After 40 years of cooking, I finally learned you're not supposed to rinse pasta after draining it.

My daughter caught me doing it last Thanksgiving and asked why I was washing off all the starch that helps sauce stick. Now my spaghetti actually tastes like something instead of watery noodles, anyone else have a kitchen habit that took decades to break?

3 comments

3 Comments

black.jake2d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, who has time to worry about a little starch on their pasta?

xenaf512d ago

Well gosh, that's actually a good point about the starch. I used to rinse my pasta too, but mostly because I was trying to cool it down faster for cold pasta salads. It never occurred to me that I was throwing away all that helpful sticky stuff. Now I just spread it out on a baking sheet if I need it cold, and the dressing actually clings to it way better.

ivanross2d ago

My mother always taught me to wash chicken before cooking it, which I did for like 35 years before a friend with a food science degree saw me doing it and almost had a heart attack. She explained how you're just splashing salmonella all over your sink and countertops, which makes total sense when you think about it. Now I just pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season it, and the skin gets way crispier anyway. Funny how the stuff our parents passed down as gospel sometimes turns out to be complete nonsense.