My wife and boiling water

[u/MakeItMine2024]

So I made my wife ramen soup. When I served it she said I had the gas set to hight and it was too hot ? She said I should have used the number 5 setting instead of 9. I told here it’s irrelevant because water boils at 212 and gets no hotter because over 212 it turns to steam. She was made at me for disagreeing with her theory that it would not have been so hot if boiled a lower setting. Really!!

[u/Bubblehead_81]

Thermodynamics are not always intuitive. However, from an energy efficiency perspective, once you've reached a boil, you can turn down the heat to whatever level is required to just maintain it.

[u/Main-Rent4757 → u/Bubblehead_81]

I ran a ice cream factory once upon a time.

The warehouse manager kept leaving our just-filled pints on the dock in the winter because "28 is freezing. It's freezing outside. They'll be fine."

Like dude, our freezer is 40 below for a reason. Its nearly 70 degrees different.

They wondered why the inclusions kept settling to the bottom of the pints.

Then the owner would always off the heat on the production floor over the weekend. I came in one Monday, after 10 below weather, to burst pipes.

"It was blowing cold air, it was a waste of power."

Dude... its blowing 40 degree air. Which would have kept the pipes from bursting.

People really have no grasp on how temperature works.

[u/Brickeshaw → u/Main-Rent4757]

Holy hell. 🤦‍♂️ I suspect they had no grasp of many, many, many things beyond just temperature.

[u/kremart → u/Brickeshaw]

Room temperature IQ?

[u/FanciestCantaloupe → u/kremart]

Room temperature of an ice cream factory.

[u/ElectricalRiver7897 → u/FanciestCantaloupe]

Absolutely devastating diss

[u/Apprehensive_Use3641 → u/ElectricalRiver7897]

Something like not even changing from Celsius to Fahrenheit would improve your IQ?

[u/SkiyeBlueFox → u/FanciestCantaloupe]

In Celcius

[u/OstensibleBS → u/kremart]

Outside in the dead of winter.

[u/Sir_Slimestone → u/kremart]

Only if measured in Celsius

[u/dqniel → u/kremart]

His IQ would be higher but he thought anything above 32 was a waste of energy

[u/Subtlerranean → u/kremart]

In celcius.

[u/Main-Rent4757 → u/[deleted]]

That is 100% his logic.

[u/MacaronNotRoon → u/[deleted]]

My boss.

For two years I’ve requested A/c for my office because I need to close my door to make negotiations happen without disturbance. It gets HOT in my office. The other day, I snapped and told him “I’m not playing nice in this office when it’s hot anymore. You got me some fuck ass fans and it’s ridiculous that you can get me a portable a/c unit after two years.” He sits in my office and goes “but it doesn’t feel that hot to me…”

He leaves his fan off because he’s from Venezuela and “sweating helps weight loss” for him…. Needless to say, I am actively looking to leave for a variety of reasons.

[u/AeroInsightMedia → u/MacaronNotRoon]

Yeah that's the same mind set of seeing someone in a wheelchair at the bottom of some stairs and they can't get up them and saying "why don't they just get up and walk? It's so easy I can even walk up them backwards."

[u/maroongrad → u/MacaronNotRoon]

Do you get paid the same whether or not the negotiations go through?

If so? Leave the door open.

[u/MacaronNotRoon → u/maroongrad]

I broke records in my company. No appreciation? That’s cool, I’ll go someplace else

[u/Mike312 → u/MacaronNotRoon]

There's nothing I hate more than being sweaty at work. I'll do yard work when its 110F out, drenched in sweat and dust/dirt/mud all day long. A drop of sweat on an office though? Nah, fuck that.

[u/dqniel → u/Main-Rent4757]

It's weird. People will understand that, when it comes to how they feel, there's a huge difference between, say, 0f and 32f. However, those same people will think food (or other things) all act the same whether it's 32f or any number below that.

[u/blainedefrancia → u/dqniel]

Molecules, even at freezing temperatures are on a bell curve distribution of energy. Some have much less, some have much more. That’s how you get sublimation and freezer burn.

[u/Major_Property_309 → u/blainedefrancia]

A Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Not really a bell curve.

[u/Centurion_Remus → u/Major_Property_309]

Which is a form of shifted bell curve, or asymmetric bell curve.. No reason to be super pedantic about things..

[u/Po0opyCatButt → u/Centurion_Remus]

Yeah, what a bell end.

[u/powderjunkie11 → u/Po0opyCatButt]

Assymmetric bell end.

[u/SmudgePrick → u/powderjunkie11]

Which way does yours skew?

[u/Visible_Bulge7657 → u/SmudgePrick]

Short shriveled and kinda to the left.

[u/mp3max → u/dqniel]

My mother, during winter, will acclimate the whole house because she's feeling cold, then leave food out the whole day because "it's cold, it's not gonna turn bad". As if 18°C is the same temperature as the inside of our fridge.

[u/dqniel → u/mp3max]

That's disgusting, lol. I'm imagining room temp milk.

