The day I stopped salting my pasta water and saw the light

I've been cooking professionally for about 11 years, mostly in small spots around Portland. Last Tuesday, I watched our new prep cook dump a handful of kosher salt into the boiling pot and I almost lost it, until I actually tasted the noodles from my own pot that I'd salted 'correctly'. Turns out, I was undersalting the water by like half, because my first chef in 2013 told me it should taste like the sea, and I guess I never really pushed it past 'slightly salty'. The difference in the final dish was huge, the noodles actually held onto the sauce instead of tasting like wet cardboard. I felt like an idiot for a decade of pasta dishes that were just okay. How do you guys figure out your salt levels, or did you also just trust the old 'sea water' line without checking it?

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gibson.oliver14d ago

last tuesday? so you only found this out like a week ago and you've been cooking professionally for 11 years? that's wild. i've been doing home cooking for maybe 8 years and i only figured out the same thing about 2 years ago when i watched a video where the guy said the water should be salty like a good broth, not just kinda salty. i used to put like a pinch in and wondered why my pasta tasted like nothing. now i'm dumping in way more than feels right and it's a total game changer, i can't even eat pasta at most restaurants anymore without thinking about how they probably under-salt their water too.

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