"Gil Faver" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> I like the concept of tossing a big pot of boiling water down the drain to
> keep the pipes clear.
>
> I like the idea of using thick pasta water for cooking/sauce purposes,
> though.



If one's drainpipes are 'plastic,' I've heard throwing a pan of very hot
water down the drain can loosen the glue.
Myth? Who knows; but I let my pasta water sit on the back of the stove
until cooled.


The article says:
"Restaurant cooks prize thick pasta water. In “Heat,” his best-selling
account of working in Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo, Bill Buford describes
how in the course of an evening, water in the pasta cooker goes from clear
to cloudy to muddy, a stage that is “yucky-sounding but wonderful,” because
the water “behaves like a sauce thickener, binding the elements and
flavoring the pasta with the flavor of itself.”

Mr. Buford suggests that the muddy pasta water should be bottled and sold,
because home cooking never produces anything like it. Cooking one batch of
pasta in minimal water can’t smooth out the starch as completely or generate
those long-cooked flavors. But it does make pasta water good enough to sip."



I usually use a bit of pasta cooking water to finish pasta and sauce
combining, but GEEZ! would I even consider saving the water for anything
else? Or sipping it? No! Perhaps it is good to a certain few,
though :-))

Dee Dee