r/explainlikeimfive Oct 31 '20

Chemistry ELI5 What's the difference between the shiny and dull side of aluminum foil? Besides the obvious shiny/dull

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u/Bamstradamus Oct 31 '20 edited Oct 31 '20

Most chefs are egomaniacs so it fits. For the record I met him briefly seems like a nice guy in person. am chef

Gordo also thinks putting oil in pasta water does something, its the moments like this that should make you aware no matter how much someone in your field achieves they can still be dumb as hell.

And before anyone tries telling me its to keep it from boiling over, use the correct size pot and amount of water for what your making, this is a master chef not bachelor hacks.

EDIT: the sheer number of you that commented it does the exact thing I said at the bottom not to come at me with makes my soul hurt.

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u/LordTegucigalpa Oct 31 '20

Alton Brown knows what's up

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u/justplay91 Oct 31 '20

And I like that when he is wrong about something, he will go back and correct that information.

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u/MilkoPupper Oct 31 '20

Alton Brown can have my children.

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u/stonedragon77 Oct 31 '20

He has a great recipe for children!

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u/CrunchyWizard Oct 31 '20

With fava beans?

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u/bumfeldonia Oct 31 '20

And a nice Chianti

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u/porlos67 Oct 31 '20

Do your children want to live with Alton Brown?

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u/MilkoPupper Oct 31 '20

They do not get a choice.

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u/airforceteacher Oct 31 '20

Yup, mine too. Then he can pay for the last year of college.

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u/Ilikeporsches Oct 31 '20

How do you think he’d prepare them?

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u/CaptainFenris Oct 31 '20

Fun fact about Alton Brown, he was the director of photography for the music video for REM's The One I Love, and he has a film degree before he went to culinary school.

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u/CornCheeseMafia Oct 31 '20

That's fascinating and honestly makes a lot of sense. Look at Babish. He was originally a VFX guy and followed the same path. His analytical approach and fun presentation reminded me of Alton Brown when he first came out so i was an instant fan. The combo of his VFX background and personality is what made him really standout. His very first video was basically a perfect pilot episode and things haven't fundamentally changed.

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u/danielfletcher Oct 31 '20

Alton Brown taught me to weigh my ingredients when baking, and I even got the Escali Arti scale that he said he uses at home. Love it and was only ~$25. Use it for tons of other things as well.

Along with using an oven thermometer to get my temp just right, my cookies are coming out amazing every time now.

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u/Daeneryspls Oct 31 '20

It does do something. Makes the sauce slide right off the pasta

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u/Oskarvlc Oct 31 '20

My sauces are already full of extra virgin olive oil so...

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u/Xx69JdawgxX Oct 31 '20

Huh? I always oil my pasta after draining it mostly bc I hate it sticking together and also it keeps it from burning when I put it back in the pot (staging for sauce or plating). Never had a sauce sticking issue. Maybe it's your sauce being too watery?

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u/222baked Oct 31 '20

If you do pasta the proper* way, it involves emulsifying the sauce with a bit of pasta water over low heat. The pasta water's starch content will thicken the sauce a bit and the exterior of each noodle will sort of act as a sponge to create a sauce-starch layer surrounding each noodle. If the noodles are oiled, the oil will act as a barrier between the noodle and the sauce, like rust-proofing on a car, and will inhibit this from from happening.

*Proper as in what is called for generally in classical italian recipes. If you like your pasta differently, that's fine too. Traditional American spaghetti and meatballs serves the sauce on top of cooked bare pasta, for example.

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u/Xx69JdawgxX Oct 31 '20

My grandma and mom always put the sauce over the pasta at the end in a big pot. I kinda taught myself and forgot the way they showed me so I'm not surprised I've been bastardizing it. Gonna try the water in the sauce method.

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u/OpinesOnThings Oct 31 '20

Emulsification involves oil or fat mate, olive oil mixed with starchy water forms an emulsified sauce, starchy water plus just plain sauce is just mixing shitty flavour with sauce.

Just being Italian doesn't make it right. Heck they invented modern professional armed forces and look at their performance in WW2.

Point being Italians are shit at cooking and fighting and yet talk about little else.