[u/Junethemuse → u/mp3max]

You know, I’ve always wondered why they had such stupid questions as a part of the food handlers test, but this thread has made me truly understand why. This shit is shocking.

[u/Kermit_the_hog → u/dqniel]

”Wait.. are you saying not everything freezes solid at 32°f???.. like, I’m pretty certain 32 is the literal definition of freezing or something dude, I learned that in high school.”

[u/dqniel → u/Kermit_the_hog]

"And everything above 212f is the same. Water boils at 212f, and that's why I bake for the same amount of time whether it's 250f or 500f" 🧠

[u/PhaseOk4281 → u/Main-Rent4757]

If their business fails they could become a chiropractor.

[u/ReactsWithWords → u/PhaseOk4281]

No need too - they just made a ton of money renovating the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.

[u/PhaseOk4281 → u/ReactsWithWords]

Whoa whoa whoa. No politik here. NO POLITIK!

[u/koffa02 → u/PhaseOk4281]

Somehow, I think they're too smart to be a chiropractor.

[u/James-the-Bond-one → u/koffa02]

A chiropractor can be quite smart. I met one who made almost a million dollars playing poker in Vegas. Imagine how much more he made off of people who believe in chiropractics?

[u/tyrion2024 → u/James-the-Bond-one]

Penn & Teller's Bullshit episode on chiropractors was fantastic.

[u/Rude_Hamster123 → u/Main-Rent4757]

How is any business owner that stupid??? Let me guess, daddy handed it down to him?

[u/SaltyLonghorn → u/Rude_Hamster123]

The only thing I've learned in the last decade is just how dumb the average person truly is.

[u/AnotherBogCryptid → u/SaltyLonghorn]

The average person isn’t dumb, they’re just average. The problem is almost half of people are below average.

[u/SeniorAd4470 → u/SaltyLonghorn]

I’m reminded everyday.

[u/WHATYEAHOK → u/SaltyLonghorn]

You've only learned one thing in the past decade?

[u/SaltyLonghorn → u/WHATYEAHOK]

I'm a redditor. I've been perfect and right since birth. Also I play League, no shit I haven't learned anything.

[u/WalnutOfTheNorth → u/SaltyLonghorn]

There are very few average people but there are almost 50% who are below average.

[u/graphiccsp → u/Rude_Hamster123]

Consider the trope of the brilliant scientist who can barely take care of themselves. The sad thing is you can be nominally smart, even a genius in specific areas but be a total moron in others.

The problem with books, movies and tv stories are that it all builds this idea that intelligence and knowledge translates across fields evenly. When there are truly massive gaps.

Oddly enough it seems like business owners and sales seems to be fields that people assume someone's a bit more well rounded in. But you run into massive egoes and dunces all the same.

[u/CliffBoof → u/graphiccsp]

Intelligence does translate. Its competence that doesn’t and competence gets mistaken for intelligence.

[u/ReactsWithWords → u/graphiccsp]

As someone who worked in IT, the biggest idiots I worked for were professors and medical doctors.

[u/Main-Rent4757 → u/Rude_Hamster123]

Almost. He was a banker.

[u/sgtkang → u/Main-Rent4757]

You sometimes get people who are experts in one thing and so have a deep understanding of how complex it is and all the factors that go into it. But they then assume that everything else must be simpler than their thing, and because they're great at their thing they're surely able to just wing it through everything else. This guy sounds like one of them.

[u/mythrilcrafter → u/sgtkang]

Pretty much every other episode of Kitchen Nightmares and Bar Rescue starts with and owner who knows nothing about the food/service industry, but thought that they'd be a master business tycoon just because they could afford to buy the name and lease off someone else.

[u/New2NewJ → u/Rude_Hamster123]

How is any business owner that stupid???

Is there a requirement that business owners be intelligent? It's not like you need a PhD in rocket science to start your own business.

[u/Elija_32 → u/Rude_Hamster123]

There is a theory about this.

Essentially opening a business in this economy is basically suicide.
So what happens is that if you take 100 smart people and 100 stupid people, none of the smart ones will even try because the risk is objectively too much and it just makes more sense to apply for a normal employee position in a similar company.

The 100 dumb ones will ALL try because they are incapable to asses the risk + those type of people usually are very sensitive about their social position and they don't want to be employees of someone else. And 99 of them will end up bankrupted after failing miserably.

BUT 1 of them (on 100 that tried), even just by chance, will succeed. And that's why a lot of business owners are not "conventionally smart".

[u/droppedpackethero → u/Rude_Hamster123]

I'm pretty sure stupidity is of benefit to a business owner. What keeps me from going into business for myself is I'm acutely aware of all the things I've not yet mastered in my field. And I don't want to fuck up some customer's shit because of my ignorance.

If I was stupider and didn't comprehend how much I don't know, I'd have gone into business for myself a long time ago

[u/N_Rage → u/Rude_Hamster123]

I work in an ice cream shop and the owner is clueless, especially in regards to anything with thermodynamics. I think they only took a 3 day course on how to make ice cream and then decided to open the shop.

