When should you salt pasta water? How much?

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Here's a great article by a Stanford professor explaining bubble nucleation, written for a general audience: web.stanford.e...

[@xBris]

Ugh, I had this discussion literally dozens of times. And I'm a chemist - properly trained with a PhD and all - but people these days really think they know better than actual experts. I liked your video, though. I especially liked that you simply did the experiment instead of just relying on written sources. Well done.

[@buzzymm]

@Burhan Abdulali Do you know how to make LSD?

[@thiocarbamoyl]

@Burhan Abdulali if you want to just be a bench chemist doing routine stuff for a chem/agri/biochem company, a bachelors is fine, but it doesn't always leave a lot of room to move up the ladder. If you want to make good money, do research, and/or being in upper management positions, Ph.D. is needed.

[@Gagakki]

@Burhan Abdulali yes Tf especially with chemistry it should take a long time to get mastered in that field 4 years of general education 4 years of basic science and probably 2 years of speciality aka ur major

[@TheSlavChef]

I god masters in salty arts.

[@Kiwipai]

@Burhan Abdulali with chemistry you'd be spending much more time than that. Have a friend who got a bachelor in chemistry and he said you'd have to dedicate a lot of time and risk to land a job in the field. For him it was easier to get a second degree in computer science and get a job going that than it was too get a chemistry-related job he'd enjoy.

[@thewhalebear7073]

The way it goes in my family is that my mother under salts the water, and when she leaves, I sneak in and add salt before she comes back to put in the pasta. We've had whole arguments about the fact that she puts too little salt, but the only reason she wins is because, "The pasta always comes out perfect when I put that much salt." I have officially played myself.

[@Jpik72]

One time just go in add wayyyy too much salt. Like a disgusting amount of salt, it'll confuse the shit out of her and leaving her questioning everything about this plane if existence

[@bobermoment]

replace the salt with sugar so theres no salt

[@matthewishunting]

You gotta make two pastas right next to her

[@ludvig9184]

Why don't you just tell her that you always add more salt when she isn't looking? She already said it comes out perfect. Sounds to me like she's the one who played herself.

[@theprodigalson4003]

Now begin adding water and shell take your advice

[@sullyprudhomme]

I was cooking with an Italian grandmother years ago and she told me that it no longer mattered when you add the salt...much of the lore around adding it after the water reached a boil was related to the materials the old pots were made out of that would become pitted if the 'sale grosso' (large salt used by Italians for pasta water) sat on the bottom too long.

[@Cmallon81]

Not just old pots. Care instructions for the All-Clad purchased in the past 2 years says to add salt after boiling to prevent pitting

[@davidegaruti2582]

i love italian grandmothers , somehow their lore gets innovated and they are also always right god i wish to grow into an italian grandmother

[@giovannigiorgio6406]

Bro you made all this experts coming in this comments section useless. If the Italian grandmother says so, no chemistry expert will convince me otherwise.

[@RaduRadonys]

My brand new expensive Tefal pots specifically say: Add salt only after the water starts boiling.

[@sullyprudhomme]

After a few comments, I realized the following. As salt increases the boiling point of water, if a grain of large salt sits on the bottom, it will create a point of contact that is superheated. So basically consistent with the comments below on even the modern pots as more delicate finishes will likely be damaged. At the end, what counts is how good the pasta is.

[@TheHookUp]

Chemistry teacher chiming in. Roughly 50g of salt would raise the boiling point of 1L of water by 1 degree C. The formula is: Tb = Kb * m * i Tb is change in boiling point Kb is a constant for water, which is .512 C/molal m is the molality of your water (which is the mol solute/kg solvent) i is the number of ions that the solute will break into in the water, NaCl becomes Na+ and Cl-, so 2. To get the roundest numbers we can use 1 mol (58g) of NaCl and 1L (1kg) of water you'd get Tb = 0.512 * 1 * 2, which gives you a Tb of 1.024 degrees celcius. Fudge it to 50 for simplicity and you've still got way too much salt in your water.

[@ncolvin05]

Or confuse more people like we do our students and tell everyone to round to sig. fig. 😆

[@omarh.6869]

So adding salt actually makes the water boil slower?

[@Zetsuke4]

Nice!

[@TheHookUp]

@@omarh.6869 Confusingly, no. Adding salt also lowers the specific heat capacity of water, which means it takes less energy to raise the temperature of a specific mass of salt water than it does for the same mass of pure water. The result is that the water boils hotter, but in the same amount of time.

[@Steffystr8mobbin]

@@TheHookUp Had a question about this in Chemistry and just wanted to add that the water boiling hotter results in a shorter cooking time, but again to a pretty insignificant degree.

[@AtomicShrimp]

I had one of the 'salt later' guys argue that the salt grains were going to corrode the bottom of my stainless steel pan, until they dissolve. 3:51 is the solution you've perfected that I still need to work on.

[@thelegendofnene6935]

I'm surprised to see you here I like your content

[@natalyrausch]

Omg my two favorite KZbinrs!!! 😍 I love your foraging content!!

[@dollhousemakr]

This is how I was taught. Not to put the salt in at the beginning because it will pit the bottom of the pot.

[@mihailoradovanovic7283]

Random AS on raguseas channel. Great to see you here

[@brianthompson2015]

I did have coarse sea salt pit the finish of a brand new pot by putting it in at the beginning. Granted, it may have been a badly produced commercial pot. I always wait ‘til boil now, just in case that was the actual cause.

[@bryan314]

My argument for "salt early" is "Bryan would forget his head if it weren't securely bolted on".

[@JB33809]

And if you're using a shaker, if it's boiling, you'll get your salt wet.

[@antiantipoda]

Yep, me too. The salt sits next to the stove. Pot, water, salt.

[@WhatTheFrogDoing]

@@JB33809 yeah the steam hitting the shaker is a pain in the ass

[@vitriolicAmaranth]

SAME. I've completely forgotten to salt my pasta several times, and let me tell you, I blame Bryan for my shitty-tasting pasta.

[@zephyr6927]

@@vitriolicAmaranth Seriously. Why does Brian keep ruining my food?

[@1_lens_view]

I never knew there was some big debate over this topic. I’ve always thought everyone seasoned their pasta water with sand and never really thought to question it.

[@SHrepairs]

Fresh beach sand ofc

[@moneymarty1]

@@SHrepairsYou got it! Leave the beach, ring the water and all that goes along with it out of your trunks into the pot...perfect pasta every time!

[@shawniscoolerthanyou]

I have to do something with all of this sand in my pockets.

[@palpatine1715]

My apprentice doesn’t like sand

[@The_Mr._Biscuit]

6:56 Kitchen Safety tip! Be *EXTREMELY* cautious when heating *distilled* water in a glass container in the microwave. Distilled water is almost completely free from the micro-impurities that allow bubbles to form and disperse, combined with the glass containers lack of spaces to do the same. Boiling distilled water does not bubble, so disturbing it can cause it to immediately shed all the kinetic tension built up in a splash that can cause severe burns, especially to the hands or face of anyone taking the glass out of the microwave.

