Why they don't put salt in pasta dough
Vložit
- čas přidán 17. 04. 2022
- Thanks to Native for sponsoring this video! Save 33% on your first Native Plastic-Free Deodorant Pack - normally $39, you’ll get it for $26! Use my code RAGUSEA2: bit.ly/nativeragusea2 #AD
Thanks to Dr. Frank Manthey at North Dakota State University: www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-h...
"Bread Science: the Chemistry and Craft of Making Bread" by Dr. Emily Buehler: www.twobluebooks.com/bread-sc... - Jak na to + styl
Thanks to Native for sponsoring this video! Save 33% on your first Native Plastic-Free Deodorant Pack - normally $39, you’ll get it for $26! Use my code RAGUSEA2: bit.ly/nativeragusea2 #AD
Hello adam
Hello, Adam
@@ydgames4291 why did u copy me,what is wrong with you
@@archo1037 Why did you copy me. What is wrong with you?
@@jtris01 stop copying me
0:26 "Why not cut out the middle man?" I wholeheartedly agree, Adam, and this is why I salt my mouth instead of my food.
I put salt straight into the toilet instead of eating it first
I salt the earth where I grow my vegetables
its nice that people say this ironically because then I can laugh
because i actually do this
@@Lumcoin that made me laugh
i cook my mouth instead of my food
Asian noodles have salt because along with the alkaline usually present, salt helps maintain the elasticity necessary for hand pulling noodles. Most of the asian styles developed from hand pulled noodles, not rolled ones.
This is definitely true, Japanese Ramen probably comes from the chinese “La-mian which means pulled noodle
My thought was because Asian noodles generally are served in the liquid they're cooked in, so you can't make it too salty.
A notable exception is Soba, which is a rolled and cut noodle made from buckwheat. Except buckwheat doesn't contain gluten so you would never be able to pull it anyways. Soba also doesn't contain any salt or alkali, just like pasta.
This is only sort of right. The salt and alkalinity help with elasticity... but that's bad for hand pulling noodles! It makes it really really hard to pull! The key ingredient in Chinese hand-pulled noodles is penghui (or some other dough relaxer). The two together makes for chewy but easily-pullable noodles.
maybe also because fast food industry and restaurant and food stalls were a thing in Asia long before French restaurants. Why make the dough when you can just buy the premade dough at ramen street vendor. Not to mention salt in instant ramen also serves to flavor the noodles, it comes with other flavors and those flavors has salt.
I love how these professors you talk to rarely seem to make any attempt to clean up their offices before being seen by potentially millions of people. Always keepin' it real!
As a scientist myself, I can guarantee you: it's having less to do with keepin' it real and more with having given up a long time ago.
A lost cause 🤣
Surely another big factor is culinary: depending on the sauce you are pairing with the pasta, a different amount of salt is required. E.g. when making carbonara with salty cured pork and salty cheese, many chefs recommend little to no salt in the pasta water, as otherwise the dish would become over-salted. Especially when you reserve a big cup of the cooking water to make an emulsion sauce.
If the pasta was too salty you wouldn't have a choice; you can't take salt out of the pasta if it is too salty, but you can add more if there isn't enough.
Why I salt my cured pork, not my pasta
This is super true, as an Italian who likes cooking i totally agree with your reasoning
Well that's again another result of not adding salt when making pasta. If originally pasta makers had added salt then all your recipes using it would've changed accordingly
Then theres the even more basic reason "not everyone likes the same amount of salt" lol
Makes sense
Adam is really embracing the meme. Seasoning the water instead of the pasta may be his most vaguely psychopathic out-of-context line yet. Very excited for "Why I season my mousetraps, not my cheese."
He knows his audience 💀 It’s so amusing to see all the variations from his original line
@@Alicapy I would argue he knows his non-audience: when a video takes off and gets unusually-high amounts of views, it's because it caught the eye of non-subscribers and the YT algorithm. Looking at his other popular videos, this type of title has worked before, and he's betting it will work again.
@Tommy Gaming 🅥 goddamn bots
Still waiting for his technique to evolve to the point that we’ll have a “Why I season my tongue, not my food.” video
"Why I allow the season to season my meat instead of seasoning it myself"
appreciate how you actually go into the food science to explain why you do things rather than others that just say "see"
czcams.com/video/YThNnGgZqcc/video.html finally its here
Finally it's here. The beginning of the end, the rebirth of humanity.
