Using salt in boiling water

[ARWadsworth]

Do you spit it out all over your bib if you do not like it?

[BartC]

I suppose some people can be snobbish about pasta the same as they can about be about wine.

We just used whatever pasta is available, and is cheap. I can't actually tell the difference apart from the horrible quick-cook ones you can get in the UK.

Being Italian just means they've had a lot of experience of cooking pasta, having it nearly every day. They've also made their own pasta, and even worked in a factory making it. All I'm saying is that they like to cook pasta in salted water!

You obviously have such a delicate palate that adding salt to the water rather than later, if at all, totally ruins the meal for you!

There's nothing 'pap' about pre-packed dry pasta. And the 10' was mentioned just to give a figure to work from. So you're saying such a pasta would be cooked in 8 minutes in plain water? OK (although I never use salt myself and never pay attention to the guide times anyway. And for small pastas for soups, I usually overcook them).

[Steve Firth]

It sometimes feels as if there is. Not just the pasta though, everything is over salted, particularly "brodo" the stock used in just about every form of cooking. Huge quantities of salted meat are also consumed and there doesn't seem to be a culture of "add salt to taste" it's jsut whack loads of it into every cooking process.

Even fried eggs are salted in the pan.

[BartC]

I'm not sure steaming is appropriate for pasta; it needs to absorb water.

But I just tried an experiment with a few pieces of pasta in cold tap water (5C warming to 15C or so).

The weight of the pieces increased by 30-40% after about two hours, suggesting they had absorbed that much water. So if this works, then it will be a very slow process, at least in the cold waters in this part of the world. Perhaps those 'quick-cook' pastas will fare better here...

[chris French]

I can tell the difference for some of the more expensive pastas, there is a different texture about some of them.

That's not to say I don't also buy the bog standard supermarket pasta, like lots of foods, you can get better by paying more, but we aren't talking orders of magnitude

[Frank Erskine]

So why not try soaking it in cold water to make it swollen _then_ steaming it? :-)

I might give that a try tomorrow... (all in the interests of culinary research, you know).

[geoff]

Or ...

just cook it in the time honoured fashion

[geoff]

In message , chris French writes

There is SUCH a difference between fresh pasta and the dried variety

I love the former, everything else is just spag bol

[dennis]

Only if its really bad.

I have sent the same dish back three times before they actually served cooked steak.

[ARWadsworth]

You do know that they chef will have spit and spunked on your steak before putting it under the grill and sending it back to you.

[dennis]

They do that to yours all the time, it doesn't appear to have any effect.

[ARWadsworth]

No, they do it to wankers like you who send the food back. When it gets sent back for the second time you can usually expect the waitress to wipe her used tampon across the steak.

[Theo Markettos]

Salt boiling also reduces the nutritional content of the vegetables by dissolving minerals and (I think) vitamins. Though the best cite I can find at the moment is:

[Steve Firth]

That's because you're buying rubbish designed for the English. If you bought pasta aromatisata from a decent maker then the tomato, basil, salmon, lemon, peperopncino, spinate etc would be there to add flavour.

[Steve Firth]

It's not about being snobbish, it's about caring about what one eats and about one's heritage.

You don't say, I am surprised.

Yeah right, and every English person knows how to make Yorkshire pudding properly.

[Steve Firth]

Ah, someone who really likes the taste of chef's extra special brown sauce, eh?

And also someone who doesn't know how to eat steak, it seems.

[Steve Firth]

"Fresh" pasta, which is nothing of the sort, is something dreamed up for the English market. If you wanted fresh pasta you would make it yourself, not buy the sulphur dioxide laden crap from the supermarket.

[BartC]

OK. You're right and everyone else (manufacturers of pasta, people who've used it for generations, and just about every cookery source) is wrong:

'You shouldn't cook pasta in salted water.'

And apparently pasta is not worth bothering with unless it's freshly made and from the most exclusive, and expensive, suppliers.

I see you've already tried expounding your views to the locals, and with an expected reaction ...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not what my brother in law (Italian) says...or the Italian chefs he knows.

Still you can be a lone right voice in the world if you want.

[Steve Firth]

Yes, you've got it, good boy! You can have a dog treat now.

Who is that supposed to be a quote from?

Perhaps you can show where I've made such a claim?

Did you spend time going somewhere to learn how to talk out of your arse?