On Wed, 2 Feb 2011 08:58:31 -0500, "J. Clarke" >
wrote:

>In article >,
says...
>>
>> "Christopher M." > wrote in message
>> ...
>> > "Steve Pope" > wrote in message
>> > ...
>> >> Christopher M. > wrote:
>> >>
>> >>>Sometimes I forget to add salt. Can I add the salt after I put the pasta
>> >>>in,
>> >>>or will the salt stick to the pasta and make it very salty?
>> >>
>> >> There is no need to add salt in the first place.
>> >
>> > Doesn't it reduce the bubbling?
>>
>> I believe salt lowers the boiling point. But then again I have read that it
>> raises the boiling point. I honestly don't know which is true.
>
>It raises the boiling point and lowers the freezing point. This is
>elementary chemistry.

However obviously you failed elementary cooking.

"The Effect of Sugar and Salt"

"When salt, sugar, or any other nonvolatile compounds are dissolved in
water, the freezing point of the resulting solution is lowered and
it's boiling point raised. We take advantage of this effect by using
rock salt to melt ice on roads, and to freeze ice cream. As far back
as the 18th century, solutions of calcium chloride were used to reach
temperatures of -27° F. (-33° C.). The helpfullness of solutes at the
other end of the scale is, however, more limited. It takes one ounce
of salt to raise the boiling point of a quart of water by a mere 1° F.
A Denverite who wanted to boil water at 212° F. would have to add more
than half a pound of salt to that quart of liquid." [Berk, Z.
Braverman's Introduction to the Biochemistry of Foods, Amersterdam and
New York: Elsevier, 1976]