[Sca-cooks] OT:new question

[Daniel Myers]

On Wednesday, December 25, 2002, at 09:18 PM, Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus
Adamantius wrote:

> Also sprach alm4 at cornell.edu:
>> Merry Christmas Everyone,
>>
>> The other day a bunch of us were sitting around making fun of the men
>> in
>> our lives food habits.
>>
>> We were talking about boiling water for spagetti and we were all
>> wondering why we were all taught to boil cold salted water instead of
>> Hot
>> salted tap water.
>>
>> I know why it's true for boiling meat for broth/soup, but why for
>> spagetti?
>>
>> Anybody know?  Were we dreaming about this?
>
> In general, there seems to be a prejudice against hot water from any
> source other than the cold tap, heated on the stove, going into your
> body. Hot water from the tap seems to be okay for washing dishes,
> laundry, body, etc., but if it goes in your mouth, there seems to be
> this idea that cold water is somehow cleaner than hot water. Maybe
> there are funky mineral deposits in the hot water heater tank or
> something.

In many modern homes the water from the hot water tap has been passed
through a water softener.  This means it'll contain more minerals
(creating more scale when boiled) and will also probably taste funny.
The water from the cold water taps throughout the house (excepting in
the kitchen) may also have passed through the water softener, which is
why there is often a prejudice against drinking cold water from any tap
other than the one in the kitchen.

I generally start with hot water from the tap when I'm going to boil
water - it's more efficient in terms of both time and energy, and we
don't have a water softener in this house.

- Doc


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  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  http://www.medievalcookery.com/
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