How To Make Fettucini Not Stick Together (According To My Flist)

[jedusor]

1. Add olive oil.
2. Don't add olive oil.
3. Add salt.
4. Don't add salt.
5. Stir more often.
6. Stir less often.

Thanks, guys!

Comments

[misterajc.livejournal.com]

You're a scientist. You know what to do now...

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

There is a limit to the amount of fettucini I am willing to eat for science.

[misterajc.livejournal.com]

Do you normally eat your experiments when you are done with them? Sounds like a pretty weird lab to me.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

There's a limit to the amount of fettucini I am willing to purchase for science.

[misterajc.livejournal.com]

Time to start writing funding requests, then.

"An investigation of the viscous properties of congealed vegetable starch under high temperature rehydration"

[cnoocy]

Sounds like an excuse for a party to me.

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure we actually came to a consensus on stirring once you'd told us you were doing lots of it! You failed to accurately report the bug :-p

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

That was my impression of it: don't stir. Also the most important: more water

[42itous.livejournal.com]

What do you do if you want to serve hot pasta for dinner?

[wesleyjenn.livejournal.com]

Tonight I was listening to a podcast on molecular gastronomy on my drive home and they happened to address this very issue. They said that the field of molecular gastronomy has been making great strides at using chemistry to solve problems like these and debunking common cooking myths in the process.

The myth in question was adding olive oil to the boiling water to prevent pasta from sticking - which they say does not work at all (though it sounds like serenitaet's method very well might work if you are looking for a post-cooking cold pasta solution). They did not go into the chemistry of why but the molecular gastronomy solution to the problem of pasta sticking together while cooking is to add... vinegar. I haven't tried it myself (having just heard this half an hour ago) and they didn't mention specifics about amounts, etc. but apparently everything else is bunk and the thing that works via science (SCIENCE!) is vinegar. They said red wine vinegar, cider vinegar and the like will all work basically the same if you're looking for a particular flavor.

So funny that you mention this dilemma and I happen to hear a podcast that talks about it a few days later. The world, it is coincidentical.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

SCIENCE! :D

Thank you for the info!

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

... I was going, in fact, to offer to buy you a book entitled Molecular Gastronomy for your birthday.

I would just buy it, without the questions, except I'm not sure whether you want it in French...

... also, it has lots of stuff on non-veg*n cooking :-(

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Yes please! I don't think my French is advanced enough to enjoy a book of that level of complexity, though. (And I am totally fine with reading about non-vegan cooking, particularly with relation to the science of it.)

[martinemonster.livejournal.com]

Hi. I added you even though we don't know each other because of your hilarious icon and because we both know Vito. Rather random, I know, but I've got a writer's block today and it's so much easier to read other people's blogs than it is to put words on the page.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

No problem, hope you enjoy. :)