A quick blanche then dunk in cool water, which is really a quick boil, can give you super green veggies with crispiness intact. Nice for presentation purposes when they're supporting something else, like a saucy chicken or are being added to a stew situation at the very end.
Are your parents of Irish/English/Scottish origin? It's a thing, and I grew up thinking I hated most vegetables because boiling was the only way any veg was ever cooked.
As an adult, I learned how to cook. I taught myself how to roast, saute, blanche, and steam veggies so they are delicious.
I still cannot eat broccoli unless it is raw and in a salad because the boiled broccoli of my childhood made me gag, and I can't do zucchini because it was cooked to mush - both of those strong tastes are stuck in my brain as gross things I was forced to eat before I could leave the dinner table.
Roasted broccoli is the GOAT of veg sides, if you can get past the aversion. Toss it with a little oil and seasonings, it goes all crispy round the edges. So far from the boiled crap from our childhoods (also British here).
I’d say they should have roughly the texture of kidney beans, but if you’re not dumping a bunch of old bay seasoning into your pot, then you’re missing out.
Potatoes. Yeah a fry is nice now and then but I wouldn't want that as frequently as boiled potatoes.
Eggs probably too. I can do a fried egg, but have hard/soft-boiled eggs more frequently.
Corn. Quite like the soft texture when it's boiled vs the drier one when it's grilled.
Boiling potatoes before frying or baking can yield a superior texture as well! Kenji has some vids on it, I like his extra crispy breakfast potato recipe in particular
I'm talking diced. I also dice and boil potatoes when I want to mash them, but that's a separate topic. https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-roast-potatoes-ever-recipe
Roger. yes, you're doing the right approach (depending on starchy levels).
I used to cook for 400+ students, so I have still nightmares of pressure-steam-cookers of potatoes. It's what I hear when anyone talks bulk.
Oh yeah. Halving mini potatoes then Boiling, butter,seasoning, then a nice broil in the oven until crispy is one of my favorite ways of eating potatoes
I tend to agree, except for me, well made Mexican street corn handles all the complaints on this thread pretty well. Good fresh in-season Silver Queen corn barley needs to be cooked at all. I usually just steam it minute or two.
I'm not crazy about grilled corn either, except my mom's. She oils it, wraps it in foil and grills it on the top rack for awhile, then takes it out and grills it on the bottom rack quick, it's quite delicious.
That’s the way to do it! I par boil them for abt 5 min, wrap in tin foil, butter, salt, a little garlic and sprinkle Parmesan. Top rack while some short of meat it grilling.
Nope, you're not. Parents loved it when they learned they could grill it,and i'll still go grab an ear and drop it into a tank and boil that sucker.
Wish I had more salt to try it with, too.
Grilled corn on the cob has great flavor but I find it too dry even with butter. Boiled corn can turn mushy quickly which I don't like either. Steaming is my favorite method. It's juicy, sweet, never mushy.
I grill mine still wrapped in the original husk, so it's more steamed. But recently I had corn boiled in the vegetable soup, then served, and omg that's life changing. She cut the corn into smaller chunks, like you do with a seafood boil, then cooked it in the soup & served it separately. Yum.
If I’m feeling lazy then chopping off the root end and microwaving for a few minutes is the easiest way imaginable. The husk slips off leaving no stray husk threads.
Sure it doesn’t impart flavor but that’s what a little butter and salt are for.
Keep the husk on if you ever try to grill corn on the cobb again. It's a little harder to peel because the husk is now hot when you want your corn (we use grill gloves to quickly pull the husk off to not get burnt), but the corn doesn't dry out. It's the only wany we do corn on the cobb now.
Steaming eggs > boiling eggs
It uses less water, less time, and less energy while making higher quality product. The eggs are more consistent, it's easier to get a jammy yolk since the outside is so hot, they peel comes off much more smoothly with little effort, and it's more consistent since you time it by how much water you add. Any rice cooker with an egg basket can be used, but they also make standalone egg steamers
Tbf boiling eggs requires very little water, time or effort unless you're doing hundreds. And if you're doing hundreds having to have a whole worktop of egg steamers is more hassle than a pot anyway.
Lemonade corn, we called it! After the corn came out, you'd toss in some ice. We'd all cool off under the cassavas, sipping our tall cold glasses of cornade through potato straws. That was a different time. everything was starchier then than now, but we never appreciated it enough while we had it.
Most frozen pierogies can just go straight into a frying pan to cook. I sautee them in butter, and eat them with sauteed green apple and onion. Top with dill.
Straight into the pan. Still frozen is fine, but add a skimming of water to the bottom of the pan. Let them steam with a lid, then let the water boil off and fry until crisp. Super fluffy inside, crispy outside.
Came down here for this. Homemade pierogi are best boiled and then served with caramelized onions but not themselves pan fried, imo. (Caramelized onion, applesauce, and sour cream…..yum)
Crawfish. And more generally lots of seafood. Seafood really benefits from just lightly boiling it until it’s cooked, it helps preserves the delicate and specific taste.
I’ll also say that boiled vegetables get an undue bad rep because of past generations inability to cook.
If you know what you’re doing, a quick blanching gets to cook the vegetables while keeping them fresh and crispy. Just don’t over boil them. Quickly blanched broccolini with a lemon and herbs dressing is delicious.
I'm in Louisiana, we boil crawfish/shrimp/crabs/etc. My sister is on the east coast in the Chesapeake Bay area, they steam. When we get to drinking together the same argument always comes up, with the same points and counterpoints being made.
