Comments on: When salting water for cooking use 1 tablespoon of salt for every 4 quarts of water

When salting water for cooking use 1 tablespoon of salt for every 4 quarts of water

dersins — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:45:17 -0800

The only recipe for boiling salted water you'll ever need. Well, the reviews are entertaining, anyway.

By: dios

dios — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:49:35 -0800

That's a good recipe. I've got a better recipe for dry toast. Feel free to mail me if you want it.

By: Kadin2048

Kadin2048 — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:53:39 -0800

Personally I don't think that's enough salt for properly cooking pasta. I use more like 1 Tbsp per quart. It looks like a lot of salt going in, but most of it doesn't end up in the pasta. But honestly, although having it as a "recipe" is stupid, salting the water makes a vast difference in boiled foods, particularly starches (pasta, gnocci, spaetzel, etc.).

By: bonehead

bonehead — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:55:53 -0800

mbarnstein writes: I am unsure what type of salt to use. Sea. kosher or another that i am unware of? Also, pictures , diagrams and maybe even a video could be useful in making this easier to understand.. I totally agree. This recipe is usless without more details! Why there must be at least two types of salt in my supermarket alone? Sould my boiling water be Kosher? How would I know if it was tref or not?

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:56:37 -0800

I need a recipe for salting boiled water and this is no help at all. Flagged.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:00:07 -0800

They omit cooking time! How will I know when it's done?

By: cog_nate

cog_nate — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:03:08 -0800

Bonus points if someone can dig up a clip of Rachel Ray drinking it and then saying, "Mmmm!" or "Ohhh!" or "Delish!"

By: The corpse in the library

The corpse in the library — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:06:01 -0800

You copied the entire recipe, dersins. What if the copyright police come after mathowie? Flagged.

By: cog_nate

cog_nate — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:06:09 -0800

or vomiting, I guess.

By: rmless

rmless — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:09:06 -0800

I tried this recipe and it came out very moist. Was the center supposed to thicken up? Please advise.

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:10:06 -0800

Wow. Epicurious users have more sarcasm than I ever would have suspected.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:10:21 -0800

You copied the entire recipe, dersins. What if the copyright police come after mathowie? That's why I left out the punctuation.

By: inigo2

inigo2 — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:11:42 -0800

That's a good recipe. I've got a better recipe for dry toast. Feel free to mail me if you want it. I'm a big fan of raw toast, myself.

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:12:35 -0800

And right after I posted here I found the best one: Ohhhhh, I wish there was a picture. I'm not sure if mine turned out right.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:12:44 -0800

Man, this totally ruins Family Circus for me. wait, what?

By: brain_drain

brain_drain — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:14:08 -0800

Who has time to make their own salted water? I just order takeout.

By: breaks the guidelines?

breaks the guidelines? — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:16:01 -0800

Mario Batali says that your salted cooking water should taste as saline as seawater. I don’t think 1 tbsp per gallon will satisfy him.

By: PlusDistance

PlusDistance — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:16:15 -0800

Take that, Neiman-Marcus!

By: NationalKato

NationalKato — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:20:15 -0800

I love those reviews.

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:22:30 -0800

I made this a few nights ago, actually. A helpful tip is to wait for the water to cool a little before eating, or the taste gets overpowered by the horrible flaps of loose skin that begin to separate themselves from the inside of your mouth.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:25:41 -0800

Bonus points if someone can dig up a clip of Rachel Ray drinking it and then saying, "Mmmm!" or "Ohhh!" or "Delish!" Actual cash money if anyone can dig up a clip of Rachel Ray drinking it and then saying "OMFG IT'S BOILING WTF 3RD DEGREE BURNS?!"

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:30:47 -0800

Jesus. Lawsuit waiting to happen. The site should really warn people about the health hazards associated with dihydrogen monoxide.

By: Danila

Danila — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:38:41 -0800

I have a stupid question. Is this salt being added for flavor or to speed up boiling? I often see recipes that call for a pinch of salt with water that one intends to boil, and I've long wondered if that salt is to help the water boil faster. If it does, it would make me very happy. If it's just for flavor, well that's okay too.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:39:15 -0800

Harmony Central members review a 9-volt battery.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:41:02 -0800

Is this salt being added for flavor or to speed up boiling? Salting water would raise its boiling point and so make it take longer.

By: xorry

xorry — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:43:18 -0800

Is this salt being added for flavor or to speed up boiling? Salting water would raise its boiling point and so make it take longer. It raises the boiling temperature of the water, so it will take longer to get to that point but the food (or salt) will cook at a higher temperature than possible with water alone.

By: xorry

xorry — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:46:41 -0800

For a salt free alternative, one could cook their water at higher altitudes. You will could also have the benefit of extra exercise if you have to move up an incline or hilly surface to increase your altitude.

By: 517

517 — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:53:05 -0800

"Salting water would raise its boiling point and so make it take longer." Yeah, but the change is something on the order of a few seconds.

By: Floydd

Floydd — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:55:26 -0800

When I was a kid my mom would make my favorite dinner every Friday night. I'd sit down with a tray table in front of the T.V, watch The Brady Bunch, and dine on Burnt Crisp and Boiled Water with just a pinch of salt. Good times.

