71–80 of 528 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Guesstimating that the boil takes about as long as the time to cook the pasta, You need an new stove. Edit: or a new pot
Bringing 5+ quarts of water to a boil takes a lot of energy. Hell, it takes my jetboil 90s-120s to boil low-temp water in like...1 quart quantities. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that a large pot of water takes 8-10 minutes to bring to a rolling boil.
> When the water boils, pour in your pasta. Why even wait for the water to boil? I always pour my pasta into the cold water right from the start, and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
this might work for you barbarians, but for us italians this a big no-no ;)
My dirty little secret I've only dared to shared with my closest friends (fearing social ostracism) is that I cook by pasta by putting it in cold water and then turn the heat on. Roughly when the water starts to boil I start periodically checking the doneness of the pasta. Works just fine for me. Would never dare to it when cooking with friends however (only slightly /s). However, it would be neat with a device simil…
I see this in lots of 'how to boil an egg' guides, where cooking time matters. When explaining it on the internet, the best way is to dump the egg into boiling water, and drain and cool with cold tap water after X minutes, because it removes other variables. Buuuuut, if you learn your pot and water volumes and starting water temperatures and heating rate, you can cook your egg faster by starting with cold water, and…
Not sure everyone agrees this is a good method Quoting from https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/can-passive-pasta-r... "The response was swift, and it came from starred chef Antonello Colonna. The Roman cook rejected Parisi's solution, claiming that with this procedure the pasta becomes "rubbery", and impossible to serve in a high-level restaurant. Colonna considers the method a failure and proposes cooking on a…
Boiling water can't get hotter than 100C anyway, and water needs lots of energy to both heat and cool. If you cover it and turn off the heat the water inside realistically won't get much colder in ten minutes.
I always used the half technique: if it says 12 minutes I boil it for 6 and then turn off the stove. Never ever got it wrong.
Anyway I highly doubt the biggest pasta brand in the world would ever publicize a method that makes their product any less good.
According to Kenji, you don't even need boiling water to cook pasta: https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-cook-pasta-salt-water-boi... https://www.seriouseats.com/tips-for-better-easier-pasta "Want to get even more crazy efficient? Try soaking pasta in water as your prep your other ingredients. By the time your sauce is ready, you can just add the pasta (along with some of its soaking liquid) to the pan and, with a min…
Not really "passive" cooking as you're just not actively pumping heat into already boiling water and just cooking pasta in steadily cooling water. You can actually soften pasta and many other similar foods by just leaving them in room temperature water for a much longer period. Some backpackers do this to reduce weight and it's been the only way I've ever prepared food while backpacking. Admittedly, cold noodles, oat…
Pasta needs to reach something like 80 degrees to "cook", if you just soak it at 35 it will not be the same result. The method described here (which has been around for centuries) instead gets you the same result as cooking in constantly boiling water, saving a lot of gas/electricity.
However, a hybrid approach, meaning cold-soaking your meal an hour or so before dinner then heating, can help speed up the cooking process and thus save fuel (weight).
Having tried all of the above I can say that for me at least, many Korean ramens + peanut butter are a godsend that lend themselves really well to cold-soaking not just in ease of use but in taste too.
The most reduction in CO2 could be achieved if all the people that regularly overcook the pasta would just take it out after the amount of time written on the package. (only partially /s :-) )
Now the important question: Can China Coal and Saudi Aramco cook their pasta like this too?
https://www.activesustainability.com/climate-change/100-comp...