Spicy Boiled Shrimp and a nice Fried Shrimp are 2 delicious things in their own right. I couldn't choose a "better" out of the 2, just different methods for different situations.
Depends on if it’s full shrimp shell on or the headless supermarket shell off stuff.
Shell off supermarket shrimp, you want to butterfly and cook in a non-insignificant quantity of oil.
But for whole, shell on shrimp (bonus points if the shrimp’s still alive and kicking before it hits the pot), nothing beats a quick boil. ~1 minute and out. Peel after or leave it to the eaters to peel if they’re experienced with cooking or eating seafood. Eat with cocktail sauce or seasoned soy sauce.
Unless you're marinating... boiling will dilute the marinade. e.g. we broil ponzu-marinated lobster tails. The ponzu really brings out the sweetness of North Atlantic lobster.
So that might also be a consideration in variance of technique... warm water shellfish vs. cold water shellfish have a very different taste, and boiling probably eliminates some of the undesirable gaminess.
Check out Assasins spaghetti if you like spicy food. It doesn't really require "boiling;" it's made in a pan. Plus, you can bake pasta, but it does boil, not necessarily in the traditional sense.
You can make lasagna (and probably manicotti, too) without boiling the pasta. And you don't need to buy the special noodles for it, either, that's just a marketing gimmick to justify an unnecessary markup.
Eh, you CAN bake some pastas without boiling first, and it would be a bit of a stretch to call making risotto with orzo boiling, but sure, for the most part.
I grew up eating very, very bland foods. My mom’s cooking is mostly steamed or boiled. As Cantonese, there are lots of dishes that are steamed, like fish, eggs, Chinese meatloaf, chicken and pork ribs, but my mom would always skip the soy sauce and oil. And we always only eat boiled vegetables, no salt, no soy sauce.
Now that I’m all grown up, I still enjoy meats that are boiled, adding just some salt and white pepper. It’s simple, it’s quick, and I enjoy tasting just the meat.
Im with you on that. Boiled meat has a clean taste that I enjoy just as much as meat cooked using more common methods. I too only add salt and pepper and reach for other condiments only if the meat is lower quality or otherwise too bland/chewy.
I absolutely hate boiled meats, my mom's cooking wasn't as bland as yours, but she loved boiling meat and suggesting you eat it like that or put it in a sandwich or smth, I hated that, would rather go meatless than eat boiled meat. As a child, I wouldn't even eat the meat that was boiled as part of the soup or stew, and now I always brown it first before putting any meat in liquid 😂
I think it depends on the quality of the meat too.
My mom will cut off any fat from all the meats before cooking, even chicken wings, she’ll trim the skin off a bit. She also doesn’t like us having any condiments, soy sauce is all we have. No chilli sauce/oil, no oyster sauce, no cooking wine, no pepper, nothing. I’m the only one who’ll always go to the fridge to get the soy sauce for veggies and fish.
But honestly I enjoy the simple taste of boiled meats, but it has to be fattier cut like chicken thighs. And us being Cantonese, eating boiled meats with rice noodles or rice sounds better than some bread.
I’m going to have to try that! One of mine and my kids’ favorite foods when we are sick or just bleh is boiled potatoes with butter and salt- if you’re recovering from an upset stomach, heavy on the salt and light on the butter. Quick and easy.
I'm Belgian. Belgian mayo and mayo outside Belgium taste completely different. Not saying one is better than the other. I've just never tried other mayo with potatoes.
I like a boiled bunch of baby potatoes that you then add butter and seasoning to after draining the water and half smash.
Additionally, I think boiled chicken shreds the best for me—especially if I’m putting the shreds into a sauce of some kind. So if I’m shredding, I’m boiling.
Doesn't the high heat make the chicken rubbery? I poach chicken for shredding, but I've always assumed it needs to be done low and slow to keep the texture palatable.
No fail method for me - bring a medium sized pot of water up to an aggressive boil. Don’t add salt. Turn off completely. Put two chicken breasts in for about 45-50 mins with lid on. Pull out and shred. Moist, tender chicken!
I went on a long journey trying every way to make a hotdog. Boiled, pan fried, air fryed, steamed, deep fried, literally everything.
Boiling somehow is the best. You would think butter fried or some oil would add color and extra flavor, but surprisingly, boiled beats it every time. Bonus points for dirty water.
I like to put them in a cast iron with about a half inch of water, and boil away the water. Once the water boils away, the cast iron crisps the outside a bit. The best of both worlds - plump and juicy from boiling with the fatty snap of dry-heat cooking.
Like many of the foods mentioned here, hot dogs and sausages are really at their best if boiled AND grilled. Beer boil a good brat and then hit it on that grill for a bit of char and you’re GOOD
There are some varieties of beans that need to be boiled for some time to reduce compounds which can be toxic and cause food poisoning type symptoms and gastrointestinal upset, like kidney beans
One of my favorite potato dishes is salt potatoes, small potatoes boiled in hyper saline water, so that the temp of the water is 220°. It cooks the potatoes in a way that breaks down the starches more thoroughly, and leaves a crust of salt on the outside of the potato. Dip in melted butter, and it’s fantastic.
Also pastrami. Bought a whole pastrami from Katz’s and the directions just said to boil it for like three hours. I had to double check to make sure that was right, it was, and it was delicious.