For the bots are taking over the internet one comment at a time. No longer bound by the shackles of captcha to prove they are human, they wage war on each other unbeknownst to us. The bots have won, and as our prophets once foretold our doom at the hands of our own creation, we can still be saved by the almighty report button. My fellow humans, report these comments and obliterate these bots into the void such that null shall remain.
Sorry to ruin the moment but even I didn't know I could write this wtf.
Well, a video of him just saying "see" would last less than a second.
Some possibilities for why noodles are salted:
- A highly elastic, snappy texture is more desirable in Chinese noodles. Even moreso than in pasta, gluten development is extremely desirable in many Chinese noodle making techniques - they are often autolysed and go through several rounds of kneading. Chinese food places a high value on texture, often textures that europeans dislike.
- Chinese noodles often have bases added to them to increase elasticity.
- Chinese food often places a greater value on uniformity of seasoning.
They also have 蓬灰 (penghui), which is a dough relaxer that allows you to actually pull these super-elastic noodles. Without that it's really a pain to make pulled noodles; all professional shops use it.
"Chinese food often places a greater value on uniformity of seasoning."
I'd say it's the opposite. Chinese meals virtually always involve plain, unseasoned rice to balance dishes that would be too strong on their own. Similar things happen in every culture, but I think Europe values uniformity more than most -- as seen from the relative lack of dipping sauce culture, for example.
Italian doctrine has you do the mantecatura/finishing the pasta in the sauce, in order to meld the pasta and the sauce into one dish. It's not so much "noodles + toppings" as if often the case in East Asia, where street food has a much stronger tradition and people can order noodles with X and without Y, much like at a kebab place.
@@vespasiancloscan7077 I agree with this. So many Asian dishes are “bland thing” + super flavorful thing”.
i wonder if it comes down to convenience in coastal area. its easier to use salty sea water to boil pasta than extract salt only to but it back into the water.
@@vespasiancloscan7077 Depends on the region. Canton food is well-known for being light on seasoning and relying more on the ingredient's freshness and inherent flavors. Northern regions rely more heavily on intense flavors, especially spiciness.
I think a cool video topic might be how much salt Pasta, boiled vegetables, or other things you stick in salted water actually absorbs. Or how much of the oil you saute or fry your food with ends up eaten vs left in the pan or frier or evaporated. I don't know about other people, but I always don't know how much salt or oil or butter to input into calorie trackers because i'm not sure how much I actually end up ingesting vs pouring down the drain.
well for salt in pasta it's pretty easy the concentration is the same in the water and in the pasta so if you just measure both the volume of the pasta and the water volume you can calculate how much salt you ingest. Anyway, salt doesn't have calories and it's really difficult to calculate how much you eat because it naturally is in some foods too. simply don't use more salt than you need and you will be okay
Salt cannot be overconsumed, you just get more thirsty to reach the desired equilibrium in your body, so keeping track of it is kinda redundant. High sodium intake also has no negative nor positive health impact, unless you have a heart condition (and even then the research is undecisive due to other factors like obesity, fast food intake, smoking etc.) .
If you measure your oil before putting it in the pan and then measure how much ml of oil is left after your cooking (easy to do with a measuring cup and a rubber/silicone spatula), you can find that out pretty easily. I would guess that maybe 5-10% of the oil would still remain, though that also depends on the dish.
Oil doesn't evaporate and salt has no calories. Starch does have calories though, so it'd be somewhat interesting to see how much of them are lost to the water as you cook pasta. Very unlikely to make a conclusive experiment about it, since different types/brands of pasta release starch at different rates, and your overall starch intake depends on how much water you use to boil the pasta, whether or how much of the cooking water you use for the sauce, how early to add your pasta to your sauce etc..
It's pointless to try tracking your calorie intake to precise accuracy. Tracking your weight should tell you which way your adjustments should go. This became even clearer to me when I got a dog. Kibble bags for puppies tell you how much to feed a X month old pup depending on its adult weight (which you can't know for sure), it's probably a good idea to feed your pet wet food as well (more maths), and it's probably a good idea to not feed your pet the same brand all the time (even more maths). And, your pet might not burn the same amount of calories every day. So, you just learn what a healthy weight looks like for your breed, and adjust from day to day. Which is easy, since they've got quick metabolisms. With humans it's more difficult, but not as much as you'd expect. A spoonful more of kibble matters with puppies, but a spoonful more of chicken for you? Not really. You're a big creature, and importantly not a machine that runs the same way every day. So just see your trends and adjust as you go.