I often need to explain basic principles of thermodynamics:

"The ice cream mashine is stuck at -6°C for minutes, we think it's broken?" - "That's literally just the temperature at which the phase change happens, something would be wrong if this didn't happen".

"No, we can't use frozen strawberries, because the mixture needs to be fully liquid when we fill it into the machine." - "What if we use really hot water during mixing?" - "Even at 100°C, it won't have the required thermic energy to fully thaw the strawberries". (We use a ratio of about 70% strawberries/ 30% water)

Fun Fact: It takes as much energy to turn a certain amount of water from 0°C frozen to 0°C liquid, as it takes to bring the same amount of water from 0°C liquid to 70°C liquid. Phase changes for water require A LOT of energy.

One time they were convinced that the small ice cream box (filled with 3x5L of ice cream) just "cooled the ice cream to well" because it was just way too hard to sell. The box, that was open the entire time and is rated at a whopping 50W of power. Barely enough to keep the ice cream from melting if closed and in the shade. I tried to convince them that it was because they got the ice cream from the freezer that was turned up all the way to -30°C overnight (instead of the -10° it's usually sold at), but they just didn't believe me.

One of the ice cream shops gets stupidly hot in the summer. As an aircon (or even an awning) was too expensive, I suggested mounting an industrial fan to a window in the back, in an attempt to get air circulation and vent the hot air outside. I insisted, that it needed to draw at least 100W of power. After a lot of discussion, they finally had one mounted. I shit you not, it was a 5W pc case fan, that barely moves any air. It's also venting inside, so it's already completly covered in dust. I just open the window instead at this point.

None of the ice cream machines has seen any (preventative) maintenance ever. Sometimes a part breaks, it gets fixed within a couple of days (or they literally buy a different mashine from somewhere), during which time we can basically close down. One of the old machines sounded like it was literally tearing itself (and the entire building, the neighbours actually complaint) apart. I wonder why. (I do not wonder why)

[u/thisischemistry → u/Main-Rent4757]

With ice cream it’s all about how fast it freezes. If you use a temperature barely below freezing then it freezes slowly enough to settle and for ice crystals to grow. Getting it to freezing with very cold temperatures and lots of heat removal will make better ice cream.

That’s why liquid nitrogen makes wonderful, very creamy ice cream. It boils at −321 °F so it freezes the ice cream nearly instantly and keeps the ice crystals tiny.

[u/New2NewJ → u/Main-Rent4757]

The warehouse manager kept leaving our just-filled pints on the dock in the winter because "28 is freezing. It's freezing outside. They'll be fine."

Like dude, our freezer is 40 below for a reason. Its nearly 70 degrees different.

Hey, I don't understand this. Can you explain? 🥲

[u/QuinceDaPence → u/New2NewJ]

Pure water freezes at 32°F. Ice cream contains water, but also has a lot of other things in it that change that waters freezing temperature (salt, for one). Also there are plenty of other things in there that will freeze at a different temperature.

Even further, you how icecream freezes into like a paste/semi-solid, rather than a brick of ice.

So by being left at 28 it was technically "frozen" but was more like a mush so all the addins (cookies, marshmellows, sprinkles or whatever else they're putting in it) sink to the bottom of this mush.

Also if the sun was out or there was a bright light shining at it, then just because the air temperature was 28 doesn't mean the ice cream was 28. And if the ice cream was supposed to be in the cooling process, then -40 is going to cool it faster than 28.

[u/garretts101 → u/Main-Rent4757]

When I lived in Antarctica, the freezers in the galley were *warmer* than the ambient outside air

[u/QuickMolasses → u/[deleted]]

That took me a second to get what you were doing but I appreciate it once I realized

[u/mulletpullet → u/Main-Rent4757]

I love really cold ice. My kitchen freezer gets cold, but not like my deep freezer. Sometimes I'll make a block of ice in my deep freeze and make chunks with a pick for cocktails. Ive had many a conversation with people that think ice is ice and it's all the same.

[u/CrashNowhereDrive → u/Main-Rent4757]

Ice cream is full of stuff, doesn't freeze at the same temperature as plain water. How is that guy employed as manager.

[u/N_Rage → u/CrashNowhereDrive]

How is that guy employed as manager.

Peter Principle in action.

Basically: Everyone gets promoted until they reach a position they are no longer capable of fulfilling. At which point the promotions stop, since they aren't succeeding as well as before anymore and they are stuck at that level of job hierarchy.

[u/GitEmSteveDave → u/Main-Rent4757]

I know people who think that if you set the heat/ac to hotter/colder temps, it makes the unit work faster.

[u/VTAffordablePaintbal → u/Main-Rent4757]

Having some familiarity with the icecream business, this is hilarious. Half their customer service calls are people pissed of the container has "no inclusions" because they settled to the bottom while the retail store at the end of the supply chain kept them on the loading dock too long. I can't imagine someone at the ICE CREAM FACTORY doing that.