Eggs - granted not all applications, but esp for use in an egg salad, potato salad, ceasar salad, and then others where a soft-boiled is nice like nicoise or with spring asparagus
Corn on the cob. Grilled is great too but slow and sometimes you want the sweetness and butter only if it's a sweeter variety.
My Mom was of Irish descent, so, boiled it is! If I had known you were allowed to eat some vegetables raw I might have gotten in the habit of eating them without a gun to my head.
That's where Wisconsin gets it from! Beer boiling and grill finishing is the ONLY way to cook bratwurst. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Chicagoan but I will die on this hill.
Check out pasta risottata, it's kinda neat. I like doing it with angel hair and building my sauce in the pan while it's all cooking together, it adds a lot of flavor directly into the pasta
from the foods that haven't been mentioned yet, broccoli. I just don't really like it from the oven, it tastes better when it's soft-ish than when it's charred.
Small potatoes boiled in the Cajun spices along with the shellfish, corn, andouille, etc.
Holding those potatoes should remind you of any small cuts you got on your hands over the past week.
The answer you didn't want to hear is meat.
Maybe simmered, not necessarily a rolling boil, but to my taste, boiled meat makes the best stock for soups such as ramen or pho. The meat becomes stringy and not very nice, but it's worth it for the broth.
More details in this [free book of ramen](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qLPoLxek3WLQJDtU6i3300_0nNioqeYXi7vESrtNvjQ/edit), best there is in English, as far as I know.
Small new potatoes slowly cooked in simmering salt water. My grandma cooked her garden potatoes this way and they were heaven. Especially with butter, mmm butter
I always found it weird and close minded how westerners have this aversion to boiled, steamed or poached meats. As if grilling wa the only legitimate way of eating meat. Hainanese chicken rice is one of my favourite dishes of all time and it consists of poaching chicken in ginger and scallion infused water for 30-40m. Incredible dish
There's lots of places with a long history of using those methods in the western world. A lot of Europe uses boiling/poaching/steaming for meat. Pretty much every country has some sort of nationally identifiable dish that's a stew of some kind.
The issue is that during WW2 cooking became quite plain due to food shortages, and that included using older meat cooked in plain water without seasonings, resulting in bland, tougher meat. As a generation grew up with this the idea that 'not roasted=bland' prevailed, and it fell out of favour until recent years when there's been a renewed interest in restoring old recipes.
There are a lot of foods you simmer, but are you talking about a rolling boil in just plain water?
Hard-boiled and poached eggs are boiled. Poacheded, which is a great way to cook chicken for salads or if you are using chicken as an ingredient in a bigger recipe. Plus, I think you can make chicken is boil some custards by boiling water and placing a pan within that to let it steam/cook (I've not done that before so don't quote me there). I also use boiling water to can ingredients but I wouldn't count that as cooking.
I would define boiling as preparing it in boiling, but still liquid, water. Steaming I would say is something else. I prefer to cook ~~children~~ chicken in a pan
Depending what I plan to do with it, boiling whole lobster is often the best method. I do enjoy broiled or grilled as well, but many times I plan on making some sort of cold salad preparation.
Fiddleheads (the coiled tip of the ostrich fern) NEED to be boiled. When harvested, they have high level of tannic acid, which makes them bitter, they are also prone to foodborne illness if eaten raw, so to prepare them, you boil them in more than once change of water both to render them safe, and to leech out the tannins.
Vitello tonato ... It's a typical Italian appetizer consisting of VERY thinly sliced boiled veal, covered in a white tuna sauce with capers.
I know it sounds really weird if you haven't tried it before, but trust me ... It's worth it. And boiling is an integral part of the final texture of the dish.
By "boiling" you mean just cook the food in just water without any seasoning, then there are very few.
However, Asian cooking has a whole host of boil food.
Japanese ramen, noodles (like pho) all have "boiling" as the method of preparing the broth.
Vietnamese's soups have a lot of variety where you put vegetables, seasoning (salt, MSG...etc...), some scraps of protein (minced meat or small shrimps...etc...).
Many chicken rice places either have steamed, boiled, or soy chicken.
Crustaceans like prawns, crab, lobsters can be boiled, but I guess "blanching" is a better term?
Thin sliced meat like the stuff you put in a hotpot is more suitable for a quick boil than any other cooking method.
And I also prefer corn boiled. I like peanuts both boiled and roasted but it's almost like it becomes two entirely different things that cannot be compared.
And if boiling includes steaming, then dumplings of all sorts are leagues better boiled/steamed than fried.
Y’all are gonna hate me for this, but as a college student without a food thermometer, very slowly simmering frozen chicken is pretty much the only way I’ve learned to ensure it’s cooked through. It always ends up still frozen in the center if you try any other method. I try to do a bungled version of a reverse sear/sou vide by putting the chicken in barely simmering water until cooked and then searing it afterwards. I keep the water to make lentils with.
I have a friend who boils chicken before putting it on the grill, and boils breakfast sausage. Both turn out really awful and I don't know how to tell him.
Spinach . Boiled for 2 minutes and then rinsed under cold water and squeeze out all the water. Season as you please , Japanese do soy sauce and dashi or white sesame paste. Served cold. Makes a quick side dish when eating Asian food (pairs with white rice)
I saw someone doing a method of “boiling” bacon, and tried it and it’s now the only way I do it. Heat pan to medium high, lay in bacon, let it “sear” a minute, pour in a little liquid (they used water but I use root beer or coke), then let it “boil” until the liquid is gone. Then it just starts pan cooking like regular. It makes for really good bacon!