[@danku-chan]

life pro tip: when you boil water in a glass container in the microwave, put a wooden chopstick in. gives bubbles something to form on

[@alexrichenderfer3985]

I just let it keep going until it starts to boil. Enough energy will eventually make it boil, even without nucleation sites

[@clivedoe9674]

@@danku-chan Just use a metal fork. Way more fun.

[@danku-chan]

@@clivedoe9674 good thinking! I'll try that out

[@jgood005]

Would this also be true for enamled cookware? I notice he normally uses enamled cast iron pots, but here he's using stainless steel.

[@pfurrie]

That video is a master class in how to make a KZbin video: 1) Right to the subject, no intro, no telling us who you are, no pointless talking about what you are going to show us in the video -- gets to the point immediately. Totally respects the viewer's time. 2) Excellent balance between shots of Adam and shots of the subject matter (stuff being cooked). The rate of cuts is just right. And few (any?) jump-cuts to pull-up dialogue. The few that are in there are made less jarring by moving in on Adam, and only when reasonable B-roll wasn't available or appropriate. 3) Great video and audio quality. Not overly staged backdrops, no colored lights, but good use of short depth of field. Nice soft focus on the background of a kitchen, making the scene feel comfortable and have our attention focused on the host. 4) Perfectly executed transition in and out of the sponsored content... seamless. Sponsored content is interesting, even for someone who isn't into coffee (like me). 5) Quick wrap-up at the end with no lingering on links to other videos. No begging for subscribers or clicking of "like" or clicking o the bell. Part of the reason I gave it a thumbs-up was *because* you didn't bother me asking for that. I suspect the percentage of view time for this video is very high, given that there is no place where most viewers would feel like dropping out. 6) Quality content. Covered a basic cooking question with science, all completely understandable. Kenji López-Alt would approve. AND entertaining. Enough self-deprecation (confessed being wrong about a previous video on how much salt to use), enough of not-too-confident (does this taste right because that's what you were brought up with?... maybe, but seems good to you), and this all lends itself to being legit. I can believe you.

[@Primusaur]

I also enjoy that he doesn't have music, like really really enjoy it.

[@eavyeavy2864]

because this isn’t your average Minecraft youtuber, this is actually a very helpful and informative video. Not made for the sole purpose of money.

[@icedcat4021]

@@eavyeavy2864 why are you watching mincraft videos for information

[@johnapple6646]

@@icedcat4021 you don't play minecraft?

[@ernestimken6969]

Pat Furrie: ditto.

[@giantpinkcat]

"As long as you don't put way too much salt." Preach. I made Spaghetti Al Burro many many times at home and chefs I watched always tell me to salt the water like the ocean. In the end, they came out tasting like straight up salt since the cheese was already salty. Just my advice: Don't take "As salty as the sea" as a good cooking technique if you're already gonna put a salty ingredient in your pasta.

[@chillitomatocakes]

Agreed. 8 years ago when I cooked spaghetti and meatballs for my partner for the first time I naively believed Jamie Oliver when he said to make the water "as salty as the sea". Not even kidding the spaghetti itself tasted like the sea and no amount of sauce or meat or cheese or drinking water could fix that abomination. I've never made her spaghetti and meatballs ever since.

[@adamchurvis1]

That's because Jamie Oliver is full of excrement. The salinity of sea water is approximately a 0.5 Molar solution of salt, whereas pasta-cooking water should be about a 0.1 Molar solution of salt. Sea water is FIVE TIMES SALTIER than what pasta water should be. If you give me the dimensions of your pasta pot in centimeters, I will calculate your salt and water measurements in grams for pasta-cooking water.

[@lurk7967]

​@@chillitomatocakes If she stuck with you after that shes a keeper!

[@chillitomatocakes]

@@adamchurvis1 No need. I no longer acknowledge anything JO would ever say now.

[@chillitomatocakes]

@@lurk7967 she is! Just don't make her spag and meatballs even if its edible lol

[@CaneDimitrov]

I'm genuinely impressed by how much scientific research, evidence and preparation Adam puts in his videos

[@snozzmcberry2366]

He used to be in journalism (the real kind, not the pop magazine click bait reaction-fishing profit-centric garbage) education so..

[@ducklessdexter]

the man is simply built different

[@engineerncook6138]

Great video. As a chemical engineer and avid home cook, I checked out most of of these myths years ago in reference handbooks. You got everything correct. Demos adding salt to boiling water until saturated and adding sand are brilliant.

[@nukkleargarlicbread]

"It's TOO heterogeneous." Never thought I'd hear Ragusea say those words...

[@ncolvin05]

Truly the apocalypse is upon us.

[@CommanderBoo]

long live the empire

[@woolpuppy]

It's just right for me, I think there's something to the upbringing angle

[@gamer_dude5995]

Ok think sometings wrong with adam

[@dstinnettmusic]

What’s next? Seasoning steak directly?

[@killpy12]

I'm sure others have pointed this out, but as i hear it the "salty like the sea" is really just for fresh pasta, since it cooks so must faster the higher concentration is needed to season it properly

[@YaoiHoshi]

True. Still, salty like the sea is waaay too salty even for fresh pasta (especially if you’re also salting the dough)

[@fordhouse8b]

Very possible, but I don’t think it is just the amount of time, but rather that fresh pasta already has water in it, so less of the salty water is absorbed. Dry angel hair also cooks much faster, but it probably needs the same amount of salt in the water as spaghetti.

[@jedrobertson3206]

I feel like Adam's going to come back with a follow up experiment and show this as incorrect. I would suspect, given that Adam was ok with 0.5%, that 3.5% would just be too salty. The amount of salt on the surface and liquid that comes with the pasta would be too much, even with a ~1/5 cooking time.

[@teloenand]

@@jedrobertson3206 Well, the brand of pasta that I use has instructions for 7g of salt per 1L of water (so a 0.7% solution), which to me, results in perfectly seasoned pasta every time, and the pasta water is just the right amount of salty that when using it to emulsify a sauce, I almost never want to add any extra salt.

[@Knuckles2761]

This video is amazing. No annoying music, no spoilers first 30 sec, straight to the point, no repeating, no spamming, no screaming. True gem.

[@atomaszfarbaa1650]

Yessss i love this channel for it

[@ano_nym]

No spoilers? What?

[@Knuckles2761]

@@ano_nym many many channels do "in this video" thing for the first 5-60 seconds.

[@WildeMooney]

"I don't care what a scientist tells me..." is where that conversation would have ended for me. Props to you for staying with it :)

[@SilvyReacts]

Something I don't understand is, the person in question could have just used a thermometer and they would have instantly learned they were wrong. And given they were apparently a chef, I would have to assume they have at least one.

[@toasterr4238]

@@SilvyReacts lol, they like being right. If they were neutral, they wouldn't have been so confrontational.

[@Mobin92]

@@SilvyReacts Who would win? Actually measuring the temperature you are arguing about, or looking at bubbly bubbles? :)

[@italianboyz12345]

Scientists can literally never be wrong, science is not a method for making observations, nor is it a career, it's the new age "religion".

[@BasketOfPuppies]

​@@italianboyz12345 Your agenda is showing.

[@cato3277]

I didn’t even know this was a debate, I just threw the salt in whenever was convenient like my family usually does.