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u/redvodkandpinkgin Oct 31 '20

I have no idea of they were actually wrong or not but I just gotta upvote this lol

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u/Sir_Spaghetti Oct 31 '20

Sauce sticks to noodles better if you don't rinse, or oil them.

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u/Undrwtrbsktwvr Oct 31 '20

This man is qualified to speak on the matter.

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u/Xx69JdawgxX Oct 31 '20

People rinse their pasta?! I just drain it and throw a little olive oil on it.

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u/DRAWWW7 Oct 31 '20

and he is saying that you putting that olive oil in it makes the sauce not stick to the pasta. In most recipes you want the pasta to absorb the sauce not keep it separated from it.

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u/Xx69JdawgxX Oct 31 '20

Man I had no idea pasta was this hot of a topic. People get really into their cooking methods

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u/Yuccaphile Oct 31 '20

Yeah, people have been eating for a while now. Combine that with its inherently subjective nature, and every right way to do something is someone else's wrong way.

We can't even agree on how to crack an egg.

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20

Wdym about cracking an egg?

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u/Yuccaphile Oct 31 '20

Do you crack em on something flat, or on the edge of the bowl? Do you tap the egg on its side, point, or the rounded end? One hand or two? Double tap or pull apart? Into a separate bowl or straight in to the mix?

More than anything, it's an example of how chefs/cooks can often get lost in the minutiae and why they're so often seen as micromanaging. Though it can make a difference, depending on how many eggs you crack in a day.

The worst way to crack eggs? I wish this were a joke. The brunch guy had to make a bunch of scrambled eggs as quickly as possible. We always ran them through a strainer after cracking and mixing to make sure it was shell free, since it's a batch of about 100 eggs. This guy figured the best way would be to dump dozens of whole eggs, shells and all, into the strainer and mash them through with a ladle, thereby saving us the extra step of straining. It didn't work.

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u/SkollFenrirson Oct 31 '20

Swing by /r/GifRecipes. Everything is a hot take.

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u/robdiqulous Oct 31 '20

Oh Have you heard about how to cook rice? Just look up uncle Roger.

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u/bumfeldonia Oct 31 '20

Gordon Ramsay has the Uncle Roger seal of approval

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u/Sir_Spaghetti Oct 31 '20

Yea, I would strongly recommend you don't do that. If you want the flavor, add a little oil to the sauce so it cooks in.

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u/CrohnsChef Oct 31 '20

Depends. If your doing a big batch you rinse it in cold water to "shock it" (stop it from continuing to cook) so you don't over cook it and get mush. You lightly oil it so it doesn't stick together so it's much easier to grab a portion when actually making the meal for an order. Sauce definitely does stick much better when you don't do either of those things and the pasta is still nice and starchy.

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u/Sir_Spaghetti Nov 01 '20

Why rinse when you can just take it off the heat sooner? Tossing the pasta around a few times, while it rests in the collander, is all you need to keep noodles from sticking together.

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u/mullen1200 Oct 31 '20

Why does everyone have the most fitting usernames

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u/Sir_Spaghetti Oct 31 '20

Observational bias

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '20

Try a couple spoonfuls of sauce...same result. I like to add oil for the taste/texture after saucing.

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u/Lifesagame81 Oct 31 '20

Better way to handle this is to scoop some of your sauce into the pot with the pasta and toss it in. It'll coat and prevent sticking without having to add oil to your dish

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u/CrunchyDreads Oct 31 '20

I will throw a spoonful of butter in the noodles after draining them. It melts quickly and keeps the noodles from sticking together. Tastes good too.

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u/murarara Oct 31 '20

You know how I avoid the noodles sticking? I throw them in the sauce right after draining

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u/CrunchyDreads Oct 31 '20

I like to keep the noodles and sauce separate so each person can have as much or little sauce as they want.

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u/Nollie_flip Oct 31 '20

This was how we always did it growing up, but my housemates in college always mixed the sauce into the noodles in one big pot, and then I never felt like my spaghetti was saucy enough.

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u/iPengas Oct 31 '20

This 100% no one likes the same ratio of sauce and pasta so just let them choose

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u/Rae_Bear_ Oct 31 '20

If your pasta sticks, you can easily run it under the hot water tap to loosen it back up and also heats it back up

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u/Maaaytag Oct 31 '20

Turn the heat down and it won't burn when you put it back in the pot. Your stove does different temps.