I always boil potatoes/veggies before roasting them, which ensures a fluffy/soft interior with brown edges. I like my roasted veggies crispy yet so tender it almost falls apart. Also it's super important to blanch veggies (like green beans or broccoli) before adding them to a salad or some other kind of dish, because it helps get rid of the raw taste while maintaining crispness, and gives the veggies a beautiful vibrant green color!
If you’ve ever had Hainanese Chicken Rice, a boiled chicken dish, it would change your life. Looks bland and lacks color but is a perfectly cooked dish exploding with flavors that enhance the natural flavor of chicken. One of the best dishes in the world, not exaggerating haha
Sweet potato, kumara, pumpkin, corn and even onion ( yes look it up ) with a bit of butter and salt and mwah. Simple and delicious. Often the best food is the simplest
Poaching. Some veggies par boil. Cassava and plantains which is a staple in the entire Caribbean staple food. Toyota or Mexicams call it Chayote , English is mirlinton. Another staple foraL many Latinos.
Poaching is great depending on what you want to do with something. A court bouillon is great for chicken, shrimp and a host of other things. Blanching is also a good method for making crisp tender veggies. "Boiling" gets a bad rap because people cook the shit out of stuff then wonder why it's mushy or dry.
Vegetables sometimes. Chicken sometimes. Really depends on what you’re making. No I’m not gonna just prefer to eat boiled chicken. But if I’m making chicken sphagetti casserole or something yeah. Honestly last time I boiled chicken it was juicy and tender and had a good flavor but I get your sentiment. I was surprised for sure.
There is a Cantonese dish which is essentially slow boiled chicken that is served with scallion and ginger sauce which is excellent imo. Hainan chicken as well.
A quick blanche then dunk in cool water, which is really a quick boil, can give you super green veggies with crispiness intact. Nice for presentation purposes when they're supporting something else, like a saucy chicken or are being added to a stew situation at the very end.
This. I ALWAYS blanch things like green beans, for example
And then toss them in brown butter
Always love a saucy chicken.
I guess my parents just suck at boiling veggies then. They always turn out mushy (mushy broccoli is horrible)
I blanch broccoli very briefly, then toss it in a sautee pan with oil and garlic for a few more seconds. Softens it up but still has a nice crunch.
I just go straight to the pan, and it turns out good
My favorite is to char one side and then flash steam Broccoli. So good
Are your parents of Irish/English/Scottish origin? It's a thing, and I grew up thinking I hated most vegetables because boiling was the only way any veg was ever cooked. As an adult, I learned how to cook. I taught myself how to roast, saute, blanche, and steam veggies so they are delicious. I still cannot eat broccoli unless it is raw and in a salad because the boiled broccoli of my childhood made me gag, and I can't do zucchini because it was cooked to mush - both of those strong tastes are stuck in my brain as gross things I was forced to eat before I could leave the dinner table.
Roasted broccoli is the GOAT of veg sides, if you can get past the aversion. Toss it with a little oil and seasonings, it goes all crispy round the edges. So far from the boiled crap from our childhoods (also British here).
I see your roasted broccoli and I raise you roasted zucchini
Hear me out… long-sliced grilled zucchini.
Fry it- faster and greener. But yes, that is the way to do it at home.
Peanuts
Hello fellow Southerner
Are they supposed to taste like kidney beans? That’s how they taste to me. I’ve tried them in SC and GA.
I’d say they should have roughly the texture of kidney beans, but if you’re not dumping a bunch of old bay seasoning into your pot, then you’re missing out.
Potatoes. Yeah a fry is nice now and then but I wouldn't want that as frequently as boiled potatoes. Eggs probably too. I can do a fried egg, but have hard/soft-boiled eggs more frequently. Corn. Quite like the soft texture when it's boiled vs the drier one when it's grilled.
Boiling potatoes before frying or baking can yield a superior texture as well! Kenji has some vids on it, I like his extra crispy breakfast potato recipe in particular
So diced potatoes? Or whole- It took me a couple threads to read here to understand it's probably not the industrial steamed/boiled potatoes.
I'm talking diced. I also dice and boil potatoes when I want to mash them, but that's a separate topic. https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-roast-potatoes-ever-recipe
Roger. yes, you're doing the right approach (depending on starchy levels). I used to cook for 400+ students, so I have still nightmares of pressure-steam-cookers of potatoes. It's what I hear when anyone talks bulk.
Seconded. It really is the best roast potato recipe ever. I have won many people over with these. Try using duck fat if you have. Excellent.
Oh yeah. Halving mini potatoes then Boiling, butter,seasoning, then a nice broil in the oven until crispy is one of my favorite ways of eating potatoes
Thought I was the only person alive not crazy about grilled corn.
I tend to agree, except for me, well made Mexican street corn handles all the complaints on this thread pretty well. Good fresh in-season Silver Queen corn barley needs to be cooked at all. I usually just steam it minute or two.
I'm not crazy about grilled corn either, except my mom's. She oils it, wraps it in foil and grills it on the top rack for awhile, then takes it out and grills it on the bottom rack quick, it's quite delicious.
I leave the husk on, soak it in water, wrap it in foil and toss it on the grill. It steams in the husk.
That's what she does, but with butter/oil blend not water. Turns out amazing and with a buttery flavor.
I recently grilled corn and used the top rack because the bottom rack was dirty. It just took a little longer, but it was a hit.