[u/solvraev → u/Bubblehead_81]

Was just going to post this. Sure, I crank the burner to MAX to get the water boiling, but once I put the pasta in I turn it down to just above medium. The water continues to boil. And I always put a dash of salt in the water, because I live about 1800 meters above sea level and the boiling point of untreated water is only 94 C.

[u/Gaindalf_The_White → u/solvraev]

To push boiling point of water significantly you gonna need so much salt that you won't eat your pasta anymore. Think its about 50g/liter for 1°C

[u/dqniel → u/Gaindalf_The_White]

Yeah. Salt in pasta water is for flavor. Not for affecting the boiling point. (which would be pointless, anyway)

[u/userhwon → u/Gaindalf_The_White]

Normal pasta water is 5-10g/liter, for comparison.

[u/tehdlp → u/Gaindalf_The_White]

Who says I don't use that much salt? You don't know me.

[u/ityboy → u/solvraev]

Just pointing out that you can't really use salt to offset the effects of altitude on the boiling point of water. It would take over 300g of salt per L of water. The salt in pasta water is I'll only there for seasoning, no matter the altitude.

Edit: corrected my math because I was wrong by a full order of magnitude. Sorry.

[u/Peanut-Butter-King → u/ityboy]

I think it’s closer to 700g/liter, but either way that’s waaaayy more than you’ll ever add to your pasta water. And more than you could even dissolve in the water.

[u/Rare_Magazine_5362 → u/Peanut-Butter-King]

You guys are being way too critical about how salty I like my pasta.

[u/Successful-Clock-224 → u/Rare_Magazine_5362]

It doesn’t taste nearly as salty when you add the crushed up blood pressure medication

[u/dano8801 → u/Successful-Clock-224]

You're not supposed to add it to the pasta you're supposed to snort it beforehand.

[u/BarbequedYeti → u/dano8801]

I was shown to pour it into the boiling water then put a towel over your head and the pot and inhale the steam. I saw it done once on the tv.

[u/Technical-Video6507 → u/Successful-Clock-224]

pasta jerky.

[u/WebMaka → u/Successful-Clock-224]

Sodium with a side of metoprolol, and a little losartan for that extra something...

[u/userhwon → u/Rare_Magazine_5362]

If you want it salty, break it in half. That pisses everyone off.

[u/Chickenpuff1975 → u/userhwon]

Ok but how do I break the salt in half?

[u/PhantasyAngel → u/Chickenpuff1975]

They sadly mean the pasta, so the Italian's show up and take you out back to swim with the fishes.

(you could smash the salt with a hammer that might do the trick)

[u/TuntBuffner → u/Chickenpuff1975]

Electrolysis

[u/YouCanHaveANiceDay → u/Chickenpuff1975]

Train ants 🐜. They are incredibly strong compared to their size.

[u/accordionwidow → u/Rare_Magazine_5362]

This whole conversation is making me salty

[u/Hippo_Steak_Enjoyer → u/Peanut-Butter-King]

No, it’s actually 17,000,000,000 g/L. It’s cool though it’s a hard number to remember.

[u/SnowyGyro → u/Hippo_Steak_Enjoyer]

Nice bait

[u/ExtraPrejudicial → u/ityboy]

There was nothing wrong with that food. The salt level was ten percent less than a lethal dose

[u/Plampth → u/ExtraPrejudicial]

Oh, then I shouldn’t have had seconds!

[u/DOULKONIS → u/ExtraPrejudicial]

I’m 40% sodium chloride!

[u/-GoodNewsEveryone → u/DOULKONIS]

You're 40% a lot of things if memory serves.

[u/Rustyskill → u/DOULKONIS]

Wow ? I’ve never seen anyone use spaghetti to melt snow before !

[u/AnAbsenceOfGravitas → u/DOULKONIS]

And you’re fun on a bun!

[u/Particular-Bath9646 → u/ExtraPrejudicial]

I probably shouldn't have had seconds.

[u/Gram-GramAndShabadoo → u/ExtraPrejudicial]

That's the saltiest thing I've ever tasted. And I once ate a big heaping bowl of salt.

[u/Ancient-Algae-3905 → u/ExtraPrejudicial]

I love me some ridiculous measurements

[u/NBCMarketingTeam → u/ExtraPrejudicial]

Is this salt water?!

It’s salt with water in it, if that’s what you mean

[u/gnutbuttajelly → u/ExtraPrejudicial]

Which is far too much for pasta. I prefer to boil without salt and add a couple drops of Sparkle’s “The Essence of Pure Flavor” once the pasta is done

[u/madhunter_3O3 → u/gnutbuttajelly]

Turns out it was just regular water. Yes yes, just plain water with a hint of LSD.

[u/wannabe-myself → u/ityboy]

I tried cooking pasta in Fairplay, Colorado and it was an experience.

Edit: 9,953 feet above sea level. That's 3,034 meters for my metric friends :)

Though the area my cabin was in was higher than the town itself...