[@Tito8oznia]

I don't even throw a salt ever in my pasta

[@breadophile]

i just dump my leftover cocaine in there 😈

[@sosak4mi]

@@Tito8oznia WHAT???????!?!?

[@P0LTAT0]

@@sosak4mi did i stutter?

[@sunflower50sun]

@@sosak4mi did he stutter?

[@RustyDust101]

The tip for salting pasta water I got from an Italian Nonna / grandma was "the water should taste like a slightly oversalted soup". Not as salty as sea water, but definitely saltier than what you'd normaly want to eat. So how salty is that? Well that depends on your own personal preference. Like in anything in cooking it is personal. Period.

[@iggysixx]

That's a very practical tip. Takes into account both your own preference / taste, as well as the ratio of soup saltiness vs pasta saltiness. ("If you like your soup like [this], you probably like your pasta like [this]"). That said: if your water tastes like soup, maybe use clean water 🙃 (or... You may be having a mild stroke 😄) - -- incidentally: Would be cool if that "over salted soup" taste test turns out to be somehow scientifically accurate too. That somehow, using this method, the right amount of neurons get fired after your taste buds get triggered in the exact right way... Resulting in a measurably pleasurable experience (like.. With an MRI or something... "The enjoyment center of the brain is fully utilized")

[@mattis1786]

The whole "boiling harder" thing with salt, kinda sounds like the same reaction that makes the whole coke and mentos thing happens. Really loving your more informatic videos. Same as with the dirt video, you're able to make something that sounds soo mundane, become so incredibly interesting

[@DigitalBlazar]

It is the same reaction. Mint mentos in particular have a bunch of tiny pock marks and crags that make the CO2 in the coke nucleate out of control.

[@mattis1786]

@@DigitalBlazar yeah, exactly what i was thinking of!

[@macrumpton]

@@DigitalBlazar This makes me wonder if ground mentos would be even more explosive since even more crags would be exposed.

[@DigitalBlazar]

@@macrumpton That's an interesting idea. I kinda want to run an experiment on that now.

[@mattburgess5697]

@@macrumpton I doubt it would make much difference. There’s kind of a “max gas” from water vapour that would be much less than the dissolved CO2 would provide. Still, it would be interesting to know for sure!

[@ozjrock]

From my Italian heritage, what I was told is that only fresh pasta should be put into water "as salty as the sea" because it cooks so quickly. Dry pasta takes much more time and therefore absorbs all too much of the saltwater

[@sunsetbandit]

That's right! For regular pasta my rule is a handful of salt per person. It also depends how much water you use

[@juancruzcaceresmiranda3050]

ohhh that's a good argument!! hope adam sees it

[@galaxya40s95]

I think dry pasta absorbs more salt because it needs more water to rehydrate.

[@macrumpton]

@@sunsetbandit a handful per person? that is wayyyyyyyy to much. maybe a pinch per person.

[@corpsefoot758]

@@macrumpton Nope. Most of it is being dumped back out with the water

[@myzeri18]

I absolutely love the science of food. You have no idea how much I appreciate your videos. I honestly believe that you could make anything interesting with your video techniques and excellent research. Please keep doing what you do. Thanks for feeding my brain!

[@siddoo6778]

adam, being at the bottom of your boiling pot was incredibly terrifying

[@barrackobamar]

I thought that shot was really cool

[@aragusea]

That’s what happens if you don’t smash those like and subscribe buttons.

[@ihcuhcalaK]

we were fine!

[@seta_samuli2759]

@@aragusea SMASSH THAT LIKE BUTTON, also im glad u dont remind us of that even though it would likely improve your numbers

[@skinnylegend-7330]

@@aragusea its like the leeks in the mustard tri tip video all over again 😔😔

[@arnoldkotlyarevsky383]

The advice I absorbed years ago was: everything you cook with should be seasoned according to your own taste or the taste of those you are feeding. Cant go wrong that way. I salt my pasta water as much as it takes to make a water that is pleasingly salty. No more, no less. And, I do it once the water has boiled so that it is easy to taste and adjust.

[@thajobe4623]

Exactly what I discovered. To me the pasta water should taste similar to a broth in terms of salt, then the pasta is perfect.

[@mesoforte]

Cook for who you're feeding, not the approval of people who will never eat your food.

[@radianttadpole6363]

Agreed. In most cases, I prefer not to salt my pasta water at all.

[@TocsTheWanderer]

I find it easier to taste when the water is still cool, I just stir the salt in to dissolve it.

[@joan3338]

Pleasingly salty, what a genius.

[@WS12658]

I didn't even know there was a debate around when you add the salt! I saw the title and thought, "Is Adam about to tell me I should salt after adding the pasta?"... Interesting to see actually how little effect salt has on the properties of water vis-à-vis boiling. I really enjoy your scientific-yet-sensible approach to these topics.

[@piepomz5387]

I'm literally making pasta right now, the timing could not be better

[@arcane3943]

I just finished mine

[@IamJustaSimpleMan]

Also made Pasta today - coincidentally one of Adams recipes. #PastaGang

[@CyberNickTT]

He knows

[@eyemotif]

well how did you season it?

[@mimc8786]

It’s been 20m, how was your pasta?

[@321DEATHPUNCH]

He really used a third of this video to get the internet troll cook off his back Respect

[@MobiusCoin]

I wanna find the original videos he's talking about now lol.

[@SuperMysteryboi]

Who df is he talking about

[@mctit]

@@SuperMysteryboi maybe Internet Shaquille? I know he used to be super rude to Adam

[@kosmicken]

@@mctit that would be a shame, because I've been a fan of his for almost as long as I've been a fan of Adam.

[@theunahime7446]

I think it was ethan chowblowski

[@YashSingh-ey8ll]

I heard that “salty as the sea” made sense for fresh pasta, as it takes less time to cook than dried pasta and so it needs more salt to be properly seasoned by the time the pasta is al dente

[@michaelbitetti5300]

You beat me to it but, yes, Yash, that is absolutely correct!

[@erik19borgnia]

Oh wow never thought about that, but now that you say it, it all makes sense. Thanks!

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

Makes sense

[@JeffreyJakucyk]

Also fresh pasta is already wet inside, so it doesn't absorb water and the salt dissolved in it like dried pasta does.

[@ano_nym]

The sea is very salty. It's a deciliter of salt for a bit over 3 liters of water.

[@ptru2592]

"It has been scientifically proven that salting your water after you boil the pasta reduces your sodium intake, thus lowering the risk of heart disease and failure. Long live The Empire!" - Adam off camera, probably

[@aleksanderkalicki5518]

@YTr cretor stop spamming religious content on a cooking video

[@alluriman]

science is not different in the mirror universe only culture and history is Long live The Empire!

[@TheSlavChef]

Long LIVE THE EMPIRE. IF you sweat a lot and drink enough water, the salt is not a problem.

[@lurk7967]

​@YTr cretor First tiem I saw this Iw as okay wit hit but you guys spam this all the time now

[@JETZcorp]

But DOES lowering sodium intake actually lower the risk of heart disease? From what I can tell, the long-assumed connection between salt and chronic hypertension is tenuous at best. Long live the Empire.