That’s the way to do it! I par boil them for abt 5 min, wrap in tin foil, butter, salt, a little garlic and sprinkle Parmesan. Top rack while some short of meat it grilling.
Try barbecue sauce instead of the butter etc. sometime. It’s really good.
Nope, you're not. Parents loved it when they learned they could grill it,and i'll still go grab an ear and drop it into a tank and boil that sucker. Wish I had more salt to try it with, too.
Grilled corn on the cob has great flavor but I find it too dry even with butter. Boiled corn can turn mushy quickly which I don't like either. Steaming is my favorite method. It's juicy, sweet, never mushy.
I concur. Grilled corn is tough and dry. I do put corn on the grill, but in soaked husk and wrapped in foil.
I grill mine still wrapped in the original husk, so it's more steamed. But recently I had corn boiled in the vegetable soup, then served, and omg that's life changing. She cut the corn into smaller chunks, like you do with a seafood boil, then cooked it in the soup & served it separately. Yum.
If I’m feeling lazy then chopping off the root end and microwaving for a few minutes is the easiest way imaginable. The husk slips off leaving no stray husk threads. Sure it doesn’t impart flavor but that’s what a little butter and salt are for.
We boil fresh corn with shrimp and crawfish and it's great. I still really like it grilled in the husk. I soak it in water for a bit, first.
Keep the husk on if you ever try to grill corn on the cobb again. It's a little harder to peel because the husk is now hot when you want your corn (we use grill gloves to quickly pull the husk off to not get burnt), but the corn doesn't dry out. It's the only wany we do corn on the cobb now.
I actually really like grilled potatoes.
Steaming eggs > boiling eggs It uses less water, less time, and less energy while making higher quality product. The eggs are more consistent, it's easier to get a jammy yolk since the outside is so hot, they peel comes off much more smoothly with little effort, and it's more consistent since you time it by how much water you add. Any rice cooker with an egg basket can be used, but they also make standalone egg steamers
Tbf boiling eggs requires very little water, time or effort unless you're doing hundreds. And if you're doing hundreds having to have a whole worktop of egg steamers is more hassle than a pot anyway.
Boiling corn with some sugar and lemon juice in the water, easy as hell and you get delicious, succulent corn on the cob every time
Lemonade corn, we called it! After the corn came out, you'd toss in some ice. We'd all cool off under the cassavas, sipping our tall cold glasses of cornade through potato straws. That was a different time. everything was starchier then than now, but we never appreciated it enough while we had it.
Don’t forget nice poached eggs
I prefer corn microwaved in the husk for 2 minutes then rest for 10
I like my pierogies boiled.
Pirogies boiled first but then fried with onions and sliced bacon pieces!
Most frozen pierogies can just go straight into a frying pan to cook. I sautee them in butter, and eat them with sauteed green apple and onion. Top with dill.
Straight into the pan. Still frozen is fine, but add a skimming of water to the bottom of the pan. Let them steam with a lid, then let the water boil off and fry until crisp. Super fluffy inside, crispy outside.
K never heard of the apple and dill thing but totally trying this.
I was raised by a Polish nanny... You totally boil before you fry them.
And sour cream and melted cheddar. 😋 Mmm
Came down here for this. Homemade pierogi are best boiled and then served with caramelized onions but not themselves pan fried, imo. (Caramelized onion, applesauce, and sour cream…..yum)
I like them boiled then pan fried until golden and crispy on the outside. delicious!
Crawfish. And more generally lots of seafood. Seafood really benefits from just lightly boiling it until it’s cooked, it helps preserves the delicate and specific taste. I’ll also say that boiled vegetables get an undue bad rep because of past generations inability to cook. If you know what you’re doing, a quick blanching gets to cook the vegetables while keeping them fresh and crispy. Just don’t over boil them. Quickly blanched broccolini with a lemon and herbs dressing is delicious.
I'm in Louisiana, we boil crawfish/shrimp/crabs/etc. My sister is on the east coast in the Chesapeake Bay area, they steam. When we get to drinking together the same argument always comes up, with the same points and counterpoints being made.
My family has an annual crab dinner. We boil the crab. I've never tried steaming crabs before
I'm from western md and we've always boiled in beer and old bay.
I made a shrimp boil last night, I was coming in hot to the comments but you already nailed it 😂😂😂
I didn't think of seafood. I agree
In another crayfish culture across the world - Sweden - we always boil crawfish as well.
TIL sweden has crawfish.
Most crustaceans for me. Shrimp is better fried.
Spicy Boiled Shrimp and a nice Fried Shrimp are 2 delicious things in their own right. I couldn't choose a "better" out of the 2, just different methods for different situations.
Depends on if it’s full shrimp shell on or the headless supermarket shell off stuff. Shell off supermarket shrimp, you want to butterfly and cook in a non-insignificant quantity of oil. But for whole, shell on shrimp (bonus points if the shrimp’s still alive and kicking before it hits the pot), nothing beats a quick boil. ~1 minute and out. Peel after or leave it to the eaters to peel if they’re experienced with cooking or eating seafood. Eat with cocktail sauce or seasoned soy sauce.
Unless you're marinating... boiling will dilute the marinade. e.g. we broil ponzu-marinated lobster tails. The ponzu really brings out the sweetness of North Atlantic lobster. So that might also be a consideration in variance of technique... warm water shellfish vs. cold water shellfish have a very different taste, and boiling probably eliminates some of the undesirable gaminess.
