Steam Explosion - Flash Boiling in Cooking

Flash Boiling in Cooking

There is also a cooking technique called flash boiling, in which a smaller amount of water is used so as to quicken the process of boiling. An example of this technique is used to melt a slice of cheese onto a hamburger patty, whereby the cheese slice is placed on top of the meat on a high-heat surface (e.g., a hot frying pan), and a small quantity of cold water is thrown onto the surface near the patty. A vessel (such as a volume-rich small pot or frying-pan cover) is then used to quickly seal the steam-flash reaction, which disperses much of the steamed-water on the cheese/patty. This results in a large release of heat, transferred via vaporized water condensing back into a liquid (a principle also utilized in refrigerator and freezer production).

Read more about this topic:  Steam Explosion

Famous quotes containing the words flash, boiling and/or cooking:

    The most welcome joke to me is the one that takes the place of a heavy, not altogether innocuous thought, at once a cautionary hint of the finger and a flash of the eye.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    O but we talked at large before
    The sixteen men were shot,
    But who can talk of give and take,
    What should be and what not
    While those dead men are loitering there
    To stir the boiling pot?
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    The greatest part of each day, each year, each lifetime is made up of small, seemingly insignificant moments. Those moments may be cooking dinner...relaxing on the porch with your own thoughts after the kids are in bed, playing catch with a child before dinner, speaking out against a distasteful joke, driving to the recycling center with a week’s newspapers. But they are not insignificant, especially when these moments are models for kids.
    Barbara Coloroso (20th century)