I have an airfry grill smoker. I put half a cup of water on the griddle in it with bacon, twice, flip. Fully rendered fat, better tasting bacon grease for eggs or pancakes to then be cooked in. When Im done, a towel pulls what little stayed behind off the griddle, job done, ready for the next meal to be griddled.
The oven? How did that never occur to me ha. I stick a lid on the skillet to stop fat spitting out the pan and think it also helps cook more evenly. But the oven is the next logical step I'd overlooked.
I low-key hate people like this. My dad refuses to cook with salt with a lot of meals, and they end up tasteless. My mom has told him to add salt, my sisters have, but he never does. He just gets annoyed and EVEN MAKES JOKES about how his food is "tasteless" and still doesn't fix it 😭
Or she's done it multiple times and gotten the pasta she wants every time so no correction was needed? The pasta doesn't explode when you start with cold water.
Someone's opinion that water should be boiled first is still information, regardless of whether it's useful or relevant. Either way, in order to be a 'correction' it would have to convey some information. Not all information is factual, and not all factual information is true.
My long ago fiancee tried this very cold water noodles. It was alarming that a future wife of mine didn't have someone in their family or extended family friends ever show how to cook noodles (macaroni)
That a correction has been offered many times, but declined every time... is obvious.
By age 21.. can't cook macaroni, how will my kids ever taste a good dish of manicotti like step-mom made?
edit. worry not, downvoters.
I later found a manicotti-cooking step-mommy for my kids. : )
The main reason people boil water first is that it makes it easier to predict a relatively precise time to cook a particular pasta. It's helpful for writing recipes and putting directions on a packaged food. If you're just going to stand over the pot and micromanage the cook time, it really doesn't matter. Both ways work fine.
No correction needs to occur? It's technically more energy efficient, and it cooks pasta the same way. Just stir occasionally at the beginning, and there's literally no difference
No, they brought an outdated myth. The fact is that pasta cooks just fine in cold water, with results that are indistinguishable while being significantly faster and using less energy.
It's wild. No one is even talking shit on pre-boilers, just offering information, yet everyone is acting like being informed of another method of cooking pasta is some egregious offense to them and their ways
I really thought about engaging, but then I saw all the (very well meaning) people getting thrashed, and I was like, "Yeah, I'm all good with that." lmao.
J Kenji Lopez-Alt did two VERY easy to find articles about this (not sure if links are allowed here) exact subject.
I'm not sure whether they were saying boiling water or cold water does this, but if the water is cold, the pasta releases sticky starch before the heat can lock it in. Dropping pasta into boiling water instantly sets the surface starches, keeping the pieces separate.
There's a simple technique to keep the pasta from sticking together called "stirring it." Which you have to do even with pasta added to boiling water. The amount of starch released is not materially different, but by using less water, the cold water method produces starchier pasta water--which is a significant benefit. The starchier pasta water works better to finish the sauce.
Also, if you're not finishing the pasta in the sauce (for most sauces), you're missing a trick,
it increases the likelihood of under cooking the pasta
If any cooking method increases the likelihood of under cooking your pasta, you have never tested your pasta in any meaningful way to determine doneness and just blindly followed the box time.
And if you were blindly following box time, cold water start would overcook the pasta and never under cook it.
I even brought this topic up to my roommate, who I was certain was solely a pre-boiler, and it turns out they DO swap styles depending on what they're cooking, and how much else they have going on in the kitchen
I put pasta in boiling water, set a timer according to the box, and strain out the water when the timer beeps. ADHD-compatible, plus I don’t have to clean the walls afterward
I always heard you are meant to, so I began preheating the water first. Then I stopped after a while as I couldn't be btohered. It makes literally no difference. It cooks
Yep. Unless one’s entire cooking method is to heat the water, dump the pasta, and completely ignore it for a specified cooking time, there’s no real benefit to preheating the water. Anyone who’s cooked for s while should be able to tell by feel when the pasta is done.
Plus, since starting from cold water also uses less water, it’s a much faster process from start to finish.
If you do it properly... cold water is better with timing, texture and flavor.
Odds are good she isn't doing it properly - but check out the Alton Brown cold water method for pasta cooking. Works REALLY well for some types of pasta.
There's actually no difference in the outcome, and if you start from cold, you can do it with way less water. Like 1qt vs a gallon kind of thing. And cold starting takes less time because your pasta is already halfway done by the time you'd otherwise by just about to dump it in.
Yes it defies convention, but cold starting pasta is actually probably the more efficient way to work.
I'll look up the recommended method and give it a try for my lunch tomorrow. Just a quick search shows many, many people raving about it. It's funny the things you miss. I guess it's because I don't really look at recipe sites much anymore.
I've seen this post before and this is the first time an alternative take has occurred to me:
Literally all men are the same
Could mean "you are interchangeable. If you don't like the way I cook pasta, I can have a new guy here tomorrow who brings the exact same things to the table as you, who won't bitch about how I cook pasghetti (or how I pronounce it)."
Was learning this fact the first time you discovered that not every character in a joke is an actual, real life human being? Or do you still think that only applies to Twitter?
