Have electric stove? Dread making potato salad or pasta in the summer? Kitchen get so hot and steamy you have to turn up the AC or fan, and make your dinner cold before the sweat has dried from your brow? Well, if you can bear the 7-10 minutes of boiling water, after you drain whatever it is you've been boiling, fill the now empty pot with cold water. Place it back on the burner that was used. Instead of 20 minutes of intense heat being given off as the burner cools down, the cold water in the pot will keep the heat confined to the pot, and make the kitchen more comfortable once again!
Cooling down the stove really helps especially when the temperature outside is 102 degrees like yesterday. To speed up the cooling process, I added some ice cubes to the water in the pot.
By
07/06/2010
Great idea, thanks!
By
07/02/2010
I think this is a fabulous idea. I have to make potato salad tomorrow - I'll certainly give this a try.
By
08/27/2008
I've been soaking up the heat from the burner for years during the summer with this trick. Works nicely.
By
08/21/2008
Hmmm . . . I'm not sure about this one. I do the same in the winter for the opposite effect. I want to capture the warmth in the hot water so it will release it slowly after the stove it turned off. I don't think it really makes a difference--the heat has not disappeared, it has only been transferred to another medium (water), then to a third (the air).