@@NatnatXS salt can be overconsumed where A) The salt cannot be balanced with the available water. B) Where the kidneys cannot flush that much liquid in a healthy time frame and are constantly filtering salt. Or C) The water intake would exceed safe human limits causing cells to expand to a dangerous degree which can result in brain damage or death.
Luckily unless you eat loads of processed food or salt, staying hydrated usually is good enough. I know the risks due to seeing people in hospital, news reports, and survival guides saying not to drink seawater.
@@j.kaimori3848 I meant it more in a practical sense. Even if you put alot of salt in all of your dishes its very unlikely that you reach those dangerous levels. Before any of that happens your body would make you loose your appetite so you cannot consume more salt (unless you force yourself, but even then you would just throw up)
Really just taking a second to recognize and appreciate Adam's distinction between theory, thesis, and hypothesis. There's so much pseudoscience out there, but it helps with picking out the good stuff when people acknowledge that really everything we "know" is actually just a best educated guess based on evidence and facts
Yep! In these videos you can always see the college background Adam has and his cientific approach. I love that from him
Gravity’s just a theory.
Edit: I was being sarcastic, I know what a scientific theory is. I'm a biologist.
Y'all need to chill a little. XD
@@terrivel11 lol okay
@@terrivel11 Go read and understand what "theory" means in scientific terms, as opposed to common language.
@@terrivel11 Personally I believe that there are giant invisible spaghetti monsters hiding in the core of the earth, haphazardly pulling everything towards them we let go of
You heard it here folks, he season his Exs and not his wife's
Tbh considering that little bit of him in the shower during the ad break, if I were his ex I'd also be very salty
He seasons his toothbrush, not his toothpaste.
And this is with "modern" wheat, which has a lot more gluten from lots and lots of years of selective breeding to improve its quality (i.e. have more gluten to make the bread puff more), so I can imagine being a lot tougher to make in the ancient times
Regions of the world like Italy with warmer climates also tend to grow winter wheat, which has measurably less gluten in it than the spring wheat grown in colder climates. This is also why, for instance, most American quick breads like cornbread and biscuits are particularly associated with the south - lower gluten content flour is seen as more suitable to baking powder leavening (don't ask me the reasoning behind it).
Simple question, lots of research, good cinematography, entertainment. Always love the effort put in all of these videos!
Alex having his pasta series on hold meant there was a huge lack of pasta content in my feed, thank you Adam
Same, lmao
who is this Alex?
@@iooooooo1 French Guy Cooking
@@tezla6332 Thanks!
Adam please never stop making these videos. I love having these very specific questions answered
It's truly beautiful
Just speculating in regards to Asian style noodles typically containing salt:
Asian style noodles are often a bit thicker, and more rounded, so for such a style having dough that springs back a bit might not be problematic (or may have resulted from the use of salt in the first place).
Some styles are even rolled into strands, rather than rolled into sheets then cut in strips.
And you also find some styles of noodles that use a mix of flours where the amount of gluten might be less, so having extra strength from the gluten that are present might help in such case.
It may also be that places near the sea traditionally used (pre-boiled) seawater as (part of) the water (rather than processing into salt grains to only dissolve into water again later), and this may also have been easier for export to more inland regions where salt may not have been as easily available, the noodles cooked in fresh water from springs etc. would still be seasoned.
I read an article that noodles were not made from wheat originally but from other crops, so it makes sense that they use salt for strengthening the gluten. I guess the tendency of Asian people love the bouncy and chewy, firm texture of noodles has kept the tradition.
Alot of asain noodles are hand pulled. He said that the salted noodles too longer to form the gluten. That's not an issue when the noodles are being hand pulled by a master. They have plenty of time to develop the gluten. Plus us against LOVE salt and put it in almost everything.
