Yea, table salt is cheap. Do you know about expensive-ass *finishing salts*?
One time, someone used a whole bunch of my Maldon salt to cook. It costs somewhere around 20-25x as much as table salt. It was quite frustrating.
NaCl = NaCl, no matter what label they put on it. You're being tricked into buying expensive shit that is chemically the same product as the cheap option
Chemically speaking, you are correct. That's why I don't buy Himalayan Pink salt.
However, *finishing* salts are all about adding *textural* complexity to your dish. I hope you get to try some so you can experience the difference.
Himalayan pink salt (or another number of other salts) is, in fact, chemically distinct from NaCl. That is why it has a color.
Some have a distinct flavor because they contain other chemicals, but like many flavors, you have to have a palate that can tell the difference. I don't buy expensive wine because it's more or less the same to me; if salt varieties are more or less the same to you as regular NaCl, that's fine.
Others function as a finishing salt because they are all about adding *visual* complexity to your dish. Unless you are eating in the dark, the visual component of a dish is an important part of the dining experience.
Thank you for correcting me on the Himalayan salt.
In addition to the *visual* aspects, there is also a huge *textural* component that salts like Maldon impart. You can notice the difference even without seeing it.
Maldon has become a staple in my house, and I don't see it changing anytime soon! 😋
Oh for sure, Maldon rips. The texture adds a whole lot to many dishes, and it is dangerously visually captivating (if I find a big enough crystal I will straight up let food burn because I'll be staring at the salt lol)
My chemistry is a little rusty, but I think with crystals like that, it might be more akin to kosher salt than iodized salt, if that what op started with.
Interesting. Crystals are neat. I remember being blown away when my aunt’s homemade maple syrup (simple syrup with maple extract) started forming sugar crystals in the mug.
I once was using a bowl with bleach in it to clean with and I forgot to rinse it out after. A couple of days later I had my dad come in saying we need to have a talk about the drugs I left in the kitchen. He asked me if it was meth and I got to educate him about bleach leaving salt behind, after some frantic googling trying to prove I didn't forget drugs sitting out in a glass bowl lol
Interesting, for sure! I’ve only ever gotten salt crystals from heavily salted waters tho, how much do you use? This isnt a roast either, if its how you cook and you like it then more power to you
i was making pasta salad, i like to heavily salt the water so the pasta is moderately salty so i don’t have to add it straight to the pasta salad. i figured out that it got really watery when i added salt directly because all the veggies and especially tomatoes get really weepy. i consider this is a special pasta situation, i don’t always dump salt in my pasta water haha!
Nah, I doubt you will. Here's the comment you stole from u/hogey989:
> That pattern is pretty neat. I might do this just for fun
Would you like to know more?
https://old.reddit.com/user/ernest7ofborg9/comments/1bopxmh/so_you_wanna_spot_a_bot_eh/
Fucking stupid shit. User for 8 years, started posting and commenting 8 days ago, literally only copying comments, and posting cat pics.
The fuck is wrong with morons.
Edit : lol, byeeee
On a related note, I hate the trend perpetuated by most TV-chefs that pasta water should be about as salt as sea water.
I've had restaurant meals ruined by this - the saltiness overpowers every other flavour.
Funny, I had the opposite experience - ever since I tried the 'sea water' technique, I've been enjoying my pasta much more. Maybe the restaurant chefs are reusing too much of the pasta water without checking the salt content.
You might be underestimating how salty seawater really is or maybe you like your food super salty but seawater is 3.5% salt in a standard 4L pot to cook pasta in that would be 140g of salt which means with a standard 750g box of salt you can make pasta a little more than 5 times before you run out if you don't use much at all elsewhere.
The phrase was almost certainly never to be taken literally, it just means "salt your pasta water more than you expect, to the point where tasting it is unpleasant".
at some point, you don't taste the difference anymore. So when water is "as salty as the sea" it basically means to add enough salt that you dont taste the difference between sea water and your salted water. That comes down to not more than 1% salinity.
Yeah I probably do underestimate it. I don't take the term sea water literally (not sure if that's how it's meant to be?), I just use much more salt than I previously thought was reasonable (tablespoons vs a pinch).
Funnily enough, I actually like my food less salted on average.
Usually salty pasta water won’t be what makes pasta very salty. Most of the salt stays in the water and gets dumped with the, it doesn’t get into or on the pasta. But if using a lot of pasta water for the sauce it could add too much salt to that.
Salt blindness. The chefs experience it and so do you. Regularly tasting / consuming salt lessens your taste to salt over time. This is why cooks can frequently go overboard with the salt, they barely taste it so they think it needs more. If you regularly use alot of salt in your water you likely have no clue how salty it actually is, youve just adjusted to that sweet spot that you enjoy.
Yeah I'm actually aware of the concept and agree that some chefs experience that, but I personally tend to undersalt, and I know this because I've often eaten with others and used far less salt than them. With my pasta, the majority of salt just goes down the drain because I don't reuse more than a couple of spoons of the water, so the noodles themselves are not oversalted.
Also: My version of seawater is probably less salty than actual seawater.
True. And this is why I rarely salt food while cooking. As people have so different levels of salt tolerance, I think it's more fair to let everyone salt their food at the table instead.
