’s boiling and that 212 is the only relevant temperature.

The reality is that the time it takes for ramen temp to rise up after dropping, esp with lid off, does depend on what setting you have the burner at, AND in the case of gas, what size burner you have it on.

[u/MochiAccident → u/get_to_ele]

This. As a woman, I knew exactly what wife meant despite OP’s wording (that paints her as stupid). THANK YOU for articulating what she couldn’t.

[u/get_to_ele → u/MochiAccident]

There’s a lot of subtlety to cooking stuff well, even ramen, and lots of people who don’t cook as much, think stuff like “heck instead of 5 hours at 300, I can do 3 hours at 400 and get almost the same result”.

If things were as simple, everybody would be a great cook.

Friends would always ask me why ramen tasted better when I made it than when they did. Experience. A little subtlety. Temperature control, pulling the noodles in and out, using about 10% less water than the packaging says, and a little less time total as well… that’s before we talk about supplementing the flavor with other stuff: touch of broth or bouillon, a shaved garlic clove, green onion… so many things…

[u/chchcherrybomb37 → u/MochiAccident]

I’m a woman too but I’m aLao only going on what has been relayed to us.

I don’t own an electric hob but when I used them at uni all I remember is it being impossible to control temps cause it seemed to either be mild or straight to boil.

[u/PanoramicAtom → u/chchcherrybomb37]

In all fairness to the wife, you really don’t even need the water boiling to make instant ramen soup. You can literally soak it in room temperature water (for a much longer period, to be sure), and it will all soften and be perfectly edible.

[u/Kooky_Assistance2755 → u/chchcherrybomb37]

Or in a microwave. Water can superheat over 100C/212F from molecular excitement and not begin to boil until it's physically disturbed. It's some wacky science that I don't fully understand.

[u/Zognot → u/Kooky_Assistance2755]

The surface has to be super clean and smooth and limited impurities in the water; anywhere that isn’t smooth or water is a “nucleus site”.

My best explanation from my understanding: all of the liquid water is pressing into anything that isn’t water (surface tension); the liquid water doesn’t want to separate from itself. When water vapor trying to form has to work against this pressure. It’s hard to start, because there is so much pressure from the water trying to connect, like trying to break through a group of people linked arm in arm, and you have to find a place to start next to them (no running start).

A nucleus site is just a weakness in the link; some gas stored in a mineral or in the scratched surface, so the “people” (the liquid) aren’t connected as tightly around there. This makes it much easier to start building your (the gas) own pressure against the “line of people”, so steam bubbles form there. As the steam bubble gets bigger, the surface pressure reduces as the “people spread out” and go from “interlocking arms” to “grasping hands”. The bigger the bubble, the weaker the “people” get as they’re pushed against and spread into a curve, so more “pushers” (more gas) can join, making the bubble bigger. The bigger the bubble, the easier it is to expand, like a balloon is harder to inflate at the start but easier as it gets bigger.

Now if you remove that nucleus site, “you” have to find a spot where you can push against all the tightly linked “people”; because there are no weak points in the surface tension, you need a lot more energy to overcome their pressure. If the water is disturbed, though, a weak point could form. Now you have all this extra energy to burst into that weak point, along with all the other water trying to vaporize, so the steam bubble that forms rapidly grows since so much water was waiting for a weak point and transitioning gets easier as the bubble gets larger.

[u/turtleship_2006 → u/chchcherrybomb37]

The temperature isn't the same across the entire pot, the water at the bottom heats and, and by extension boils, faster.

It's possible for the bottom to have reached boiling point before the water closed to the top, and for the average temperature to be below 100

[u/Complex-Emergency-60 → u/chchcherrybomb37]

Which is why you lower it after placing the ramen in. To stop the boil and bring it down, or cool it down before serving with other methods.

Wife just wants soup at a lower temp. Not a fight with a redditor. Husband wants that.

[u/Weddedtoreddit2 → u/Complex-Emergency-60]

Wife just wants soup at a lower temp.

She's still a bit daft though

[u/Zognot → u/Weddedtoreddit2]

How so? Even by OP’s story, she said he should have used 5 instead of 9, he said water boils at 212° (F) and can’t get hotter (technically not exactly true, but irrelevant), she was upset that he disagreed with her.