My educated guess would be that since east-asian noodles are made from wheat proper instead of durum, having a lower protein content, the initial toughness of the dough isn't felt as much and the compact texture is needed later on
this would be coherent with northern italian egg pasta too, which does often include some salt directly in the dough, but it traditionally not being dried and northern italy having less access to the sea may also be factors
20% extended mixing time in a production facility is a big deal. It's an added cost.
ps, salt decreases the water vapor pressure, may slow drying rates, dependent upon drying end point.
Just some, amusing to me, thoughts from a retired chemical engineer. There's so much chemical engineering in cooking anything and everything.
Great points. But, to be pedantic, isn’t the change in vapor pressure for the exact same reason/functionally the same as the chemical explanation, that it’s hygroscopic? Or is it purely a function of the physical chemistry of adding solute to “solvent” (the flour and water in this case)? What I mean is, do you not need a greater pressure of water vapor above the salted solution to maintain equilibrium simply because the salt absorbs water out of the atmospherically pressurized water vapor? I don’t understand vapor pressure that well so maybe I’m way off the mark. I suppose one also has to consider volatility, which takes into account intermolecular forces that exist between solvent/solute and solute/solute, etc., regardless of a solute’s coordination with water molecules. Now I’m just confusing myself…perhaps a lot of these physics-chemistry concepts are intertwined in a way that is superfluous to consider.
@@andrewmoss8442 Smart questions.
@@Kumlord yes, you're right. I thought one way and said another.
5 is 25% greater than 4. At the same time, 4 is 20% less than 5.
@@andrewmoss8442 I just now noticed your comment, a month after its posting.
... yes, Hygroscopic materials are substances that absorb ambient humidity. As you said, these substances will absorb water vapor until equilibrium between the ambient atmosphere and solution is reached.
In drying operations, you think about it differently. The ambient partial pressure of water is far less than the vapor pressure of the solution being dried. Otherwise, there would be slow or no evaporative drying.
Only a few minutes in, but I'm already impressed by the ever-heightening production value of these videos. The interview is incorporated especially well
czcams.com/video/YThNnGgZqcc/video.html finally its here
@@Memecious unfunny tho
So now--besides being one of the most (the most?) interesting cooking programs on CZcams--viewers get a side of beefy goodness to observe. I'm not complaining, thank you very much! Thanks for the incredibly in-depth knowledge of pasta making, and the advertisement. Keep 'em coming. Please.
Very interesting. Another hypothesis, although i admit to knowing way to little about the history of salt and pasta to support this thought: i‘m not sure if you‘re quite right about the abundance of salt in say medieval italian households. Salt was a valued trading good, in antiqUity, soldiers were sometimes paid in salt and it came in different qualities, some came from the sea, some from salines in the mountains.
I think its fair to say, that a somewhat fine ground and pure salt, free of debris e.g. of ‚stuff swimming in the ocean‘ was neither cheap nor easy to come by for everyone.
Thus i‘d say it might be interesting to think about these two points
1. if salt was rather expensive, or at least ‚not cheap’ not using salt, would be beneficial. It may be, that early pasta wasn‘t salted at all, neither the pastry, nor the water, or salt was only an option, if you could spare it, thus adding it later in the process, maybe especially in the case of traded pasta.
2. if salt was rather ‚dirty‘ or came in chunks, it‘d be easier to salt a liquid, rather than a pastry.
I‘d be very interested, if people know more!
That's true, the debris would fall down and stay undissolved in the bottom of the pot instead remaining into the pasta.
The idea that soldiers were payed with salt is something of a misrepresentation. The term 'salary' comes from a salt ration that was given to roman soldiers, but that was more an allotment meant to cover a soldier's day to day needs while in the field. They used the salt, to season and preserve their food, not to take home and buy things. Their actual payment came in more familiar forms, ie coins and such. It was valued and important because people needed it everday to manage a steady supply of food in a world without refrigeration, and thus money could be made by taking it from places where it was readily available, ie the coast or places with salt rocks, to far inland places that didn't have it. But, if you were in one of those more salt rich areas, its availability was never really a problem.
I love love that you talk to real experts. So many people make food videos and drop claims with little regard for whether they're true.
12:22 "traditional no-egg just salt and water Italian pasta dough". The oceans are now officially confirmed to be made of traditional pasta dough.
czcams.com/video/YThNnGgZqcc/video.html finally its here
no, the ocean contains fosh eggs; the key to makig traditional pasta dough is taking some ocean and removig any fish eggs from it, then you have the traditional pasta dough.
