America - The Official Thread

[TexRex]

View attachment 965435
This is how I drain my pasta. Easy to empty over sink and then it’s ready god the sauce.

Yeah, that's a fairly clever and certainly simple design, though I think I'd prefer the secular version.

My actual preference is still the basket that goes in the pot before the water because you pull it out and you've still got a pot full of starchy, seasoned water that can be used to loosen the sauce (you can certainly pour through that lid into a boul to reserve some of that water) or you can even use the full volume of it to lightly cook and season delicate greens that can be combined with the pasta for a more homogenous result without overcooking them by adding them to the pasta pot before draining.

 

[Imari]

Slightly more than $400 million in debt.

The Forbes article seems like good investigative journalism. Trump has ~$1 billion in debt on ~$3.5 billion in assets (detailed more in another good investigative article).

That's both good and bad for Trump. Good in that he's not in any danger of being wiped out should his debts get called, so there's not necessarily immediate leverage against him. Bad in that $1 billion is a significant debt no matter how rich you are and some of it is to parties unknown. For the highest public servant in the US, that's a bit of a red flag.

I'd like to see the President (not just this one, but any President) required to publically declare their debts and other items of potential leverage before taking office - just like everyone else in the country who has to get a clearance to access restricted materials. The difference would be that the President couldn't have their presidency rejected based on that information, but the public and other branches of government would be able to make informed decisions on their behaviour.

Seems like something that would make a good Constitutional Amendment.

 

[Morgoth_666]

I just drain the water out of the pot before dumping the pasta into the colander. 99% drained already and no mess. Otherwise you're just flushing half of it all over the pasta for no reason(and also washing away a lot of the starch...admittedly with starchy water). If it's something that won't stay in the pot while it drains a big spoon usually does the trick.


I also try to avoid being a billion dollars in debt.

 

[Jezza819]

Spaghetti has been my traditional Sunday night dinner for about the last 20 years or so. I use a pot that my mother used so it's at least 40 or 50 years old. It has an inner straining bucket. Once the pasta is cooked I have to lift it up out of the pot, then to the sink for the cold water rinse.

With one of those pots with the lid strainer, how do you rinse the pasta? Just take the lid off and fill with cold water, lid back on and turn it upside down over the sink?

 

[TexRex]

...cold water rinse.

 

[Boston77]

That actually looks hard to drain. Explain to me how you keep the lid from falling when you're tipping it with both hands (because it's full of water and you can't do it with one).

It has a locking lid. Spin lid half way and it opens. Spin it the other way and it locks allowing you to drain using the handles.

 

[TexRex]

It has a locking lid. Spin lid half way and it opens. Spin it the other way and it locks allowing you to drain using the handles.

That's rather cool. Not entirely necessary given the methods mentioned, but it's definitely more user friendly.

What's the locking mechanism? I'm sort of imagining something that may allow starch scum to hide and complicate washing, but I'd hope the designer managed something better.

 

[Biggles]

It has a locking lid. Spin lid half way and it opens. Spin it the other way and it locks allowing you to drain using the handles.

That's what I guessed. Trying to hold on the top in any way you would likely burn your fingers. Personally, I just use a large pot which I drain into the sink using a kitchen sieve.

 

[TexRex]

Okay, okay, okay...I'm actually still stuck on the rinsing of pasta.

Why would you do that?

Rinsing the pasta washes away starch and makes the pasta slippery so that whatever you're using for a sauce can't adhere. What you're left with isn't so much a pasta dish as it is a sad noodle soup.

 

[Scaff]

Okay, okay, okay...I'm actually still stuck on the rinsing of pasta.

Why would you do that?

Rinsing the pasta washes away starch and makes the pasta slippery so that whatever you're using for a sauce can't adhere. What you're left with isn't so much a pasta dish as it is a sad noodle soup.

Exactly this.

You should also retain around a cup of the water you drain from the pasta for thickening your sauce, as the starchy water is excellent for this.

https://www.thekitchn.com/quick-tip-thicken-sauces-with-122982

 

[Joey D]

Okay, okay, okay...I'm actually still stuck on the rinsing of pasta.

Why would you do that?