[@passionatelyclueless6864]

What I read somewhere, and seems to be true in practice for me, is that the “salty as the sea” heuristic works well to salt pasta water because people generally do not remember real seawater as being as salty as it really is. Then, when they salt their pasta water based on that underestimation, they get no where near as salty as the sea, but actually hit right about where they need to for making pasta. TLDR: salt pasta water as salty as you remember sea water being, not how salty it actually is.

[@romxxii]

And yeah, I agree that "salty as the sea" is a bad rule of thumb. I keep hearing it repeated by KZbin chefs -- the Bon Appetit chefs notoriously repeat it all the time -- but any time I tried boiling pasta in what is essentially seawater, the end result has always been _too salty._ I finally settled on just dropping a pinch of salt, or sometimes not even if I'm making carbonara. I trust the bacon and pecorino to bring all the saltiness to the dish.

[@adamsbja]

I've gotten in this argument as well, in part because I knowingly underseason. When I try to season "to taste" it doesn't work well, I just don't have the right instincts to know how things will blend after they get properly mixed and cooked. So I rely on suggested amounts and that's fine for baking but in cooking people fudge. As Adam does in this video I dutifully looked up the salinity of seawater and replicated it in my pot and wasted a lot of pasta. It was nasty. Then people online were saying "that's how you're supposed to do it, clearly you're bad at tasting." Anyway, it's nice to have this video as vindication.

[@LordKeram]

Making the past as salty as the sea is a perfectly valid advice as long as you don't know exactly what the sea tastes like. Remember the first time I heard about it. I put more and more and more salt until the water just tasted too salty. Then I stopped and the pasta was perfect. I was never able to replicate quite the same taste as I normally underseason (can't really afford to throw out an entire pot of pasta because it's too salty). But the advice is completely fine if you don't literally go and measure the saltiness of a real sea.

[@romxxii]

@@LordKeram unless you've never gone to the beach, you pretty much know how "salty as the sea" tastes like. And it's a weird advice to give coming from Italians who are mostly surrounded by beaches.

[@LordKeram]

@@romxxii I mean literally this video explain that no. You do not know how the sea tastes. And that won't change unless you literally drink sea water. The advice is completely fine for 99% of people.

[@LordKeram]

Have people really gotten so dumbed down by the internet and language policing that you all lost the understanding of metaphors and similes? Do you literally think a person jumps from place to place and eats insects when someone says the look like a toad?

[@tiagooliveirarynto41]

this guy mastered his segments to sponsors, its on point.

[@vaibhavgupta20]

+

[@JayAreAitch]

Just a shame that he led up to it by confessing that he used a pyrex jug and a microwave to boil water. Made me queazy.

[@thischannelisforcommenting5680]

Can he fight the segue of Linus Tech Tips?

[@kuratovsky]

Adam, you've opened up my perspective on cooking so much during these years. What you provide are clearly not only recipes, but a set of sophisticated tools and a general way of thinking. Art & science in a practically perfect combination. Last time I experienced something like this was during an advanced mathematical analysis course at university-a similarly life-changing event. I've started to feel a form of humble pride to have this knowledge and mindset you've been teaching me and us, your audience, in general. Thanks for putting so much effort in sharing your passion with the world, as I'm certain it makes the place a little better.

[@00cho]

"eating pasta that was boiled in salty water, and that's just what I'm used to?" I would agree that it is what you are used to. As a Korean American, I grew up eating unsalted pasta and rice.(although Korean short grain rice actually has flavor unlike the long grain rice commonly used in western cultures, which is pretty tasteless. Korean rice has more flavor than plain pasta also) I never had salted pasta until I ate at an Italian restaurant, and did not understand the difference until later in life. Now that I know the difference, I do salt my pasta water, but probably less salt than usual.

[@Pahhu]

This is my most controversial culinary take by far, I have had plenty of pasta cooked "correctly" at restaurants yet I still prefer my pasta unseasoned when I make it at home. I know I'm an absolute heretic for this, but to me it's exactly what he said in the video, it's like white rice in Asian cuisine. Pasta is just a neutral vessel to carry a very flavourful topping which already has plenty of salt.

[@00cho]

@@Pahhu I use very little salt in my cooking, as my mother did. She used soy sauce, which of course contains salt, but as it also contains a lot of other flavor, you can achieve good flavor with much less equivalent salt. I find a lot of restaurant food is too salty for me, and I end up drinking multiple glasses of water in an attempt to compensate. The problem seems to have lessened with the rise of food TV, possibly because more cooks have learned that 'salt to taste' does not mean 'add salt until it tastes salty'

[@adamsbja]

@@Pahhu Something I've found works for me: no salt, slice and toss a kielbasa (I use turkey or beef, turkey's a bit "drier" while the beef is very fatty and buttery) into the water. I do that before bringing it to a boil, then add the pasta. Everything comes out the other side tasting delicious and it's very low effort if you already have the sausage. Makes for an easy lunch.

[@calyodelphi124]

FUN LITTLE FACT: That "FOOMP!" or "THUMP!" you hear when you're microwaving stuff is the sound of a phenomenon called "bumping", where a liquid flash-boils all at once in a single, violent event. Bumping is an extremely hazardous phenomenon when you are heating up any kind of a liquid solution, as the pressure spikes so tremendously fast that it can damage or destroy the container. Or.... splatter your lunch all over the guts of your microwave. In chemistry labwork in particular this is commonly why chemists will often add boiling chips to a solution that they have to bring to a boil in order to drive off volatile fractions from the solution. Those boiling chips are loaded with nucleation sites to prevent bumping! (This is especially a problem if you're working with any sulfuric acid based solutions; H2SO4 loves to bump and it is NOT a solvent you want bumping on you in a sealed system of glassware!)

[@paulbrosnan4339]

Hey Adam, how are you finding cooking on the gas stove and are you going to make a video about it?

[@TheSlavChef]

Explosively good!

[@cubrakadabra]

Gas will always be nicer than electric and induction is a sweetspot in the middle

[@aisosaihama]

That'd be a good explainer vid; I've always preferred cooking on gas compared to anything else but I can never explain why when someone asks 🤔

[@TheSlavChef]

@@aisosaihama I will tell you why. I prefer gas or induction as you can very easily turn the heat up or down, which will have immediate reflection on how the dish is cooked. Great for stuff like styr fry, scrambled eggs, frying as a whole. While if you are on electric it takes time for the heat to be reduced or put on high. I hope I did not get you lost as I am not a native speaker :D

[@aisosaihama]

@@TheSlavChef no that's perfect and is usually what I say when people ask me. I was taught to cook by my mum so it was mostly west African cuisine which is a lot of stews, porridges and sauces so being able to change temperature whenever you need to is necessary. I feel like I can taste a difference in quality between electric and gas cooked dishes 🤔

[@DeletedDenizen]

This channel with its blitz kitchen experiments and quality information is really al dente *chef's kiss*

[@Jesse__H]

One thing I appreciate about you Adam is you always do a good job of asking the right questions after you've stated an opinion or made an assertion.

[@IamJustaSimpleMan]

Funny, I was just thinking about this question today :) When I grew up, people always told me the "only put it in after boiling" - Version. While we are on the subject of saving time when boiling pasta water: Heating the water in a electric cettle before transferring it to the pot is the fastest and easiest way for me. Sometimes I´m even heating a little amount of water in the pot (to get it to temperature in time, the water is only there to avoid getting the pot TO hot) while I´m heating water in the kettle. Gives me a rolling boil even on larger amounts of water in usually about 5 minutes.

