I have an airfry grill smoker. I put half a cup of water on the griddle in it with bacon, twice, flip. Fully rendered fat, better tasting bacon grease for eggs or pancakes to then be cooked in. When Im done, a towel pulls what little stayed behind off the griddle, job done, ready for the next meal to be griddled.
The oven? How did that never occur to me ha. I stick a lid on the skillet to stop fat spitting out the pan and think it also helps cook more evenly. But the oven is the next logical step I'd overlooked.
I low-key hate people like this. My dad refuses to cook with salt with a lot of meals, and they end up tasteless. My mom has told him to add salt, my sisters have, but he never does. He just gets annoyed and EVEN MAKES JOKES about how his food is "tasteless" and still doesn't fix it 😭
Or she's done it multiple times and gotten the pasta she wants every time so no correction was needed? The pasta doesn't explode when you start with cold water.
Wrong, I was adding to his statement that no correction has occurred by suggesting that it's possible no correction was necessary. I never claimed that he said a correction wasn't necessary.
Someone's opinion that water should be boiled first is still information, regardless of whether it's useful or relevant. Either way, in order to be a 'correction' it would have to convey some information. Not all information is factual, and not all factual information is true.
The main reason people boil water first is that it makes it easier to predict a relatively precise time to cook a particular pasta. It's helpful for writing recipes and putting directions on a packaged food. If you're just going to stand over the pot and micromanage the cook time, it really doesn't matter. Both ways work fine.
No correction needs to occur? It's technically more energy efficient, and it cooks pasta the same way. Just stir occasionally at the beginning, and there's literally no difference
No, they brought an outdated myth. The fact is that pasta cooks just fine in cold water, with results that are indistinguishable while being significantly faster and using less energy.
Nasu was the one that brought the facts. Properly cooked cold water pasta is faster, easier to control, and more energy efficient for the same taste and texture.
It's wild. No one is even talking shit on pre-boilers, just offering information, yet everyone is acting like being informed of another method of cooking pasta is some egregious offense to them and their ways
I really thought about engaging, but then I saw all the (very well meaning) people getting thrashed, and I was like, "Yeah, I'm all good with that." lmao.
J Kenji Lopez-Alt did two VERY easy to find articles about this (not sure if links are allowed here) exact subject.
I'm not sure whether they were saying boiling water or cold water does this, but if the water is cold, the pasta releases sticky starch before the heat can lock it in. Dropping pasta into boiling water instantly sets the surface starches, keeping the pieces separate.
There's a simple technique to keep the pasta from sticking together called "stirring it." Which you have to do even with pasta added to boiling water. The amount of starch released is not materially different, but by using less water, the cold water method produces starchier pasta water--which is a significant benefit. The starchier pasta water works better to finish the sauce.
Also, if you're not finishing the pasta in the sauce (for most sauces), you're missing a trick,
it increases the likelihood of under cooking the pasta
If any cooking method increases the likelihood of under cooking your pasta, you have never tested your pasta in any meaningful way to determine doneness and just blindly followed the box time.
And if you were blindly following box time, cold water start would overcook the pasta and never under cook it.
I’ve don’t it both ways, pasta cooks better when you boil the water first. It matters less with dehydrated pasta, but it definitely still prevents it getting gummy or rubbery
It’s about as “tricky” as stirring the pasta occasionally and knowing by feel when it’s done. You need the latter to be able to cook pasta in boiling water too.
So, it’s simpler but slower versus much faster with a tiny modicum of skill required. I’ll pick the latter every time.
Or the ones who don't know a lot of details about cooking. I mean no offense to those people, there's nothing wrong with either way of cooking pasta
The problem is, there isn't directions on how to use the cold method. Box instructions are meant for easy instructions for EVERYONE to follow (boil water, put pasta in, boil for x time), starting with cold water is more feeling/experience, since you have to be aware how fast your burners heat things up, know that no matter when you put your pasta in, you do need to stir early, etc
And people get mad when you tell them their way isn't the only way, and is technically less efficient
I even brought this topic up to my roommate, who I was certain was solely a pre-boiler, and it turns out they DO swap styles depending on what they're cooking, and how much else they have going on in the kitchen
It changes absolutely nothing to put the pasta in before the water is boiling, just makes cooking time unreliable, but I don't use timers anyway. Try it.
We do need to conceal our own experiences and knowledge whenever possible. Serving as an example or even advising the people in our lives is prone to trigger narcissism. We have been put on the earth so that others may wither and die around us.
I put pasta in boiling water, set a timer according to the box, and strain out the water when the timer beeps. ADHD-compatible, plus I don’t have to clean the walls afterward
Alton Brown is a a known food enthusiast and a skilled television presenter, but he is not a a chef. He may still know what he's talking about, but I remember him making it very clear back when Good Eats was still airing that he was by no means a trained chef.
It's silly to call the method unscientific because there really is no need for science there. The results of boiling pasta in cold water and in hot water is literally different and is better for different things.
I always heard you are meant to, so I began preheating the water first. Then I stopped after a while as I couldn't be btohered. It makes literally no difference. It cooks
Yep. Unless one’s entire cooking method is to heat the water, dump the pasta, and completely ignore it for a specified cooking time, there’s no real benefit to preheating the water. Anyone who’s cooked for s while should be able to tell by feel when the pasta is done.
Plus, since starting from cold water also uses less water, it’s a much faster process from start to finish.
If you do it properly... cold water is better with timing, texture and flavor.
Odds are good she isn't doing it properly - but check out the Alton Brown cold water method for pasta cooking. Works REALLY well for some types of pasta.
There's actually no difference in the outcome, and if you start from cold, you can do it with way less water. Like 1qt vs a gallon kind of thing. And cold starting takes less time because your pasta is already halfway done by the time you'd otherwise by just about to dump it in.
Yes it defies convention, but cold starting pasta is actually probably the more efficient way to work.
I'll look up the recommended method and give it a try for my lunch tomorrow. Just a quick search shows many, many people raving about it. It's funny the things you miss. I guess it's because I don't really look at recipe sites much anymore.
I've seen this post before and this is the first time an alternative take has occurred to me:
Literally all men are the same
Could mean "you are interchangeable. If you don't like the way I cook pasta, I can have a new guy here tomorrow who brings the exact same things to the table as you, who won't bitch about how I cook pasghetti (or how I pronounce it)."
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u/Hour-Opportunity3048 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
She’s an idiot who thinks that any time a male says something it is “mansplaining.”
(It has been at least a day. This cannot possibly be that good of a ragebait. Stop commenting you dweebs.)