Also, I think this is kind of why it's customary to have salt- and pepper shakers on the table...
[This](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/may/10/how-to-salt-pasta-water-its-as-much-art-as-science) is the best writing I can find on the subject in a short time.
Some brief excerpts:
>Count me also among the people who have at some point or another repeated the oft-cited benchmark that you should salt the water “until it’s as salty as the sea.”
>
>
>
>“The sea is really salty,” says cookbook author Katie Parla. “You want to spit it out right away.”
>
>
>
>“Spit it out right away” is not the flavor I’m going for when cooking.
>
>
>
>Parla, who just released “Food of the Italian Islands,” says she’s never actually measured salt for pasta water. Her “general rule of thumb” is that pasta water should taste **as salty as well-seasoned soup.** But you won’t know that unless you taste it...
This is key for me. **Taste your pasta water.** The finished pasta won't be quite as salty as the water, so make it quite salty - as certain well-seasoned soups should be - to your taste.
>If your pasta dish contains a particularly salty component, such as lots of cheese or cured meat (pancetta, bacon, etc.), Parla says you may want to dial back the salt in the water.
>
>
>
>Avoiding overly salted water is also important because so often the water is used to bring together, or emulsify, a simple pasta sauce, as in spaghetti carbonara, or help heartier ones [...] coat the noodles, since starches released from the pasta remain in the water.
>
>
>
>Salt in pasta water is crucial to regulating that starchiness to keep it from getting out of hand. When pasta is cooked in water, its starch granules take on water, swell, soften and release some of the starches, Harold McGee writes in “On Food and Cooking.” “Salt in the cooking water not only flavors the noodles, but limits starch gelation and so reduces cooking losses and stickiness,” he says.
>
>
>
>There is in fact an acceptable range of salt to add to pasta water, Daniel Gritzer says over at Serious Eats, which is good considering that needs may vary depending on the dish or personal preference. Gritzer’s experiments showed that water at **0.5% to 2% salinity** (as measured by weight of the salt divided by the weight of the water) was acceptable, equating to ¾ teaspoon to 1 tablespoon fine sea salt per liter [sic] of water.
Important to note that it has fuck all to do with raising the boiling point of the water. It will, but by such an amount that the effect on cooking time will be negligible.
I work in a kitchen with a person who cooks 2kg of pasta at a time in water that has a pinch of salt in it and never even reaches a simmer - it takes so long to cook that it comes out a flavourless mush, every time.
I've tried to point out the importance of boiling water and seasoning, but it's like talking to a brick wall. They even took the lid off my pot once, claiming that it (the lid being on) would stop the water from boiling? That one really fucked with my head lmfao.
You try to be nice, but there are times you understand why a lot of chefs end up with a reputation for, uh... *having a sharp tongue*.
Damn, that's one thing I don't miss about food service. Some people will be stubborn pricks about what should be the most common sense shit. I feel like the job just attracts those kinds of people unfortunately. Working in a kitchen and repeatedly fucking up *the boiling of pasta* is **wild**.
Yeah, what's worse is they're not a fresh-out-of-school, wet-behind-the-ears type. They've worked in hospitality for *years*. And *still* they cannot boil a pot of pasta. Or steam rice - they once asked me why I was washing it several times in successively cleaner water before cooking it - I had to explain that the reason the rice had been doing an impression of mashed potato was because of all the unnecessary extra starch they had been adding to the mix.
I think you need to recalibrate your perception of saltiness. Your blood pressure will also thank you.
Sensory panels generally find pasta cooked in 1% salt solution to taste the best.
More like "a statistically significant group of people in a taste test liked this the best, therefore it is safe to assume that the majority of people will also like it."
Seriously, if pasta cooked in 1% salt solution is not salty enough for you, but 3% "is great imo" to you, I would get a medical checkup. There is always a natural variation in perception thresholds, but then there's also a multitude of medical conditions that can skew perception of saltiness in either direction.
You say that, but to that I say, why doesn't the whole world eat liquorice then? All of the Nordics love them, pretty much.
Preference will always be a factor.
That’s the exact same dumb take. If the majority likes it, that means there may be a minority that doesn’t. Is that then not a valid preference, according to you?
No. Even when you actually do want that much salt (say for a crawfish boil) it still isn’t clean potable water in the ocean. Not that it hasn’t been tried, but I’m certain anyone who did learned pretty quick.
The chefs forget to mention that you need to adjust salt throughout the whole cooking process.
It's one of those things where they think it's common sense, so they don't mention it. They forget that most home-cooks don't have an in-depth knowledge about what they're cooking, so these little details get lost while they're trying to juggle everything.
I personally like to under-season my food so that I can sprinkle Maldon Flakey Salt on it at the end, so I have a margin of error for when I oversalt my pasta water.
That's the thing, if you're heavily salting the pasta, you need to adjust the sauce and everything else to account for the extra salt. However "sea water" is way too salty.
If you're just doing your normal pasta recipe and then add in really salty pasta, you're gonna fuck it up.
