How hot is 'piping hot'?

Blazin23 said:
Okay. As it refers to boiling, it does not take much work to then get to:

The boiling point of water is 100°C or 212° F at 1 atmosphere of pressure (sea level).

Better Answer: The boiling point of water depends on the atmospheric pressure, which changes according to elevation. The boiling point of water is 100°C or 212° F at 1 atmosphere of pressure (sea level), but water boils at a lower temperature as you gain altitude (e.g., on a mountain) and boils at a higher temperature if you increase atmospheric pressure (lived below sea level).

The boiling point of water also depends on the purity of the water. Water which contains impurities (such as salted water) boils at a higher temperature than pure water. This phenomenon is called boiling point elevation, which is one of the colligative properties of matter.
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Yet the food standards agency seems to contradict that answer by saying any temperature where you can see steam - which incidentally would be silly.

LMGTFY is find on trivial questions, but if you're going to mock someone, at least make sure the answer is obvious.
 
D.P. said:
It doesn't matter that it is not water, boiling hot refers to boiling water which is 100*C, to check food is piping hot you check it is the boiling point of water, which can be done using a thermometer or looking at the steam.
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Since when has the term 'boiling hot' only ever related to water? People say I'm boiling hot all the time, they don't mean that their body temperature is 100 degrees?
 
D.P. said:
It doesn't matter that it is not water, boiling hot refers to boiling water which is 100*C, to check food is piping hot you check it is the boiling point of water, which can be done using a thermometer or looking at the steam.
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You can get steam from water at any temperature over 0.01°C, so that's not a great rule.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
You can get steam from water at any temperature over 0.01°C, so that's not a great rule.
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Incorrect, steam by its very definition comes from boiling water.
What you see at lower temperatures is not steam but water vapor and mist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam
Steam is the technical term for the gaseous phase of water, which is formed when water boils. Technically speaking, in terms of the chemistry and physics, steam is invisible and cannot be seen; however, in common language it is often used to refer to the visible mist of water droplets formed as this water vapor condenses in the presence of (cooler) ai
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Some people might call the water vapour steam but they are incorrect. When you breath out on a cold day that is not steam but water vapor. When you see a white mist rising forma wet tarmac road when the sun is out - that is water vapor and not steam.

Steam by definition is reached at the boiling point of the liquid, that is what boiling mean, the temperature at which a liquid is transformed into its gaseous phase.
The boiling point is 100*C for water at standard atmospheric pressure, it can be lower but no one is cooking a sausage roll in outer space.
 
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