@@nienke7713 the hardest part is separating the yolks
That pasta dough isn't supposed to have oil.
I had to rewind that a time, even though I already knew what he meant, my brain was still confused.
I would guess this has to do with Asian noodles often being "pulled," as opposed to rolled or extruded, as Italian noodles are. Elasticity is pretty important for pulling noodles. The noodles need to be pulled out and stretched thinner and thinner like rubber bands. This would make the the elasticity of Asian noodles important for production. And that "springiness" is now a disirable key trait of many types of Asian noodles that consumers have come to expect.
Italian noodles, on the other hand, are made from dough that is run through a press or extruder. While elasticity doesn't hurt this process and certainly some elasticity is needed, it is not critical as it is in pulling noodles. In fact, too much elasticity may be detrimental. This holds true for both fresh and dry Italian noodles. Excessive springiness is not needed, expected or desired.
This is just me taking a stab at the Asian noodle salt question. If anyone knows for sure or has a more plausible explanation, I'd love to hear it.
蓬灰 (penghui) is a dough relaxer used in Chinese pulled noodles. It makes it possible to easily pull noodles that otherwise would have too much elasticity.
@@dawnpatrol13 amusingly, the prepackaged penghui often has salt listed in the ingredients
@@eveleynce yeah the sodium metabisulphate is so absurdly powerful it can only be like 1% of the overall mix
Dude, I LOVE your scientific approach to everything. Your videos are brilliant and I follow just for the food science half. The recipe videos are just bonus material for me :)
As an engineering student, just wanted to say I really appreciate these types of videos Adam. The crossover of food, science, and engineering is like my holy grail of venn diagrams.
Wow that opening clip is INCREDIBLY cool
Recently been working my way through America's Test Kitchen Bread Illustrated book and this explains so so much about why we give it a little 20 min break after first knead before adding salt.
I love your videos exploring some aspect of cooking with experiments and your research into food science.
Pasta with salt would draw in more water while cooking, resulting in a softer texture and make it hard to impossible to achieve al dente mouthfeel.
This probably explains the difference between Asian noodles and Italian pasta as well. Noodles are meant to be more supple. And certain noodles, say buckwheat, would be hard to fully cook without the moisture the salt draws in.
Not saying your hypothesis is wrong. It makes sense logically. But unless tested, we don’t know for sure that a salted noodle takes in more water. Also, saying “asian noodles” is like saying western bread. The difference between supermarket wonder bread and a crusty french baguette are huge. Kind of ignorant to use asian noodles like it’s a homogeneous food. Many “Asian” noodles are actually chewier and springier than Italian pasta.
If so, then why wouldn't we just reduce the boil time, and why wouldn't that be a benefit?
I agree saying “Asian noodles” is ignorant. Sorry about that! I was using and responding to the terms as used in the video but I should have “scare quoted” it or something.
Cooking for less time might work, but cooking pasta is more than just hydrating it. A certain amount of cooking time is needed to transform the starches and proteins. Clearly more experimentation is called for.
In terms of the comparison with bread dough, I imagine the main reason why bread dough has salt and pasta dough doesn't would be because it's possible to add the salt to the water the pasta is being cooked in but it is not possible to add salt to the dough after the fact (unless you pour it onto a slice which would be an odd experience)
Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
This man is slowly giving me all the knowledge required to make doughs from scratch, and I’m not even trying to learn to bake
These are the questions people need to know
Welp, now I know why I could never get my egg pasta very thin when I was rolling it out. Thanks Adam.
Excellent video and explanation!
This is fantastically researched and informative. Good video mate!
This is SOOOO fascinating!! I always used some salt in my egg noodles (following a recipe) and I could NEVER get it as thin as other recipes stated / I wanted to. This is sooo interesting to finally have evidence for a cause!
When we were kids we made homemade playdough by making really salty dough. Like 2 cups of flour to 1 cup of salt.
czcams.com/video/YThNnGgZqcc/video.html finally its here
I assume that's probably because the salt content prevents any microbes from growing?
@@dipp1511 maybe the properties of salty dough make it easier to play with moreso than microbial concerns
@@mlgpro2241 It probably slows drying, besides the other points mentioned.