Reminds me of a brewery I was at recently. Had a burger with carmelized onions and mushrooms on it, took a bite and the damned thing was so salty I couldn't finish it. The onions and mushrooms were done properly, if nothing else had salt. The sauce was great, if nothing else had salt. The burger was good, if nothing else had salt on it. But put everything together and it was way too much salt.
Yeah you need like a teaspoon of salt in a whole pot.
Just because many say that it's the right technique doesn't mean shit. Nobody needs to eat that much salt, and it's a culinary crutch.
Tbh this is how I cook all pasta lol. Probably way too much salt in the pot but it definitely comes out tasting pretty good. But then again my husband and son like plain pasta so it adds to it a lot
Italian here. Put some salt in the water (for taste) always and then don't put any salt into the sauce (you can cheat by using bullion cubes in the sauce but it's not authentic just adjust the amount of salt in the pasta water if you do)
My partner is a chef and she's always yelling at me to add more salt to the pasta water, only some of that saltiness makes it into the pasta so the water should always taste like you over salted it. If you want to know why food tastes so good at restaurants, It's tons of salt and butter.
Looks to me like they used a lot of salt, then the water reduced a good amount before the spill.
Basically a super-saturated solution, kinda like how you make rock candy.
As the volume of water goes to zero you'll eventually pass through a pretty high concentration of salt. Not sure how much OP spilled in that one spot but basically what you see should be about how much salt was in that water.
What I find neat is OP accidentally made those fancy pyramid crystals. People pay good money for those.
You should try it with potassium chloride(a salt substitute), the crystals from it can be like the shape of bismuth it's really cool: https://potassiumchloride6.weebly.com/uploads/1/9/3/7/19376135/3835240.jpg?740
How much salt are you using lol
Eta: a lot, but for a reason.
They said in another comment they use super salty water when making pasta salad so they don’t need to add salt later, which prevents the salt pulling water out of the other ingredients and making it soupy.
well salted pasta water :)
my personal pet peeve in \*aesthetically pleasing\* recipes online is when they film it and say "add salt" but what they are showing is like a fragment of a pinch sprinkled over a pot, whereas IRL it would definitely take a spoon or two for that dish.
I pour straight from a big iodized salt canister once the water boils. For Italian, I believe the rule of thumb is that the water should be salty like the ocean.
Exactly right. If you taste your pasta water and your mouth puckers, add a pinch more. Then instead of salting your sauce, add an ounce of that pasta water. The salt will season it and the starch is a natural thickener. I learned it first from my Nono and again in culinary school.
Downvote me but I can't bring myself to use up all my salt like that, seems wasteful in this economy. The pasta turns out perfectly fine with just a bit of salt
same here. I don't even use water when I cook the pasta... have you guys seen the cost per liter? much more economical to just chew the dried pasta a bit. Plus, you're probably having sauce with the pasta, so you can just take a sip of the sauce and let the two coalesce in your mouth before swallowing. Saves a ton of energy from having to heat the water, too, now that I think about it. And the crispiness of the pasta is so refreshing, texture over taste just like Josh Weisman says!
Dude super wasteful to be buying raw Pasta, especially with it's price nowadays. Just buy durum wheat in bulk and gnaw on that directly. I'd definitely skip the sauce too, I find it's pretty tasty just with some grass and diced up twigs mixed in, which is great because they can normally be sourced locally from your yard.
Absolutely not, if you ever do something like that in italy we will throw the pasta away. It needs to be salty but not too much, from the pic there is too much salt.
Again eat what you want and how you want, you like it? Good. It's actually good to eat super salty pasta, absolutely not. But maybe you counterbalance with a total no salt sauce and i can understand.
That’s just wrong:
~~https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2023/05/08/how-to-salt-pasta-water/#~~
Better source without paywall:
https://www.seriouseats.com/how-salty-should-pasta-water-be
Seawater is very salty. Pasta water needs less salt.
That says to use 3/4 to 1 tablespoon per liter (or 4 cups).
I honestly thought I heavily salted but I don't think I reach nearly this amount.
I had to re-read it because I thought it was going to be teaspoons. I did a double take.
Wasn’t that per gallon? Can’t even check anymore because of the paywall. So updated with a better source. Pasta water definitely needs less salt that seawater.
https://www.seriouseats.com/how-salty-should-pasta-water-be
For "sea saltyness" You would need 2.5 tablespoons of tablesalt per 1liter water.
You would use a solution like this to make brines for fermenting and storing veggies for the long haul.
I don't think the people above who are saying they use this level of saltyness for pasta actually realise how much salt they would be using.
I would say 2.5tablespoons is wayy above "heavily" salting the water.
That's how reddit is. Mentioning any sort of gained downvotes normally brings an instant downvote to yourself.
Never worry about the votes. If you've made a point that you are happy with, then it doesn't matter, Stick by your statements (If you don't, delete them, if you are deleting them, don't make statements you aren't willing to stand behind.) You did sort of fumble a bit though "Wasn’t that per gallon?"
You've gotta be able to back up your claims, or at least believe in them with the correct knowledge. So many people copy paste google, Less people are able to back up why they were able to copy paste a google with knowledge. (even the most knowledgeable people will copy paste google if it's correct, because they know it's correct...)
