Cooking noodles

sf wrote on 13 Sep 2006 in rec.food.cooking

should

See dry pasta or noodles don't fit well in a measuring cup. They stay the shape they are, allowing all kinds of air gaps.

Now cooked pasta will conform to a measuring cup better, by readily bending and collapsing on theirself. So you can fit more in the measuring cup. Yes the noodles absorb some water and swell, but their soft limpness defeats this when measured by cups. So some cooked pasta measured in a measuring cup take up less space than when they were measured dry in the same measuring cup.

Cups is a measurement of volume...space taken up. dry noodles generally take up more space or volume. Cooked noodles less space or volume. Also the longer the pasta sits in liquid the more it will absorb...Example: leftover chicken noodle soup...put the soup in the fridge and the next day the noodle will have absorbed a lot more liquid getting really soggy and much larger.

Now to top this off... weight can also be measured in a unit of measure called ounces. A cup is 8 fluid ounces, a pound is 16 ounces. But other than the name, these measuring units have little relationship. As one measures volume or space taken up and the other measure weight.

Think which weighs more; a pound of lead or a pound of feathers? Then think which takes up more room; a cup of lead or a cup of feathers? The answer to both questions is, of course, neither.

So cook 2-3 cups of dry noodles and then take the measured amount you require from that...or guestimate ahead of time.

So it's more of an improper question than a solvable answer. Kinda like asking if 2 cars leave Vancouver, which one will get to Capetown first. Without other known factors like speed, route and method of travel...it is not solvable.

So measure your dry pasta by weight (ounces) not volume (ounces). If exactness is that important to you.

--

Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect

-Alan