Brewing is an important technique in cookery and involves boiling or simmering. Tea, coffee and soy sauce are brewed, although as soy sauce is a product of fermentation, it may also be deemed an alchoholic beverage. Used in this sense brewing is normally used of liquids, when other types of food are cooked using boiling or simmering the term stewing is used instead. Cooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. ... Boiling is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which typically occurs when a liquid is heated to a temperature such that its vapor pressure is above that of the surroundings. ... Simmering refer to food that are cooked in hot water but require gentler treatment than boiling to prevent toughening and prevent food from breaking up. ...     Tea leaves in a teacup. ... Coffee in beverage form. ... Soy sauce (US) or soya sauce is a fermented sauce made from soybeans (soya beans), roasted grain, water and salt. ... In cooking, stewing means preparing meat cut into smaller pieces or cubes by simmering it in liquid, usually together with vegetables. ...

The term is also used to describe stewing herbs (especially medicinal herbs) and potions, and is often employed in legend and fiction, especially fantasy (witches' brew). A herb (pronounced hurb in Commonwealth English and urb in American English) is a plant grown for culinary, medicinal, or in some cases even spiritual value. ... A potion (from Latin potio, potionis, meaning beverage, potion, poison) is a drinkable medicine or poison. ... A legend (Latin, legenda, things to be read) is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. ... The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology. ... Fantasy is a genre of art, literature, film, television, and music that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of either plot, theme, setting, or all three. ...

See also

• brewing
• coffee brewing
• tea brewing