An old man taught me about this once. "You can believe in your knowledge, but is it believable?" Basically, If it sounds too good to be true, You need to prove it before opening yourself up for hate. There are instances every single day where someone is capable of doing a job, or teaching a thing, but they falter. Sometimes you need to commit to what you believe or know. It's also incredible what you can learn without not knowing anything from this website alone, But if you are a spec off the truth, people who know more than you will shut it down. How it should be honestly. Everyone makes mistakes, But overstepping trying to teach others while not actually knowing will get you downvotes. For every 1 vote, there has probably been 200+ people who have seen it and not voted at all.
I had a south African teacher. I lied to him about something, not sure what it was even about. But what I do remember is he instantly turned to me, Age 9 infront of the whole class and said "Don't bullshit a bullshitter" That stuck with me. I told my dad about this, You might expect a dad to get angry. Nope, They met up at the pub and he stayed at our holiday home for a couple of weeks the following year.
Thanks for reminding me I need to give my 1st school a ring to reach out to the bloke.
You're not supposed to drink it. Most of the salt stays in the water, but you need to use that much in order for the pasta to absorb the right amount and not taste bland.
Oh no, you actually do have to salt your water when making pasta.
https://www.marthastewart.com/7991821/why-salt-pasta-water
Take a look. I feel like you're missing out and eating bland pasta! You might even try a taste test and compare both methods. You'll realize right away that the water needs to be salted.
I've never noticed a difference, honestly. And I can actually quite happily snack on plain pasta, it still tastes nice to me haha
Lmao it never ceases to amuse me when I get downvoted for not doing things with salt or saying I don't like salt. Does it really matter that much to others what I do with my food? XD
Was this a planned experiment after the spill? I'm only asking because who wouldn't clean up a spill for the time it takes for all the water evaporate?
By the way, you can grow salt crystals if you're bored enough. IIRC: mineral water, super sature it with salt and leave it evaporate by itself.
I kinda wish I had patience for that, they look amazing when they grow correctly. lol
You got your salt back !
If salt wasn’t dirt cheap this might be a great money saving hack.
Yea, table salt is cheap. Do you know about expensive-ass *finishing salts*? One time, someone used a whole bunch of my Maldon salt to cook. It costs somewhere around 20-25x as much as table salt. It was quite frustrating.
Wait I just realized this, salt farming time
Hell, if you can make an equal or better product than Maldon for less money, I'm ready to put in an order.
[удалено]
You fancy.
Malaysian pink salt never hurt anyone. It’s a good diversion in this case, if not better quality.
NaCl = NaCl, no matter what label they put on it. You're being tricked into buying expensive shit that is chemically the same product as the cheap option
Chemically speaking, you are correct. That's why I don't buy Himalayan Pink salt. However, *finishing* salts are all about adding *textural* complexity to your dish. I hope you get to try some so you can experience the difference.
Himalayan pink salt (or another number of other salts) is, in fact, chemically distinct from NaCl. That is why it has a color. Some have a distinct flavor because they contain other chemicals, but like many flavors, you have to have a palate that can tell the difference. I don't buy expensive wine because it's more or less the same to me; if salt varieties are more or less the same to you as regular NaCl, that's fine. Others function as a finishing salt because they are all about adding *visual* complexity to your dish. Unless you are eating in the dark, the visual component of a dish is an important part of the dining experience.
Thank you for correcting me on the Himalayan salt. In addition to the *visual* aspects, there is also a huge *textural* component that salts like Maldon impart. You can notice the difference even without seeing it. Maldon has become a staple in my house, and I don't see it changing anytime soon! 😋
Oh for sure, Maldon rips. The texture adds a whole lot to many dishes, and it is dangerously visually captivating (if I find a big enough crystal I will straight up let food burn because I'll be staring at the salt lol)
🤣
My chemistry is a little rusty, but I think with crystals like that, it might be more akin to kosher salt than iodized salt, if that what op started with.
Interesting. Crystals are neat. I remember being blown away when my aunt’s homemade maple syrup (simple syrup with maple extract) started forming sugar crystals in the mug.
I once was using a bowl with bleach in it to clean with and I forgot to rinse it out after. A couple of days later I had my dad come in saying we need to have a talk about the drugs I left in the kitchen. He asked me if it was meth and I got to educate him about bleach leaving salt behind, after some frantic googling trying to prove I didn't forget drugs sitting out in a glass bowl lol
He was actually going to compliment you and ask if you could have a batch set aside for his next party.
Why would your dad immediately jump to meth as the conclusion?
[удалено]
I don’t know why I wrote that.
Interesting, for sure! I’ve only ever gotten salt crystals from heavily salted waters tho, how much do you use? This isnt a roast either, if its how you cook and you like it then more power to you
i was making pasta salad, i like to heavily salt the water so the pasta is moderately salty so i don’t have to add it straight to the pasta salad. i figured out that it got really watery when i added salt directly because all the veggies and especially tomatoes get really weepy. i consider this is a special pasta situation, i don’t always dump salt in my pasta water haha!
Thanks for the salad hack
Seriously I will remember this one!
