eli5- How does instant food (that says to just add boiling water) cook?

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Today i picked up an indian rice type snack from the supermarket called poha (i live in india btw) and you just need to add boiling water and leave it aside for just 3 minutes. How does this cook? Like ik the pressure and steam all help but is this already cooked halfway and if i eat raw what will happen etc. ?

In: 75

21 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Shocker: all instant noodles are pre cooked and dehydrated, including India’s favorite Maggi noodles, which are pre fried.

All you do when you add hot water is reconstitute moisture.

So if you eat them raw they simply won’t taste good but otherwise would be the same as the “cooked” product

Anonymous 0 Comments

Food products, generally starches and proteins, undergo physical changes in the presence of moist heat. To make a food “instant”, the manufacturer will cook/make the product in the factory similarly to how you would at home. Steeping coffee/tea in boiling water, boiling rice/pasta/potatoes etc. After the product is cooked, it gets dried on a variety of different types of dryers. Spray dryers for like coffee or tea spray the liquid into a fine most inside a heated chamber. There is also a drum dryer for things like potatoes. The cooked and mashed potatoes are passed between two heated drums and then scraped off once it is dried.

Adding boiling water at home is simply adding the water back to the product that was dried off at the factory.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Food products, generally starches and proteins, undergo physical changes in the presence of moist heat. To make a food “instant”, the manufacturer will cook/make the product in the factory similarly to how you would at home. Steeping coffee/tea in boiling water, boiling rice/pasta/potatoes etc. After the product is cooked, it gets dried on a variety of different types of dryers. Spray dryers for like coffee or tea spray the liquid into a fine most inside a heated chamber. There is also a drum dryer for things like potatoes. The cooked and mashed potatoes are passed between two heated drums and then scraped off once it is dried.

Adding boiling water at home is simply adding the water back to the product that was dried off at the factory.

Anonymous 0 Comments

the food is already cooked, but for purposes of preservation it has been dehydrated and sealed. This process stops most metabolic processes dead in their tracks because they rely on water as a medium where said processes happen.

what you do before consumption is just reversing the process(and you are NOT recommended to try to preserve the food again after this.).

Anonymous 0 Comments

the food is already cooked, but for purposes of preservation it has been dehydrated and sealed. This process stops most metabolic processes dead in their tracks because they rely on water as a medium where said processes happen.

what you do before consumption is just reversing the process(and you are NOT recommended to try to preserve the food again after this.).

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Its 90% cooked already and then dried. Adding hot water will finalize the cooking and rehydrate the food so you can eat it as if it was just cooked

Anonymous 0 Comments

Its 90% cooked already and then dried. Adding hot water will finalize the cooking and rehydrate the food so you can eat it as if it was just cooked