Where my fellow cooks at???

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tifosi77
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by tifosi77 »

It's the Hotel Ristorante Grotta Palazzese. Forget where exactly it is other than I think it's in Puglia (the 'heel').

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shafnutz05
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by shafnutz05 »

This sounds really stupid and basic, but I was never really serious about adding enough salt to the water to cook pasta. Was definitely life-changing when I started using it to its fullest potential. BP be damned!
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by count2infinity »

Is it sad that I though "boiling point" when you said BP at first and got really confused?
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by Gaucho »

tifosi77 wrote:It's the Hotel Ristorante Grotta Palazzese. Forget where exactly it is other than I think it's in Puglia (the 'heel').
:thumb:

Looks great, but it's probably too expensive and not good at all. :lol:
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by mac5155 »

I always add some salt to pasta water
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by Letang Is The Truth »

count2infinity wrote:Is it sad that I though "boiling point" when you said BP at first and got really confused?
Samesies
tifosi77
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by tifosi77 »

shafnutz05 wrote:This sounds really stupid and basic, but I was never really serious about adding enough salt to the water to cook pasta. Was definitely life-changing when I started using it to its fullest potential. BP be damned!
The common misconception is that the pasta water 'should taste like the sea'. This is ridiculous; sea water is 3% salt, which is more than three times the concentration you should have for cooking pasta.

I think the phrase gets bandied about because it's the only way a layperson can relate to just how much salt you need in the water. Think about it - if you're cooking a whole box of pasta, that's one pound of product that needs to be seasoned. And if you're using the proper amount of water (~4 gallons for that amount of pasta) you need a good bit of salt to get the right concentration.

In Italy they call it the 'golden ratio'..... 10 g of salt for every 100 g of pasta which will require 1000 g of water to cook.
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by blackjack68 »

4 gallons of water for a pound of pasta?

Yikes! I need to adjust. I'm more in the quarts range.
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by viva la ben »

Make sure you use a thermometer to check if your water is indeed boiling!
blackjack68
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by blackjack68 »

I use the touch test...
mac5155
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by mac5155 »

blackjack68 wrote:4 gallons of water for a pound of pasta?

Yikes! I need to adjust. I'm more in the quarts range.
im in the "just enough to cover the pasta" range.
tifosi77
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by tifosi77 »

blackjack68 wrote:4 gallons of water for a pound of pasta?

Yikes! I need to adjust. I'm more in the quarts range.
Oh good god, I'm an idiot.

Four quarts. I meant four quarts. :face:

Four quarts is a bit less than an Italian grandmother would tell you to use, but that's still a lot of water, relative to the amount of product being cooked. But the point is that gives the noodles plenty of room to move around (which is the key to preventing sticking), and allows the boiling water a faster recovery after adding room temp noodles.

I've seen Harold McGhee experiment with cooking pasta in significantly smaller quantities of water, but what does he know?
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by blackjack68 »

I was sitting there picturing a 5-gallon bucket/pot of water and one pound of pasta and was wondering...
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by mac5155 »

Hope you're not hungry, that'd take at least an hour to boil.
shafnutz05
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by shafnutz05 »

mac5155 wrote:
blackjack68 wrote:4 gallons of water for a pound of pasta?

Yikes! I need to adjust. I'm more in the quarts range.
im in the "just enough to cover the pasta" range.
I just read the instructions on the box
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by shmenguin »

i'm in the "i use a pot that's too small, but it fits in the dishwasher, so i'm not gonna end up using enough water. but whatever - it's just 2 dollar dry pasta. who cares?" camp
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by mac5155 »

you should join the TL;DR camp.
blackjack68
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by blackjack68 »

shmenguin wrote:i'm in the "i use a pot that's too small, but it fits in the dishwasher, so i'm not gonna end up using enough water. but whatever - it's just 2 dollar dry pasta. who cares?" camp

$2.00...fancy! I wait for the .88 sale.
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by count2infinity »

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I love grilling season.
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by columbia »

Made some burgers with chopped garlic and basil and topped with blue cheese. I wasn't sure, but the combo worked well.
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by Shyster »

Shyster wrote:Just bought one of these: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
Instead of the traditional Easter ham, I used the above smoker-roaster to make pulled pork shoulder for my family get-together. I used a combo of hickory and pecan chips, smoked to 170°, and then foiled and used the oven (aka the "Texas crutch") to take it up to 195°. Here's the result before pulling:

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The end result was fantastic—the best pulled pork I've ever made. I'm really impressed by that Oster oven. I think anyone would be hard-pressed to get a better smoker for only $70. Plus, you can use it indoors as a regular roaster oven if you want to.
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by columbia »

Have you smoked any chickens in that thing?
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by tifosi77 »

Okay, here's a question for youse all......... I have a good friend who is allergic to pecans; like anaphylaxis allergic. Are the allergens that make the nuts toxic to her present in the smoke of the burning wood?
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by count2infinity »

tifosi77 wrote:Okay, here's a question for youse all......... I have a good friend who is allergic to pecans; like anaphylaxis allergic. Are the allergens that make the nuts toxic to her present in the smoke of the burning wood?
It depends... the only way to be truly safe about it is to not smoke pecan wood for any food she'll eat. I know for peanut allergies there are some people (most people with the allergy) that can eat things that are deep fried in peanut oil because the part that they're allergic to is in the proteins in the nut, not the oil from it. I'd imagine that the proteins become wildly distorted as the smoke begins to be made and she likely won't get sick from it, but better safe than sorry.
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Re: Where my fellow cooks at???

Post by shafnutz05 »

count2infinity wrote:
Spoiler:
Image
I love grilling season.
Finally, a plate I can get behind