Cooking For Engineers

[peter grimes]

This is an argument my wife and I have monthly. To add a splash of oil to the boiling water before putting the pasta in, or not?

I think not:

1. the oil does not in fact coat the pasta, as the folklore suggests. The pasta slips right through the bubbles of oil, sinking below the surface of the water; this happens too fast for the oil to bind with the surface of the pasta.

2. countless times the pasta has started to cling together despite generous amounts of oil having been added to the boiling water before dunking the pasta.

Thoughts?

[Michael Chu]

Oiling the water for boiling pasta does not seem to achieve any purpose. Oil the pasta immediately after it has been removed from the boiling water.

I've read a whole bunch of other reasons for oiling the water (none of which are true) when authors or cooks agree that oiling doesn't help lubricate the pasta. These include "it lowers the boiling point of water", "it raises the boiling point of water", "it prevents boil over", "it provides flavor to the boiling liquid", etc. In the end, I think it comes down to tradition.

Water and ample amounts of salt are all you need.

[Dilbert]

methinks it's as suggested, a 'traditions' thing - I've not been able to prevent (carelessly induced) clumping except by a couple of quick stirs in the first 4-7 minutes of pasta cooking.

there is also a theory that should you indeed succeed(!) in greasing up the individual strands, chunks, pieces, sheets, shapes [whatever] of pasta, a sauce won't 'stick' / 'cling' very readily to the pasta.

[DrBiggles]

[Ravi Shanghavi]

oh my.. I've been doing oil in pasta for years.. and I have seen on occasion clumping occur.. only the times when we've not added it. I'll give a go at no oil to see how I make out. Thanks for the input guys. - Ravi Shanghavi

[Tuscan Chef]

here in tuscany with our cooking class we don't do it.
What I believe started this is that if you drain pasta and you don't have the sauce ready, to avoid clumping then add some il and stir.