1,569 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

When to add salt to cooking water?

Name: When to add salt to cooking water?
Prep time: 2 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 12 min
Yield: 4 Whens to add salt to cooking water?
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: No ingredients in this recipe (a); No ingredients in this recipe (b)

Is it better to salt cooking water, for vegetables for example, at the beginning when it is cold or when it boils?

I always heard that one should salt "after", when water is boiling, because if it is salted "before" it will take longer to boil.

True or false? Let's try the experiment...

157 K 4.1/5 (24 reviews)

15 min.

Easy

4 Whens to add salt to cooking water?

Last modified on: July 25^th 2017

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 2 min.

Cooking: 10 min.

All in all: 15 min.

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 2 min.

When to add salt to cooking water? : Stage 1

1 litre of water is put in a pan and 1 tbs coarse salt is added.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 10 min.

When to add salt to cooking water? : Stage 2

The water temperature is measured in the same way, every minute, until it boils.

Stage 3

Let's compare times and temperatures in this diagram: the unsalted water in green, the salted water in red.

Conclusion

At the start of heating, the temperature of the salted water rises more slowly: after 3 minutes 30 seconds the unsalted water is already at 040°C (100°F), while salted water is still at 025°C (80°F).
But then the two catch up and they take the same time to reach 100°C (210°F).
Another point: it seems, but I'm not really adamant about it, that salted water starts to boil at a lower temperature than unsalted, i.e. around 90°C (190°F) rather than 100°C (210°F).

Other recipes you may also like

Mushroom velouté

This smooth, creamy soup with its lovely mushroom flavour is quick and easy to make.

May 10^th 2023166 K4 55 min.

Calissons

Calissons are a sweet from Provence - Aix-en-Provence is famous for them - made with almonds and candied fruit, covered with royal icing. This is a slightly simplified version, which is every bit as good.

February 12^th 2012159 K 53.3 1 hour 30 min.

How to prepare endives

A very classic recipe, but which can easily fail due to two main errors: too much water in bottom of dish because endives give off a lot, and endives that are too bitter so that children hate it. Here is a method which avoids these two problems.

February 14^th 2012511 K3.7 30 min.

How to prepare romanesco

Here is how to take a whole romanesco and end up with small pieces ready to use in a recipe.

January 17^th 2013708 K 23 30 min.

Pork chops in the oven

To cook a pork chop well, without it drying out, one of the best methods is to cook it in two stages: start by pan-frying, then finish in the oven. This recipe adds flavour with mustard and thyme, with the cooking juices deglazed and reduced before serving.

August 16^th 2015338 K3.5 25 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.