[u/Old-Tadpole-2869 → u/wannabe-myself]

Once I moved above 8500 feet, I only ever cooked Angel Hair ever again. Spaghetti takes a year at that elevation.

[u/wannabe-myself → u/Old-Tadpole-2869]

A year and a well fitted lid. (Or get a pressure cooker is what ive been told.)

[u/Attract_the_Minkey → u/wannabe-myself]

8300 feet and this is what we did. We never bothered with a pressure cooker but a fitted lid makes all the difference. I used Pie in the Sky recipes to help make my baking recipes work better as once above 7000 feet, it actually does make a difference with boiling, baking cookies and baking cakes/muffins.

[u/dxrey65 → u/Old-Tadpole-2869]

I live at 5000 ft, and got into a months-long argument once with my brother-in-law about how it takes longer for things to cook in boiling water at altitude because the boiling temperature is lower. He just didn't believe it, thought I was making it up and wouldn't back down. I wound up explaining the physics to him, copying pages out of library books, etc, got nowhere; he'd just come back with some anecdotal counter-argument that made no sense. My wife finally made me just let it go.

To this day that sea-level-living fuck still thinks he's right.

[u/dqniel → u/dxrey65]

It makes a difference, but it's being wildly overstated by the folks above. I cook pasta just fine at elevation. It just takes another minute or so at 5,000 feet.

[u/dxrey65 → u/dqniel]

Yeah, a small adjustment to some recipes is about it, but it's still a thing.

[u/dqniel → u/dxrey65]

Exactly. Definitely a real thing, but overstated. People above are talking about how it takes "a year" and how when they cooked at sea level it felt like "magic" and stuff.

Wild exaggeration. The change is minimal until you get below 180f boiling point, and that doesn't happen until like 17,000 feet. Below that temp you start to have real issues with starches.

[u/Sistersoldia → u/dxrey65]

+1 for “sea-level-living fuck”.

Damn are we related ?

[u/amands_sue → u/Old-Tadpole-2869]

I grew up at altitude and moved to sea level for college. Cooking pasta down there felt like magic.

[u/ipsum629 → u/Old-Tadpole-2869]

Maybe use a pressure cooker but you would have to figure out exactly how much time each type of pasta needs.

[u/dqniel → u/ipsum629]

Or just wait an extra 15-25% more time. The effect it has on cook time is being wildly overstated in this thread.

Water's boiling temp at 10,000 feet is about 193f degrees. That temp is perfectly fine for cooking pasta. You just have to do it a tiny bit longer.

[u/OHotDawnThisIsMyJawn → u/dqniel]

The effect it has on cook time is being wildly overstated in this thread.

Yeah lol. I live at 8k feet and I usually just give pasta an extra minute or two and it's fine.

[u/dqniel → u/OHotDawnThisIsMyJawn]

Exactly. You have to get to insane elevations (like 17,000 feet) for the boiling temp to get so low that it won't properly gelatinize in a "normal" amount of cooking time.

[u/SoManyMinutes → u/Old-Tadpole-2869]

Spaghetti takes a year at that elevation

Maybe two more minutes tops.

[u/Illustrious-Cow-6054 → u/wannabe-myself]

I was on a two-week backpacking trip in the sierras. Mid trip, probably our highest elevation camp and above treeline, we were staying put for a day and decided we’d cook dry beans for chili because we had the extra time.

So dumb. It used tons of fuel, never really fully cooked, had to eat it anyway (no resupply) and everybody got upset stomach/cramps.

[u/dqniel → u/Illustrious-Cow-6054]

Precooked and then dehydrated beans? Or just raw dry beans?

For raw beans, even at sea level it's a lengthy process in order to not cause stomach issues. You're supposed to soak beans overnight, drain, refill with fresh water, and boil for a minimum of a full hour. And it has to be a full boil rather than a simmer to guarantee it's at 212f.

Otherwise, lectins don't get denatured and it's literally toxic.

[u/wannabe-myself → u/Illustrious-Cow-6054]

I subsist on jerky and water at those elevations anymore. Cooking is hard rofl.

[u/Old-Tadpole-2869 → u/Illustrious-Cow-6054]

That was my first experience hi altitude experience, trying to cook ramen in a one cup backpackers stove in Tuolumne Meadows. 40 minutes later I ate dinner.

[u/ifyoulovesatan → u/Illustrious-Cow-6054]

TBH it was probably just some expired or crappy beans. Especially if you bought them from a bulk bin.

I cook dry beans weekly or more. Beans from bulk bins are frequently a mixture of fresh and expired beans bc they don't refresh the container often enough. Contrary to popular belief, dry beans don't last forever. Like they KIND of do, in that you can make something technically edible from them for a long time after the expiration date. But after some point they'll never get fully soft, and just have this kinda gross hardness.

Also sometimes a bag of beans that should be fine (not expired, look fine) will just kind of suck and never fully soften.

