You do realize that this only applies if you are cooking at much higher altitudes than at sea level, right? What YOU need to realize is that pasta soaks up a lot of water as it cooks, so salt will season the pasta. Again, watch the video I put up above. That guy is all about science and cooking.
K this is my last post on here because I don't want to turn this into a debate or anything like that. The laws of chemistry apply everywhere. That's why they're called laws. It's more important when cooking at higher altitudes, because the boiling point up there is so much lower than at sea level (due to pressure, blah, blah, blah). If they don't put salt in their water, it would take forever to cook their pasta. It applies down here as well, but people just don't practice it as much because they don't NEED to. Still works though. You can try it out for yourself if you like. Little home-made science experiment. I love the Good Eats guy, and he and the writers probably just overlooked that point, or decided it wasn't that important. In terms of flavoring, I don't really know anything about that. Sounds like it would make sense, but I don't have enough experience with cooking to argue it one way or another. I'll assume you're correct on that point.
This thing's getting moved to the D&D soon. Who knew people would be so passionate about their pasta water? I salt water for pasta and for rice for the taste. I use bouillion for the rice. It has some impact on the boiling point, but the boiling point doesn't matter much for the cooking.
That makes sense as you have to modify how long you cook things like pasta at high altitudes due to water boiling at a lower temperature because of less air pressure. If though as another poster noted it sounds like you need a fair amount of salt to modify the boiling point which I am guessing would make your food unpalatable salty. I was always told to do it for taste but I've never noticed a problem with not salting.
Adding a water soluble substance, such as salt or sugar increases the boiling point. This is called boiling-point elevation. However, the effect is very small, and the boiling point will be increased by an insignificant amount. Due to variations in composition and pressure, the boiling point of water is almost never exactly 100 °C, but rather close enough for cooking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling There was a reason he didn't include it. It is a non-factor.
I never salt the water. If I wanted flavor I could just salt the pasta after it's cooked. It's more efficient because I don't waste any salt by leaving it floating in the cooked water.
Salt raises the boiling point temperature at any altitude, but a teaspoon of salt would only raise the boiling point by 0.2 *F.
I add salt for the taste. I can tell the difference between rice or noodles being cooked in salted vs unsalted water. When I make chicken and rice, I use the water I boiled the chicken in and use bullion cubes instead of salt.
Salt: seasoning The increase in boiling point isn't enough to cook it significantly quicker, unless you're adding handfulls.
I nearly always salt the water. I've lived in some houses with crappy stoves and the salt really helped get the water up to a boil faster. That is why I originally started doing it. But, it also adds a little subtle flavor. So, it's win, win to me.
If salt makes everything better, then why is there a shortage of swallowers? I mean, I heard it tastes salty on Cinemax once, so either the show is lying or girls do not like salt.
I'm message boarding, dork. If you change my name or assault me on Facebook it's on! PLEASE, follow me around nipping. I will enjoy eating your carcass. If a playful muppet pic makes you angry, well...it worked.
In this case of cooking pasta, it's for seasoning. I'm a line cook. We season everything. For the most part, the difference between home cooking and restaurant cooking is seasoning. You season at all levels (beginning, middle, end) because you don't want to taste salt. When you can taste the salt, you have over seasoned. Adding it to the water, enhances the flavor of pasta. If you just add salt to the end of everything, you're not giving the food a chance to absorb the salt and get tasty. Salt doesn't keep pasta from sticking. Adding oil to the drained pasta would help better. In the case of "blanching" green vegetables, it is best if 1 cup/gallon of salt is added. The hotter the water, the faster your greens cook because you don't want to cook greens too long in water, else the color darkens.