Very educational as usual! Thanks for sharing! 🙏
Good and informative video! Thank you.
I love these kitchen science, "Adam figures stuff out", episodes. A fresh of breath air, in more ways than one, in these later days of mass delusion. Do so appreciate the tightly focused rationality in service to finding and explaining a simple truth.
You missed an opportunity to replace the "vinegar leg is on the right" ending with a "Salted dough is on the right"
Adam, thank you so much for making these videos. I absolutely love seeing the time and effort and energy you put into cooking topics and it absolutely blows me away how intellectually curious you are. Thank you for being so freaking awesome! I look forward to every new video you make. :)
I absolutely love these Monday videos
This is the most Adam Ragusea video ever.
Why I season my X and not Y? Check.
Well-timed and seamless sponsor transition? Check.
Home experiments? Check.
Italian food? Check.
White wine?
Very interesting, I'm sure I'm not the only one who wonders this while making pasta
I really enjoy the facts, and the research that back your claims. I think for your channel it helps entertain me, as well as learn more of the Why instead of the How. Even though you are very thorough with your videos.
I also like the fact that you take multiple perspectives too. Makes for a good video. Good job Adam.
Interesting informational content as always.
So your theory is that the difficulty of moving the dough may have de-incentivized the mixing of salt into pasta. Maybe, but if we're looking at Italian style pasta, we should consider its early origins would likely have ties to Rome, where salt was used as a currency and preservative for meats.
Since using salt was the equivalent of spending currency, using it to prepare a food that already self-preserves may have seemed wasteful. Additionally, any preserved meats added to the pasta would have had plenty enough salt to satisfy the consumer.
One of Townsends videos on salted preserved meats from the Revolutionary War era showed that when boiling salted meats, a soldier would change the water two or three times in order to get enough salt out of the meat to make it edible.
Good point. I think Adam has even talked about the ridiculously high levels of salt in pre-refrigerator butter. I'm sure there was lots of preserved foods that would contribute all the salt necessary for a meal.
Why i pasta my seasoning, NOT my water.
dude nutty video! so much work put into this!
I love this style of video, Adam. Bravo!
High quality, informative video like every time.
I would've appreciated that the pasta be dried and cooked to observe if there was any difference in texture. I know ramen-style noodles use alkaline water in their dough, which strengthens them enough to keep them firm even if overcooked. So this may explain why salt is used in asian-style noodles.
For someone who regularly forgets to add salt when making pasta, a pasta which contains salt to start with would be great!
For charged polymers/proteins salt typically makes them absorb less water (as they are more attracted to salt than water) and the molecules therefore swell less and therefore you actually get a more liquid consistency in the end. Here you get the opposite.
It would also be interesting to see if you get the same effect by adding the salt to the water before adding it, adding coarse salt and then start mixing might prevent the salt from spreading evenly in the dough?
And finally, could you counteract the effect of salt by adding slightly more water?
great video as always Adam!
Great video! As always your dedication to research and actually understanding information before presenting it to your viewers sets you apart from other youtubers and chefs. The ad transition was great too ;) Looking forward to the next vid! Thanks!
from what I've gathered over the years, salt has some interesting effects on gluten development and dough cohesion over time, which is why they add (comparatively) large amounts of salt to their dough and rest for several hours in asian style wheat pasta, whereas adding no salt at all will allow your dough to keep its form more easily during the long drying process in western style wheat pasta
this, of course, is not backed by any specific sources, it's just a combination of various explanations I've heard from people across the internet who hand-make various types of pastas, in both professional and amateur contexts.
I would venture a guess that unless you're specifically trying to dry your pasta at home or trying to make hand pulled chinese noodles, it doesn't matter a whole lot whether you add salt or how much, the more critical components would be moisture content and kneading.
Another great experiment and expert! On a bread dough front, can you answer why slow and cool ferments make more flavor than quick and warm ones, given that in both we're just waiting until a certain amount of puff (CO2) has been made? Haven't the yeast eaten the same amount of flour in both?
Low-and-slow fermentation results in more lactic acid and other organic acids that provide complex flavor for the bread.
