1,504 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

When to add salt to cooking water?

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...

147 K 4.1/5 (23 reviews)

15 min.

Easy

4 Whens to add salt to cooking water?

Last modified on: July 25^th 2017

For this recipe: I want to make it (487×) I made it (518×) Comment Send to a friend Ask a question Follow Printable Diaporama Vidéo User-friendly URL

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 2 min.

Cooking: 10 min.

All in all: 15 min.

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - 2 min.

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

Stage 2 - 10 min.

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

Salmon marinated like herring

In this recipe, the salmon is cured in coarse salt, then left to marinate in oil with herbs, spices, carrots and onions. Salmon prepared like this is served sliced thinly on a bed of potatoes.
December 4^th 2011148 K 44.6 1 day 40 min.

Thin summer tart "à la grecque"

A fresh, summery tart with a thin base of pre-cooked puff pastry, spread with a cream-feta mixture, and topped with slices of tomato and cucumber.
July 18^th 202128 K 55 min.

Soft apple cookies

This French twist on the famous American treats delivers delicious apple flavour in cookies that are a little softer than usual.
December 5^th 202132 K 60 min.

How to poach peaches

To poach peaches, we begin rather like for tomatoes. To peel them, we boil them for a few seconds, then plunge them into cold water. Once the skin has been removed, they are poached gently in a light syrup.
September 6^th 2012234 K3 1 hour 50 min.

Raspberry sorbet

To make a seriously good raspberry sorbet, the fruit must be of the best quality, of course, but there is another little secret: you need to remove all the seeds to make a really smooth coulis. It is this smooth coulis that makes the sorbet so deliciously velvety.
July 5^th 201751 K4.6 2 hours 20 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

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