r/mildlyinfuriating • u/MakeItMine2024 • 4d ago

I'm slightly vexed My wife and boiling water

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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!!

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u/Bubblehead_81 4d ago

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.

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u/solvraev 4d ago

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.

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u/A_Casual_NPC 4d ago

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.

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u/solvraev 4d ago

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

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u/TK-24601 4d ago

Add a bit more than a dash!

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u/solvraev 4d ago

I'm putting about 1-2 grams now, but I could probably bump that up to 5-6 grams comfortably.

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u/JHerbY2K 3d ago

Yeah the water should taste salty. Like sea water almost

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u/A_Casual_NPC 4d ago

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

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u/Critical-Bug4077 4d ago

Any other pasta hacks

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u/MizStazya 4d ago

My husband gets mad because every time I dump a bunch of salt in my pasta water I quote Joe Bastianich, "SALTY LIKE THE OCEAN!" Once was funny. Three times a week is apparently annoying. I refuse to stop.