Rinsing the pasta washes away starch and makes the pasta slippery so that whatever you're using for a sauce can't adhere. What you're left with isn't so much a pasta dish as it is a sad noodle soup.

My mom always did it and so did my grandma, so I just did it because that's what I always thought you had to do.

 

[TexRex]

Exactly this.

You should also retain around a cup of the water you drain from the pasta for thickening your sauce, as the starchy water is excellent for this.

https://www.thekitchn.com/quick-tip-thicken-sauces-with-122982

It's been my experience that the pull-out method (heh) is awesome here because it's less violent and, assuming you don't linger over the pot too long, more of the water actually hangs around as you transfer to the sauce/bowl, and that starchy water that hangs around ends up thickening, seasoning and homogenizing (is that a word?) the finished product. Then you've got lots more starchy water still in the pot in case it's difficult to incorporate the pasta into the sauce. If you're going to the bowl, there's a lot more heat retention so that the bowl is warmed and the dish takes longer to get gloppy, particularly when there's lots of cheese involved.

My mom always did it and so did my grandma, so I just did it because that's what I always thought you had to do.

Yeah, so, I'm gonna need you to stop that.



Undercook your pasta some so that you don't feel like you have to rinse it to stop the cooking process before it gets soggy. If you've got a sturdy sauce, undercook it even more and finish cooking it in the sauce so that the pasta actually absorbs some of the sauce. Retained cooking water can be added as needed, and it's already seasoned.

Oh and not that you or anyone here else doesn't, but really salt your water. Salt's cheap. I use about a quarter cup of salt (!) in an 8 quart pot. It's your best opportunity to make the noodles themselves taste better and you're not consuming all of that salt unless you drink the pasta water. Salt goes in, water goes in, pot goes to stove (I'm spoiled, I have a pot filler on the backsplash behind the range); salted water has a higher boiling temp than unsalted, but it also comes to a boil faster.

 

[Sander 001]

Russia or North Korea

 

[Morgoth_666]

Oh and not that you or anyone here else doesn't, but really salt your water. Salt's cheap. I use about a quarter cup of salt (!) in an 8 quart pot. It's your best opportunity to make the noodles themselves taste better and you're not consuming all of that salt unless you drink the pasta water. Salt goes in, water goes in, pot goes to stove (I'm spoiled, I have a pot filler on the backsplash behind the range); salted water has a higher boiling temp than unsalted, but it also comes to a boil faster.

I'm sure I had read that the best time to salt the water was when it was at full boil, right before adding the pasta. That's how I usually do it, but I'm not sure I've noticed much difference between salting early, right at boil, or just after starting the pasta(because I forgot). Never tried before the water though. Then again, I'm weird about salt and I'm not sure it's really necessary anyway. Everybody says it's supposed to "bring out the flavor of the food" but to me it really just brings out the flavor of salt... which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not so much(for pasta I'm 50/50). And there's already plenty in the sauce for your daily intake. It seems to help thicker stuff like linguini and fettuccine not to stick as much though.

 

[UKMikey]

Russia or North Korea

An insane asylum seeker? I wonder whether some Americans wish he could take his supporters with him.

 

[TexRex]

I'm sure I had read that the best time to salt the water was when it was at full boil, right before adding the pasta. That's how I usually do it, but I'm not sure I've noticed much difference between salting early, right at boil, or just after starting the pasta(because I forgot). Never tried before the water though. Then again, I'm weird about salt and I'm not sure it's really necessary anyway. Everybody says it's supposed to "bring out the flavor of the food" but to me it really just brings out the flavor of salt... which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not so much(for pasta I'm 50/50). And there's already plenty in the sauce for your daily intake. It seems to help thicker stuff like linguini and fettuccine not to stick as much though.

My understanding is that increasing the salinity decreases the energy required to change the water's temperature. There probably isn't a net benefit to cooking the pasta by increasing the salinity of the water if it's equally easier to decrease its temperature, since the temperature will decrease when you drop the pasta. Someone like @Danoff may be able to help here, because while I have a lot of experience on the cooking side, the science just goes over my head.