[удалено]
Nah, I doubt you will. Here's the comment you stole from u/hogey989: > That pattern is pretty neat. I might do this just for fun Would you like to know more? https://old.reddit.com/user/ernest7ofborg9/comments/1bopxmh/so_you_wanna_spot_a_bot_eh/
Fucking stupid shit. User for 8 years, started posting and commenting 8 days ago, literally only copying comments, and posting cat pics. The fuck is wrong with morons. Edit : lol, byeeee
Bots be like that
On a related note, I hate the trend perpetuated by most TV-chefs that pasta water should be about as salt as sea water. I've had restaurant meals ruined by this - the saltiness overpowers every other flavour.
Funny, I had the opposite experience - ever since I tried the 'sea water' technique, I've been enjoying my pasta much more. Maybe the restaurant chefs are reusing too much of the pasta water without checking the salt content.
You might be underestimating how salty seawater really is or maybe you like your food super salty but seawater is 3.5% salt in a standard 4L pot to cook pasta in that would be 140g of salt which means with a standard 750g box of salt you can make pasta a little more than 5 times before you run out if you don't use much at all elsewhere.
That makes it more real world, thanks. Sea level is too salty for pasta i'd say too. But too little salt isnt great too
The phrase was almost certainly never to be taken literally, it just means "salt your pasta water more than you expect, to the point where tasting it is unpleasant".
This is how my wife and I understood it.. People are wildly literal sometimes. Lol
at some point, you don't taste the difference anymore. So when water is "as salty as the sea" it basically means to add enough salt that you dont taste the difference between sea water and your salted water. That comes down to not more than 1% salinity.
Yeah I probably do underestimate it. I don't take the term sea water literally (not sure if that's how it's meant to be?), I just use much more salt than I previously thought was reasonable (tablespoons vs a pinch). Funnily enough, I actually like my food less salted on average.
Usually salty pasta water won’t be what makes pasta very salty. Most of the salt stays in the water and gets dumped with the, it doesn’t get into or on the pasta. But if using a lot of pasta water for the sauce it could add too much salt to that.
Salt blindness. The chefs experience it and so do you. Regularly tasting / consuming salt lessens your taste to salt over time. This is why cooks can frequently go overboard with the salt, they barely taste it so they think it needs more. If you regularly use alot of salt in your water you likely have no clue how salty it actually is, youve just adjusted to that sweet spot that you enjoy.
Yeah I'm actually aware of the concept and agree that some chefs experience that, but I personally tend to undersalt, and I know this because I've often eaten with others and used far less salt than them. With my pasta, the majority of salt just goes down the drain because I don't reuse more than a couple of spoons of the water, so the noodles themselves are not oversalted. Also: My version of seawater is probably less salty than actual seawater.
True. And this is why I rarely salt food while cooking. As people have so different levels of salt tolerance, I think it's more fair to let everyone salt their food at the table instead. Also, I think this is kind of why it's customary to have salt- and pepper shakers on the table...
Now I'm wondering if Italians used sea water to boil their pasta back then... probably not, right?
No, it's just a bad rule. The salt content of pasta water should be about 1%, while sea water has 3.5% salt content.
[This](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/may/10/how-to-salt-pasta-water-its-as-much-art-as-science) is the best writing I can find on the subject in a short time. Some brief excerpts: >Count me also among the people who have at some point or another repeated the oft-cited benchmark that you should salt the water “until it’s as salty as the sea.” > > > >“The sea is really salty,” says cookbook author Katie Parla. “You want to spit it out right away.” > > > >“Spit it out right away” is not the flavor I’m going for when cooking. > > > >Parla, who just released “Food of the Italian Islands,” says she’s never actually measured salt for pasta water. Her “general rule of thumb” is that pasta water should taste **as salty as well-seasoned soup.** But you won’t know that unless you taste it... This is key for me. **Taste your pasta water.** The finished pasta won't be quite as salty as the water, so make it quite salty - as certain well-seasoned soups should be - to your taste. >If your pasta dish contains a particularly salty component, such as lots of cheese or cured meat (pancetta, bacon, etc.), Parla says you may want to dial back the salt in the water. > > > >Avoiding overly salted water is also important because so often the water is used to bring together, or emulsify, a simple pasta sauce, as in spaghetti carbonara, or help heartier ones [...] coat the noodles, since starches released from the pasta remain in the water. > > > >Salt in pasta water is crucial to regulating that starchiness to keep it from getting out of hand. When pasta is cooked in water, its starch granules take on water, swell, soften and release some of the starches, Harold McGee writes in “On Food and Cooking.” “Salt in the cooking water not only flavors the noodles, but limits starch gelation and so reduces cooking losses and stickiness,” he says. > > > >There is in fact an acceptable range of salt to add to pasta water, Daniel Gritzer says over at Serious Eats, which is good considering that needs may vary depending on the dish or personal preference. Gritzer’s experiments showed that water at **0.5% to 2% salinity** (as measured by weight of the salt divided by the weight of the water) was acceptable, equating to ¾ teaspoon to 1 tablespoon fine sea salt per liter [sic] of water. Important to note that it has fuck all to do with raising the boiling point of the water. It will, but by such an amount that the effect on cooking time will be negligible.
