You’re not a bad cook, but your water thinks you are.

You work hard to make food your family will enjoy, and you work even harder to create amazing meals for guests on holidays and other special occasions.

How would you feel if you knew one of the most basic ingredients you use when cooking and baking was negatively impacting the flavor of your food?

The truth is, the quality of your home’s water will have a profound effect on what you serve at the dining room table.

More than 80 percent of homes in the U.S. have hard water, which includes many homeowners with municipal water. Hard minerals like calcium and magnesium, as well as other things found in drinking water, can affect the flavor and color of food while making your job in the kitchen more difficult.

Hard water can leave you with spotty, filmy dishes, but you may not be aware that high levels of chlorine often found in municipal water supplies also affects your cooking and baking. Here are the top three reasons filtering hard water makes a big difference in the kitchen:

Taste the Difference

Does your tap water have a foul odor or taste? The culprit could be chlorine and impurities in your water. When you use tap water to wash your fruits and vegetables or cook pasta, the undesirable taste of the hard water doesn’t disappear. Instead, it’s absorbed into your food and affects the flavor. Keep in mind, if you don’t like the flavor or odor of your tap water, it could be making its way into your food, too. When you cook dry food like rice, noodles, and beans, it may be absorbing that same flavor. By filtering your hard water, the impurities and chlorine are removed and you’re left with higher quality, better tasting water for washing your produce or preparing family dinners. Specifically, you’ll notice that your pastas and rice will cook faster and have a creamier texture.

Baking and Hard Water

Are you frustrated with your baked goods not turning out right? Before you place blame on your culinary skills, know that your hard water may be the problem. Hard water minerals such as calcium and magnesium or chlorine-rich tap water affect the performance of some ingredients, including yeast. Minerals in your water change the gluten structure of dough, making it tough or slowing the fermentation process. Filtered and softened water gets rid of unwanted minerals in your water, so you can bake better bread and have softer cookies for the school bake sale.

Dull Food

Are your veggies losing their vibrant color? The high chlorine level in your hard water is likely the culprit. Why? Chlorine is an ingredient in bleach, so it makes sense that it would strip the colors from your food, leaving them a faded, yellowish color. Filtering hard water removes chlorine, so your food maintains its vibrant color.

Schedule a free water test and talk with our water experts about which solution is right for you and your family. We have a variety of options and financing available to ensure that the quality of your life and your water are the very best they can be.