As far as flavor is concerned, well, pasta doesn't taste like much. It's flour, water and salt (but like a super small amount of salt unless you're making your own and you deliberately put more in). Sometimes there's egg yolks, which help, but you're still not looking at a high concentration. Drying removes the water, which is okay because it doesn't taste like much, and then you're putting water back in, but it still doesn't taste like much. Obviously there's such a a thing as too much salt, and the aim isn't really to make things taste of the salt itself, so when I'm making something like a carbonara with its salty cured pork and salty cheese, I'm going to back off a little bit on the amount that I put in the water.

And the best thing to keep pasta from sticking is water. Lots of water. And movement. Pasta sticks because it remains in contact with itself for too long.

 

[Danoff]

My understanding is that increasing the salinity decreases the energy required to change the water's temperature. There probably isn't a net benefit to cooking the pasta by increasing the salinity of the water if it's equally easier to decrease its temperature, since the temperature will decrease when you drop the pasta. Someone like @Danoff may be able to help here, because while I have a lot of experience on the cooking side, the science just goes over my head.

As far as flavor is concerned, well, pasta doesn't taste like much. It's flour, water and salt (but like a super small amount of salt unless you're making your own and you deliberately put more in). Sometimes there's egg yolks, which help, but you're still not looking at a high concentration. Drying removes the water, which is okay because it doesn't taste like much, and then you're putting water back in, but it still doesn't taste like much. Obviously there's such a a thing as too much salt, and the aim isn't really to make things taste of the salt itself, so when I'm making something like a carbonara with its salty cured pork and salty cheese, I'm going to back off a little bit on the amount that I put in the water.

And the best thing to keep pasta from sticking is water. Lots of water. And movement. Pasta sticks because it remains in contact with itself for too long.

I don't have a ton to offer on this subject. It's mostly covered here. It seems like adding salt to your water is not particularly useful for... basically anything. Maybe just enhances the flavor, but you'd need to add a fair amount.

 

[TexRex]

I don't have a ton to offer on this subject. It's mostly covered here. It seems like adding salt to your water is not particularly useful for... basically anything. Maybe just enhances the flavor, but you'd need to add a fair amount.

That's basically the sort of thing I've read and not understood particularly well. But holy crap, 230 grams to a liter of water for a two degree increase in boiling temperature. If my quick head mathing is even remotely correct, that's close to ten times the quarter cup to eight quarts that I add. Plus they specify table salt and I use kosher, which is less salty.

 

[TenEightyOne]

holy crap, 230 grams to a liter of water for a two degree increase in boiling temperature.

Those figures are way out, here's an experiment of the type I remember from Secondary School which suggests nearer to 15g for an 17 celsius change.

I'm not an expert but did work in an Italian restaurant. Fresh pasta (e.g. made that day) gets a lot more salt than dried pasta (which we rarely used of course), that partly depends on how much (if any) salt is in the pasta mix. You moderate the water salt depending on whether or not you want to use the starch liquer in the dish as a late thickener. Still, if you put no salt in anywhere then your pasta won't taste very good. If your pasta still doesn't taste very good then you don't have very good pasta - it should taste great just with a tiny throw in olive oil.

 

[Tornado]

I'm not an expert but did work in an Italian restaurant

So long as it wasn't an Olive Garden, I think you're selling yourself short.

 

[andrea]

Russia or North Korea

 

[jjaisli]

If only. I have long since said, that if Trump loses reelection, and he somehow manages to skate past all his legal issues, he has his sights set on creating his own right wing/fake news media empire. And he will continue to do what he’s doing. Only he won’t have the power of the federal government underneath him anymore.

 

[Tornado]

 

[Liquid]

The pasta chat has been the freshest breath of air in the OCE forum for a long time.

 

[TexRex]

The pasta chat has been the freshest breath of air in the OCE forum for a long time.

Agreed, but we need to stop noodling over the problems our country is facing and take some decisive action.

 

[UKMikey]

Agreed, but we need to stop noodling over the problems our country is facing and take some decisive action.

Until the election is over I suspect the same subjects will keep on turning up like a bad penne.

 

[TexRex]

I wasn't sorry. I am now.

 

[PeterJB]

Your decision was deciseive.

 

[UKMikey]

For a time he was colander shots around here but now that's all in the pasta.

 

[Boston77]

You guys are now just being fusilli