[@donatboy]

I do it exactly the same way.

[@reginag4053]

@@donatboy Me, too.

[@scottmichaelharris]

One reason to add salt after boiling, is, that stainless steel is degraded by salt and you eventually get holes in your stainless pots. So less time in contact with salt improves your pots lifetime. We used aluminum pots if salt is going to be boiled for a long time.

[@matejmahkovic]

I really don't understand this seeming obsession with pasta cooking time. What difference does it make if the water needs 5 min or 15 min to reach boiling? It's not like you are watching the water boil, you are usually busy preparing the sauce and chopping things or cleaning things.

[@matejmahkovic]

@@scottmichaelharris That sounds a lot like the 0,5 C difference in temperature. It may be technically true but in practice the difference is so miniscule it doesn't matter.

[@charlesarnold4963]

I found this very interesting. I had always assumed that the reason for adding salt to boiling water was to increase the temperature. You have knocked that misconception on the head! I am aware that some people boil vegetables without salt to reduce their salt intake. It seems to apply to pasta and rice as well. Well presented and well argued. Nice one.

[@NicoBurns]

It's only just occurred to me reading your comment that some people boil vegetables in salty water! I knew people did this for pasta, but in my house growing up it was only ever sauces, baked good, or finished dishes that were salted!

[@aldentepotato]

I appreciate that Adam is here to end food debates that I was not even aware existed. 😁

[@strider_hiryu850]

right? this one, the chocolate video, the fat video. he's pretty good at this

[@TarAnarion]

Have you tried the "seawater"-salinity with fresh pasta? I've been told that makes a difference because fresh pasta cooks that much quicker, it needs saltier water.

[@fluxkraken]

ooh, that sounds plausable.

[@thiocarbamoyl]

It's not that it cooks quicker, it's that is absorbs less cooking water due to already having some of its own.

[@Gesepp95]

This is what I was thinking; I have been told that the longer you cook a dish, the more of the salt from its cooking liquid gets imparted to the food. Thus, braising meat for hours in an environment as salty as regular pasta water is to be avoided, but if you're blanching vegetables for 30 seconds, go ahead and dump a tablespoon in. Perhaps the seawater advice originated with fresh pasta and was valid then? Or maybe Adam already nailed it and we should disregard going forward.

[@TheSlavChef]

salty comment!

[@guy-dev]

I usually season the fresh pasta dough itself, so seasoning the water is unnecessary

[@Dinomannen]

I grew up with pasta water not being salted, and the moment i tried pasta cooked with salted water i instantly liked it alot more, so i think it is not just what you are used to.

[@feldinho]

In my family we go for “salty as tears”. I guess my nonna is kind of dramatic.

[@pierrecurie]

That's probably closer to what Adam prefers.

[@luisberendji8296]

That‘s actually pretty accurate of what it shpuld taste like (for me atleast).

[@sweet5304]

That's a very cute way of putting it, especially if you're eaching it to kids

[@corpsefoot758]

She’s actually 100% spot-on The old adage of “salty as the sea” is too much. And tears’ flavor is easily referenced lol

[@nukeumami5737]

As someone who recently bought a ton of cookware, the general advice they gave is to salt after boiling to avoid pitting in the stainless steel. I wonder just how much that salting before vs after affects the actual cookware, which is a slightly different point to yours about the food tasting relatively the same.

[@glahtiguy]

Always wait until the boil is going well in Stainless Steel pots/pans. Salt is sodium chloride. Mix chloride ions, dissolved oxygen in the water, and heat and put it in contact with the chromium on the surface of the stainless steel, and you're going to have a bad time. Getting the water up to a full boil will drive out the dissolved oxygen, not allowing those chloride ions to oxidize your pan. Now, in truth the pitting is mostly cosmetic and shouldn't effect the capability of your pan, it just looks ugly.

[@markholm7050]

I pitted the bottom of a good quality stainless steel pot by adding salt before the water was boiling.

[@ggauche3465]

I never added salt to pasta water, because I just didn't want to have a lot of salt in my diet, so I was used to not salt boiled pasta. Then I read that the salt was necessary to make the sauce stick to the pasta - the salt kind of roughened up the surface of the pasta, so I started adding salt. But I found it too salty to my taste so I added less and less, until I stopped altogether. Salt made no significant difference to the sauces sticking to the pasta if any. Really enjoyng these vids, which I've just discovered.

[@williamblount5199]

Right? If you want things to taste more salty, put salt on them. "No, you don't understand, by adding salt to the water, you will salt the pasta on the inside!" WTF makes the difference? The real test that should have been done here is to compare pasta prepared in salted water to pasta prepared in water with no salt. By the time you put a sauce on it, it will taste plenty salty and no one will be able to tell the difference. Pre-packaged pasta sauces are loaded with salt. Everything you eat in a restaurant is loaded with salt. One of the benefits of cooking at home is NOT having to eat something that just tastes like salt. Still love this guy's videos though.

[@j.m.9185]

I'm glad that someone finally says that "salty like the sea" is way too much. Maybe afterwards the pasta will still taste ok. But it can make the sauce completely too salty

[@amunak_]

The saying goes like that because people didn't expect anyone to actually go measure (or look up) the saltiness of sea water, then putting however much salt in the water. As Adam observed, "too salty" water tastes the same whether it's perfect for boiling pasta or when it's way too much. The saying is there just so you aren't afraid to put a large amount of salt in, not to literally put in heaps of salt.

[@Willabicks]

I don’t even put any salt in my water and it still comes out good

[@j.m.9185]

@@Willabicks No, it doesn't

[@corpsefoot758]

@@Willabicks Try salting sometime, you’ll enjoy it

[@MadsterV]

I have used too much salt and made the pasta inedible, so yeah, you can go overboard. I have also forgotten about it and had to eat mush afterwards. There's a balance, it's just not too tight.

[@cloud-dv1wb]

Bruh Adams the only person to hear "as salty as the sea' and literally measure the salinity of the ocean to test it

[@glpxt]

Great video as usual, just two additions: - You should add the salt only to boiling water, for one reason: If you put it in the cold water, then the salt grains keep sitting at the bottom of the pot for a good while and cause ugly corrosion points. And no, this is not just theory, I've learnt it the hard way. (Alternatively you can stir the cold water until the salt has been dissolved, of course.) - If in the laboratory some liquid is heated beyond its boiling point, it is standard practice to put in a «boiling stone», to prevent that overheating you described.

[@ugh_dad]

Bubble nucleation is really interesting, in the micro...oh he's on it! It is a Ragusea video so I don't know why I didn't expect him to hit fun little tangents to fully explain a mechanic!

[@stuntmonkey00]

Every time I learn about a new cooking myth, it just makes me realize how much cooks have no education in basic science and just come up with the most random shit trying to explain things in a way that obviously don't make sense.

