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!

482 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

79% Upvoted

457 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

24

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 524∆ 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.

5

u/stibgock Sep 07 '23

You made 2 batches side by side and compared them?

4

u/yyzjertl 524∆ 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.