The BEST Way TO COOK PASTA If we go by traditional wisdom, pasta should be cooked in a large volume of salted water and added to the pot only after the water has reached a rolling boil What’s the reasoning here? There are four reasons generally cited: • Reason 1 A large volume of water has a higher thermal mass than a smaller one Thus, when you drop pasta into it, it cools less and returns to a boil much faster • Reason 2 A large volume of water at a rolling boil helps move the pasta pieces around so they don’t stick to each other • Reason A small volume of water will become too starchy as the pasta cooks This will make the pasta stickier when you drain it • Reason 4 It’s the way Grandma did it Let’s break them down point by point and see if we can’t make some sense of them Reason 1 To test this, I brought three pots of water to a boil: one with quarts of water, one with quarts, and one with a mere quart and a half After the water in each pot came to a boil, I added the pasta and waited for it to return to a boil The three pots did so within seconds of each other In fact, the pot with 3 quarts actually came back to a boil slightly faster than the one with quarts—the exact opposite of what is supposed to happen What gives? To solve this mystery, we have to think about what’s going on inside a pot of boiling water, what its energy inputs and outputs are Imagine we have two pots of water on identical burners One pot holds gallons of boiling water and the other holds quarts The inputs are simple: the burner underneath each one is supplying a constant energy source As long as the burners are set at high, the amount of energy they transfer to the pot-water system is consistent What about energy loss? Well, that’s going on too First, there’s energy being lost to the outside environment in the form of heat from the sides of the pot and the surface of the water This amount of energy loss is proportional to the surface area of the pot-water system as well as its temperature Since the temperature is staying at a constant 212°F, and the pots are (presumably) not changing size, that too is a constant The other factor that contributes to energy loss is something called the heat of vaporization— that’s the energy it takes to convert water into steam Both pots of water are boiling, and the difference between energy-in and energy-out is compensated for by the energy used to boil that water ... water and the other holds quarts The inputs are simple: the burner underneath each one is supplying a constant energy source As long as the burners are set at high, the amount of energy they transfer... constant 212°F, and the pots are (presumably) not changing size, that too is a constant The other factor that contributes to energy loss is something called the heat of vaporization— that’s the energy... transfer to the pot-water system is consistent What about energy loss? Well, that’s going on too First, there’s energy being lost to the outside environment in the form of heat from the sides of the