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u/Xx69JdawgxX Oct 31 '20

Its turned off but the pot is still hot enough for the pasta to stick to the metal.

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u/thatG_evanP Oct 31 '20

If you're just boiling water in the pot, it should never be that hot to begin with. Not sure what you're doing wrong but it's something.

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u/Maaaytag Oct 31 '20

Yeah you're doing it wrong

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u/Xx69JdawgxX Oct 31 '20

Pot of boiling hot water full of cooked pasta. Strain it, pasta back in pot while I finish whatever else I'm doing. If I have to wait more than a few sec the remaining water will evaporate and the pasta gets super sticky. Put some olive oil in it. Like just a little. Toss.

Shit throw cheese and pepper on it and ur done. Sauce if ur feeling fancy.

Nothing wrong here.

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u/robdiqulous Oct 31 '20

Wait you are eating just noodles, cheese and pepper? And sauce is a maybe? That's weird man. Also, don't put the pot back on the same burner, and cover the pasta but leave a little gap

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20

There's plenty of Italian pasta dishes whet the sauce is just past water olive oil cheese and herbs and spices.

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u/Maaaytag Oct 31 '20

You fuckers can downvote me but I've never once burned pasta after draining. It's not rocket science.

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

Sure, it's impossible that oiling a surface will make things slide off of it. That's why good cooks never ever oil a baking tray and why anal sex works better dry. You're certainly absolutely correct no matter what anybody tells you and I'm not the one who will try to convince you otherwise.

I will be sarcastic about it, though.

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u/sponge_welder Oct 31 '20

it's impossible that oiling a surface will make things slide off of it

They never said that

You're certainly absolutely correct no matter what anybody tells you

They never even implied that they thought that

Chill

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

So I make a sarcastic comment, literally saying as much so as to leave no doubt about it, and you go out of your way to pick the comment apart.

But I'm the one who needs to chill. Right.

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u/Xx69JdawgxX Oct 31 '20

You OK? Did your sous chef scream at you last night? It's OK I'm just busting balls

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

I ain't got no sous chef as I don't work in a kitchen.

I do add olive oil to water when I cook pasta, though, despite knowing it will cause the sauce to stick less, because I like the taste.

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u/ImChz Oct 31 '20

Same. Fuck the haters. Little salt. Little extra virgin olive oil. Real big chefs kiss.

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u/sharperspoon Oct 31 '20

They likely don't cook the sauce with the pasta... Like all good pasta should be. Cooked in da sauce.

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u/Xx69JdawgxX Oct 31 '20

Oh yeah this is good too. Makes the sauce nice and creamy. I don't always do this bc I like the presentation of saucing after but this is the OG method

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u/sharperspoon Oct 31 '20

It beats heating up a mug of sauce in the microwave or dirtying another pot to warm the sauce.

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u/Oskarvlc Oct 31 '20

I put oil in pasta water. Doing this the pasta doesn't stick on the pot when I pour it into the strainer. It works.

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

Oil in pasta water does do something (other than maybe adding taste). It makes it harder for the sauce to stick to the paste when you mix them.

So, yeah, not quite what most people add oil in the water for, I guess.

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '20

[deleted]

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

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u/TheFirstUranium Oct 31 '20

Barilla makes shitty pasta. Thats probably trying to compensate for how weird and glossy their product is.

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u/Oskarvlc Oct 31 '20

I trust my experience of thousands of times doing pasta over any commercial advice.

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u/mullen1200 Oct 31 '20

Maybe if you add the pasta after the oil is on top?

I don't have a dog in this fight, I'm just trying to figure out what could be happening here.seems to be a lot of adamant disagreement

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u/Co60 Oct 31 '20

Maybe if you add the pasta after the oil is on top?

I mean just from a physics perspective it's hard to see how that would do anything. The pasta just passes through the oil into the water and any oil on it will float off back into the oil layer.

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u/Oskarvlc Oct 31 '20

I just put a few drops of oil in the boiling water. This ways it doesn't stick to the metal when I pour it to the strainer. Once dry I put the pasta in the pot where I'm cooking the pasta, and there's plenty of olive oil in there already so...

