Paul Zuvella posted:

Holy poo poo this is so goddamn triggering this is how you get rubbery poo poo eggs. Never salt eggs before cooking them

El_Elegante posted:

*gets taken to egg school, like an egg fool*

*weeps embarrassingly*

Fitzy Fitz posted:

wtf is unattractive egg weeping

Harrow posted:

- Everyone knows by now you should salt your pasta water (quite a lot). This is also true for water for blanching vegetables. Boiled vegetables suck mostly because the water leeches out all the flavor, but if you heavily salt the water beforehand (and you should taste the water to test that it's unbearably salty), the whole equilibrium shifts and the vegetables will absorb salt from the water and not the other way around. If you want blanched vegetables that taste insanely good, whether you're going to eat them just plain blanched or use them for something else, add a shitload of salt to the water before blanching.

Lunethex posted:

https://nichegamer.com/2019/09/22/bioware-drops-post-launch-content-for-anthem-to-focus-on-issues-with-main-game/

Hopper posted:

An Italian once told me "When your pasta water tastes like the Mediterranean sea, you did it right."
Pretty nifty rule of thumb.

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

I'm still waiting on a good chili recipe

Gobblecoque posted:

Well the start to any good chili is lots of beans.

moist turtleneck posted:

Chili without beans is just a meat paste

You need fiber with your fire soup

Harrow posted:

- Everyone knows by now you should salt your pasta water (quite a lot). This is also true for water for blanching vegetables. Boiled vegetables suck mostly because the water leeches out all the flavor, but if you heavily salt the water beforehand (and you should taste the water to test that it's unbearably salty), the whole equilibrium shifts and the vegetables will absorb salt from the water and not the other way around. If you want blanched vegetables that taste insanely good, whether you're going to eat them just plain blanched or use them for something else, add a shitload of salt to the water before blanching.

tuo posted:

Do I add the oil to the water before or after adding the salt?

moist turtleneck posted:

I believe the fat, acid, salt, heat lady adds way too much salt to her pasta

Her recipe for foccacia is good though

Harrow posted:

Neither. Adding oil to the water doesn't do anything useful. I used to think it prevented boil-overs but after some testing I don't think it does.

Vermain posted:

Pour the oil directly into your mouth after the pasta is finished to avoid living a coward's life.

dex_sda posted:

The best way to cook pasta is to treat it like a risotto.

Have boiling water with some salt (less than the mediterranean sea, more than a pinch) at the ready. Put your pasta in a dry skillet on light heat. Add a ladle or two of the water to the skillet, just enough to cover the pasta in the skillet. Start moving it and as soon as it becomes pliable, flipping it. As the water evaporates, continue adding a ladle or two at the time until your pasta is almost al dente - which will take 2-3 minutes longer than usual, but is easier to get right by biting the pasta during the cooking. What you want is a minimal amount of water in the skillet at all times. Once it's basically cooked, add the stuff that you need to form the sauce and mix.

What happens is that with this method, you super-concentrate the extracted starch from the pasta in the water. Flipping that mixture will then aerate it. Essentially, you will get something the consistency of a light cream/roux that will stick to the pasta and perfectly emulsify with the fat in your sauce, making it coat the individual strands completely. This is why restaurant pasta always seems to be more glossy and more delicious and forms a more cohesive sauce - they reuse the same water to cook multiple batches, which intensifies the amount of starch in the mixture, and they then use a ladleful or two to finish the sauce. This method emulates that effect without needing to boil multiple bunches of pasta.

Also, at the same time, because you're so close to evaporating the water, the pasta will absorb the flavor in the water very efficiently. This is why you shouldn't salt it as much, and also a great way to infuse further flavor - if you're making, say, pasta with lobster, use lobster bisque instead of water. Experiment, the world is your oyster. I make my own twist on aglio e olio in this method (first prepare the oil with garlic and hot pepper normally, reserve; add a sprig of parsley to the boiling salted water to infuse it with the parsley flavor; cook pasta as described with that water; add back the oil; finish with a pinch or two of parsley for color) and it's perfect every time. Same with my carbonara, perfectly creamy with zero cream or butter.

This method is called 'risottare la pasta,' and it is a gamechanger.

Iron Crowned posted:

dex_sda posted:

The best way to cook pasta is to treat it like a risotto.

Have boiling water with some salt (less than the mediterranean sea, more than a pinch) at the ready. Put your pasta in a dry skillet on light heat. Add a ladle or two of the water to the skillet, just enough to cover the pasta in the skillet. Start moving it and as soon as it becomes pliable, flipping it. As the water evaporates, continue adding a ladle or two at the time until your pasta is almost al dente - which will take 2-3 minutes longer than usual, but is easier to get right by biting the pasta during the cooking. What you want is a minimal amount of water in the skillet at all times. Once it's basically cooked, add the stuff that you need to form the sauce and mix.

What happens is that with this method, you super-concentrate the extracted starch from the pasta in the water. Flipping that mixture will then aerate it. Essentially, you will get something the consistency of a light cream/roux that will stick to the pasta and perfectly emulsify with the fat in your sauce, making it coat the individual strands completely. This is why restaurant pasta always seems to be more glossy and more delicious and forms a more cohesive sauce - they reuse the same water to cook multiple batches, which intensifies the amount of starch in the mixture, and they then use a ladleful or two to finish the sauce. This method emulates that effect without needing to boil multiple bunches of pasta.

Also, at the same time, because you're so close to evaporating the water, the pasta will absorb the flavor in the water very efficiently. This is why you shouldn't salt it as much, and also a great way to infuse further flavor - if you're making, say, pasta with lobster, use lobster bisque instead of water. Experiment, the world is your oyster. I make my own twist on aglio e olio in this method (first prepare the oil with garlic and hot pepper normally, reserve; add a sprig of parsley to the boiling salted water to infuse it with the parsley flavor; cook pasta as described with that water; add back the oil; finish with a pinch or two of parsley for color) and it's perfect every time. Same with my carbonara, perfectly creamy with zero cream or butter.

This method is called 'risottare la pasta,' and it is a gamechanger.

exquisite tea posted:

Hm this is a good idea since I always like the results of risotto but never have the patience to make actual risotto.

Harrow posted:

That's a really fascinating method and it makes a lot of sense--the way risotto works is very similar, because it also relies heavily on the starch on the outside of the grain.


Good news: it's a lot easier than conventional wisdom says: https://www.seriouseats.com/2011/10/the-food-lab-the-science-of-risotto.html

For a quick summary: you don't actually need to slowly ladle in liquid and stir the whole time. All of the starch that thickens a risotto is on the outside of the rice, so it's ending up in the liquid whether you constantly stir the pot or not. Adding liquid slowly can help make sure you add exactly enough, but you don't need to go ladle by ladle. I've tested this and it works just as well as the traditional method for me, while also being a lot less labor-intensive.

In the article, he also rinses the rice in the broth first (so that all the rice's starch is in the broth and isn't removed by toasting the rice), and "cheats" a bit by adding cream at the end (which, in my experience, is nice but not at all necessary).

dex_sda posted:

Yeah it's not an exact science for both the risotto and the 'risottare la pasta' method. The biggest advantage of adding slowly is that you can add as necessary - if you add too much broth to a risotto it's a disaster - and that stirring and flipping will aerate the mixture a little bit better when there's less of it. But the results of it done perfectly and it done haphazardly is barely noticeable. I just say to sit there and keep flipping it so you get it right the first time, and then you can see where you can cut a corner or two.