[@123tobiiboii123]

I think it's probably one of those things where a lot of these cooking myths and "tricks" did people well for a long time through trail and error, some being legit, improving dishes, some improving them for different reasons than they thought, and others being useless/placebo. Only more recently are we separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what is true and what isn't

[@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041]

Well for most of its history, cooking was art not science... And then some dunce came along with a bottle of liquid Nitrogen...

[@sammyboy7094]

The brain doing its thang

[@BestSomebodyNA]

This is why I love watching Adam and reading Kenji's Food Lab cookbook textbook. So much explanation as to why we do things and now just the how or what.

[@feastmode7931]

@@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041 -- i disagree. cooking was always about science. we just didn't understand food science, so we treated it like a craft where you learn only from experience and instinct.

[@rodneyvanelmpt1177]

I just want to say I love you. I found you through your cast iron video as I was looking for sources on proper seasoning and you've been knocking down all the questions I had while cooking my entire life since.

[@abadidea8610]

you know after binging a whole lot of Adam's videos I'm actually pretty sold on his views on heterogeneity and seasoning placement

[@Wertsir]

So you salt the stove NOT the water?

[@abadidea8610]

@@Wertsir of course! how else would you do it?

[@hcn6708]

Thanks Space Cat

[@realkingofantarctica]

I've been travelling the globe discovering why we salt water and when to do it. Little did I know all I had to do was wait for an Adam Ragusea video.

[@TheSlavChef]

Just boil the pasta in sea water!

[@TheSlavChef]

@Mohammedk659 one should use all of the resources available :D

[@nyan0812nerd]

I 988888888888888888880088988

[@emerkaes9091]

I can remember on some pot I've bought there was information not to salt early, because it puts the pot in a risk of corrosion

[@Laika4895]

When it comes to salting pasta water, i always just added it whenever i remembered to add it or when the pasta goes in. Haven't noticed a difference in the finished product

[@corpsefoot758]

I like to add it early, because hot water is not fun to taste-test lmao

[@kristoferhill2827]

Adam is Italian, therefore the expert. And he's now a Tennessean, my favorite thing

[@Ammar.D]

What's special about Tennesseans?

[@kristoferhill2827]

@@Ammar.D Nothing much. Geography is destiny

[@finchhawthorne1302]

He’s Italian American. He’s acknowledged that’s different.

[@trollinape2697]

@@finchhawthorne1302 exactly

[@Robepriority]

It seems like Knoxville, Georgia.

[@demarianwilliams4301]

You have the smoothest transitions into talking about your sponsors. Like, they're so smooth that they don't even annoy me haha

[@superXwhiteXninja]

I still think that "salty like the sea" is a good metaphor. People have a tendency to under season, and if *literally* "salty like the sea" is the upper end of reasonable, it's still a good recommendation. Plus, saltiness levels that people prefer vary but my experience cooking for others is that if you push the salt a bit, the normal reaction is, "woah! How is this *so* flavorful??" People like their salt, they just don't want to admit it lol

[@ano_nym]

Salty as the sea literally is a deciliter of salt for a bit over 3 liters of water. It's insanely much. And most people don't under season, at least not with salt. We eat far too much of it generally.

[@piasecznik]

3.5% salinity is nuts for pasta. If you boil pasta in a large pot that has like 6-7 liters of water in it that'd be over 200 grams of salt, and in terms of taste it's borderline inedible. My usual rule of thumb is 0.5% for a very salty sauce (carbonara, or maybe puttanesca with a ton of olives and anchovies and capers), 1% for a normal sauce, 1.5% for a sauce that doesn't have much seasoning or salty elements in it. And I like salty food! Maybe I'd go higher for something like pasta with butter and nothing else, but a) I haven't made that since I was a kid and b) even then I'd probably only do maybe 2-2.5%.

[@chromberries7329]

​@@ano_nymmost people don't know the salinity of the sea, it's hyperbole to help people understand that for pasta, salting the water means salting the water thoroughly. The water should at the very least taste salty if you taste a bit of it. About the health issues, yeah I agree our modern diets contain way too much salt. However, the pasta will only absorb a small percentage of the salt, so you're not going to be eating all that salt. Italians salt the pasta in place of adding additional salt to their sauces and pasta dishes most of the time, so it honestly probably helps you eat less by making the pasta flavorful enough on its own (plus you usually add a touch of the salty pasta water to the sauce to thicken).

[@mfaizsyahmi]

"Salty as the sea" is probably true for Baltic Sea. It's brackish enough that it's okay to drink in a pinch.

[@C0urne]

I assume the saying comes from Italy so the sea they meant was the Mediterranean that is a tad saltier than the open ocean. :P

[@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041]

You mean that weird lake between Finland and Sweden?

[@C0urne]

@@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041 Also between Sweden and Germany!

[@Aciek25]

And Sweden and Poland. Wow those Swedish people have way too much Baltic sea.

[@Bison162]

Reminds me of a common misconception at high altitudes. They like to say there (about 7000 feet in elevation) that water takes longer to boil there compared to sea level. Nope, the opposite is true. Water boils quicker, but food takes longer to cook since the max temp you can boil at is around 93 C.

[@ducky_urban]

I genuinely didn’t know how complicated people make putting salt in pasta water. Amazing.

[@zjean3417]

Just put around half a tablespoon. Or just eyeball it. It's not that hard.

[@teloenand]

@@zjean3417 The sweet spot is 7g of salt per litre of water (about a teaspoon or so of table salt), that gets you a 0.7% solution, which is the ideal amount. If you can eyeball that quantity, props to you, I'm terrible at it, so I measure it out.

[@dawnkitchen]

Your cooking makes me really happy. Just looking at it makes me feel better. I'll learn a lot.

[@adambier2415]

I oft’ microwave water for tea and have learned early on that the temperature can be above boil without producing bubbles. Adding agitation such as a tea bag creates a relatively unwelcome affect if you are currently holding onto the mug. You can also lower water to below freezing without it becoming ice and then trigger it to do so with agitation.

[@TruculentGoose]

The real pro tip at the end. I've been putting a pinch of salt in my coffee for years. I feel vindicated

[@vespasiancloscan7077]

The "salt after it comes to a boil" camp sometimes argues that even something as indestructible as stainless steel gets damaged by prolonged exposure to saltwater. So I suppose that if you're going to use the same pot for boiling pasta daily for 120 years, it might make a difference.

[@philipwebb960]

Ha, ha! You think stainless steel is indestructible.

[@AnWe79]

I know this by experience, coarse rock salt in cold water = pitted pot. I'm not sure that particular pot was stainless though, 20 years ago, IKEA 365+ pot IIRC, might have had some plating, looked like chrome. There are different grades of stainless steel too, so YMMV.

[@briswolf]

Yeah the bottom of my pasta pot is heavily pitted from just one salt-before-boiling attempt…

[@MisterHouu]

As soon as I saw the handful of sand I was like "probably just introducing more nucleation points or something" then you said it and for the first time in the last several years I felt mildly proud of myself.

[@jacoblewis553]

Hey Adam, just wanted to say that I love your content and my family always love your recopies.

[@MajoraZ]

A related video topic you could do that would be useful is finding out exactly how much of the salt you put into the water makes it into the pasta and then you ingest, and on the same note, if you're sauting or frying food, how much oil actually sticks to the surface or soaks into the food. If you're trying to count calories and nutrition using a fitness tracker, I have no idea how much salt or olive oil I should be saying I had with the meal since presumbly not all the salt or oil I use in pasta water or in a pan makes it into my mouth.

