Harold McGee himself (author of the food geek bible On Food and Cooking) also presented this idea back in 2011: https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2011/01/15/you-can-cook-...

> I just did the experiment of cooking a pound of pasta in just enough water for it to absorb. I thought, "While I'm at it, why don't I play with the heating as well? I'll start them in cold water and see what happens."

> I found that starting in cold water means that the pasta doesn't stick to itself, which is great. Then it turns out that it heats up, it cooks just fine and you end up with pasta that is not at all sticky. The liquid is a little thick, but that's wonderful because you can make a sauce out of it.

just start the timer at 80°C and get the pasta below 80°C once Al dented, either by adding ingredients or by briefly rinsing with fresh water, e.g. to on fry the pasta afterwards.

I was first hurt that you conjugated "al dente", but in fact it's just how languages incorporate new elements and evolve, so that's fine, I guess.

> - how are you cooking your pasta? > - I'm aldenting them, of course :)

I still personally don't like it but since my opinion is not requested, I might as well get used to it in case it sticks.

uh oh what has happened here?

first I take full responsibility for "intelligent" auto correct on the phone in a rush in the morning, though. It's like "full self driving": at this time and age I, the driver, have full responsibility, not my "intelligent" "keyboard".

it also capitalized Al, Al dente as in Al Capone.

Now, with this creature out in the wild, I feel like Frank N Stein. Forgive me! ;-)

Not as bad as calling a 'quiche' a 'quickie' ;)

I always wondered if you could just put spaghetti in your Nalgene while backpacking and it would be ready by the end of your hike. People always look at me weird when I suggest it but I am down to drink starchy water all day and then eat spaghetti when I get there haha.

Having had to rehydrate pasta while hiking to save on fuel as a beginner backpacker, I can confirm it does work.

Still, I now only bring semolina and polenta on multiple days hike. Both can be eaten fine after an hour of soaking in cold water.

This is a standard way of food preparation in the backcountry and is called cold soaking. Pasta, grains, beans can be prepared this way.

Should work fine. I only cold soak these days. Saves a lot of weight and is actually faster (my food is “cooking” while I hike, so it’s ready immediately after I stop for the day.

Other things you can use this on than pasta? Are there recipes for this kind of low-effort camping meals somewhere online?

There are many things you can do this way, the terminology “cold soak” used in the parent comment is a good starting point, there are lots of resources online with ideas and techniques for cold soak backpacking meals: https://sectionhiker.com/cold-soak-no-cook-backpacking-meals...

I am an avid backpacker and have heard a lot of folks talking positively about this, but haven’t given it a try myself just yet.

I typically take a mix of things, cold soaking is only one element. Couscous, instant oatmeal, ramen — stuff with flavor packets in general work well. I’ve also done bulk buy and added my own spices for a change - it just depends on how much prep time I have for the trip. I also eat salami, cheese, and a home-made trail mix with a lot of dried fruit and good amount of nuts and chocolate chips. A few bars for emergencies, backup water purification system plus a Sawyer Squeeze as my primary filter, and I’m good to go. The Talenti jars work great for me, and my kids enjoy having to “make” me a clean one every now and then.

I’ve backpacked with people who bring a lot of fresh food — avocados, eggs, bread even, plus the normal dehydrated food plus stove and fuel. I obviously swing all the way to the other extreme, eating like I do at home is not the point for me. Long days with lots of mileage and elevation gain make almost anything taste good, so why not save a few pounds, simplify your trip, and save a fair amount of money in the process. In general my backpacking systems are all moving in this direction as I get older and get more trips under my belt — with the one exception of a Garmin InReach, which has saved my ass a couple times now (with weather reports, not rescues needed).

I once had a pasta salad backpacker meal (forget which brand) that was pretty much this method exactly (except we rehydrated it in its original bag). Some of the freeze-dried veggies still had a little bit of crunch, but the pasta was good and it was quite enjoyable for camping food. I haven't seen it available since, though.

Huh, I guess Backpacker’s Pantry quit making it. I still have one on the shelf I should probably check the expiration date on.

Or you can get super crazy and cook your dry pasta straight on a pan with sauce, barely adding much water at all, spaghetti all'assassina: https://www.cnn.com/videos/travel/2022/10/13/spaghetti-allas...

It's a pretty common technique for cooking rice noodles but it never occurred to me to try it with pasta. Thanks for posting this!

I was gonna say, Serious Eats talked about this method (starting with a boil and then cutting the heat, mentioned in the article but not in the comment) so many years ago; only that they didn't call it "passive cooking". It comes with the nice benefit that you'll never have to worry about the pot boiling over except during the first minute, and, from what I've noticed, it seems to better align with the suggested cooking times on retail packaging.

I've argued with people about this and could never convince them to try it, mostly because of the "grandma did it this way" reason.

That's a little too radical for my tastes.

On the vitro, I leave rice and noodles boiling for six minutes, other pasta ten, then turn it off and wait ten minutes for the water to be completely soaked.

The really useful trick is to measure the water (or broth) needed relative to the rice or pasta, so you can leave it unattended, just using a couple of alarms of the phone.

He definitely convinced me I was using far more water than necessary when boiling pasta. Cooking pasta in a shallow pan, with barely enough water to cover, was a revelation. Not just from the fact that you get a starchier water to help emulsify your sauce, but it just takes way less time to get bring to a boil.

We used to hear this encouraged as an efficient method for cooking rice on government radio when we were kids. Cooking gas was precious and everyone wanted to save it. Basically this is how probably everyone used to cook before pressure cookers became a thing.

I don't understand the presoaking. In the source of the linked article, it says it takes 1.5 hours of presoaking compared to only 10 minutes when cooking in boiling water. So it seems that when you split heating and rehydrating, cooking time changes drastically.

Yes, a significant part of the time needed to cook dry pasta is for rehydrating them. Fresh pasta only needs two minutes. So if you soak them long enough you can cook them quite fast.

You can just eat dry pasta like chips and save a lot more energy!

and finish with nice carton box for desert

He soaked in hot water.