Busting Boiling Pasta Myths!

So, one of the things you might have heard about boiling pasta is that the reason you use a large pot is because um it returns to a boil faster uh once you add the pasta in there. Um this is not actually true. In fact, a smaller pot will return to a boil a little bit faster than a large pot will. The reason is because when you got a pot of boiling water, everything there is at uh 100°C. The temperature drop um that the pasta water experiences, it's true that a smaller volume of pasta water um is going to drop in temperature faster, uh but it's also going to pick up its temperature much faster. Um so, really the only energy you need to add to the pot to return it to a boil once you've added the pasta uh is the amount of energy that it takes to bring however much pasta you've added um up to 100°C. Um and that's the same amount of energy whether you're in a small pot or a large pot. Um so, in a perfect environment, a uh a large pot of water and a small pot of water will come back to the to a boil um at the same rate. Um — [snorts] — However, in a real-life kitchen um where there is steam being lost, where there's uh heat being lost from the pan to the kitchen, um a small pot will actually return to a boil faster um because there is actually less surface area for heat to get lost to the outside environment, um which means that it takes uh less time to bring that water to a boil, and it takes less time to return that water to a boil. So, um the whole idea that um a larger volume of water returns to boil fa- faster after adding pasta, um well, it's just not true. Um and it's also completely unnecessary. So, um with a smaller amount of water, we're going to end up with more concentrated starch, uh and our pasta uh is going to cook just as well, just as fast, uh and our sauce is going to come out much more easily emulsified and sort of much nicer and creamier. All right.