[@alexandrosgoulas]

I totally agree, I was going to suggest the same!

[@Kino_the_Crusty]

god more than anything i love your channel because every roommate i ever had has been so damn adamant on schooling me on doing things wrong, i have been purposefully teaching myself to cook since day one of moving out to move over some food-related trauma so their confusing criticisms always felt hurtful somehow. and not only do all your videos validate me for not caring, i also learn that they didn't even agrue their points for reasons most people carry the whole salt boil thing was argued that "it boils LESS HARDER" which is both the opposite of the stuff you deal with but also "WHY WOULD YOU WANT THAT??" {ofc this also applies to like 50/50 salt/water mixures only not a pinch}

[@g00dbyemisterA]

I keep forgetting about how in America with the lower wattage plug outlets it isnt just a case of putting the kettle on and having boiling water pretty much ready

[@ExcludedLayman]

Typical US outlets can do 1.8 kW; Americans just don't have electric kettles, it's bizarre.

[@cervid_appreciator]

@@ExcludedLayman my family has always had an electric kettle. When I realized it wasn’t normal, I was shocked.

[@bbutcher0812]

I'm an American. I don't know a single American who doesn't have an electric kettle. Seriously, every single person I'm friends with has one. I don't know why I always see statements saying we don't have kettles. In fact, when Adam put the measuring cup in the microwave to boil his coffee water I thought that was some seriously bizarre shit and seems unsafe.

[@ivacheung792]

Thanks for this video, Adam! I believe Helen Rennie advised salting more when cooking fresh pasta because the pasta spends much less time in the water. Is this something you might want to explore as a part 2 of this video?

[@swimfan752]

Nah

[@johnfrancis89]

Yah

[@tristan1234531]

An important thing I think is the possibility to salt or dilute the salt during the cooking process to a certain degree. It's easier to add salt, however. For dry pasta, between 9 and 10 grams of salt per liter of water is a good amount. This can be adjusted according to the sauce etc. And if possible less than 150 grams of pasta per liter of water.

[@andreineculai8477]

Can we have a dill pickle video? I've been playing with fermentation these past 2 weeks and the results are like magic!

[@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041]

Maybe when he gets a sponsorship from the Spreewald?

[@Jasonwolf1495]

I'm from a family that never salts their water for pasta, and to me it always seemed absurd (In that, its just not my normal and seemed so strange and foreign to me) to disolve it in the cooking water. We add salt to the sauce or butter or whatever else you're putting on it. So yeah Adam you do you and we'll do we. Its a great part of humanity that we all have these little things that we don't even notice until someone brings it up. its so fascinating how even little experiences can change your life.

[@Capsaicin1337]

Material Scientist here. I Salt late. Not right before the Pasta but right after the water comes to a boil. Reason being corrosion. Your Pot is most likely made of Stainless steel or Aluminum. Both are sensitive for Cloride Ions in water. Remember that it is Stainless not Stainfree. While Water does not dissolve substantially more Salt when it is hot, but it will dissolve much faster and it will not come in direct contact as much as when you put it in in the beginning. Also the concentration of the fluid in contact with the metals will be much higher if the salt sits on the bottom and there is no agitation of the Fluid. Because I am lazy i will use the boiling water and not stand there stirring for a whole long time.

[@dasten123]

I actually thought that having to salt pasta water is a total myth, I'm glad you actually compared the noodles with and without salt in this video (I was too lazy). Guess it just doesn't make much of a difference for me because of my low cooking skills, lol. But I think pasta cooked with unsalted water tastes great so I'm not changing anything.

[@martinba9629]

I agree with Adam that pure pasta tastes better when the water was salted. I still forget the salt more often than not, because as far as I can taste, as soon as the pasta's mixed with the sauce, there's no difference anymore.

[@Avi2Nyan]

I never salt my pasta. My gran does and her plain pasta is very tasty, but like,, her blood pressure is wayy high and if you add sauce or meat juices or anything you already add flavour anyway. Plus, plain unsalted pasta is still really fucking good!

[@spejic1]

I also never salt my water. It seems like Adam puts a lot of salt in everything so that's what he's used to, but you get used to less salt in the diet really quickly and it tastes just fine to me.

[@Avi2Nyan]

@@spejic1 Yeah exactly. I've been lowering the amount of salt I put in my food and it's great. I only need a little now for something to taste quite salty. My blood vessels thank me, haha

[@bigfatchubbybritboy9445]

The cheese itself has more than enough salt to season the pasta as well mind. Cheese has that umami savouryness etc so in effect it provides more flavour than just salt alone would

[@jflartner117]

LOL "I don't care what a scientist tells me." "ok bro, conversation over."

[@Philo-ul2uq]

Anecdotal observation > basic chemistry, stop denying his experience!!!!!

[@RingxWorld]

I wonder if amateur "professional" chief is also an anti-vaxxer

[@Soxruleyanksdrool]

Organized religion uses that same statement. And government washes their hands of the matter by wanting to stay out of it. Thus letting religion legally get away with killing common sense. But don't think for one minute that government is not complicit in all this.

[@kennypowers2341]

I don’t like this notion at all, scientists/“experts” lie all the time (lobotomies, dietary pills, lead gas, etc.) science is about questioning things and drawing your own conclusions from sound observations, obviously for something like this it also requires a lot of arrogance and not understanding the study but it’s in everyone’s rights to question the “scientists”. Conversations over for you cause your a dumb parrot, the conversations not over if you can describe the observations made in the study.

[@TheInfectous]

​@@kennypowers2341 unfortunately that's not the way the majority treat science. just as in the past, most people are sheep, before religion was the dominant institution with it's religious zealots blindly following the orders of the "holy priests." now we have "logical people" with "science" as their institution of choice, blindly following the orders of "scientists." we'll be doing the same shit for the rest of time, the only periods of time where it doesn't happen are when we luck upon a governing body that actually tries to help the masses rather than extort them for the most profit. don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-science, but most people don't give a fuck about the science, they aren't reading past the headline of tabloid articles let ALONE looking at the actual results of any studies, let alone coming to the understanding that on any given issue there is going to be disagreements on the causes/interpretations of any given data or in many cases disagreements about what is even valid data in the first place... but don't dare suggest this applies to any of their sacred topics or else you're branded as "anti-science."

[@W4ZEL]

Never salted my water for pasta since I started living alone. And I come from a half french, half italian household. Most of the time I prefer for my food to be seasoned after cooking, except for the recipes that specifically require it of course.

[@redbeardthepink4809]

I think I heard somewhere that the "salty as the sea" thing was coined with fresh pasta in mind, reason being that fresh pasta spends much less time in the water and therefore has less time to absorb salt (or maybe it's that fresh pasta is more moist and therefore absorbs less of the salted water, I'm not really sure). I don't know if that's actually true, but intuitively it kinda makes sense. Personally, I feel like both types get too salty if my boiling water tastes like sea water, so I only add about three to five good pinches, depending on how much water I'm using.