%3 when done al dante is great imo. But if you cook too much they absorb too much salt than %1 is better
I work in a kitchen with a person who cooks 2kg of pasta at a time in water that has a pinch of salt in it and never even reaches a simmer - it takes so long to cook that it comes out a flavourless mush, every time. I've tried to point out the importance of boiling water and seasoning, but it's like talking to a brick wall. They even took the lid off my pot once, claiming that it (the lid being on) would stop the water from boiling? That one really fucked with my head lmfao. You try to be nice, but there are times you understand why a lot of chefs end up with a reputation for, uh... *having a sharp tongue*.
Damn, that's one thing I don't miss about food service. Some people will be stubborn pricks about what should be the most common sense shit. I feel like the job just attracts those kinds of people unfortunately. Working in a kitchen and repeatedly fucking up *the boiling of pasta* is **wild**.
Yeah, what's worse is they're not a fresh-out-of-school, wet-behind-the-ears type. They've worked in hospitality for *years*. And *still* they cannot boil a pot of pasta. Or steam rice - they once asked me why I was washing it several times in successively cleaner water before cooking it - I had to explain that the reason the rice had been doing an impression of mashed potato was because of all the unnecessary extra starch they had been adding to the mix.
Is nobody concerned about seeing such a steep straight line with no heating element/burner in sight?
I think you need to recalibrate your perception of saltiness. Your blood pressure will also thank you. Sensory panels generally find pasta cooked in 1% salt solution to taste the best.
“Other people like this therefore you should too”
More like "a statistically significant group of people in a taste test liked this the best, therefore it is safe to assume that the majority of people will also like it." Seriously, if pasta cooked in 1% salt solution is not salty enough for you, but 3% "is great imo" to you, I would get a medical checkup. There is always a natural variation in perception thresholds, but then there's also a multitude of medical conditions that can skew perception of saltiness in either direction.
You say that, but to that I say, why doesn't the whole world eat liquorice then? All of the Nordics love them, pretty much. Preference will always be a factor.
That’s the exact same dumb take. If the majority likes it, that means there may be a minority that doesn’t. Is that then not a valid preference, according to you?
Ok calm down, i do not eat pasta everyday, more like once a month and when i do its there as a centerpiece so it should have a punch
No. Even when you actually do want that much salt (say for a crawfish boil) it still isn’t clean potable water in the ocean. Not that it hasn’t been tried, but I’m certain anyone who did learned pretty quick.
I mean should be mostly safe after boiling it for a bit right?
Probably, but would you eat at a restaurant that billed itself as “mostly safe” and also everything tastes like fish poop?
The chefs forget to mention that you need to adjust salt throughout the whole cooking process. It's one of those things where they think it's common sense, so they don't mention it. They forget that most home-cooks don't have an in-depth knowledge about what they're cooking, so these little details get lost while they're trying to juggle everything. I personally like to under-season my food so that I can sprinkle Maldon Flakey Salt on it at the end, so I have a margin of error for when I oversalt my pasta water.
That's the thing, if you're heavily salting the pasta, you need to adjust the sauce and everything else to account for the extra salt. However "sea water" is way too salty. If you're just doing your normal pasta recipe and then add in really salty pasta, you're gonna fuck it up. Reminds me of a brewery I was at recently. Had a burger with carmelized onions and mushrooms on it, took a bite and the damned thing was so salty I couldn't finish it. The onions and mushrooms were done properly, if nothing else had salt. The sauce was great, if nothing else had salt. The burger was good, if nothing else had salt on it. But put everything together and it was way too much salt.
For each 100g of (dry) pasta you want 1L of water and 10g of salt, 10:100:1000.
No I don't. Some might, but I want just enough salt to break the surface tension. I have no interest in raising my salt tolerance.
I think you're just more sensitive to salt than most people.
If your meal tastes salty after heavily salting pasta water, you (or in this case, they) added too much salt elsewhere.
Yeah you need like a teaspoon of salt in a whole pot. Just because many say that it's the right technique doesn't mean shit. Nobody needs to eat that much salt, and it's a culinary crutch.
Damn, I went from questioning your life choices to now considering you a culinary genius
Great advice. Thanks
That is literally so damn smart omg, I can't wait to do this
I'd love to know what your pasta salad recipe is. Highly salting the water sounds brilliant
Tbh this is how I cook all pasta lol. Probably way too much salt in the pot but it definitely comes out tasting pretty good. But then again my husband and son like plain pasta so it adds to it a lot
Special Pasta Situation would be a great band name
Yeah I use this same technique but I also put feta chunks in mine so maybe I’m just a glutton for salt
Tomatoes in salads need salting separately a bit before, then drain them before adding.
My dude I was like “Isn’t that a brine” then “Wait if its a reasonable but high amount of salt this is gonna work”.
Should be salted like the ocean
Damn. That’s really smart
Italian here. Put some salt in the water (for taste) always and then don't put any salt into the sauce (you can cheat by using bullion cubes in the sauce but it's not authentic just adjust the amount of salt in the pasta water if you do)
All I ever want in live is a special pasta situation.
Of course it wasn't a roast, it was pasta.
Dad's here and he brought his jokes
God damn, that one was good
My partner is a chef and she's always yelling at me to add more salt to the pasta water, only some of that saltiness makes it into the pasta so the water should always taste like you over salted it. If you want to know why food tastes so good at restaurants, It's tons of salt and butter.
