Not everyone knows how to boil water correctly.

Here’s some advice from Chef Louis Eguaras, author of 101 Things I Learned In Culinary School.

1. Choose the right size pot. This means a pot large enough to comfortably hold what you need to cook, with about 1/3 room at the top after the food is covered with water.

2. Fill the pot with water. If the food is to be placed in the pot from the beginning, add the food and cover it with cold water.

Why cold water? Wouldn’t water from the hot water tap help the water boil faster?

Photo by Zsuzsanna Kilian | SXC.

3. Add salt to the water. Adding it at the beginning of the process rather than at the end helps it get absorbed into the food.

4. Place the pot on the stove and cover it with a lid. If you don’t have a lid, use a fry pan, tea kettle or any other heat-proof cover. In a pinch, you can use aluminum foil.

Why do you need a lid? It keeps in the steam generated by the heat and helps the water boil faster. Without a lid, a portion of the water will evaporate. But worse, the water will take four times as long to boil, wasting your time and valuable fuel.

Water boils at 212°F/100°C at sea level. The boiling point drops 1.8°F/1°C for every 1,000-foot increase in altitude. So if you’re cooking at a different altitude—on vacation or visiting relatives, for example—don’t be surprised if the water boils faster or more slowly.

5. Don’t use a burner or flame larger than the pot. This not only wastes energy; if flames escape to a wider circumference on your stovetop, other items can catch fire (including grease spatters).

Now, you can boil water like a professional.