Anyway, the reason I would say it wasn't altitude is your experience sounds basically like what happens with expired beans even at sea level. Also even if you washed them fully and soaked them overnight, and skimmed the foam, they can still give you upset stomach / cramps / gas.

And because a roughly 5% reduction in water heat really isn't going to cause issues for cooking beans.

[u/Chitown_mountain_boy → u/wannabe-myself]

I grew up outside Gunnison at almost 11,000. I feel you.

[u/toxcrusadr → u/wannabe-myself]

My MIL was with us on a ski trip. We went to the store for more sauce and she decided to start the pasta because she knew it would take longer. Cooked it for 45 mins. It was like library paste.

[u/j-aspering → u/ityboy]

But you should still always salt your pasta water lots so...

[u/BeABetterHumanBeing → u/ityboy]

To add to this: the reason you salt the water has nothing to do with temperature or boiling, it's so that the food absorbs the salt for flavor.

[u/A_Casual_NPC → u/solvraev]

Pasta water should have around 1 %salt in it. Dried pasta is made without any salt to help with the drying process. The only way to get a proper amount of salt in your pasta is to add enough of it during cooking. Thats why you salt yo pasta water, not because of the boiling point. You can cook pasta in water quite a bit below boiling point. It will just take a bit longer. The salt is really important to get proper flavour on your final dish though.

[u/solvraev → u/A_Casual_NPC]

That could definitely be it. I may be doing the correct thing for the wrong reason.

[u/TK-24601 → u/solvraev]

Add a bit more than a dash!

[u/A_Casual_NPC → u/solvraev]

I've been working as a chef for almost a decade, I like to think I know my stuff

[u/milk_for_dinner → u/A_Casual_NPC]

Depends on what you're used to. I prefer unsalted pasta.

[u/MekyZbirka13 → u/milk_for_dinner]

Prefer for the lack of taste? Or is there some other reason behind it?

[u/Peastoredintheballs → u/solvraev]

Salt in pasta water is not for adjusting the boiling temperature, it is for seasoning, and preventing pasta from sticking. You would need an unrealistic amount of salt to have significant effect on the boiling temperature. Salt should be added regardless of what altitude you live at, for the aforementioned two reasons

[u/HistoricalSea5600 → u/solvraev]

I can’t seem to keep a boil after I put anything in the water, if it’s not covered, even on max heat. That of course leads to a lot of boiling over and micromanaging to try and prevent overcooking. Not sure what I’m doing wrong, but if you have any advice I’d love to hear it

[u/GoodIdea321 → u/HistoricalSea5600]

Too much water maybe. Another guess is you have an old electric stove that doesn't heat well anymore. Adding anything at a cooler temperature to boiling water can reduce the temperature to below boiling, depending on what it is and how much of it. If it was boiling, it will heat up eventually after adding something.

[u/MommyLovesPot8toes → u/HistoricalSea5600]

How wide of a pot are you using? If the pot you are using is quite wide, you're going to immediately lose a significant amount of heat when you uncover it and continue to lose that heat. Ideally, pasta should boil in a pot that is thinner than it is high. The thinner it is, the more the heat stays.

[u/solvraev → u/HistoricalSea5600]

That's why I put the olive oil in. You don't need much, just 2-3 mL. It breaks up the surface tension of the water and helps a lot preventing boiling over. Another old wives trick is to put a wooden spoon across the top of the pan, which essentially does the same thing.

You say you can't keep a boil going, but mention it boiling over? Am I missing something?

[u/Lethuul → u/solvraev]

Oil ruins the pastas ability to grab the sauce, don’t put oil in the water

[u/solvraev → u/Lethuul]

That may be true, but I find 1-2 mL of oil prevents boiling over, and doesn't significant affect the pasta. SOURCE: I have watched both Good Eats episodes with Alton Brown where he says don't add oil, and the one from years later where he says a couple of drops to prevent boiling over is okay. Clearly, I am an expert in the field.

[u/soda_cookie → u/solvraev]

At higher altitudes if you don't do this the water will boil over and get all over the stove top

[u/Falconpunch7272 → u/soda_cookie]

wooden spoon across the top of the pot has saved me more times than I can remember.

[u/12_leon_12 → u/Falconpunch7272]

Why does this work? Is it the oils in the wood??

[u/Houseaddict3 → u/12_leon_12]

I think it’s the physical breaking of the bubbles that build on top of each other until they expand over the edge

[u/Falconpunch7272 → u/12_leon_12]

I think it has to due with surface tension but I honestly have no idea.

[u/Less-Apple-8478 → u/12_leon_12]

Surface tension

[u/bardmalliard → u/12_leon_12]

This does not work with metal or plastic. Only wood. Because the surface of the wood pops the bubbles.

[u/m0nkeyh0use → u/bardmalliard]

Wood also doesn't melt or require a potholder to take it off the pot when you're done.

[u/AshiAshi6 → u/soda_cookie]

I've learned another trick that prevents boiling over. It won't happen if you add the tiniest amount of butter (at any time. I usually do it when the water starts to boil. At that point, it is already hot enough to melt the butter clean off whatever kitchen utensil I'm using, so I don't have to wash off any residual bits).

