Timeline for Why does pasta really boil over?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 11, 2014 at 18:47 | comment | added | shigeta | the oil helps but eventually if there is a lot more heat going in than is escaping you will get boil over. if there is no lid on the pan it has to be a LOT more heat than with one. if you turn down the heat of your burner, with or without a lid, oil or no, you can prevent boiling over. that's usually what the lowest burner settings on the stove approximate. | |
| Aug 11, 2014 at 9:38 | comment | added | David Richerby | In my experience, pasta only boils over if you put a lid on the pan! As Jeremy says, a small amount of oil will prevent boiling over, even with a lid: I don't measure but I'd guess I use a couple of teaspoons at most. I certainly wouldn't expect that little oil to form a meaningful film over the surface of a pan of boiling water. | |
| Jul 11, 2014 at 22:12 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Jul 11, 2014 at 23:22 | |||||
| Jul 11, 2014 at 19:39 | history | migrated | from biology.stackexchange.com (revisions) | ||
| Jul 10, 2014 at 21:32 | comment | added | Jeremy Kemball | The internet hints that only small amounts of oil are required, not enough to form a complete sealing layer of oil. I'm not certain nucleation is the controlling process here. I need to try a couple of experiments involving cold water and pasta and pasta and loads of oil. | |
| Jul 10, 2014 at 21:24 | comment | added | shigeta | oil will, until it doesn't. eventually you will get spatters of steam breaking through the surface explosively if the water is taking in heat. I imagine that the foam, if its pasta cooking, is probably semi-dissolved pasta, which will tend to act like the oil - coating the bubbles with a rough nucleating surface even as it blocks some steam from coming out. | |
| Jul 10, 2014 at 21:20 | comment | added | Jeremy Kemball | Apparently oil will also prevent boiling over, I suspect by depleting the available surfactants. Nucleation sites aren't the problem here, water will boil in my dirty scratched pots. I'm confused by the weirdly resilient temperature-sensitive foam and what it's made of, not the presence of boiling. | |
| Jul 10, 2014 at 21:14 | history | answered | shigeta | CC BY-SA 3.0 |