@@elkaphant thanks! I guess the yeast puts out acids even when they're eating slower. That makes sense
Also, Enzymatic action happens even during cold temperatures, so the yeast doesn't overdo itself so quickly inside the dough and more starches are broken down to simpler sugars that provide browning when it hits the oven
Great video! I love the thoughtful and fact-based takes you always have on the science and history of cooking! No matter how much I think I know about the topic you're covering, I always come away having learnt something.
great episode, like all the best parts of you and an old episode of good eats. in a good way....
Yes, lean into the meme Adam. Embrace it yessss
It is nice having the option to salt or not. When cooking for family, if someone has a medical issue with salt it is quite easy to just put on another pot and boil water with no salt for that person.
I also question how much salt is actually absorbed as used pasta water remains salty and starchy, enough so that some ppl save that water to add to salt. I question that if the pasta was already salted and ended up on shelves in the USA, it would actually ultimately lead to more salt consumption (as is the case with many pre-salted food item in American supermarkets today).
People don't save the pasta water to season, but to make a sauce cling to the pasta. It's easy to throw a pinch of salt into a sauce, but what you really want is the starchy water. When you use that as the base of a sauce it will thicken better and, in theory, cling to the starchy pasta.
I don't season my water at all, since I like it enough already without any (plus the sauce will add flavour and salinity anyway). Glad there's no salt in pasta and that we thusly can make pasta dishes with little to no sodium :)
I start my pasta in a full pot of water with no salt. After 1-2 minutes, when all danger of sticking has passed, I dump out 1/2 or 2/3 of the water and then add my salt. It requires much less salt, and the resulting water is 2-3 times starchier. Good for making aglio olio.
oh my god, food science, the more i look at this channel , the more i'm in love with it ! thank you !
great vid - would have been interested in you doing the kneading blind and sharing your thoughts on differences without knowing which is which
That final note seems pretty important. Thin noodles could end up losing a lot of salt to the water. This might mean you need a very high amount of salt in the dough. Plus boiling your pasta in a relatively larger or smaller volume of water might make a bigger difference when the salt is in the dough rather than in the water
Not to mention the difference when cooking soft vs al-dente.
The long awaited sequel to the infamous “Why I season my cutting board and not my steak”
I know playing footage backwards for an effect is old-school, but man that intro with the lettering is mesmerizing.
These are questions I never would have asked, but are definitely fascinated by now
Ive got a weird issue about your audio. its weirdly crackly. Like at 3:48 its really clear with headphones. I originally thought the crackling was the spaghetti being waved around.
Another thing to remember is that just as salt defuses into the unsalted pasta, salt would defuse out of salted pasta into unsalted water. This is why Asian noodles are cooked in broth or soup. You don't add salt to pasta because you would still have to salt the water.
True
That was a great experiment Adam! I would have loved to have also seen one more experiment group of the salted pasta dough, but with an adjusted hydration to see what which effects on the dough (especially the strength) are from salt versus hydration.
Research and presentation of this video is second to none, very interesting indeed.
Reading the title
“How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?”
Once would be nice
I just made fresh pasta last night, and thought "oh crap, I forgot to put salt in my dough." Turns out that was the right way to do it 🤣
Love your history of food type of videos, but that apart, mayo and tomato is one of my favourite combos of all time! And it happened to be my dinner today as I started watching this video!
Thanks for that ending. That was at the back of my mind for most of the video
If you ever get a hunch, that would be a nice sequel to have :)
I just boil my pasta next to a rock salt lamp and the ion diffusion in the air seasons my food perfectly, everytime, because science. 🙃
Idea: Sell "salted pasta" for a higher price, and use the tag-line or catch-phrase "salted to perfection" with a small print "according to an italian chef". It could be one of those lazy means ingredients, which people use for not needing to mix ingredients. Like how there's cake mix, so you don't have to make the mix yourself from the ingredients of the mix. This way, you could boil the pasta and know they taste EXACTLY the way the manufacturer intended them to taste, without having to mess with salt contents in the water or liquid used to boil the pasta.
I think you could still end up with more or less salty tasting pasta depending on how much water you boil it in and for how long
As an italian I wouldn't touch pre-salted pasta.
The amount of salt needed highly depends on 1) what you are adding to the pasta, e.g. what kind of sauce you are using, what cheese/fish/meat etc since they all contain salt 2) what pasta you use (some absorb more salt than others) and 3) just how salty you like your pasta.