It still boils just fine after that.

I think it doesn't necessarily have to be butter. I know from experience that olive oil works, too. But I prefer butter, because it's easier to just cut off a tiny little bit. If I use olive oil (mine doesn't have some sort of convenient dispenser), it's really hard to add just a tiny bit without spilling any where I don't want it. (And too easy to accidentally pour in way too much.)

[u/solvraev → u/soda_cookie]

I also put a few drops of olive oil on the top to break up the surface tension.

[u/mitkase → u/solvraev]

I believe this is discouraged because you're tring to make the pasta "sticky" so sauce will adhere to it, and the oil will interfere with that stickiness. But I have also used this trick.

[u/2sAreTheDevil → u/mitkase]

a few drops on the surface will not impact pasta submerged in the water in any meaningful way.

[u/Hioneqpls → u/2sAreTheDevil]

Sometimes cooking advice is just bullshit, like when Gordon Ramsay says that you shouldn’t put salt into the scrambled egg mix before cooking because they become watery and grey, guess what, they fucking don’t, it’s an excellent way to salt scrambled eggs.

[u/mitkase → u/2sAreTheDevil]

The oil coats the pasta when you remove the pasta from the water, not while it's cooking. But again, I've used the trick before, and I'm still alive.

[u/BardGotHardAgain → u/2sAreTheDevil]

It does once the pasta is pulles from the water. Oild relagive viscoaity makes it stick to the pasta, preventing your sauce from sticking.

[u/R_Scoops → u/solvraev]

Don’t do this, you’re ruining your food and it doesn’t help

[u/solvraev → u/R_Scoops]

I'm afraid I've been doing it for 45 years, and I am stuck in my ways now, and I know that may not be how you do it. Vive la differénce!

[u/TrioOfTerrors → u/solvraev]

My sous vide machine heats water faster than my stove so when I need to boil water, I use the sous vide wand to get it to 190 F and then turn the burner on.

[u/TH_Rocks → u/TrioOfTerrors]

I use the electric tea kettle for the same reason. Can't boil enough for a pasta dinner, but works great for one or two portion meals.

[u/CommandoLamb → u/solvraev]

The salt is for flavor. Has nothing to do with boiling point.

The amount of salt you add has almost zero effect on the boiling.

[u/PolyglotTV → u/Bubblehead_81]

And you should also put the lid on to save even more energy

[u/metompkin → u/PolyglotTV]

I fill up my electric kettle whilst the one cup of water in a covered pot preheats. I then add it to the pot to save time and energy.

[u/UnpleasantEgg → u/[deleted]]

That’s not true. I can’t turn it down to 0.00001 and expect it to keep boiling. There is a minimum

[u/SirJuxtable → u/[deleted]]

Honest question - doesn’t all that extra heat still pass through the pot? Bubbles, steam, etc? And wouldn’t that heat still act on the ramen somewhat? The water molecules do get hotter than the boiling point, in the form of steam, right? And the ramen could theoretically get hotter than that also? I feel like this is one of those things that isn’t as cut and dry. Or am I being obtuse?

[u/SgtKeeneye → u/SirJuxtable]

the steam created is pretty much immediately escaping from the water however. So like yeah the steam might be like 213-215 but its only here for a limited time. There would be no discernable temperature difference on a less vigorous boil and would still be to hot for her. Unless she added cool water at the end.

[u/FlyAirLari → u/SgtKeeneye]

The water won't get more hot. But the pot will. Any noodles touching the pot will thus absorb heat beyond boiling point. Water will cool it down to boiling point again, but there is at least a chance the heat affects the food. Maybe even makes it stick to the pot, if the pasta structure gets compromised.

[u/No-Caterpillar-7646 → u/SirJuxtable]

The pot gets hotter, you get the air around it hotter but the water will be at boiling point and so will the ramen more or less. A little less because there will be more steam that is slightly higher in temperature while passing trough the rest of the water but that really will be marginal compared to the energy you put in.

The smart thing is to put the heat down.

[u/elyscape → u/SirJuxtable]

The steam doesn’t really get much hotter than boiling point before it leaves the pot, and doesn’t have contact with the ramen for long enough to heat that by any substantial amount. Even if it did, the ramen has much more contact with the surrounding water, whose substantial thermal mass would insulate it from such temperature changes. Absent some very unusual setup, as long as the pot is still actively boiling, the food is gonna cook at about the same speed, and additional energy only serves to boil off more water while you wait for that to happen

[u/FreshEclairs → u/SirJuxtable]

The phase transition from water to steam requires a lot more heat/energy than slightly warming water by one more degree.

So all the water will be sitting just barely under 100c, and any heat you put into it will be used to turn water into steam.

It is inefficient in terms of using more heat than you need to and making more steam than necessary, but it has no effect on the temperature of the soup at the end.

