Sorry, just realized I had only posted one of the links in this thread. Here’s the Cooks Illustrated cite, which says you don’t even need to keep the water at a boil, and that you can even just cook it off the heat with a covered lid. The full method is explained in the Serious Eats article I linked to above.
That article also references the original minimal water cooking method, although I can’t find the online source for that. At any rate, that should help the OP if they want to use the full water method without keeping it at a rolling boil.
Any possibility the “use gallons of water per pound of pasta” advice was misapplied by analogy to deep frying in oil? You need to heat up a lot of oil to prevent it from cooling when you fry (especially frozen) foods, so people might think “well you must need a lot of water to boil pasta, too”.
For people who aren’t used to cooking pasta a lot of water at a rolling boil will help prevent clumping and allow cooking to be timed instead of checking for doneness, so it’s not surprising that those are the traditional instructions on packaged dry pasta.
Huh. I’ve always followed the Smithsonian method with lots of water. I’d put the salt in after the water was boiling because, having unlined stainless steel pots, I didn’t want to risk pitting the pot. I do put the pasta in a pasta basket, so I don’t have to worry about it sticking to the bottom of the pot. I’ll be boiling up some tortellini tonight or tomorrow; I will try the minimal amount of water method.
Yes, it does. I’ve been cooking spaghetti for over 40 years. You don’t think I’ve seen first hand what happens when there’s not enough water or if you don’t rinse? If what people I don’t know say doesn’t match what I’ve seen many times I’m going with what I’ve seen. At any rate the quote from Alton Brown confirms that plenty of water is necessary for long pasta like spaghetti.
Failure to use enough water leads to the spathetti sticking to the pot. Every time. Failure to rinse leads to gummy, nasty spaghetti. Every time.
Since the OP talks about the problem of boiling-splatter, I will add my vote to this as the solution. Boiling doesn’t have to be FULL ROLLING ROILING SPITTER SPATTER BOIL!! There is a spectrum of boiling levels between simmer and FULL ROLLING ROI…(you get the picture). Just turn it down some, that’s all.
So the rest of us are just imagining that the spaghetti wasn’t gummy, nasty and stuck to the pot?
I happen to use plenty of water of for dried pasta because I’ve got big pots, but I’ve done it with much less water without a problem. Rinsing does help but part of that is stopping the cooking process which can be done by adding cold water to the pot before draining. And you might just be cooking it too long anyway. If you like your spaghetti really soft cook until it’s al dente and rinse well in cold water, then you can soften it further in any amount of hot water, doesn’t even have to be boiling.
“The rest of us” is a handful of people on a message board. Most if not all people I know IRL rinse spaghetti after cooking for the same reason I do. There are obviously enough people in the world who do rinse that the need to rinse is referred to as a commonly held “myth” or “mistake” in those stupid hint lists that get shared around on Facebook.
100% wrong. I’ve cooked even long strands with minimal water for one pot meals. I almost never rinse, and my pasta does not get sticky nor gummy. And I also have been cooking pasta for decades.
Dude, it seriously doesn’t. Did you just completely ignore all the links to reputable cooking sources and food scientists? Look, it’s okay if you do it your way. The vast majority of cooks do. It’s not necessary, though, and there are other ways of doing that produce excellent results.
Dude, it seriously doesn’t. I mean, fine, don’t believe us who have found out for ourselves that it works, but did you just completely ignore all the links to reputable cooking sources and food scientists? Look, it’s okay if you do it your way. The vast majority of cooks do. It’s not necessary, though, and there are other ways of doing that produce excellent results.
Here. Watch this 43 second video by Harold McGee about cooking spaghetti in a frying pan in a minimal amount of water, starting from cold. Seriously, it works fine. Does that look like a sticky mess at the end?
It came out just fine. Of course, the torts were all floating at the top of the water, so I guess it wouldn’t really matter how many inches of boiling water were below them.
Add pasta and a bit of salt, and put lid back, but only on for 30 seconds
Once the rolling boil begins again in earnest, lower to Med Hi
Step #3 prevents the boil-over, but still keeps the rolling boil going. I usually cook for 1-2 minutes less than directions on the package for a good al dente feel.
