### You can not prevent your pasta from overcooking but you can make it more mushy (and unpalatable)

The effect of acidity is very noticeable with potatoes, adding a shot of vinegar will let you cook almost paper-thin slices without them falling apart, while adding soda does the opposite.
[This article](https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/12/the-food-lab-the-best-roast-potatoes-ever.html) goes in detail and has close-up images of the results

I expected it to be the same for pasta, and since I had a handful of leftover Barilla n.34 occupying space in my cupboard I simply cooked up two batches.

- Both were cooked in boiling water for the recommended 6 minutes in a glass of water without salt.  
- To the first batch I added a tablespoon of baking powder (I didnt have pure soda)  
- To the second I added a shot of 40% vinegar

I rinsed them off with clean water and was checking the consistency throughout writing this post. Apart from slightly acidic/alkaline taste and alkaline pasta seeming a tiny bit darker, there were no differences in consistency.

The baking powder, in addition to [Sodium bicarbonate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate), has an acidic counterpart [Disodium pyrophosphate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disodium_pyrophosphate) which means that even with a full tablespoon of it, the pH didnt change much.  
So I brought out the big guns and boiled some of the cooked pasta with a teaspoon of [drain cleaner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide) for one more minute. I did not taste-test those, but they were, and 20 minutes later still are, very glossy sticky and mushy.

Clockwise: Baking powder, Drain cleaner, Vinegar
[![enter image description here][1]][1]


  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/UveVu.jpg