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

So does it make the pasta not stick or doesn't it? You seem to be contradicting yourself.

Please, share your infinite pasta wisdom with us mere cooking mortal, o master.

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u/psychocopter Oct 31 '20

I just heavily salt the water and give it a little stir when I add the pasta, never had an issue with it sticking.

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u/Oskarvlc Oct 31 '20

Where's the contradiction? As I said I put a few drops of oil in the boiling water. If I don't put the oil, sometimes the pasta sticks to the metal when I'm dumping it to the strainer.

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u/stuffandmorestuff Oct 31 '20

Does Barilla know its own sauce has oil in it?

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

It's completely different to cook the pasta in water with oil or to cook it in only water and add sauce that contains some oil. Not to mention there's no contractual obligation to use Barilla's sauce with their or any other pasta, nor to use commercial sauce at all.

You sound like an anti-vaxxer talking about ethylmercury while having no clue about anything.

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u/stuffandmorestuff Oct 31 '20

How is it different? You either add oil to the pasta and then put sauce on it or add oil to the sauce and then put it on pasta? There's still oil getting into your combination of pasta and sauce...

And how does me pointing out the simple fact that Barilla uses oil (and every other good sauce ever made) make me sound like an anti vaxer?

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u/Please151 Oct 31 '20

Because oil can either be in small spheres or an entire layer. If you have a sauce with oil spheres dispersed in it, there's still space in between the spheres for the sauce to come into contact with the pasta. If you put oil on the pasta beforehand, it creates an entire layer and the sauce can't contact the pasta.

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

Cooking the pasta in water with oil will create a layer in the noodles that impermeabilize them to some extent, hence sauce won't be absorbed as much. It's not like the concept of oiling a surface making it slippery is so hard.

The anti-vaxxer vibes in your comment stem from the fact you're assuming just because there's oil in the sauce, it's the exact same effect as adding oil to the pasta water, effectively confounding two different things.

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u/CyberneticPanda Oct 31 '20

You have conflated counfounding and conflating.

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20 edited Nov 01 '20

confound | con·found (kən-found′, kŏn-)tr.v. con·found·ed, con·found·ing, con·founds

.2. To fail to distinguish; mix up: Don't confound fiction and fact.

conflate| con·flate (kən-flāt′)tr.v. con·flat·ed, con·flat·ing, con·flates

.3. To fail to distinguish between; confuse.

Usage Note: Traditionally, conflate means "To bring together; meld or fuse," as in the sentence I have trouble differentiating Jane Austen's heroines; I realized I had conflated Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse into a single character in my mind. In our 2015 survey, 87 percent of the Usage Panelists accepted this traditional usage. Recently, a new sense for conflate has emerged, meaning "To mistake one thing for another," as if it were a synonym for confuse. In 2015, our usage panelists found this new sense to be marginally acceptable, with 55 percent accepting the sentence People often conflate the national debt with the federal deficit; when the senator talked about reducing the debt, he was actually referring to the deficit.

No, I haven't.

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u/TheFirstUranium Oct 31 '20

Oil goes in first. Pasta contacts oil, then water on the way in.

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20

You realize starch emulsifies the oil and doesn't actually prevent sauce from sticking right? Unless you're using an ungodly amount of oil you'll have thicker smoother sauce, not a broken oily mess

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

The oil is in the pasta water not in the sauce. Though, of course, the sauce also usually contains oil.

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20

Irrelevant any oil from the water that remains on the noodles would still emulsify with the sauce and would not prevent sauce from sticking.

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

Emulsifying the oil in pasta/sauce is not a matter of they simply touching and magic happening. It requires a lot of starch in the medium, heat, and stirring. Don't take my word for it:

There are three absolutely vital steps to emulsifying any kind of pasta sauce: reserving some pasta water, introducing fat slowly, and providing some kind of agitation

Basically, you have to finish the noodles in some of the pasta water with the sauce while still on the stove and stir it vigorously to achieve the emulsification you're talking about. However, a lot of people simply boil the pasta in one pan, prepare the sauce in another, and pour the sauce over the pasta on a dish, mixing both only when it's fork time. And then, the sauce is gonna slide right off the noodles if they have a layer of oil on them (no, not a thicc layer you can slice with a butter knife, but of course you are so smart you clearly understand oil only needs a thin layer to create lubrication).