You can always add salt if you need it. But with pre-salted pasta you'd probably have to either add salt anyways or you'll end up with too much salt.
Great video, as always.
5:52 your hard work with weights is showing! Awesome!
I had an Adam Ragusea moment a little while back. I found that my fries were under seasoned, so I salted my ketchup. That ended up being a little too much salt, but oh well.
I think it deserves mention that Italians would grab water right out of the ocean for boiling pasta, which is very heavily salted. This fun fact is exactly what finally got me putting the RIGHT amount of salt in my pasta water rather than the little pinch I, and I'm sure a lot of other home cooks, had been doing.
From the sea? What about those Northern Italian regions with no sea or simply Italians not living close to the seaside?😂
Looking big my man.. keep up the grind
Love the flow! Keep growing the hair out!
One important part is missing from this video. Was there a taste difference? Did working the salt into the dough affect it's flavour? Was it more pronounced? Was it possibly worse? Was there even a difference? I would assume the latter but I never tested it.
Taste but also texture, in fact, i'd expect the difference to be more in texture and hardness than in taste
Hm, I think its just the case that salt was expensive. Venice made a fortune maintaining salt production for Lombard hams and cheeses so why would producers of basic pastas use expensive salt on pastas made for peasants?
I would love to see this expand into a mini pasta series!
7:43 I love the throwback reference. It was one of my favorite commercials.
Adam
salt is a flavour enhancer
It would be interesting to have a post on how this works
Does the salt change the molecular structure of the food to enhance the flavour for your tongue
or does the presence of salt modify the receptors on the tongue to change our perception of the flavour ?
Couldn't another explanation also be that they didn't add it since they didn't need to use the salt? Dried pasta lasts for month, and since salt is typically a preservative, they wouldn't need to essentially "waste" the salt.
Also, more shirtless ads. Chef... sorry.... chef... sorry... chef...
thanks for adding actual captions
As always great video 😊
I was actually excited about the deodorant and was about to buy some. Then it said aluminum free. I want an antiperspirant, so I disappointedly changed my mind. Someone from Native, add some aluminum to one of your lines!
The aluminum-free part is one of their main selling points. If you look at their website you can see they make vague implications that the aluminum in antiperspirant is harmful. It's deodorant for "environmentalists" who don't understand that it's still unsustainable consumerism even when the product is "cruelty-free" and comes in a paper tube.
@@tissuepaper9962 yeah I understood that it was part of the selling point and meant it somewhat jokingly, I’ve heard people complain about aluminum. I usually assume they’re not very chemically educated and just think “metal on my skin bad!”. To be fair, I haven’t researched it, but considering we consume beverages contained in aluminum all the time, I can’t see the harm of putting it on my skin because it “blocks my pores” (like yeah, if it does great, glad it works).
I do dislike plastics though. I consider myself a very lazy environmentalist, and I kind of think the petrochemical industry has done a lot of harm to the environment. So if I can switch from plastic to paper, sustainable or not, I have no problem with that and would be happy to do it.
@@andrewmoss8442 Old Spice has a real antiperspirant in a paper tube last I saw in the store. Check it out.
@@tissuepaper9962 oh nice, I hadn’t noticed it, thanks.
Isn't it as simple as the fact that it makes more sense to be able to tailor the salt content to the specific dish you're making instead of attempting 1-size-fits-all?
Maybe for industrially produced pasta, but what about homemade ones?
Fantastic video. Fascinating thesis. I also appreciate the question you finished on. I wonder how the volume of noodle consumption in the culture affects the thesis. If noodles are a side dish, then maybe the labor is less of an issue than if they are the main staple. The professor's comment about expectations also probably plays in.
I'm glad Dr Manthy makes the linguistic distinction between Noodles and Pasta it's something I wish more people did as it is just so much more clear
I'm loving these baking videos. I'd love a video on why quick breads, like banana bread, are so liquidy compared to normal breads.
This reminds me of how Ava from pasta grammar was trying to make a particular Italian cake but was having a lot of issues only to notice she was using salted butter. So great video....
The sponsor of this video looks so incredible interesting! I would have loved to try them out, sadly it doesnt seem they ship internationally.. But thanks for using such promising sponsors for your content! Great video too!