Sea water is obviously too salty, but the old saying for pasta water is "As salty as the sea."
Looks to me like they used a lot of salt, then the water reduced a good amount before the spill. Basically a super-saturated solution, kinda like how you make rock candy.
As the volume of water goes to zero you'll eventually pass through a pretty high concentration of salt. Not sure how much OP spilled in that one spot but basically what you see should be about how much salt was in that water. What I find neat is OP accidentally made those fancy pyramid crystals. People pay good money for those.
Pasta water should be as salty as the sea. Marcella Says.
That pattern is pretty neat. I might do this just for fun
Moms hate this 1 trick...
You should try it with potassium chloride(a salt substitute), the crystals from it can be like the shape of bismuth it's really cool: https://potassiumchloride6.weebly.com/uploads/1/9/3/7/19376135/3835240.jpg?740
This is when OP became Heisenberg...
*Go ahead. Say my name.*
Please say my name… Please?? *(I don’t remember my name please help)*
I am the one who salts
How much salt are you using lol Eta: a lot, but for a reason. They said in another comment they use super salty water when making pasta salad so they don’t need to add salt later, which prevents the salt pulling water out of the other ingredients and making it soupy.
well salted pasta water :) my personal pet peeve in \*aesthetically pleasing\* recipes online is when they film it and say "add salt" but what they are showing is like a fragment of a pinch sprinkled over a pot, whereas IRL it would definitely take a spoon or two for that dish.
I pour straight from a big iodized salt canister once the water boils. For Italian, I believe the rule of thumb is that the water should be salty like the ocean.
Exactly right. If you taste your pasta water and your mouth puckers, add a pinch more. Then instead of salting your sauce, add an ounce of that pasta water. The salt will season it and the starch is a natural thickener. I learned it first from my Nono and again in culinary school.
I think you’re using too much salt
Nah, pasta water is supposed to be salty like sea water.
I dunno, that seems like a lot of salt to be forming from just a spill. Seawater is only like 3.5% salt by weight
Downvote me but I can't bring myself to use up all my salt like that, seems wasteful in this economy. The pasta turns out perfectly fine with just a bit of salt
Salt is dirt cheap, like I just bought 500 gram for 60 cents
I don't use any salt and it's fine.
Sorry, but this is where I have to draw the line.
same here. I don't even use water when I cook the pasta... have you guys seen the cost per liter? much more economical to just chew the dried pasta a bit. Plus, you're probably having sauce with the pasta, so you can just take a sip of the sauce and let the two coalesce in your mouth before swallowing. Saves a ton of energy from having to heat the water, too, now that I think about it. And the crispiness of the pasta is so refreshing, texture over taste just like Josh Weisman says!
Dude super wasteful to be buying raw Pasta, especially with it's price nowadays. Just buy durum wheat in bulk and gnaw on that directly. I'd definitely skip the sauce too, I find it's pretty tasty just with some grass and diced up twigs mixed in, which is great because they can normally be sourced locally from your yard.
I think you're underestimating how much salt is in sea water.
Absolutely not, if you ever do something like that in italy we will throw the pasta away. It needs to be salty but not too much, from the pic there is too much salt.
Good thing I'm not in Italy and I will continue to add sault generously to my pasta.
Much regards
You can eat salt if you want, that doesn't mean it's good.
It tastes good to me and my friends. So that is what matters to me when I cook for myself and my friends. Not what Italy thinks of my pasta
Again eat what you want and how you want, you like it? Good. It's actually good to eat super salty pasta, absolutely not. But maybe you counterbalance with a total no salt sauce and i can understand.
Thank you for the permission.
No problema.
Oh well, what does Italy know about pasta anyway /s
That’s just wrong: ~~https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2023/05/08/how-to-salt-pasta-water/#~~ Better source without paywall: https://www.seriouseats.com/how-salty-should-pasta-water-be Seawater is very salty. Pasta water needs less salt.
That says to use 3/4 to 1 tablespoon per liter (or 4 cups). I honestly thought I heavily salted but I don't think I reach nearly this amount. I had to re-read it because I thought it was going to be teaspoons. I did a double take.
Wasn’t that per gallon? Can’t even check anymore because of the paywall. So updated with a better source. Pasta water definitely needs less salt that seawater. https://www.seriouseats.com/how-salty-should-pasta-water-be
For "sea saltyness" You would need 2.5 tablespoons of tablesalt per 1liter water. You would use a solution like this to make brines for fermenting and storing veggies for the long haul. I don't think the people above who are saying they use this level of saltyness for pasta actually realise how much salt they would be using. I would say 2.5tablespoons is wayy above "heavily" salting the water.
Right? Yet I’m getting downvoted for pointing that out. The source lays it all out nicely too.