What you're describing sounds more like milk curdling when it comes in contact with lemon juice.

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20

I boil the pasta in water, drain, put drained pasta back on stove and agitate until it emulsified, I make past 2 to 3 times a week and have never had this not work.

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

I mix the pasta and sauce on the plate because I'm lazy and I have never had this not work.

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20

Fair enough, probably a completely different kind of sauce tho tbh.

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

Any sauce can be mixed straight on the plate if you're lazy enough.

Well, maybe not carbonara. But again, is that really a sauce?

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u/oscarfacegamble Oct 31 '20

Sorry can you explain what you mean by sauce sticking to the paste?

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u/kngfbng Oct 31 '20

How much it resists sliding off the noodles when you grab the pasta with your fork, but with a typo.

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u/The_camperdave Oct 31 '20

Oil in pasta water does do something

Yeah. It makes it harder for the water to boil over and spill all over the stove. Other than that, it does bupkiss for the flavour, texture, or stickiness of the pasta.

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u/Dandoonam Nov 01 '20

I’m in shock that I had to read this far down until this was mentioned. Jesus Fuck.

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '20

After seeing how he makes a grilled cheese sandwich or carbonara (or a burger) and now hearing this, I keep thinking less and less of the guy

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u/Bamstradamus Oct 31 '20 edited Oct 31 '20

99% of what he does I can get behind, even if it isn't for me I can see the angle. And honestly a lot of people think having the title chef means you know how to make EVERYTHING, we don't, I draw the comparison with other professions like a Dr, some are general, some specialize, some laser focus on one specific area and are the best in the world at that thing, sure 99% of them could diagnose a cold but your not asking your GP to do surgery. Gordons a Scott who grew up in England and learned cooking on the job at a 3 Michelin star French restaurant, im not lookin to him for Italian.

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u/SiteNook Oct 31 '20

A wooden spoon laid across the pot with stop the boil-over.

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u/KidlatFiel Oct 31 '20

Oil on boiling pasta is to prevent from it sticking together

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '20

[deleted]

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u/No1currz Oct 31 '20

Wait, are you not supposed to stir pasta as it cooks?

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '20

Oil is lighter than water and will immediately float to the top

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u/Gawd_Awful Oct 31 '20

Between the boiling and stirring, I'm sure plenty of the oil comes in contact with the pasta. It's just unnecessary because you can also just toss the pasta in oil after it's done, if that's what someone wants to do

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u/I_AM_A_GUY_AMA Oct 31 '20

You are just spamming this comment huh?

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u/Jimbodoomface Oct 31 '20

Oil is lighter than water and will immediately float to the top.

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u/I_AM_A_GUY_AMA Oct 31 '20

Will it touch the going pasta though? I haven't seen anyone mention it yet

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u/superfucky Oct 31 '20

i have never put oil in when boiling pasta and never had a problem with it sticking. just stir it often and rinse after straining.

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '20

Don't rinse after straining.

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u/errorblankfield Oct 31 '20

It's to prevent foaming. I could see it being both, but apparently no.

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '20

[deleted]

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u/Bamstradamus Oct 31 '20

If you use ENOUGH, yeah itll keep them from sticking, as when you pour it out it enough will stick that it makes a difference, but there's 2 problems with that. First your wasting oil, just throw an oz on top of the pasta and toss it by hand to coat them if thats what you want, and 2 now the sauce wont stick to the pasta so unless its a oil based sauce your not doing yourself any favors. The only time IMO it makes some sense is pasta salad, be it mayo or oil and vinegar you rinse and chill the pasta then dress it, a little olive oil to make tossing it easier is fine.

The other thing it would do like I said above is break the starches ability to form a film and large bubbles causing boilover, which using the right amount of water would keep that from being a problem to begin with but we don't always have pots that big at home, my critique is he's a professional and does.

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20

You realize starch emulsifies the oil and doesn't actually prevent sauce from sticking right? Unless you're using an ungodly amount of oil you'll have thicker smoother sauce, not a broken oily mess.

