Smeghead and others have it right. You would have to add stupendous quantities of salt (tastewise) in order to have any significant effect on the boiling point of the water.
Additionally, you should not salt the cooking water of cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, brussles sprouts etc.), all of which should be cooked with the lid off of the pot as well. Nor should corn or asparagus be cooked with salt either.
As always, this, and many other cooking legends are covered in the magnificent tome On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. I cannot recommend this book enough, it will disspell many hand-me-down notions and old wives tales from the kitchen.
I’ll certainly go with Java about the icewater rinse for hard boiled eggs. The thermal shock causes the albumen (egg white) to shrink much faster than the surrounding shell. This separates the interior from the shell and promotes easy peeling.
Ok Ok Ok…I thought this was going to be an easy one, so I quickly typed up my theory about the salt raising the boiling point of the water, but I realize now that YES you would have to add a hell of alot of salt to make a diference.
I am pleased tho, that my theory on the salt acting on the pasta at the molecular level causing the “skin” was also mentioned by some of our more versed dopers.
I admit that I do not follow any recipe when deciding how much salt to add to water and after seeing this amount referred to as a “pinch” I apparently add more salt than most. I will say that I am adding about a teaspoon per quart.
This is probably why I can definetly taste the difference between salted and unsalted pasta. Those of you that are not tasting the difference are not adding the quantities of salt that I, and the others that agree with me, would.
As for the rinsing, egads! This is the fastest and most assured way to remove all of the flavor from your pasta, please stop this talk of rinsing pasta or I will start crying.
Salt has been a staple around the world for centuries, at times being traded at a value, by weight, that was greater than gold. I know that this demand was mainly due to the preservative value of salt but I, for one, would have traded all of my wife’s jewelry so that I may salt my pasta water.
I would say if you put pasta in salty water, the pasta will absorb salty water and will therefor be saltier than if you boiled it in water with no salt. That is about the difference i would expect. Salty food tastes different.
But then, why would you be boiling broccoli in the first place? If you must cook it, you’ll get the best results by steaming it. That is, of course, unless you like your broccoli to be a flavorless mush with no nutritional value. Corn, of course, should be roasted or steamed on the cob, and cabbage should be fried. I don’t know about Brussles sprouts or asparagus, though.