[@cdgonepotatoes4219]

thinking of the same, aside from gnocchi which are way more... "porous"? though still I wouldn't be statistically accurate as I also doubt those who first said "as salty as the sea" truly meant it, more an emphasis.

[@duffman18]

@@cdgonepotatoes4219 yeah the phrase was never literal. It's just a bit of advice that can convince some beginner cooks to use much more salt than they feel comfortable using. They'll be worried that that amount will ruin the dish, so they have to learn that it won't, and you can add a bunch of salt to pasta before it starts tasting too salty, it's pretty hard to fuck up. But yeah probably fresh pasta is a factor too. You only cook fresh pasta for like 2 minutes and it's already done. So yeah just go nuts with the salt for that.

[@36424567254]

I use mostly fresh pasta these days, and I have never felt I needed to put more salt than before (if at all, I'm trying to slightly reduce it). Although to be sure I would need to cook both side by side.

[@adamfreilich2741]

You left out the reason I salt my pasta water after it comes to the boil. If you salt first you can cause pitting to your pot! This happened to me a few years back and I was able to get it replaced but they told me it was the salt. Maybe I used too much but I like salt. Since then I salt after it's boiling and haven't had an issue.

[@pOgOstyle]

THIS

[@nicollyclement8720]

I salt my water before so I can taste it

[@scottmichaelharris]

Stainless pots are susceptible to salt pitting. Aluminum and glass hold up longer.

[@sunggyulee9020]

I love that shade thrown to a past commenter. Lmao On the salt and creating bubbles note: Though I agree with the nucleation, there are also other factors that create that "flaring" effect when you just threw the salt/sand! There are another 2 physical effects that add to the bubbling effect! 1. Throwing stuff into the water will agitate the water and make many of those small bubbles that still haven't detached on the side of the pot to get free! This is why the water looks so "murky" right after you throw it! 2. Throwing the salt introduced air to the water! Much like how when you jump into a pool, a bunch of bubbles gather around you. This is why you can see a big "flare" of bubble when you throw in the Sand, but then it gets a smaller effect. If it was just nucleation, you would see it be a more constant thing. As to why this doesn't happen in cold water; it does happen, its just that the bubbles you introduce are very small, and in boiling water, these bubbles will grow due to the water being at boiling.

[@KindredBrujah]

I know the phrase as 'salty as the Mediterranean'. Given the origin of pasta, it always seemed fairly logical to me. I was under the impression (though have never actually looked into it) that this is because in the olden times, coastal Italians would simply scoop up some Med water and cook their pasta in it.

[@krovek]

my Italian grandmother taught me that you add the salt to already boiling water because it's better for the pot. Supposedly the salt sitting on the bottom as it boils is somehow bad for it. It always sounded to me like something that maybe mattered more ages ago when cooking pots might have been made out of different materials, certainly not the stainless steel and aluminum pots we have today. If making a saturated salt solution like you did had no ill effect on the pot I can't imagine what would.

[@theSquashSH]

Modern high quality AllClad stainless pans still come with manufacturer instructions recommending to not let salt sit on them directly or salt water before boiling.

[@krovek]

@@theSquashSH Interesting. Is that just because it's steel? I guess even stainless steel is "rust resistant" not "rust proof" right? So even if it's not immediate, salt should still speed up corrosion. Although, you can season steel to some degree like cast iron, and I've heard coarse salt recommended as a scouring agent to clean cast iron pans, haven't tried it myself though. I guess in that case you aren't mixing it with water and letting it sit or boil for a long time. I've heard many times that really acidic things can degrade the seasoning.

[@t3hd0n]

a note on superheating; something about boxed pastaroni's microwaved intructions (plus maybe our microwave, 1300 watts if you're curious) would sometimes cause water to superheat even though it wasn't just water in the bowl. this was a few years ago, idk if they've changed their instructions by now though

[@Incrememe]

I love how Adam has taught me more than my Chemistry teacher

[@TheGreatWerebear]

I honestly never salt my water anymore. I just don't think to. I'm used to the way it tastes unsalted--so what you speculated about at 12:05 rings true to me. That said, I cook noodles in their sauce about 80% of the time. But when I don't--just plain water and then add the sauce later--it tastes fine to me. This video is good and informative either way. As often is the case, with your work.

[@gabemoler6682]

Finally a good sponsor that is actually interesting, thanks Adam!

[@kyrrwin]

As a researcher & scientist, I love your approach to teaching about foods. Much respect. Also, your transitions between content and sponsors are incredible and often make me laugh and hit the like button if i didn't already.

[@dylanmclelland8847]

The Alton Brown vibes are strong. You sir are a fantastic carrier of his science based cooking torch. Hats off to you 👏👏

[@mikemason7422]

But Alton Brown's advice is to put your pasta in cold water.

[@corpsefoot758]

@@mikemason7422 ew, wtf?

[@gk6993]

I love how you give us the science behind cooking. Much appreciated. My ratio is 1 tablespoon to 4 litres of water.

[@tylerbrown8098]

The reasoning I heard for salting at the end was that adding the salt in cold water can cause pitting on the bottom of the pan

[@Kat-Kobold]

I would like to ask for a video about non-melting cheeses and their uses in cooking. As someone who just cannot stand meat, I often use paneer and halloumi as substitutes for meat in several of your recipes (basically any that don't rely on extracting meat juices for flavour) and I would like to understand more about how that affects the cooking process. Many thanks for your excellent content.

[@teece92]

I learned about superheated water and nucleation sites from Good Eats when I was in middle school; the solution he offered was to put (clean) wooden chopsticks in the water when you microwave it. The wood will provide the nucleation sites, and it should boil normally.

[@cloudzpluto4463]

The knowledge provided in these videos is phenomenal. This dude is more interesting than my science teacher :p

[@Ultrazaubererger]

I had cooking classes in school (just basic stuff, so you can feed yourself). The teacher was convinced you could save energy by putting in the salt just before the pasta because it raises the boiling point. She also used so little salt in everything that it just tasted bland... she was weird.

[@punchpineapple]

The super-heating is the most important thing I reckon we can take from this video (the salt part is all good, too). My mum warned me never to boil water in the microwave for exactly this reason, due to the risk of water or steam burns. Appreciate the warning.

[@Heylon1313]

When he said "it doesn't matter when you salt the water" I first thought he means it doesn't matter even if you throw it in 10s before you take the pasta out, I was very confused

[@DjNotNicesNucka]

Thank you for addressing the 'salt your water as salty as the sea' thing. As a saltwater aquarist, I make salt water literally as salty as the sea, at least for many tropical reef fish. We measure it about 1.023 to 1.026 specific gravity is how aquarists measure salinity- marine biologists measure it differently I'm aware. That is an obscene amount of salt for cooking, I couldn't imagine eating it.

[@PatriotsFan7O]

I've come to really enjoy the content you put out. Both this video and your one of your latest are prime examples of why I love your videos. Rich in information, interesting topics. The way your outline your information reminds me of how we teach our guys how to write important emails: BLUF - Bottom Line Up Front. Straight to the point then fill out with details, extra context and whatnot.

[@juangirbes1999]

"that salty chef in the comments..." I see what you did there

[@stentor1980]

Good thing he wasn't talking to a seaman . . .