191–200 of 211 posts
Cue shaming Americans for liking their pasta more done than al dente, as though it’s some moral failing. I will eat my pasta exactly as done as I like it, thank you very much.
Since I haven't seen it mentioned yet: I've been wondering how much acidity affects pasta cooking time. We've noticed that dry pasta almost always takes significantly longer to cook than the packaging suggests. I don't think we are overcooking, but I suppose that could be true. It could also just be bad instructions on the packages, but I think there is something more. We are at a slight altitude (2000 ft/ 600m) whic…
Anyone know the name of that microscope? It doesnt look like it passes the light thru the way Im used to seeing [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microscope#/media/File:Ukraini...
The cheap USB ones work pretty well for home use, just get one that either has a monitor or can hook up to a monitor, the eyepieces tend to suck. For top of the line professional ones, Mantis makes the best ones I've ever used. I think they are in the 2k+USD range though, I definitely don't have one at home.
Since I haven't seen it mentioned yet: I've been wondering how much acidity affects pasta cooking time. We've noticed that dry pasta almost always takes significantly longer to cook than the packaging suggests. I don't think we are overcooking, but I suppose that could be true. It could also just be bad instructions on the packages, but I think there is something more. We are at a slight altitude (2000 ft/ 600m) whic…
(author) That could actually be a lot of what I'm seeing! I live in Somerville (just outside Boston) with MWRA water, which is kept at a pH of 9.0 to 9.5 to reduce lead leeching from old pipes. Reading a bit, it seems like that could indeed cut a couple minutes off the cooking time.
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If you do that aren't you just eating uncooked flour and egg?
It cooks in the liquid from the surrounding ingredients. You can do this with a sufficiently wet enough Lasagna quite easily.
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…
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…
Try dumping the pasta into the strainer, then putting a layer of olive oil across the bottom of the dry pan like youre about to shallow fry something. Then shallow fry the canned sauce in teh olive oil. It should splatter and hiss. Then dump the pasta in.
Is it legit? No. Is it good and easy? Yup.
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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 t…
Anyone know the name of that microscope? It doesnt look like it passes the light thru the way Im used to seeing [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microscope#/media/File:Ukraini...
See https://www.microscopemuseum.eu/catalogues/LOMO_1970s_Micros...
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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 hear your point on formalization, but I do find that understanding the science behind various techniques has helped my ability to Freeform in the kitchen significantly.