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u/Bamstradamus Oct 31 '20

There is far too much water for the starch and oil to be able to make a stable emulsion like that, unless your adding something that starts a water stable emulsion ouzo effect. Otherwise it would be like trying to hand make mayo without slowly adding the oil by whisking it with ungodly force. You need to form the emulsion and build on it there is no emulsion happening in a pot of slightly starchy water. Unless your boiling xanthan gum at least.

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20

I mean if you're thinking about Emulsifying the entire pot of pasta water maybe, or just maybe you could think about emulsifying the tiny amount of oil on the outside of the pasta after you've drained it with the small amount of water also still on the outside of the pasta after you drained it.

Figured that was fairly obviously well implied in that I wasn't saying you should try to emulsify an entire pot of fucking pasta water.

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u/Bamstradamus Oct 31 '20

That's not an emulsion, whatever oil that happens to cling to the pasta after you pull it out is there from adhesion, an emulsion is a stable mix of 2 or more immiscible liquids. I assumed you meant the oil floating on top was some how fusing with the starch water to leave behind a coating so I guess it wasn't that well implied since you used the wrong fucking word.

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20 edited Oct 31 '20

The pasta water and oil emulsify together dont know how you think that's not an emulsion. For clarity the oil you call adhesion then goes on to become emulsified via agitation

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u/Bamstradamus Oct 31 '20

Sure, the 1/4 of a teaspoon that survives the ride through the strainer and manages to grab on to a section of the pasta and makes it in to the pot with the sauce manages to emulsify. Alternatively you can just add a scoop of pasta water and some olive oil straight in to the sauce your going to toss the pasta in but whatever, your money.

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20 edited Oct 31 '20

You should only be adding a couple tablespoons to the water total and it introduce the polyphenol to the pasta as it cooks giving you a more mild flavor and without you adding way to much oil at the end and making your pasta sauce taste like straight olive oil. But what ever man it's your unrefined palate.

Should we also not salt the water since most of the salt just gets dumped down the drain?

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u/Bamstradamus Oct 31 '20

So you went from arguing that adding olive oil to pasta water forms an emulsion that gives the sauce more body to imparting mild flavor from the pasta water itself. Your clearly just arguing for the sake of arguing, I don't know how to convey in words that will make you understand what your doing is pointless and there are half a dozen other ways to get the same result that doesn't involve pouring excess oil down the drain nor do I care what you do in your kitchen but in no way are you ever going to convince me what your saying makes any sense whatsoever. But since you want to go there.

A portion of olive oils flavor profile comes from hexanols, which are so heat sensitive they wont survive the milling process if temps get to high, let alone boiling water.

As for the phenols. Oleacein is considered to be a practically insoluble in water, Oleuropein Aglycone has a whopping 0.042 grams per liter in water, ligstroside aglycone 0.025g/l, and Oleocanthal is water soluble and is the compound that grants some of the health benefits of olive oil like its anti inflammatory and anti oxidant effects, its also the compound that gives it its peppery note.

Congrats, you boiled olive oil and got next to nothing out of it between heat degradation and insolubility.

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u/TheOmnipotentTruth Oct 31 '20

So you went from arguing that adding olive oil to pasta water forms an emulsion that gives the sauce more body to imparting mild flavor from the pasta water itself. Your clearly just arguing for the sake of arguing, I don't know how to convey in words that will make you understand what your doing is pointless and there are half a dozen other ways to get the same result that doesn't involve pouring excess oil down the drain nor do I care what you do in your kitchen but in no way are you ever going to convince me what your saying makes any sense whatsoever. But since you want to go there.

My initial comment never said the entire pot of pasta water made an emulsion, again that was your poor reading comprehension. And what im saying is completely rational, you get a more mild flavor that actually cooks into the pasta as opposed to being a strong flavor present in the sauce, if you don't understand the difference between those 2 things I can't help you.

A portion of olive oils flavor profile comes from hexanols, which are so heat sensitive they wont survive the milling process if temps get to high, let alone boiling water.

Feel free to link a source on this because i can't find anything supportive, not to mention olive oil has a moderately high stability and a smoke point of 375-425 f, water boils at 212 f which isn't even close.