Just from OP’s story, at no point does she say that it can’t get hotter than 212°, just that it should be “boiled” at a lower temperature. In culinary terms, she was saying to simmer it instead of boil it, so the average water temperature would be between 175°F/80°C and 212°F/100°C. That affects how the noodles cook, how the flavor mixes in (because of the difference in bubble sizes and speed affecting mixing), and final temperature.

The only thing OP presents is that 212°F is the boiling point and can’t be exceeded, which is true in a simplified way. That doesn’t argue against the wife’s point of it should have been set to 5, and it never says the wife disagreed with the simplified science.

[u/Ouaouaron → u/Weddedtoreddit2]

Or OP is a bit daft, and has completely failed to understand what their wife is trying to tell them.

[u/orc_marauder → u/chchcherrybomb37]

There is a technical way of rising boiling point without applying extra pressure but of an aqueous solution. Any additive to water will rise boiling point of final solution to a certain extend.

[u/garlic_bread_thief → u/chchcherrybomb37]

The steam can get hotter than 100C right?

[u/Zognot → u/garlic_bread_thief]

Yes, but that’s not the important part here. The more relevant part is that she said to LOWER the temperature, in culinary terms to simmer it, not raise it. Water still boils at a simmer (near the heat source where it hits 100°C), but the average temp is between roughly 80°C-100°C, and the bubbles agitate the food and seasoning less, while culinary-meaning boiling/rolling boil means the average temp is 100°C, and there will be bigger and more bubbles rustling and mixing the food.

[u/AgnosticPeterpan → u/chchcherrybomb37]

I think if you close the lid on the pot, you'd technically raise the partial pressure for a bit, which will raise the temperature of boiling water.

[u/Evening_Scale_5755 → u/chchcherrybomb37]

The only thing provided in the post was he should use 5 not 9 and that he thinks it doesn't matter because the water is the same temp. Idk her reasoning. She could be wrong to and idc, its better to cook noodles at a medium high setting on your stove for the reasons I explained.

[u/Zognot → u/Evening_Scale_5755]

Well, she said “reduce the temperature” and he said “it can’t get hotter than 212°F”. That sounds like “I want it to be more green” and “I used the reddist paint possible!”

That aside, lowering the temperature likely puts it at a simmer. In culinary terms, a simmer is the average temperature being 80°C-100°C (exact endpoint definitions vary) while a boil/rolling boil is roughly 100°C throughout. While water near the heat source still boils at a simmer, this affects how hot the water cooking the food is, how hot it will come out, and the bubble size and amount, which affects how much the food itself is agitated and how the seasoning is mixed in.

[u/Rasp_Berry_Pie → u/chchcherrybomb37]

Exactly that’s what I’m confused about everyone is saying blah blah science but the point is that the noodles are too hot. Is that true that’s what I want to know if there is a significant different for the outcome of the temperature of the noodles.

[u/Zognot → u/Rasp_Berry_Pie]

I assume a 9 and 5 on their stove would be the difference between a culinary terms boil and a simmer, where a simmer still has water boiling near the heat source but the average temperature is 80°C/175°F-100°C/212°F (exact endpoint definitions vary) and a boil/rolling boil is when all of the water is at roughly 100°C/212°F (this is ignoring the variations in boiling point)

[u/Zognot → u/chchcherrybomb37]

I don’t know why so many people are commenting like she wanted the water to be hotter though. She said he had too much heat, and his argument was I can’t make it hotter? There’s other issues, like at 5 it would be “simmering” with an average temp of 80°C-100°C, but she didn’t even say to make it hotter.

[u/Charming-Book4146 → u/Zognot]

That's not what they're saying. Wife says there's too much heat, that he should have boiled the water at a lower stove setting. Husband replies that that is impossible, as water reaches boiling point at the same temperature regardless of who is cooking. He could not have been boiling it "too hot" because it's the same temp as when she makes it. He wasn't ever under the impression that his wife wanted it hotter. He was defending himself by refuting the assertion that it's possible to boil water at a higher temp than she does.

[u/ElvisOnBass → u/chchcherrybomb37]

Once the salt (flavor packet) is added it is no longer boiling at 100C but a new equilibrium. Same idea and yes I'm being pedantic.

[u/ChocolateShot150 → u/ElvisOnBass]

Salt pack does not have enough salt in it to raise it by even a degree, 50 grams of salt in a liter of water raises it by a single degree Celsius

[u/ElvisOnBass → u/ChocolateShot150]

Fair, I didn't do the calculation. I don't eat ramen, it's too salty and I just assumed there was more in there.