MIT Solved a Common Spaghetti Problem!
This news just in from Jillee at “One Good Thing by Jillee.” It’s a solution to a frequent issue when fixing dinner. A spaghetti dinner, to be exact.
Don’t you love how spaghetti is relatively quick and easy to make? Simply grab your pot and pull your noodles from the pantry. And when you’re not cooking for a crowd, you likely opt for a saucepan rather than a stockpot, right? Here’s where the frequent spaghetti issue shows up.
The smaller pan calls for smaller pasta, so what do you do? You naturally bend the handful of noodles in half, and snap. But as they break, they send tiny noodle bits shooting all over your kitchen, correct? And this is SO annoying and such a waste of time (in sweeping and wiping this stuff up).
I’ve experienced this so many times, yet have never really considered that there might be a solution to this common problem. No, the answer isn’t to simply cook whole noodles. The fact that shorter noodles fit into smaller pots better, and that they tend to be easier to eat are good reasons to go with shorter noodles. (BTW: as common as this issue is, you have to wonder why pasta manufacturers haven’t provided us with halved noodles in the first place!)
Anyway, how do you break spaghetti in half without creating a mess of tiny noodle bits? Turns out, scientists at MIT thought this was a good question as well, and found it confounding enough to give it some research.
They created a special spaghetti-bending machine and conducted a thorough study on the matter. With the help of their whiz-bang machine, they were able to conclude that the most effective way to get a clean break was do something first, and THEN go for the break.
According to an article from MIT News, “…they found that by first twisting the spaghetti at almost 360 degrees, then slowly bringing the two [ends] together to bend it, the stick snapped exactly in two.” The secret is in the twist!
Our friend, Jillee, wanted to know for herself if this would really work. So, with about a dozen spaghetti noodles in hand, she twisted and bent them, just as the MIT folks suggested. She said that to her surprise, the technique worked well. Rather than a countertop and floor sprinkled with pasta bits, there were only a couple of the culprits to clean up. A nice change from past spaghetti dinner preps.
It’s the little things in life that can make a difference, and I hope this little tip makes a difference for you the next time you’re fixing spaghetti for two.
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Don’t you love how spaghetti is relatively quick and easy to make? Simply grab your pot and pull your noodles from the pantry. And when you’re not cooking for a crowd, you likely opt for a saucepan rather than a stockpot, right? Here’s where the frequent spaghetti issue shows up.
The smaller pan calls for smaller pasta, so what do you do? You naturally bend the handful of noodles in half, and snap. But as they break, they send tiny noodle bits shooting all over your kitchen, correct? And this is SO annoying and such a waste of time (in sweeping and wiping this stuff up).
I’ve experienced this so many times, yet have never really considered that there might be a solution to this common problem. No, the answer isn’t to simply cook whole noodles. The fact that shorter noodles fit into smaller pots better, and that they tend to be easier to eat are good reasons to go with shorter noodles. (BTW: as common as this issue is, you have to wonder why pasta manufacturers haven’t provided us with halved noodles in the first place!)
Anyway, how do you break spaghetti in half without creating a mess of tiny noodle bits? Turns out, scientists at MIT thought this was a good question as well, and found it confounding enough to give it some research.
They created a special spaghetti-bending machine and conducted a thorough study on the matter. With the help of their whiz-bang machine, they were able to conclude that the most effective way to get a clean break was do something first, and THEN go for the break.
According to an article from MIT News, “…they found that by first twisting the spaghetti at almost 360 degrees, then slowly bringing the two [ends] together to bend it, the stick snapped exactly in two.” The secret is in the twist!
Our friend, Jillee, wanted to know for herself if this would really work. So, with about a dozen spaghetti noodles in hand, she twisted and bent them, just as the MIT folks suggested. She said that to her surprise, the technique worked well. Rather than a countertop and floor sprinkled with pasta bits, there were only a couple of the culprits to clean up. A nice change from past spaghetti dinner preps.
It’s the little things in life that can make a difference, and I hope this little tip makes a difference for you the next time you’re fixing spaghetti for two.
Sources:
- www.gimmesomeoven.com
- www.newscientist.com
- www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com
- www.mit.new.edu
Alice Osborne
Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
Email the author! alice@dvo.com
