How Water Quality Affects Cooking
Why the water you cook with matters and how to improve it.
Water touches everything you cook
Pasta, rice, beans, soup stock, bread dough, coffee, tea. all absorb water. Chlorine gives vegetables a chemical taste. Hard water makes beans tough (calcium interferes with cell wall softening). High-TDS water changes the flavor profile of delicate broths and sauces. Professional kitchens in hard water areas always filter their water.
What matters most
Chlorine/chloramine: Biggest cooking impact. Affects taste of everything water touches. A simple carbon filter fixes this. Hardness: Makes dried beans take 30-60% longer to cook. Affects bread dough elasticity. Leaves mineral residue on steamed vegetables. TDS: Above 300 PPM, water has a noticeable mineral taste that transfers to food.
Kitchen filtration
An under-sink carbon filter ($50-150) handles chlorine and improves taste. If you have hard water and cook frequently, consider an under-sink RO system for the kitchen tap. Use filtered cold water for cooking, not hot tap water (which may contain more lead and dissolved metals). Check your water data.