What type of salt do you use for boiling pasta?

Scam said:
Salt with sweet stuff is great. Salted caramel, chocolate etc. Open your mind ;)
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Chocolate-covered pretzels with a little salt :eek:

This thread inspired me to try using pasta water in brown butter. Absolute game-changer. I've used pasta water in sauces for years, but never thought to do it for brown butter for some reason.
 
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BUDFORCE said:
There was another thread about someone using pink Himalayan salt or something.

Absolutely ridiculous.
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It wasn't me but we use that.

It's more salty. So I've been told.

If I was on .my own I doubt it would pass the threshold of my door unless it was a bargain buy.

E: Yup and always salt pasta, rice and potato water - anything with starch.
 
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adidan said:
It wasn't me but we use that.

It's more salty. So I've been told.
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It's actually less salty as it's not pure... Trace minerals give it it's colour.

Now that might seen be a good thing if you are lacking things like calcium, magnesium and potassium in your diet, but the amounts are so small you may as well call it homeopathy. The pinkish/reddish colour is actually from iron oxide.
 
mattyfez said:
It's actually less salty as it's not pure... Trace minerals give it it's colour.

Now that might seen be a good thing if you are lacking things like calcium, magnesium and potassium in your diet, but the amounts are so small you may as well call it homeopathy. The pinkish/reddish colour is actually from iron oxide.
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More salty, more minerally - I can't say I was 100% interested in listening at the time :cry:
 
We've discussed the type of salt, and whether one should even use salt at all, but have we considered the delivery mechanism?

A close sprinkle won't give you an even spread, it should be spinkled from a height.

The downside to that is you get salt all over the kitchen worktop, and the kitchen floor.

FIGHT!

 
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TBF, last time I looked Aldi fine ground rock salt was cheaper than Co-Op table salt.

Isn't there a thing about "table salt" being an industrial by-product? I'm not that bothered. Sodium chloride is what it is. Lo-salt is potassium chloride isn't it?
 
inogen said:
TBF, last time I looked Aldi fine ground rock salt was cheaper than Co-Op table salt.

Isn't there a thing about "table salt" being an industrial by-product? I'm not that bothered. Sodium chloride is what it is. Lo-salt is potassium chloride isn't it?
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Salt (in this context) is sodium chloride, 'NaCl',

Nothing more, nothing less, it's a chemical that is either pure, or not.

Table salt is often 'impure' as it has an anti caking agent in it to stop it turning into one big lump of rock hard salt if it gets damp from the moisture in the air. The anti caking agent is typically 'Sodium ferrocyanide (E535)'.

'Pink/Hymalayan' salt is also impure, as it contains traces of magnesium, potasium and iron, among other things....

'Lo salt' is something else all together... typically a 50/50 mix of sodium chloride and potassium chloride, may also include an anti-caking agent, YMMV.
 
I don't salt my pasta.
I do the sauce though and let it sit in with the sauce for a bit before serving.
 
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Every source I've ever consulted has insisted on salting pasta, often quoting some Italian adage that the water "should be as salty as the sea".

I do want to try some of that organic salt, though.
I used to hang out with a friend who worked in a hippy health food shop in Camden, and the number of nutters who came in looking for organic salt was kinda unnerving...!!

mattyfez said:
We've discussed the type of salt, and whether one should even use salt at all, but have we considered the delivery mechanism?
A close sprinkle won't give you an even spread, it should be spinkled from a height.
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Eh? It's salt into boiling water.... If you need an even distribution, just stir the flippin' pot with a spoon, surely!

Tell me, how come chefs all seem to do the 'season from a height' thing the same way that Saltbae guy is doing in the video? With their arms so painfully crooked, it looks like they're camping up the mincing bent-arm gay thing....
 
ttaskmaster said:
Every source I've ever consulted has insisted on salting pasta, often quoting some Italian adage that the water "should be as salty as the sea".
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I think that’s just a saying. The ever-reliable Serious Eats says it should be somewhere around 1-2%. I think that was 1-2tsps per litre in reality. The sea is way saltier than that.
 
Scam said:
I think that’s just a saying. The ever-reliable Serious Eats says it should be somewhere around 1-2%. I think that was 1-2tsps per litre in reality. The sea is way saltier than that.
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Just a saying? Really? Are you sure?
Does that also mean an apple a day doesn't keep the doctor away? That two wrongs do now make a right? That practice does not make perfect, and the early bird no longer catches the worm?
Surely a picture is still worth a thousand words though, if not more due to the rate of inflation?

Of course it's just a flippin' saying... the point is the water should be salted. How much is entirely down to personal taste.

aVdub said:
Has anyone asked a real Italian Nonna what is correct yet?
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Not directly, but quite a few Italians who all claimed theirs as the souce for the "salty as the sea" adage... which is (probably) just a saying, in case it wasn't obvious.
 
ttaskmaster said:
Just a saying? Really? Are you sure?
Does that also mean an apple a day doesn't keep the doctor away? That two wrongs do now make a right? That practice does not make perfect, and the early bird no longer catches the worm?
Surely a picture is still worth a thousand words though, if not more due to the rate of inflation?

Of course it's just a flippin' saying... the point is the water should be salted. How much is entirely down to personal taste.


Not directly, but quite a few Italians who all claimed theirs as the souce for the "salty as the sea" adage... which is (probably) just a saying, in case it wasn't obvious.
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Are we talking Baltic, Mediterranean, Red Sea or Dead Sea?
 
Mr Badger said:
Are we talking Baltic, Mediterranean, Red Sea or Dead Sea?
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Depends which cuisine you're cooking. Pick the one closest to the country (or region) of origin, obviously... otherwise it won't taste authentic!

aVdub said:
The other question would be: Do those that make noodles salt when cooking them?
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Depends.
Fresh noodles, yes, sometimes. Depends how salty the rest of the meal is going to be.
Pot noodles - Nah, they already have plenty of MSG!!
 
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