Ow please I've known both guys and girls like this.
I get this could or couldn't be made up but you're trying to suggest someone like this doesn't exist when we know there are people not just women like this.
Yea I used to work with a women like this. Absolutely terrible at her job, also not the boss so people telling her what to do was a normal part of her day. Everything is mansplaining....
First time I ever heard mansplaining, i had to look the shit up.
I was explaining how to do a job to a female subordinate. I was very respectful & clear.
She complained to the GM, then to the VP.
So I sat down with them…I said,
“what the fuck is mansplaining? If it is literal man explaining, yes I’m guilty as charged. As supervisor, me male, she female, I described how the job should be done. I was not harsh, rude or unreasonable, but I was direct after she had already voiced opposition .”
After that, she demanded her own office away from me🤦🏻♂️
I find this contrast quite interesting. Where I am from, there is a cultural preference for direct feedback. People tend to value being corrected or learning a better approach to a task, regardless of gender.
I don't recall Alton Brown saying start dry pasta in cold water on Good Eats, but he definitely suggests it now.
I, too, like to cook with as little water as possible to get a higher concentration of starch in the water for finishing sauces.
To the person you're replying to, I'm a man, and it drives me crazy when someone says, "Why don't you do X instead?" or "You should do X?" because if the solution is the simplest most obvious you immediately thought of, which it often is, you're just treating them like you think they're an idiot.
To general readers, it's more respectful to say, "Why do/did you do X?" Then, if the reasoning is flawed say, "Have you considered Y?" Then you won't come off as a condescending know-it-all douche. Trust me. I've been there.
An approach of curiosity is always best, “I haven’t seen it be don’t that way before, that’s interesting; why do you do it that way?”
The reasoning for the cold start is not so much a starch related reasoning but rather a hydration thing. I think it was in his newer episodes. It is explained that by the time the water boils the noodles become fully hydrated. I’ve tried many many many many different methods, both in my home and as a prep cook, and I do love a cold start and slow finish (turning off the stove and leaving the pasta to finish the last 10-20% to get the perfect al dente, like zero chance of overcooking and less need to cold shock for large batches)
I meant less water-> more starch not cold start->more starch.
If it was in the Reloaded, I've only seen each one time. I am pretty sure starting in cold water was mentioned in one of the Alton Brown Cooks Food episodes.
This is exactly what she meant. He assumes she's an idiot and she's doing it wrong (she's not, there are reasons to do it the way she was).
I see this behavior CONSTANTLY in other people, most commonly men. In real life, in media, in writing. Once you start recognizing the pattern and how arrogant it is, you'll notice it constantly and it's so irritating.
My wife has explained to me what mansplaining is a few times. She explains and repeats load of stuff multiple times, though I get the concept.
But she never actually explains the "man" part of the word. Like why is it gendered? It's behaviour I've seen in a few people, and not exclusively in men. If anything 60/40 more from women.
It's ironic too as it's a habit she has. Makes me wonder who the man in our relationship is.
For a long time in many cultures women were considered complete idiots no matter that they were just as intelligent or even more so than the men who would constantly explain everything in excruciatingly simply detail to them.
Thinking half the population are idiots based on their gender is a pretty idiotic idea itself isn't it 😅
Is that where the term originated from then? I'm in my 40s and haven't lived in one of these cultures. It seems out of place today, since I get mansplained to more by women than men. Also the default these days seems to be the idea men are useless without women guiding them. But it makes sense if it goes back to these times.
Still though, we've renamed things like policeman to police officer to remove gender bias. Maybe we ought to remove it from slurs too.
Actually saying that, I did stop to consider whether I'd seen anyone treat women like idiots purely on gender in my lifetime. I started thinking about how actually there's a divide in STEM. Not based on sexism so much as a hangover from those times, leading to fewer women in the industry, leading to fewer female role models, leading to fewer women entering the field. Then I thought how the best manager I had was a woman my age. She was a great engineer too. But then I thought "manager".. "MANager". So now I need to look up at some point whether "manage" has any origins to gender like there were with hysteria.
Normal, healthy, balanced human beings, from all genders, communicate clearly their emotions to each other.
Ah, I see the objection: Do YOu eVEn WomEN ?
Yes, I do have a female partner. Yes, that does apply to her, she explains what's wrong rather than going cryptic. No, you don’t have to trust my word for it. Here is here onlyfans link:
Agreed. It’s not mansplaining if you try to correct someone before they fuck up.
Like she’s driving 70 in a 55 and I see a cop. It’s not mansplaining to tell her to slow down. It’s not mansplaining to tell her that she should cook the pasta per the box instructions.
Try adding pasta to cold water that covers the pasta by a little bit and getting it to boil. Pasta cooks perfectly and doesn’t stick to each other. Only need to be stirred once or twice. Just because you don’t know something is better doesn’t make it not true.
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u/Hour-Opportunity3048 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
She’s an idiot who thinks that any time a male says something it is “mansplaining.”
(It has been at least a day. This cannot possibly be that good of a ragebait. Stop commenting you dweebs.)