Boiled Broccoli
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Strip off the dead outside leaves and cut the inside leaves level with the flower.
Cut off the stalk close to the bottom and place the broccoli in cold salt water with the heads downwards for 30 minutes.
Boil and serve
Boil the water in a saucepan, adding the salt as above.
Once the water is boiling, add the broccoli and keep it boiling uncovered for 10 to 25 minutes, depending on size.
Remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon as soon as it is done, drain well.
Serve with melted butter poured over it.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Broccoli
- Is the vegetable cooked, so it becomes tender while keeping its shape and colour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water and the broccoli as it soaks and boils.
- Melted butter (in the method)
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour over the cooked broccoli.
The step that matters
Remove the broccoli as soon as it is done. Broccoli keeps cooking in its own heat after leaving the water, and overcooking breaks down its cell walls, making it soft, dull and waterlogged. Draining it promptly keeps it tender-crisp.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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