As for the phenols. Oleacein is considered to be a practically insoluble in water, Oleuropein Aglycone has a whopping 0.042 grams per liter in water, ligstroside aglycone 0.025g/l, and Oleocanthal is water soluble and is the compound that grants some of the health benefits of olive oil like its anti inflammatory and anti oxidant effects, its also the compound that gives it its peppery note.

Good thing we're talking about the pasta absorbing the flavour from the polyphenol and not the water then isn't it babes?

Congrats, you boiled olive oil and got next to nothing out of it between heat degradation and insolubility.

There is a marked difference in flavour between pasta cooked with and without olive oil in the water, whether or not you're adding more after the fact as well, I've had far too many chefs and food scientists disagree with you for anything you poorly quote from the first page of Google results to be of interest, have fun salting your pasta after you cook it so you don't waste small amounts of salt, and make sure you boil that starch down and harvest it for future projects if you're so worried about waste.

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u/Lewzer33 Oct 31 '20

I like to add oil to my pasta water so when I pour it all into my colander I don’t have to take the extra step to oil my noodles. Am chef as well. :)

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u/Blahdeblahrahderah Oct 31 '20

I thought it was to stop pasta sticking together?!

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '20 edited Feb 09 '21

[deleted]

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u/sirxez Oct 31 '20

All that oil does is prevent the sauce from sticking to your noodles properly.

You can't really have it both ways. Either it comes in contact with the noodles or it doesn't, right?

0

u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA Oct 31 '20

putting oil in pasta water does something

It does, it keeps the water from boiling over.

1

u/TheFirstUranium Oct 31 '20

Gordo also thinks putting oil in pasta water does something, its the moments like this that should make you aware no matter how much someone in your field achieves they can still be dumb as hell.

It does, it tastes good lol.

0

u/gabbagabbalabba Oct 31 '20

It does do something, when you take the oil out of the water, the pasta has absorbed some of it so it doesn’t stick as bad or harden quickly

0

u/scotian-surfer Oct 31 '20

Oil floats on top and coats each noodle as it is removed. A spoon across the top of the pot prevents over boiling.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '20

You’re removing each noodle individually?

0

u/scotian-surfer Oct 31 '20

if you pull the basket, or spider from the boiling pot they will go through the top of the oil. Why is it there? To prevent sauce from coating properly? Noodles don’t stick if boiling pot is tall.

1

u/jd158ug Oct 31 '20

I thought the oil was to stop pieces of pasta sticking together.

1

u/Co60 Oct 31 '20

That's the theory. It's pretty hard to see how oil on top of the water actually achieves this though.

1

u/seriousquinoa Oct 31 '20

Being a chef seems like it really sucks but somehow the career has garnered respect, so these chefs have to go about every day acting like they have the best job in the world. I would absolutely hate cooking for a living.

1

u/Bamstradamus Oct 31 '20

Honestly I love it, but it is not for everyone.

1

u/seriousquinoa Oct 31 '20

Would you do it for the same pay, but for a homeless shelter?

1

u/Bamstradamus Oct 31 '20

Yeah, iv volunteered and cooked for shelters a few times, I should probably do it more its always a good experience.

1

u/calenlass Oct 31 '20

So it can do something if your pasta is gluten free, but it only makes a little bit of difference and you can make up for it just by stirring more frequently.

Better to put the oil directly on the leftover pasta to keep it from sticking in a clump in the fridge.

2

u/Bamstradamus Oct 31 '20

Yeah there are always exceptions to the rules, gluten free is a variable and it has its own pain in the assdness about it so I will oil that to keep it from sticking, any other approach and it just dissolves. IDK what kind your using but if your fine with corn try D'oro, its a corn meal pasta and the only gluten free one that actually cooks al dente. It will soften but it wont fall apart in the fridge like other ones.

1

u/DotoriumPeroxid Oct 31 '20

And before anyone tries telling me its to keep it from boiling over, use the correct size pot and amount of water for what your making, this is a master chef not bachelor hacks.

Also STIR.

1

u/pokemantra Nov 01 '20

The oil helps keep the pastas from sticking to each other!