stove settings

[walnut]

What do u do when a recipe doesn't tell u want heat setting to put pot on? I have a boiled peanut recipe and it says put all ingr. in pot and bring to a low boil. A low boil can be achieved at either a medium ,low,or high setting which do u use? how do u tell what to use. Very new to cooking as u can guess by the question. Usually recipes tell u what heat setting on stove to use,but when they don't how do u know?thanks ahead of time for the help.

[cantkick]

These tips depend on the cook top. Ours is the smooth electric kind. The heat does not drop off very quickly, so a "slow" boil might be hard to maintain that way if we start on high. What we will often do is use two burners, one on high to start it, and another on medium or so, started around the same time, to maintain it.

[Harters]

I dont think I've ever seen a recipe which gives cooker top heat settings. Assuming I want to get something to boil, I'd usually turned it up to maximum (which is 9 on my cooker), then it usually needs turning down to a simmer (which can be anything from a 2 to a 5).

[Querencia]

If the pot is boiling more vigorously than you want, turn the heat down a little. If it's not boiling as much as you want, turn the heat up a little. You don't necessarily need heat settings. I learned to cook in a foreign country, long ago, on a primitive stove that had no settings for burners or oven or broiler. You just do what airline pilots call "flying by the seat of your pants"---no instruments, just judge what's happening by the relationship between the seat and your bottom. It's fun, actually. Observe what is happening and adjust accordingly.

[kaleokahu]

Hi, walnut:

Unless what I'm boiling contains something that will scorch if not stirred constantly, I always err on the side of starting with the highest heat possible until the boil starts, and then back the heat setting to where I want it. How far you back off is a function of several things--e.g., hob, size of pot, pot's responsiveness, covered/not, volume of contents, etc.

Generally (but not necessarily for peanuts--never boiled them), you want to get a boil started fast to shorten the time food is just steeping in hot water.

Hope this helps.
Aloha,
Kaleo

[ferret]

Really? You can reach a "boil" state through either low, medium or high heat, but you can only maintain with one of those. You really can't figure out which?

It's just like getting to highway speed in a car, you can stomp your foot down on the accelerator to get to 55 in a few seconds or gradually inch up to 55, but once you're there, there's only one way to keep it at 55.