Is this a meme I’m too Italian to understand?
Yeah, I also don’t get it. I don’t stir pasta, maybe once in the middle. It never sticks.
I’ve never once had pasta sticking together in the pot, regardless of what I do.
Same
It’s not salting your water, nor the water volume to pasta ratio, nor if the water is boiling or not, nor oil in the water, but stirring early in the cooking process that will prevent sticking.
From the great Kenji Lopez-Alt:
Pasta is made up of flour, water, and sometimes eggs. Essentially, it’s composed of starch and protein, and not much else. Now starch molecules come aggregated into large granules that resemble little water balloons. As they get heated in a moist environment, they absorb more and more water until they finally burst, releasing the starch molecules into the water. That’s why pasta always seems to stick together at the beginning of cooking—it’s the starch molecules coming out and acting as a sort of glue, binding the pieces to each other, and to the pot.
…
The problem is that first stage of cooking—the one in which starch molecules first burst and release their starch. With such a high concentration of starch right on the surface of the pasta, sticking is inevitable. However, once the starch gets rinsed away in the water, the problem is completely gone.
So the key is to stir the pasta a few times during the critical first minute or two. After that, whether the pasta is swimming in a hot tub of water or just barely covered as it is here, absolutely no sticking occurs. I was able to clean this pot with a simple rinse.
Yeah you only need to do it once in the beginning. Say a seconc time to make time pass.
Not salting the water is a crime against humanity though so be aware.
Oh yes, I’m not saying don’t season your water. Just that seasoning the water on its own is not a way to prevent pasta sticking.
Wow, this guy is amazing!
Yep, I really like how he applies the scientific method to cooking. Some of my favourites are how he’s found the perfect way to boil an egg, cook steaks and roasts (dry brine, reverse sear), and make chocolate chip cookies (he made over 1500 cookies testing how changing each variable changed the final cookie).
Salty like the ocean
Is bullshit you don’t want that much salt
You do in the water. The pasta won’t absorb all of it
I’ve tried boiling pasta in ocean water. They were inedible.
Lidia taught me that
Me who never stirs and never gets sticky pasta…
Stop using butter.
This meme is about boiling pasta. You butter before you boil? Weird.
Gross, people do that?
it’s indeed gross to stop using butter
The oil keeps the water from boiling over. The downside is that the sauce won’t stick as well.
Butter is delicious though
No, you are.
Your recommended posts, all in one place
It’s that goblin fuck from sin city having an orgy.
I have actually never seen this before. Other comments are saying its because you dont salt your water and i do so probably thats why. It also makes the taste better so overall recommended.
Mario Batali over here.
?
You can add some oil so pasta won’t also stick when you have cold leftovers. I add both oil and salt in the very beginning, because there’s no reason to not do that, and I have a feeling of the right amount compared to the amount of water.
And I stir once, about a minute after putting the pasta in, because something tends to stick to the bottom in the very beginning. Afterwards, it’s just not necessary.You ever heard the saying “like oil and water”? Oil doesn’t mix with water. It floats on the surface. Adding it just wastes 100% of the oil.
Oh, thank you for providing me with this rare knowledge. But what happens while you boil pasta, is pasta turning around and soaking the oil in. I wouldn’t be doing that if it wouldn’t help with pasta stickiness.
And as other people comment here, oil gets into pasta so you can have a problem with sauce not soaking in, but when I’m making something like bolognese, I sometimes pour pasta into the frying pan with the sauce, so it’s getting there for sure.But what happens while you boil pasta, is pasta turning around and soaking the oil in.
That’s not what happens
wouldn’t be doing that if it wouldn’t help with pasta stickiness.
It doesn’t, it prevents boilover
A wooden spoon across the top of the pot prevents boilover, so why waste the oil?
Okay, okay, oil doesn’t help me at all, what am I doing!
I add both oil and salt in the very beginning, because there’s no reason to not do that.
If you really like to impregnate your pasta, so that it won’t absorb your sauce (or less well), then you are right about the there-is-no-reason-part in your answer.
137 times more powerful than the Electromagnetism you try and use to tear them apart, behold the Strong Pasta Friendship Force!
Do you cook your pasta in a large pot, with plenty of boiling water, and a good amount of salt? Usually I just stir once just after putting the pasta in, and I never have noodles sticking together.
My pot would have to be 3x its size to fit the amount of water a single package of pasta says I should use.
1kg to 10l
Do you have a bathtub in your stove?No, but 1kg of pasta? Are you feeding a battalion?
Matter of definition really
Definition of what?
Definition of battalion
I usually make food for a few days
Then investing in a large pot would make sense.
I have one though
Only the best musicians blame their pot.
TBF, pot has played a big role in the making of some great music
I do have a 10 L pot, I use it for making stock and beer
1 kg of dry pasta is enough for 10 people! Do you often cook for that many people? (Genuine question)
That’d be two people, five meals each so a few days. That’s how I usually do it
Not in my experience, I usually count 200g per person
That’s a LOT of pasta per person. Not unheard of, but still a lot
Me going through this thread
As others have already said, that is a lot of pasta. If you regularly cook volumes like that, it would really make sense to invest in a large pot as well. A cheap 10l pot will do just fine for boiling pasta, and it sounds like you would get plenty of use out of it.
It depends on the pasta (form, freshness, self-made… etc). Some has to be steered 3-4 times others just once, in my experience.
Skill issue
Gift
Stirring doesn’t matter. The rinse after really matters for it to not stick together. (I had displeasure of eating a portion from 15kg of pasta slab that had no chance of proper rinse, bottom was charred)
I’ve never rinsed my pasta and it never sticks together.
Little olive oil in the water. Problem solved.
Dat feel
It’s really the first couple minutes that are critical