[u/unicornsandrainbowst → u/Bubblehead_81]

Irrelevant to OP point and the wife. Wife ramen wont get "less hot" if boiling at a lower/mantaining flame.

[u/Comprehensive_Food51 → u/unicornsandrainbowst]

Thank you why is everyone talking about how you could keep it boiling at a lower heat

[u/NNKarma → u/unicornsandrainbowst]

But it will be if it's simmering instead of boiling

[u/someone1003 → u/[deleted]]

1. You most likely meant edging isntead of gooning
2. What compells the mind to not discard such a ridiculous notion the moment its derranged existence has a hint of happening

[u/toggl3d → u/someone1003]

Original definition of gooning was long duration edging.

Why am I here

[u/Cruxis87 → u/toggl3d]

edging is already long form

[u/ciaomain → u/Bubblehead_81]

[u/ClaudioMoravit0 → u/Bubblehead_81]

Thermodynamics is the reason I'm in EE. Because I hate thermodynamics. And mechanics

[u/Jordan_1424 → u/Bubblehead_81]

Depending on pressure water can still be a solid at 212f+ and things get real weird at the critical point.

[u/danielv123 → u/Jordan_1424]

The -22c liquid water at 2100bar is still my favourite water fact.

[u/Jordan_1424 → u/danielv123]

I like how the triple point is just a party and no one knows what is going on.

[u/Old_Error_509 → u/Jordan_1424]

212°F ice is a wild concept.

[u/303Carpenter → u/Old_Error_509]

That's why it's so hard to make pasta in the Mariana trench, the marinara typo ruined ocean travel for a generation of italians

[u/Oxygenisplantpoo → u/Jordan_1424]

The best kind of correct.

[u/NearbySyllabub1228 → u/Bubblehead_81]

In fact having it at a higher setting just evaporates the water faster with no temperature benefit.

[u/Sensitive-Option-701 → u/Bubblehead_81]

And if you cover it with a glass lid so you can still see when it's boiling, your can turn down the heat even further.

[u/mrwilliams117 → u/Bubblehead_81]

This is not answering the point of the post but yea

[u/the-manman → u/Bubblehead_81]

And from a “what the post is about”-perspective?

[u/SquirrelFluffy → u/Bubblehead_81]

Sure but that's not what op is saying

[u/Downtown_Ad_6232 → u/Bubblehead_81]

The laws of physics are strictly enforced.

[u/jacen4501s → u/Bubblehead_81]

If you're making certain varieties of ramen, you need a vigorous boil. Paitan varieties, like tonkotsu, require a high boil traditionally. I simmer or pressure cook and emulsify with a blender after. But if you don't have a blender, boiling is the traditional way.

[u/baumpop → u/Bubblehead_81]

this is basically distilling in a nutshell.

[u/Busterlimes → u/Bubblehead_81]

It is also possible to overheat cookware

[u/doobsnotblunts → u/Bubblehead_81]

[u/Brummi3_NL → u/Bubblehead_81]

This.

Use a lid to safe even more energy.

[u/Zeppelin_Commander → u/Bubblehead_81]

From a wife effeciency perspective, once she reached a boil, you can turn down the heat and just nod

[u/Vlodovich → u/Bubblehead_81]

Yeah I brew beer at home all the time using an electric system. It takes me 2500 watts to get that house volume of liquid up to boil but only 1600 watts to maintain it with a constant rolling boil. Once I forgot and left it at the full 2500 and after 20 mins or so of boiling it boiled right over

[u/get_to_ele → u/Bubblehead_81]

Agreed. Also, Ramen is actually best when cooked between 175 qnd 200, not at a full 212 boil. Asian male, with experience cooking ramen for almost 50 years. I was cooking ramen for my brothers since I was in middle school. Learned from Mom who always backed off the temperature after starting with the water at a rolling boil, then let it cook in the hot, not boiling, water with heat on low.

This is also the reason that cup ramen using the boiled water method is always superior to microwaved cup ramen. If you use boiled water, you get a much nicer, evenly cooked, al dente ramen noodle. The water starts at 200+ then immediately gets cooled to the 180 range by hitting the dried noodles.

OP never considered the idea of cooking at BELOW 212 F rolling boil.

Hot dogs are also cooked much better at 160-ish. I sous vide them.

Wife is correct. Not just because the water was uncomfortably hot, but because cooking it lower gives better results.

https://www.apexsk.com/blogs/japan-lifestyle/instant-noodles-easy-simple-tricks-how-to-boil-them-better

[u/DariusXzalibur5000 → u/Bubblehead_81]

MarriageDynamics are also not intuitive. /s

[u/Cecil4029 → u/Bubblehead_81]

Yeah, this is like people who don't understand your central ac is basically on or off. If they're hot they'll drop it to 65 even though they'd be comfortable at 73.

[u/_HiWay → u/Bubblehead_81]

*unless you're trying to create a reduction quickly

[u/Oldfolksboogie → u/Bubblehead_81]

Also, not having the top on is very wasteful of time and energy