Everyone has been involved in cooking at some point in their lives, especially cooking pasta. Pasta is a common product, so much so that most have tried their hand at cooking it, but how do you prepare it? You just take a pot, put it on the stove and wait for it to boil, but it can happen that during the cooking white foam is formed, which escapes from the pot and wets the entire cooking surface. If you’ve ever cooked pasta, you’ve probably encountered white foam before, but do you know why it happens? Let’s take a closer look at the reasons.
White foam coming out of the stove is a very curious event, but it can cause numerous problems by polluting the entire cooktop. But what is the reason for this phenomenon? The whitish foam is formed when the pasta is cooked, and it is due to the starch contained in the pasta, which is absorbed by the water. The starch expands at high temperatures until it gelatinizes, forming a kind of cloud above the pot that catches the hot steam and prevents it from escaping. The amount of foam depends on how much starch is contained in the pasta and how long it is cooked.
However, there are practical ways to prevent this from happening, and they are as follows:
- Do not leave the lid on the pot: the lid on a pot of boiling water only increases the pressure in the pot. This leads to an increase in the amount of steam trapped in large bubbles.
- Use a larger pot: a large surface area also reduces bubble formation.
- Use the right amount of water: for 1/3 lb. of dry pasta, you need about 2 cups of water so that the water boils evenly and, most importantly, the pasta cooks evenly.
- Cook on low heat: Reducing the heat after cooking will reduce the formation of bubbles and therefore foam.
Do you know the reason for the formation of foam? Do you know how to avoid it?
