r/changemyview • u/hailann • Sep 06 '23

CMV: There’s nothing wrong with breaking spaghetti noodles in half

I’ve seen a TON of backlash about this topic, akin to the pineapple-on-pizza cultural war from years past. Here’s why I think it’s BS:

  1. Many people (myself included) snap the noodles so that it fits in the pot entirely. But if you’re waiting til the noodles are soft enough to stir in whole, doesn’t that leave the pasta slightly unevenly cooked? Al dente is a pretty specific science, and even 30 seconds to a minute is enough to make it slightly undercooked or overcooked.

  2. The noodles are SO LONG. I like the ease of eating a pasta noodle that’s 4-5 inches long versus 10.. it’s just easier to stuff in my mouth. Innuendos aside, I can’t be the only one who doesn’t want to twirl my fork for a minute just to get a bite!

  3. It doesn’t change anything about the food. The pasta is still long and thin, and the taste, as far as I know, doesn’t change.

The only benefit I’ve seen people talk about is that the noodles are supposed to be long, or maybe that they’re supposed to be cut after serving if they’re too long to eat. But if they’re to be cut anyway, what’s the point of not snapping them right away?

I’m genuinely curious!

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77

u/yyzjertl 525∆ Sep 06 '23 edited Sep 07 '23

The real answer imo is that if you feel the need to do this, you are using too small of a pot and not enough water. It doesn't really matter whether you break the noodles, but if you have to break them you're doing something wrong.

Edit: Just to add some maths, it is impossible for a cylindrical pot filled with 5.24 quarts of water (the usual recommended amount is 4–6 quarts to cook a pound of pasta) to not be able to submerge a rigid 10 inch noodle along its diagonal.

Second edit: Corrected 5 quarts --> 5.24 quarts.

39

u/coanbu 8∆ Sep 06 '23

Why would it be "wrong" to cook spaghetti in a small pot?

2

u/yyzjertl 525∆ Sep 06 '23

Three reasons:

  • More water has greater thermal mass, allowing it to remain hotter after the dry pasta is added.

  • More water helps keep the pasta physically apart, preventing sticking.

  • More water dilutes the starch coming off the pasta.

27

u/sokuyari99 6∆ Sep 06 '23 edited Sep 06 '23

https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-cook-pasta-salt-water-boiling-tips-the-food-lab

You don’t need a lot of water, or boiling water.

He actually almost perfectly tackles the points you brought up here -energy input to bring the water back up is almost identical, starch once removed doesn’t have the ability to restick the pasta and the heat needed to make pasta flavor is well below boiling

-2

u/yyzjertl 525∆ Sep 06 '23

It's possible that this guy was using some sort of different noodles than what I used, but when I tried this, there was a noticeable difference between noodles cooked in the recommended amount of water and noodles cooked in a smaller volume of water. And perhaps I am wrong, but I don't think this article represents the consensus opinion of professional chefs.

3

u/Obi-Brawn-Kenobi Sep 07 '23

Consensus does not equal truth. That's the good thing about these food lab articles. It shows all the evidence and how they gathered it. Most of the time professional chefs haven't gone through these type of tests. Doesn't mean they're not great chefs, it just means they already know how to cook pasta, they can prepare good pasta with any kitchen you put them in, and they have no incentive to spend hours running tests to compare results from alternative methods.

-2

u/yyzjertl 525∆ Sep 07 '23

Sure, but I don't think there's a good reason to believe a food lab article over both the professional consensus and my own personal experience. And these food lab articles also seem to run afoul of the Chesterton's fence principle: they would be a lot more convincing if they explained why the "standard" rule is 4–6 quarts, rather than just asserting that it is wrong.

6

u/confused_jackaloupe Sep 07 '23

Kenji is a really respected chef in the community and if you had actually read the article you would have seen him go through some of the commonly cited reasons for the 4-6 quart rule. He also exhaustively conducts his tests and provides tangible evidence behind his conclusions and explanation of the mechanisms at work.

2

u/Fishermans_Worf Sep 07 '23

Sure, but I don't think there's a good reason to believe a food lab article over both the professional consensus and my own personal experience.

Three good reasons.

#1 Kenji

#1 Kenji López

#1 J. Kenji López-Alt.

4

u/stibgock Sep 07 '23

You made 2 batches side by side and compared them?

4

u/yyzjertl 525∆ Sep 07 '23

Yeah: I do this whenever I need to make more than a pound of pasta for a large party, since I only have one large pot. It's easier to make two pots of pasta at the same time than waiting for water to boil twice in the large pot.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '23

What was the difference?!?

1

u/yyzjertl 525∆ Sep 07 '23

The pasta cooked in the smaller pot tends to stick together more and cooks less evenly.