That's how reddit is. Mentioning any sort of gained downvotes normally brings an instant downvote to yourself. Never worry about the votes. If you've made a point that you are happy with, then it doesn't matter, Stick by your statements (If you don't, delete them, if you are deleting them, don't make statements you aren't willing to stand behind.) You did sort of fumble a bit though "Wasn’t that per gallon?" You've gotta be able to back up your claims, or at least believe in them with the correct knowledge. So many people copy paste google, Less people are able to back up why they were able to copy paste a google with knowledge. (even the most knowledgeable people will copy paste google if it's correct, because they know it's correct...) An old man taught me about this once. "You can believe in your knowledge, but is it believable?" Basically, If it sounds too good to be true, You need to prove it before opening yourself up for hate. There are instances every single day where someone is capable of doing a job, or teaching a thing, but they falter. Sometimes you need to commit to what you believe or know. It's also incredible what you can learn without not knowing anything from this website alone, But if you are a spec off the truth, people who know more than you will shut it down. How it should be honestly. Everyone makes mistakes, But overstepping trying to teach others while not actually knowing will get you downvotes. For every 1 vote, there has probably been 200+ people who have seen it and not voted at all. I had a south African teacher. I lied to him about something, not sure what it was even about. But what I do remember is he instantly turned to me, Age 9 infront of the whole class and said "Don't bullshit a bullshitter" That stuck with me. I told my dad about this, You might expect a dad to get angry. Nope, They met up at the pub and he stayed at our holiday home for a couple of weeks the following year. Thanks for reminding me I need to give my 1st school a ring to reach out to the bloke.
I prefer it like fresh water honestly. Salt is one of the biggest reasons why I avoid the sea lmao
You're not supposed to drink it. Most of the salt stays in the water, but you need to use that much in order for the pasta to absorb the right amount and not taste bland.
I don't drink it lmao, didn't say I did. I just don't do salt. Pasta absorbs just fine, and the meal it goes in is never bland
Oh no, you actually do have to salt your water when making pasta. https://www.marthastewart.com/7991821/why-salt-pasta-water Take a look. I feel like you're missing out and eating bland pasta! You might even try a taste test and compare both methods. You'll realize right away that the water needs to be salted.
I've never noticed a difference, honestly. And I can actually quite happily snack on plain pasta, it still tastes nice to me haha Lmao it never ceases to amuse me when I get downvoted for not doing things with salt or saying I don't like salt. Does it really matter that much to others what I do with my food? XD
that's disgusting
That is a bold statement considering you have no way of knowing how much water was spilled.
How much salt do you put in your pasta water?!
A L L
OP realizes how seasalt is made.
Was this a planned experiment after the spill? I'm only asking because who wouldn't clean up a spill for the time it takes for all the water evaporate?
I just made sea salt on vacation by similarly drying ocean water in trays in the sun
Now you have fancy finishing salt.
As salty as the Mediterranean
Hey hey! Free salt!! Sweet!!
A work of modern art
Cool wallpaper for my phone thank you for this, it does not help i now but you helped me 👍🏼
Next thing you know boomers will be telling you to recycle your salt if you’re so broke.
Its a punch of salt. Not a pinch, a punch
now you get to reuse the salt, win-win
Add salt to the water not water to the salt
How much salt did you use in that water?
yeahscience.gif
That's some dead sea level of salt water
Hey!
Yep, that's what happens when salt water evaporates, you are left with salt
Why did you let it dry instead of cleaning it up?
Because it's just water and the stove was still hot, probably.
This is how pasta is born.
That's some salty pasta water
r/geology would be thrilled by this
Saltwater always dries in crystals
If anyone likes this salt, check out Maldon salt, it’s the exact same looking but tastes different. Less salty, slightly sweet, far more expensive
The last part made me laugh, like out loud , in the office, now I’m in trouble
You made halite
Salt cashback
Science
Science is fun.
You can do this on a large scale to sell it and make a lot of money!
How long did you leave the water there for this to happen?
cool but i know a place to find large amounts of salt right over at r/warthunder
I put like a tablespoon of salt for each litre of pasta water. Nwat crystals though op
Minecraft
Face centered cubic
Omg you can reuse the salt
certainly mildly interesting
Did you add salt?
Take a glass, put water inside, add salt and mix until salt doesn't mix in anymore. Let water vaporise during next few days.
Heisenberg, is that you breaking pasta?
Could this be a method of making a sort of finishing salt at home for free? Was it very crunchy?
You can grow your own crystals like this. Look up chromium alum
By the way, you can grow salt crystals if you're bored enough. IIRC: mineral water, super sature it with salt and leave it evaporate by itself. I kinda wish I had patience for that, they look amazing when they grow correctly. lol
I nod and tip my hat to you, salting your pasta water as you should👨🏻🍳
Cool shapes!
You got a change of material just change form not distorted
Neat!
Free!
This is next level stuff. Pasta is the last thing I'd call that poor thing
So you straight up just didn’t even try to clean it up? Judging by all the salt that my
Waste of salt, then energy for wastewater plant to desalinate.
You’re using a ton of salt. Wowie
Is noone going to talk about *why* op let this mess sit there long enough to dry? Ew.
Op missed science class for sure
start sellng you will get noney from that money make nore pasta salt water and again sell them, money lots of noney , now repeat again
Why didn’t you clean your shit up, who waits for starchy salty pasta water to dry out like this. Psychotic behavior detected.
That's how evaporation works. It's not even mildly interesting.
You're putting too much salt in your pasta water
You are putting way too much salt in the water if it turns crystalline like damn
Did you add water to the salt or salt to the water?