Don’t Actually Do That

Trying to squeak in a quick post so that I don’t go a whole month without one…which you know means you’re in for a literary masterpiece. AND, I have to get it done during the short window I have while the baby is sleeping – I’m pretty sure that’s how all the great novels are written.

The other day I was making (by “making” I mean opening the box and dumping it into water) pasta and because I’m a dork with no memory, I always check the directions, but I never noticed this until now:

Boil Taste

I realize “to taste” means more “to your liking” or “however much you want,” but I just don’t think “to taste” is the wisest direction to use in conjunction with boiling water.

And at the grocery store, because these are the kinds of things that are important to me, I checked some other brands and they said the same thing.

In a world where IKEA specifies that you NOT put babies inside storage bins, you’d think that the wording about tasty salty boiling water would be different. Maybe:

“Add between one grain and a coffee mug of salt,” or, “salt it like you mean it but don’t get too crazy.” I’m just throwing those out there, I’m not a pasta box directions writer. But, if you’re in charge of hiring for that position and have discovered me, I’m open to it.

11 thoughts on “Don’t Actually Do That”

  1. You make an excellent point. Those instructions also don’t account for discrepancies in taste in a household. (I spent the first few years on my marriage training my husband to accept that “to taste” didn’t mean turning the food into a salt lick.)

  2. I never salt. Not to taste or otherwise. Agree with Thoughtsy about the salt in the sauce. No need for salty pasta.

    I want to read a box that says something creative and different. A pasta writer not afraid to think outside the box . . . of pasta. That’s what I want!

  3. …amount of salt desired…as much salt as you like… See, it all gets too wordy and they would need to make bigger boxes to contain the instructions.

    I do salt the cooking water for pasta. Every chef I’ve seen on tv says to do so, and they wouldn’t lead me astray over something like that. It’s a little bit of salt, not Satan’s sprinkle of sin.

  4. That’s what’s wrong with you kids today.
    Why, when I was a boy, we had to walk to school in boiling water everyday.
    Barefoot!
    Uphill!
    Both ways!

    If only we’d had the luxury of salt, but that was reserved for the rich kids with those newfangled “al-dente pasta makers”.

    Darned whippersnappers.

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