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Pasta Cooking Time

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Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#151

Post by BenFranklin100 »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #90

I don't tend to look at the clock for pasta. I just eyeball it and sample it. You can sort of see the pasta turning whiter from the outside in. Especially with my regular goto brands, I can see when it is done. I fish some out with a fork to verify usually when it's getting close. And I generally mix it with some sauce and it might sit in there for some minutes. So the cooking process actually continues after you rem…

After cooking many pasta dishes over the years, I’ve gotten good enough that I know when it’s done just by feeling it through the stirrer handle. One can even distinguish between al dente vs done.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#152

Post by waste_monk »

ch4s3 wrote: post #141
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You do not cook pasta by cooking time I learned this the hard way moving to an altitude where water boils around 200°F. Just threw out the timers and started obsessively tasting. Flip side is I make fresh pasta more often because the active work of kneading and shaping is more interesting than standing around eating uncooked pasta.

That would be really unfortunate if you were trying to make a pour over coffee at 205°F.

I see plenty of "glove box"-type lab equipment which has an airtight enclosure (often rated to some degree of vacuum), and gloves which allow handling of things inside. Surely it wouldn't be too hard to DIY such an enclosure, but pressurise it to 1 ATM instead? E.g. a small air compressor and a relief valve set to ~15psi or so?

I am thinking that you would put a kettle of water inside, pressurise the container, and then boil the kettle (would need a power or gas line installed) and make the coffee using the handling gloves. Then depressurise the container and retrieve the beverage.

I'm no engineer so I would be interested to know if this would set me down a path of "you'll accidentally maim yourself", but I wouldn't think you'd need anything fancy or hazardous in terms of materials or engineering, given most human-made structures exist at 1atm.

Would probably need to be careful to let the coffee sit for a few minutes to avoid flash-boiling it though, unless you're adding cold milk.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#153

Post by drxzcl »

seszett wrote: post #114
Quarrel wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * if you're finishing in a sauce, take the pasta out a minute before it is done. ie, 2-3 minutes before the box time, possibly more, depending on what finishing means for your case. > * do not put oil in your cooking water, it will NOT help it not stick. It will not hurt, and may help. Oil will stop the super starchy water, if you followed the reduce the water volume step as suggested, from boiling over - as it wil…

> or they just have no idea how salty the sea is Well sea saltiness levels vary wildly, and although the Mediterranean is much too salty, I'd say salty like the North Sea seems about right to me.

The north sea is 34 grams per litre. The Mediterranean is 38. For my pasta I use 10, and that's on the high end.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#154

Post by fatata123 »

Tox46 wrote: post #15
notindexed wrote: post #6

You do not cook pasta by cooking time. “La pasta vuole compagnia” Pasta needs company! Never leave it alone, keep stiring once in a while and keep testing them. Best to drain it before you think it's "good" or al dente cause paste keeps cooking after beeing drained due to the heat and moisture/vapor. Also, most good pasta dishes get their final cooking in a large pan in the sauce with some cooking water. So usually y…

Cooking time can be a good indicator. If it says 10 minutes you can start to check it out by 8 and decide from there.

[dead]

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#155

Post by stephenr »

walthamstow wrote: post #95
alexjplant wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True facts. Make a pan sauce while your pasta is cooking then throw it straight inwith some of the starchy water to thicken things up. I die inside every time somebody dumps a jar of Ragu into a drained pot of overcooked spaghetti. Hell, there are ways to dress up jar sauce in a one-pot fashion that only take a few minutes more but a lot of people simply aren't interested. Conversely I'm sure there's stuff that I do…

> I die inside every time somebody dumps a jar of Ragu into a drained pot of overcooked spaghetti. I can give you even worse than that. It was common in the 00s in Britain, maybe still is, to serve pasta as a bowl of plain, dry boiled spaghetti with sauce poured on top.

> It was common in the 00s in Britain, maybe still is, to serve pasta as a bowl of plain, dry boiled spaghetti with sauce poured on top.

Friends (the US show) had a scene where a supposed CHEF did this when cooking for her parents, in the mid-late 90s.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#156

Post by lstodd »

cortesoft wrote: post #143
Arch-TK wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With long pasta it's not hard, with a tiny bit of experience and attention, to learn how it physically behaves when it's either done or close to it. It's about as easy to learn (experientially) how much it changes minute by minute at that point. I will stir it to see how it behaves, as soon as I catch it behaving like pasta which is may be al dente I will sample it, if it's still a bit too hard, I can more or less te…

> I think attempting to formalise cooking techniques is a funny sort of thing... The people trying to do it are clearly into cooking, but if you really enjoy cooking, you're probably better off learning these things intuitively and spending your time learning other skills to expand your general cooking ability. Some people like to create rules and systems for things, some people like to grow their intuition. Everyone…

There is too much variation in ingredients for any sort of formal rules.

If you strive for excellence, pasta cooking time is the least of your concerns, selection and knowledge of ingredients is. It gets internalized and feels just like intuition.

If you don't, generally just put pasta into boiling water and wait for T-1m where T is what's written on the package. It will be good enough.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#157

Post by RandallBrown »

bromuro wrote: post #134
RogerL wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard water will boil at a higher temperature, but it's only a degree or two.

Plus, pasta start cooking at 80 ºC. No need to keep the water boiling like crazy :)

Boiling like crazy or not, it's still just 100C if it's boiling at all isn't it?

I guess at a really low boil there could be cooler parts of the water.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#158

Post by ascorbic »

codyb wrote: post #35
kshahkshah wrote: post #10

The cooking time is proportional to the thickness. General advice on pasta: * a quality dry pasta (dececco e.g) will have ~14 grams of protein per 100 grams dry weight, this is really essential * bronze die cut will help soak up more sauces * you do not need the full volume of water the box says, but start your timer once the water has returned to a boil * once it has gotten to a boil, keep it boiling, but it doesn't…

If you make pasta frequently, you can just reserve the pasta water on the stove and cook more pasta in it the next day. I usually just leave it out with a cover on, it's fine for a day, probably two. For whole grain pastas I find this really helps get a more satisfying flavor and consistency. Sometimes I'd put the whole pot in the fridge after it cooled to room temperature and it'd keep for a bit so I could use it fo…

This risks bacillus cereus poisoning

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#159

Post by ascorbic »

krembo wrote: post #24
kshahkshah wrote: post #10

The cooking time is proportional to the thickness. General advice on pasta: * a quality dry pasta (dececco e.g) will have ~14 grams of protein per 100 grams dry weight, this is really essential * bronze die cut will help soak up more sauces * you do not need the full volume of water the box says, but start your timer once the water has returned to a boil * once it has gotten to a boil, keep it boiling, but it doesn't…

Pasta water being strachy is a good myth. It only happens in restaurants where they reuse the water all day long for many servings of pasta.

You can see and feel that it's starchy! It has a starchy texture and is cloudy.

Re: Pasta Cooking Time

#160

Post by ascorbic »

dfxm12 wrote: post #79
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't do this, but I'm impatient so I start with scalding hot tap water. Not sure if there is any energy saving (or waste) there, since it takes at least 30 sec for hot tap water to reach max temp.

If you have lead in your pipes, the hot water will have more lead dissolved in it and boiling isn't going to remove it. You can use try filling your pot one rapid boil tea kettle at a time, or try an induction hob.

If you have lead in your pipes you have bigger problems, and I'm not sure how you boil the water for pasta will change that
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