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What is the effect of adding salt to the water when cooking pasta?

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Also notice that the pasta will only absorb so much salt. This is nice because it means you can never add too much. Any remaining salt will go out with the water. – Thomas Ahle May 29 '11 at 0:46

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up vote 64 down vote accepted

The salt adds flavor, but it also helps reduce the gelation of the starch in the pasta. The starch in food is the form of microscopic grains. When these grains come into contact with water, they will trap some of it (think cornstarch in cold water), but when the water is hot they swell up like balloons and merge with each other, and you have starch gelation.

Another thing you may want to add to the pasta water is some acid (lemon or cream of tartar). Tap water in most cities is made alkaline, which increases the starch loss from the pasta to the water, making the pasta stickier.

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Starch gelation is by far the primary reason, flavour is a side effect. – Noldorin Aug 16 '10 at 10:33
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Personally, I don't salt. If you use copious amount of water and stir occasionally, you should be fine. – Michael Mior Aug 16 '10 at 18:37
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@MichaelMior You don't salt the water? How does the pasta taste then? I can't imagine eating pasta that has not been salted. Sincerely, an Italian. :-) – splattne Sep 11 '12 at 12:25
@splattne If you have a well-seasoned sauce, it doesn't matter if the water is salted. – Michael Mior Sep 11 '12 at 14:24
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@MichaelMior for the sake of the truth, a friend of mine, after some blood pressure problem, has switched to saltless food and he told me that after some time, you start to enjoy the food without salt because you feel all the flavors spectrum. So, in our future dinner, please do not salt the water :). – systempuntoout Sep 12 '12 at 18:43
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up vote 14 down vote

It means that the pasta is seasoned as it is cooked. To see if this matters to you, cook up some pasta in plain water and then some in salted water and see if you can taste the difference.

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Personally, I add salt to water to reduce the bubbling while the water is boiling and allows me to walk away from the pot for a minute. I hate it when the pot bubbles over and some water falls over the sides of the pot. Something about the salt changes the waters ability to create bubbles. This is just my observation.

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Aside from the flavor implications of adding salt, salty water has a higher boiling point than pure water, so you can cook whatever you are boiling at a higher temperature. The more salt, the higher the boiling point, up to the limit of a fully saturated solution.

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This is a myth: adding salt changes the boiling point by a fraction of a degree at best. – Marti Nov 7 '10 at 2:52
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It needs to be quite salty to make a significant move, but the effect can be measurable. It's roughly 3 tablespoons per quart to move the boiling point one full degree Fahrenheit. Which is somewhere in the same ballpark of boiling point change as 1/8 of a mile. – wrosecrans Nov 7 '10 at 20:43
Three tablespoons per quart is a ton - more than 1.5x as salty as seawater. And a difference of 1°F in water temperature makes basically no difference to the pasta cooking - you can even cook pasta in 200°F water (not even boiling!) and you won't be able to tell the difference. What you will notice from adding that much salt, however, is that your pasta ends up unbearably salty. – Jefromi♦ Apr 26 at 23:12
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I guess it's like trying to sear a meat over a very high heat; the higher the temperature of the water the faster the pasta gets cook (so that it doesn't absorb too much which will expand the starch contain in the pasta) meanwhile leaving the center a a tiny white dot which creates a snap when bend. Besides that I too believe besides adding flavor to the pasta, by adding olive oil to the pasta is to avoid pasta from being stick together like a lump meanwhile stirring them to ensure equal heat is all over the pasta that is being cook. Olive oil to helps to coat the pasta which will reduce the water absorbtion and in the same time increase the water temperature even more higher.

The water doesn't need to be salty like totally salty but by just adding enough salt just enough for tasting will be good enough.

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The amount of salt you would have to add to the water to make its boiling point significantly hotter would be enormous. For sugar, you start with a 3:2 water:sugar solution, which still has a boiling point of 100°C, and it only gets higher after lots of evaporation. Similar for salt. – rumtscho♦ Jul 30 '12 at 18:09
Oil will de-foam the water and reduce the amount pasta sticking together, it will also stop the pasta sauce from sticking to it when serving :-( A quick stir two or three time during the first two minutes of cooking will stop the pasta sticking together :-) – TFD Jul 30 '12 at 23:49

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