Someone just told me that cold water boils faster than hot water. I don’t really believe it. Could someone clear this up? I don’t see how it’s possible.
The master with a succint reply:
On second thought, it might have been succinct.
[slight hijack]
Customer: Waiter, on the menu it mentions cold boiled ham. What is cold boiled ham?
Waiter: That’s ham boiled in cold water.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! 
[/slight hijack]
It doesn’t have to be a joke - just reduce the pressure to about 0.178 psia, and the water will boil at 50 F.
Yeah, but that spoils the joke. 
Besides, where are you going to do this–other than in a laboratory–to get the pressure that far down? Let alone in any place where a customer would be served ham of any kind? 
[also a slight hijack]
If you were to boil your ham in that manner (lowering the PSI), it would not actually kill any of the germs right? It isn’t the boiling that sterilizes, but the high temperature, right?, he asks bio-ignorantly.
[/also a slight hijack]
Depends on whether the bacterial walls can handle the lower pressure and prevent the liquid within from boiling. If your internal fluids boil, it’s pretty much “show’s over” even if they’re boiling at 50 degrees fahrenheit.
Oh okay. That makes sense. Thanks. (score one for the good guys in the fight vs. ignorance)
Absimia