I've been living in Sheridan Wyoming for over eight years now so have adjusted. I think that regulars here know that I like to cook but I had to learn how to cook all over again when I moved here. The issue was as simple as boiling water. Previously I had lived in north east Ohio, Ft. Worth Texas and north east Florida which are all at or close to sea level. I had issues with pasta taking longer to cook along with such things as my normal cooking of a hard boiled egg not being totally done.

The thing is that I'm no longer at or about sea level where water boils at 212 degrees F. I'm now at ~3700 feet above sea level and water boils at just over 204 degrees F instead of 212 degrees F. It is amazing how many aspects of cooking are affected by the higher altitude. Shoot, even my two gallon slow cooker boils around the sides even on the low temperature setting. I have to set the slow cooker at the warm setting if I really want to cook something all day like sketti sauce.

An eight degree difference may not seem like it would make much of a difference but, using thin spaghetti as an example, at sea level cooking time is ~six minutes. Here it is ~8-9 minutes. That eight degree difference in the boiling point of water REALLY makes a BIG difference as to cooking. It isn't just cooking with boiling water as a cake will take longer to cook at 3700 feet than at sea level. Rice is also strongly affected. I love black and wild rice. At around sea level the cooking time is around 35-45 minutes but here it is close to an hour.

Just something I thought interesting and worth sharing.

_________________

If you look at most recipes, they have separate instructions for high altitude cooking.

That is true especially with packaged foods like a boxed cake mix. Still, for every day cooking, there is an adjustment process.

_________________

That's interesting, I'd never known that or seen any instructions on packaging over here about higher altitudes cooking.

Just picked this up,

Generally the rule is, the higher your altitude, the lower the boiling point of pure water is. At sea level (0 metres), boiling point is, by definition, 100 degrees Celsius. The United Kingdom is on average 162 metres above sea level. Pure water will therefore boil at 99.5 degrees Celsius.

_________________
Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

It's all about air pressure Joan. At sea level the air pressure is higher than my 3700 feet. When water boils it is just changing state from a liquid to a gas. Air pressure resists this change of state.

The following link has a chart for boiling points by altitude.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/boiling-points-of-water-1328760

_________________

I'm lucky. At this point in my life, I do most of my cooking in a microwave oven or toaster. And with these remarkable appliances, altitude is not important.

_________________
BB
http://barrypatch.net

Thanks for that Jay, I get regular emails from Spruce but mine are craft based and I'd not seen this.

Where I live I'm only a few feet above sea level, a 25 minute walk downhill to the next village which is a couple of miles away and you're in the sea. Well that was when I was fit, just go across the main road and down the back lanes.

_________________
Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

YW.

Of course there always has to be an exception. In almost all cases things take longer to cook at higher elevations. An exception that I see are egg noodles as they tend to be done in around half the time stated on the package directions.

_________________