• invertedspear@lemmy.zipEnglish
      101·
      2 days ago

      It changes the surface tension and keeps the pot from boiling over. Very useful if you’re also preparing a couple other dishes.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
        2·
        20 hours ago

        It most certainly does not keep the pot from boiling over. I’ve had it happen plenty. Same with the “place a wooden spoon across the top of the pot to prevent boilover” trick. That does not work either.

        • invertedspear@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          16 hours ago

          I agree that the wooden spoon thing is horse shit. Never once seen it work. The oil in the water does work for me. Now I know that many things may affect this. If you crank your stove up to eleven, maybe nothing will help. Maybe your altitude will affect it in some way. I live at about 350m above sea level. What I can say for sure is that in a large pot of water, at a rolling boil on my stove, about 3 tablespoons of oil in the water and a full pack of pasta, my pot will not boil over, but it absolutely will if I don’t add the oil.

      • Lumisal@lemmy.world
        43·
        23 hours ago

        It also interferes with the water getting into the pasta.

        If you’re making a couple other dishes, just make the pasta near the end.

        Edit: correction, meant to say “with the sauce getting onto the pasta”