Kettle

For other uses, see Kettle (disambiguation).

A kettle is a kitchenware piece. Depending on culture and geographic location, in the context of kitchenware the word kettle can have a variety of meanings.

In the United Kingdom, a kettle is a device used to quickly heat water for hot drinks, such as tea or instant coffee. It is normally constructed out of durable plastic and powered by mains electricity. Once the water has reached boiling point, the kettle automatically deactivates to prevent the water boiling away and damaging the heating element. Sometimes stove-mounted metallic kettles are used that have a steam whistle that indicates when the water has reached boiling point. Prior to the invention of the electric kettle, this was the most common form of heating drinking water. Note that most British people utilise instant coffee granules to make coffee drinks, and the use of coffee-making machines is relatively uncommon.

Elsewhere in the world (and sometimes in the UK) the word kettle in this context indicates a metal pot for boiling or stewing. In this context, a kettle is probably the most ancient kind of metal cooking utensil.

The word kettle originates from Latin catillus, which in various contexts is translated as bowl, deep dish, or funnel.

Specific types

• A teakettle (tea kettle) is a pot with a spout and a lid to boil water for tea.
• A cauldron is a large kettle hung over an open fire, usually on an arc-shaped hanger.

The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettle under GFDL