- When it comes to cooking pasta, Food Network's Alton Brown doesn't stand around waiting for the water to start boiling.
- Instead, he starts cooking dry pasta in cold water.
- I compared Alton Brown's cooking method to the traditional method of boiling water and found that Brown's hack resulted in pasta with a better texture.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Food Network's Alton Brown has some tricks up his sleeves when it comes to the kitchen, including a hack for cooking the perfect pasta.
In a 2015 blog post, Brown shared that he prefers the texture of dry pasta when it starts off in cold water, adding that when it comes to the amount of water needed to cook short pasta shapes like farfalle, macaroni, and rigatoni, "less is definitely more."
To see if the chef's pasta-cooking technique actually works, I tested out the method in my own kitchen.
To compare, I first cooked pasta using the traditional method I've always used, which I've come to believe is the way most people cook their pasta at home.
Brown used farfalle in his original post, so I went for a box of those noodles.
I began by heating up some lukewarm water over the stove.
I threw in a couple of dashes of salt, turned the burner up to high, and waited for my water to boil.
Once the water came to a boil, I added half of the box of farfalle pasta.
I let the pasta cook for eight minutes.
I emptied the pasta into a colander over the sink.
In his post, Brown says to keep the pasta water on hand to add into a sauce or to be used when reheating the pasta later on, but I usually just dump it out. In order to stick to my traditional method, I used the trusty colander to strain my pasta.
My pasta turned out just the way I expected. It was slightly al dente, a little salty, but mostly devoid of flavor.
The noodles were a perfect receptacle for sauce, but bland on their own.
It was time to see if Brown's unconventional method actually results in better pasta. The chef's recipe calls for 64 ounces of cold water.
In addition to the 64 ounces of cold water, Brown's recipe also calls for one box of dry pasta and one tablespoon of kosher salt.
Since I was only making a meal for myself, I simply cut this recipe in half.
I combined all of the ingredients before turning the stove to medium-high heat.
It was a small amount of water for how much pasta was cooking, so it only took around seven minutes to reach a boil.
Following the recipe, I waited for the water to boil before reducing the heat to a simmer, removing the lid, and stirring the noodles for around five minutes, or until al dente.
I removed the pasta from the pot using a spider, conserving the pasta water for later use.
Just like with the first batch, I tried the bow ties without sauce first and found that Brown's method resulted in pasta that was slightly more al dente.
I found that the noodles did have a better texture, as Brown said they would, and my dish was more comparable to fresh pasta than the first batch.
However, Brown's recipe didn't call for as much salt as I would have liked.
Although neither of my dishes compares to fresh pasta, Brown's cold water method did produce noodles with a more desirable texture.
I doubt I will change the way I normally prepare my pasta — my current method is low maintenance and I love it that way — but I now understand the pros of Brown's cooking method.
- Read more:
- I only drank water out of pasta straws for a week, and restaurants should be using them as an alternative to plastic
- 7 chefs revealed their favorite jarred pasta sauces
- A restaurant is selling pasta-stuffed sandwiches that are a carb lover's dream
- A chef reveals the only 3 brands of boxed pasta worth buying