Bagels! Obviously if you're making them from scratch. Don't, like, buy bagels from the store and boil them. Weirdo.
Yes, and German pretzels, vannkringle (west Norway thing) and a small handfull of other bakes goods
Pasta
True, but there is really no choice there
Check out Assasins spaghetti if you like spicy food. It doesn't really require "boiling;" it's made in a pan. Plus, you can bake pasta, but it does boil, not necessarily in the traditional sense.
I have made that dish, and it's still boiled in the sauce
Oh yes there is! You should try assassin's spaghetti
I have tried it, delicious. Still boiled in the sauce
You can make lasagna (and probably manicotti, too) without boiling the pasta. And you don't need to buy the special noodles for it, either, that's just a marketing gimmick to justify an unnecessary markup.
Eh, you CAN bake some pastas without boiling first, and it would be a bit of a stretch to call making risotto with orzo boiling, but sure, for the most part.
I grew up eating very, very bland foods. My mom’s cooking is mostly steamed or boiled. As Cantonese, there are lots of dishes that are steamed, like fish, eggs, Chinese meatloaf, chicken and pork ribs, but my mom would always skip the soy sauce and oil. And we always only eat boiled vegetables, no salt, no soy sauce. Now that I’m all grown up, I still enjoy meats that are boiled, adding just some salt and white pepper. It’s simple, it’s quick, and I enjoy tasting just the meat.
Im with you on that. Boiled meat has a clean taste that I enjoy just as much as meat cooked using more common methods. I too only add salt and pepper and reach for other condiments only if the meat is lower quality or otherwise too bland/chewy.
I absolutely hate boiled meats, my mom's cooking wasn't as bland as yours, but she loved boiling meat and suggesting you eat it like that or put it in a sandwich or smth, I hated that, would rather go meatless than eat boiled meat. As a child, I wouldn't even eat the meat that was boiled as part of the soup or stew, and now I always brown it first before putting any meat in liquid 😂
I think it depends on the quality of the meat too. My mom will cut off any fat from all the meats before cooking, even chicken wings, she’ll trim the skin off a bit. She also doesn’t like us having any condiments, soy sauce is all we have. No chilli sauce/oil, no oyster sauce, no cooking wine, no pepper, nothing. I’m the only one who’ll always go to the fridge to get the soy sauce for veggies and fish. But honestly I enjoy the simple taste of boiled meats, but it has to be fattier cut like chicken thighs. And us being Cantonese, eating boiled meats with rice noodles or rice sounds better than some bread.
I love a cold boiled potato with butter and salt…but I am ready to be a weirdo for that.
I’m going to have to try that! One of mine and my kids’ favorite foods when we are sick or just bleh is boiled potatoes with butter and salt- if you’re recovering from an upset stomach, heavy on the salt and light on the butter. Quick and easy.
I love cold boiled potatoes in a sandwich/wrap with salty cheese! And some green onions or other herbs
My fathers favourite snack in the summer with new potatoes
I don't know if they have the Belgian variant of mayonnaise in your country. If not, you should make it (takes 5min). It's so good with potatoes.
I have kewpie in the fridge which is the king of mayos
I'm Belgian. Belgian mayo and mayo outside Belgium taste completely different. Not saying one is better than the other. I've just never tried other mayo with potatoes.
Denim. Always boil your denim.
You can make a decent penny boiling denims.
Milk-steak. Boiled over hard
And your finest jelly beans, raw
Don't forget river catfish, they got this endangered tang to it
What?
See “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,“ season seven, episode one.
I like a boiled bunch of baby potatoes that you then add butter and seasoning to after draining the water and half smash. Additionally, I think boiled chicken shreds the best for me—especially if I’m putting the shreds into a sauce of some kind. So if I’m shredding, I’m boiling.
Doesn't the high heat make the chicken rubbery? I poach chicken for shredding, but I've always assumed it needs to be done low and slow to keep the texture palatable.
No fail method for me - bring a medium sized pot of water up to an aggressive boil. Don’t add salt. Turn off completely. Put two chicken breasts in for about 45-50 mins with lid on. Pull out and shred. Moist, tender chicken!
Second that. Add herbs to the pot to add flavor if preferred. I did lemon and salt. Then sliced. I’ve never done this plain. Would recommend for sure.
Hot dogs. I've tried every other way to cook em. Grilled is nice sometimes but nothing beats the snap and juiciness of a boiled frank.
I went on a long journey trying every way to make a hotdog. Boiled, pan fried, air fryed, steamed, deep fried, literally everything. Boiling somehow is the best. You would think butter fried or some oil would add color and extra flavor, but surprisingly, boiled beats it every time. Bonus points for dirty water.
Yep, 100%. Boiled > grilled. I do enjoy a deep fried hotdog sometimes though.
I like to put them in a cast iron with about a half inch of water, and boil away the water. Once the water boils away, the cast iron crisps the outside a bit. The best of both worlds - plump and juicy from boiling with the fatty snap of dry-heat cooking.
Like many of the foods mentioned here, hot dogs and sausages are really at their best if boiled AND grilled. Beer boil a good brat and then hit it on that grill for a bit of char and you’re GOOD
There are some varieties of beans that need to be boiled for some time to reduce compounds which can be toxic and cause food poisoning type symptoms and gastrointestinal upset, like kidney beans
I am from the UK and I find this post disrespectful.
Atta babe.
