Hard Water's Effect On Cooking And Baking

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You probably know that hard water can have an effect on your plumbing as well as leave behind residue on your dishes, but it also affects how your food cooks and tastes. While consuming hard water is not harmful, it will produce a less desirable outcome when it comes to your cooking. Here is more information about how hard water affects your home-cooked meals and how installing a water softener changes things.

Longer Cooking Times

Many professional chefs have remarked that cooking vegetables in hard water tends to take longer, especially for legumes and rice. Because of the minerals present, excessively hard water takes longer to boil compared to softer water. This longer cooking time also affects the appearance, texture, and taste of just about any boiled or blanched food.

Adverse Flavor

Hard water, especially water that is high in iron, often leaves behind minerals in food that can affect the flavor, especially in sensitive people. Also, whatever mineral taste you currently have with your water will affect your teas and coffees whether you serve them hot or cold. This adverse taste also affects other foods that are soaked or boiled; your oatmeal or rice could end up having that same odd taste.

Changes in Texture

Vegetables cooked in hard water are affected by the high amount of calcium and magnesium ions. These minerals cause the texture of some foods to be tougher than they should be, especially with boiled food such as rice, pasta, and vegetables. Hard water minerals especially affect the texture and taste of baked foods.

Baking Issues

In addition to all the above issues, hard water has an effect on the successful baking of your breads, rolls, cakes, and cookies. The reason behind this that the dissolved minerals change the way gluten and yeast behave. The water may make it hard for the microbes or gluten in the yeast or flour to absorb water. This results in a "tightening" effect on the dough and makes the dough or batter rubbery and difficult to work with.

Hard water can affect just about any facet of your home-cooked items. Installing a water softener will likely make a big change in the outcome of your home cooked meals, especially if you currently have a severe hard water problem. While filters can screen out some of the minerals, they won't make all your hard water problems go away. A whole-home system ensures that you will have the correct water hardness throughout your house. For more information about water softening systems, visit or call a business like Complete Water that sells and installs residential water softening systems.

 

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28 June 2019

Make Your Business Establishment More Appealing to Potential Customers

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