By: Durin's Bane

Durin's Bane — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:56:21 -0800

Harmony Central members review a 9-volt battery. Tastes like vag.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:56:51 -0800

I know I first saw this right here on MetaFilter, but damned if I can find it. Maybe it was in a comment.

By: jefbla

jefbla — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:58:43 -0800

Why did the water file a lawsuit against the cook? Because it was a salted. I'll be appearing at the Guffawditorium next thursday, come check it out.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:01:59 -0800

In Soviet Russia, water boils you!

By: tyllwin

tyllwin — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:07:40 -0800

I have to confess that I'm really lazy about this and usually just use one of those "just add water" mixes. A little more expensive but very convenient.

By: Bearman

Bearman — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:08:18 -0800

This completely ruined my Kraft Dinner.

By: jeffamaphone

jeffamaphone — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:19:41 -0800

By: wowbobwow

wowbobwow — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:22:28 -0800

Do they have a recipe for hot ham water?

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:28:14 -0800

I had a roommate who was something of an amateur cook. He suggested that you need double-to-triple the amount of salt if you substitue sea salt for regular salt in a recipie. It depends on the size of the crystals, but yes, generally speaking, you want twice as much (by volume) sea salt as table salt. The smaller crystals in table salt pack more tightly, so you get more salt in a given volume. Assuming, of course, that your sea salt comes in big, irregular crystals.

By: padraigin

padraigin — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:28:53 -0800

I had a roommate who was something of an amateur cook. He suggested that you need double-to-triple the amount of salt if you substitue sea salt for regular salt in a recipie. This seemed to work out for him. Anyone know if there is truth in this? That's about right, and same goes for kosher salt. Something to do with the shape of the crystals or something like that.

By: bassjump

bassjump — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:30:22 -0800

Now that's entertainment. The comments, I mean. Especially from the alcohol-happy epicurious readers. Who would have guessed that salted water gets them to let their hair down?

By: cerebus19

cerebus19 — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:34:47 -0800

OK, I've put the salt in the water. Now, how do I get it to do this thing called "boiling?"

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:42:12 -0800

OK, I've put the salt in the water. Now, how do I get it to do this thing called "boiling?" Take yourself or a more pustulent acquaintance, and drain your boils into it. That's why they call it "boiling."

By: Don Pepino

Don Pepino — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:42:32 -0800

I had a similar question, cerebus19. The recipe's called "salted water for boiling," but hello I searched the whole site and nowhere do they tell you how to make "boiling." I guess that's why they call it epiCURIOUS? Very disappointed right now.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:45:43 -0800

"boiling" is just an archaic variant of "broiling". Take the salted water in its pot and put it in your oven, bottom rack. Set to broil, three hours.

By: oddman

oddman — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:55:58 -0800

this is thoroughly meh

By: agentofselection

agentofselection — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:56:14 -0800

Actually, cooking at high altitude would have the opposite effect--lower pressure depresses the boiling point. So, for the same effect without salt, try making it in an autoclave?

By: Hobgoblin

Hobgoblin — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:57:55 -0800

Thank you all for some much-needed Friday afternoon bellylaughs. Carry on.

By: jefbla

jefbla — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:39:19 -0800

Do they have a recipe for hot ham water? I know a recipe for hotdog water.

By: rtha

rtha — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:55:33 -0800

Is there a freeze-dried version of this? I'd like to include it in my earthquake emergency kit.

By: arcticwoman

arcticwoman — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:12:09 -0800

Anyone have a wine recommendation for boiling salt water? If it makes a difference, I used tap water and iodized salt.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:23:09 -0800

Before the intarweb, people used to have to learn the secrets of boiling salted water from their parents. Many orphans starved to death. It was truly the dark ages.

By: oflinkey

oflinkey — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:03:08 -0800

Goddamn this opaque French terminology.

By: Dillonlikescookies

Dillonlikescookies — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:03:21 -0800

"Too many flavours competing with each other... would not make again." brilliant.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:13:36 -0800

Okay, I finally convinced myself I wasn't going crazy by, ironically enough, going through all the archives until I found where this site was mentioned before on MetaFilter. It was way back on July 11, 2002 by Slithy_Tove, who even said it was O/T in the thread in which he was commenting. I remember reading this before on MeFi, so I must have read the comment, followed the link, laughed, laughed, and never thought to actually make it an FPP.

By: Locative

Locative — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:18:10 -0800

I know a recipe for hotdog water. This is the perfect opportunity to ask this: which is the true definition of hot dog water?

By: Plutor

Plutor — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 05:46:03 -0800

sourwookie: "Harmony Central members review a 9-volt battery." Along the same lines, Amazon members review a gallon of milk. (Yeah, this link was hot Internet shit like 9 months ago.)

By: wfc123

wfc123 — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 11:02:27 -0800

I hate Acme (the pop up ad on that site). They spend megadollars in image advertising but when you go there, it's the same "Shop Rite"or "Pathmark" -level of quality. It's the food equivalent of what J.C. Penny or Kohl's tries to pull-off. I hate "pretend upmarket" retailers.

By: oaf

oaf — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:30:32 -0800

J.C. Penney, as opposed to what, Macy's? The latter is the low-quality one.