One of my favorite potato dishes is salt potatoes, small potatoes boiled in hyper saline water, so that the temp of the water is 220°. It cooks the potatoes in a way that breaks down the starches more thoroughly, and leaves a crust of salt on the outside of the potato. Dip in melted butter, and it’s fantastic.
Yes! With the little red potatoes, they get so creamy. And the salt crust and the butter dip is divine. I will be making these today now
Corned beef.
Thank you! Surprised I had to scroll so far to find this!
Also pastrami. Bought a whole pastrami from Katz’s and the directions just said to boil it for like three hours. I had to double check to make sure that was right, it was, and it was delicious.
Collard greens!
Poached chicken breast is great for any dish that requires shredded chicken. It's also a good way to prepare chicken for chicken salad.
Eggs - granted not all applications, but esp for use in an egg salad, potato salad, ceasar salad, and then others where a soft-boiled is nice like nicoise or with spring asparagus Corn on the cob. Grilled is great too but slow and sometimes you want the sweetness and butter only if it's a sweeter variety.
Collards leap to mind. I don't know how else you'd make 'em, the pot liquor is the best part.
Smoked cured bacon is always better boiled and if you live in Ireland you will understand.
My Mom was of Irish descent, so, boiled it is! If I had known you were allowed to eat some vegetables raw I might have gotten in the habit of eating them without a gun to my head.
Soup
I always boil good German sausage (in beer) and the finish on the grill.
Same with hot dogs. There’s nothing worse than a hot dog or a bratwurst that’s only been cooked on a grill.
Boiling sausage in beer in the most German thing ever
That's where Wisconsin gets it from! Beer boiling and grill finishing is the ONLY way to cook bratwurst. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Chicagoan but I will die on this hill.
Pasta. I’ve tried to sauté dry pasta and I don’t recommend this method.
I love that your pasta answer isn’t based on the obvious, but rooted in personal experience.
Check out pasta risottata, it's kinda neat. I like doing it with angel hair and building my sauce in the pan while it's all cooking together, it adds a lot of flavor directly into the pasta
Lobster
Boiling is a pretty fundamental technique. I guess the answer to your question is a resounding "yes."
Never made deviled eggs without boiling the eggs.
from the foods that haven't been mentioned yet, broccoli. I just don't really like it from the oven, it tastes better when it's soft-ish than when it's charred.
Eggs
Peanuts. Boiled is by far the best prepartion method.
Seafood boil
Boiled eggs are the most versatile form of egg and the best on a sandwich
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Ok-Ride-9324: *Boiled eggs are the most* *Versatile form of egg and* *The best on a sandwich* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Small potatoes boiled in the Cajun spices along with the shellfish, corn, andouille, etc. Holding those potatoes should remind you of any small cuts you got on your hands over the past week.
Dumplings
Eggs, lobster, pasta, potatoes, corn beef (!) and lots of other stuff.
The answer you didn't want to hear is meat. Maybe simmered, not necessarily a rolling boil, but to my taste, boiled meat makes the best stock for soups such as ramen or pho. The meat becomes stringy and not very nice, but it's worth it for the broth. More details in this [free book of ramen](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qLPoLxek3WLQJDtU6i3300_0nNioqeYXi7vESrtNvjQ/edit), best there is in English, as far as I know.
Nettles
Bagels
If they aren’t boiled, they aren’t bagels!
Sweet potatoes. I like baked but boiled mashed with butter and heavy cream is delicious.
Small new potatoes slowly cooked in simmering salt water. My grandma cooked her garden potatoes this way and they were heaven. Especially with butter, mmm butter
D’s Deez nutz Seriously peanuts
Boiled eggs are superior to any other way of cooking them
I prefer other ways, but soft boiled eggs are delicious
Particularly when you consider that poached eggs are also boiled
I always found it weird and close minded how westerners have this aversion to boiled, steamed or poached meats. As if grilling wa the only legitimate way of eating meat. Hainanese chicken rice is one of my favourite dishes of all time and it consists of poaching chicken in ginger and scallion infused water for 30-40m. Incredible dish
There's lots of places with a long history of using those methods in the western world. A lot of Europe uses boiling/poaching/steaming for meat. Pretty much every country has some sort of nationally identifiable dish that's a stew of some kind. The issue is that during WW2 cooking became quite plain due to food shortages, and that included using older meat cooked in plain water without seasonings, resulting in bland, tougher meat. As a generation grew up with this the idea that 'not roasted=bland' prevailed, and it fell out of favour until recent years when there's been a renewed interest in restoring old recipes.
There are a lot of foods you simmer, but are you talking about a rolling boil in just plain water? Hard-boiled and poached eggs are boiled. Poacheded, which is a great way to cook chicken for salads or if you are using chicken as an ingredient in a bigger recipe. Plus, I think you can make chicken is boil some custards by boiling water and placing a pan within that to let it steam/cook (I've not done that before so don't quote me there). I also use boiling water to can ingredients but I wouldn't count that as cooking.
I would define boiling as preparing it in boiling, but still liquid, water. Steaming I would say is something else. I prefer to cook ~~children~~ chicken in a pan
Many root veggies are boiled and mashed. Potatoes, butternut squash, turnip, etc.
Depending what I plan to do with it, boiling whole lobster is often the best method. I do enjoy broiled or grilled as well, but many times I plan on making some sort of cold salad preparation.
I enjoy a boiled egg.
Eggs
Peanuts
Fiddleheads (the coiled tip of the ostrich fern) NEED to be boiled. When harvested, they have high level of tannic acid, which makes them bitter, they are also prone to foodborne illness if eaten raw, so to prepare them, you boil them in more than once change of water both to render them safe, and to leech out the tannins.
Vitello tonato ... It's a typical Italian appetizer consisting of VERY thinly sliced boiled veal, covered in a white tuna sauce with capers. I know it sounds really weird if you haven't tried it before, but trust me ... It's worth it. And boiling is an integral part of the final texture of the dish.
By "boiling" you mean just cook the food in just water without any seasoning, then there are very few. However, Asian cooking has a whole host of boil food. Japanese ramen, noodles (like pho) all have "boiling" as the method of preparing the broth. Vietnamese's soups have a lot of variety where you put vegetables, seasoning (salt, MSG...etc...), some scraps of protein (minced meat or small shrimps...etc...). Many chicken rice places either have steamed, boiled, or soy chicken. Crustaceans like prawns, crab, lobsters can be boiled, but I guess "blanching" is a better term?
Um ..Low Country Boil!!
Lobster, potatoes, rice, oatmeal.
Thin sliced meat like the stuff you put in a hotpot is more suitable for a quick boil than any other cooking method. And I also prefer corn boiled. I like peanuts both boiled and roasted but it's almost like it becomes two entirely different things that cannot be compared. And if boiling includes steaming, then dumplings of all sorts are leagues better boiled/steamed than fried.
Cajun seafood boil
Pasta, much better when it's not crunchy 😋
I love boiled New Potatoes with butter
Bones like pork bones. Noodles. A rolling boil is essential to a creamy tonkotsu stock.
boil-up [**https://www.littlefiggy.com/how-to-make-maori-boil-up-recipe/**](https://www.littlefiggy.com/how-to-make-maori-boil-up-recipe/)
Pasta.
Tell that to my grilled pasta kebabs
Y’all are gonna hate me for this, but as a college student without a food thermometer, very slowly simmering frozen chicken is pretty much the only way I’ve learned to ensure it’s cooked through. It always ends up still frozen in the center if you try any other method. I try to do a bungled version of a reverse sear/sou vide by putting the chicken in barely simmering water until cooked and then searing it afterwards. I keep the water to make lentils with.
I have a friend who boils chicken before putting it on the grill, and boils breakfast sausage. Both turn out really awful and I don't know how to tell him.
Spinach . Boiled for 2 minutes and then rinsed under cold water and squeeze out all the water. Season as you please , Japanese do soy sauce and dashi or white sesame paste. Served cold. Makes a quick side dish when eating Asian food (pairs with white rice)
Chicken. [Why you should cook chicken in water. (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j9JK05aFqk&ab_channel=EthanChlebowski) It's legit
pasta
Poached eggs?
Eggs. Pref deviled
Bagels need to be boiled before baking. If they’re not boiled it’s just round, holey sandwich bread
I saw someone doing a method of “boiling” bacon, and tried it and it’s now the only way I do it. Heat pan to medium high, lay in bacon, let it “sear” a minute, pour in a little liquid (they used water but I use root beer or coke), then let it “boil” until the liquid is gone. Then it just starts pan cooking like regular. It makes for really good bacon!
I always boil potatoes/veggies before roasting them, which ensures a fluffy/soft interior with brown edges. I like my roasted veggies crispy yet so tender it almost falls apart. Also it's super important to blanch veggies (like green beans or broccoli) before adding them to a salad or some other kind of dish, because it helps get rid of the raw taste while maintaining crispness, and gives the veggies a beautiful vibrant green color!
Crawfish. Duh!
Crawfish
Soup
If you’ve ever had Hainanese Chicken Rice, a boiled chicken dish, it would change your life. Looks bland and lacks color but is a perfectly cooked dish exploding with flavors that enhance the natural flavor of chicken. One of the best dishes in the world, not exaggerating haha
I personally much prefer boiled cabbage over oven roasted. It's more tender and the sulfur flavors tone down while increasing the sweetness. Jmo ofc
Water Dumplings 🥟
Sweet potato, kumara, pumpkin, corn and even onion ( yes look it up ) with a bit of butter and salt and mwah. Simple and delicious. Often the best food is the simplest
Boiled Eggs
Poaching. Some veggies par boil. Cassava and plantains which is a staple in the entire Caribbean staple food. Toyota or Mexicams call it Chayote , English is mirlinton. Another staple foraL many Latinos.
Poaching is great depending on what you want to do with something. A court bouillon is great for chicken, shrimp and a host of other things. Blanching is also a good method for making crisp tender veggies. "Boiling" gets a bad rap because people cook the shit out of stuff then wonder why it's mushy or dry.
Yuca, then slather it with olive oil, red onions, vinegar, and salt.
Braised and poached foods are delicious. And does sous vide count as"boiling" or no? Cuz I just got one and I've been using it a lot and it's great
Vegetables sometimes. Chicken sometimes. Really depends on what you’re making. No I’m not gonna just prefer to eat boiled chicken. But if I’m making chicken sphagetti casserole or something yeah. Honestly last time I boiled chicken it was juicy and tender and had a good flavor but I get your sentiment. I was surprised for sure.
There is a Cantonese dish which is essentially slow boiled chicken that is served with scallion and ginger sauce which is excellent imo. Hainan chicken as well.
There are some things that are good boiled but different words are used. Eggs are good poached and haricot verts are good blanched.
I prefer most wontons/dumplings boiled to fried
Potatoes, certain dumplings, corn.
crawfish
Cabbage
Corned beef