Throwing Spaghetti On The Wall Is A Messy Myth - Here's A Better Way To Check For Doneness

If someone is wildly experimenting with no real idea of where they'll end up, you might say that they're "throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks." It's an appropriate metaphor for the creative process, but it's also an old-fashioned way to test for the doneness of spaghetti. The idea is that if you throw the spaghetti against the wall and it sticks, it's done; if it slides or bounces off entirely, you'll want to put it back in the pot of water for a little longer. It's a delightfully messy method, but it's not exactly scientific — if you really want to figure out whether your spaghetti's done, all you have to do is taste it.

The ol' spaghetti fling may sound fun, but if you think about it for more than a few seconds, the flaws become obvious. Let's say there are two different people making spaghetti: you and future Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani can throw spaghetti (not exactly aerodynamic in the first place) much harder than you can, so his noodles may stick to the wall more firmly than yours, even if his were undercooked. The walls in his kitchen are probably made from much higher-quality material than yours (no judgment; we don't all have a $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers), which will also affect stickage. And his kitchen is almost certainly bigger than yours, so the distance between the thrower and the wall isn't standardized. You see the problems.

So how do you find out whether your spaghetti is done? It's easy. Just take a noodle out of the pot and taste it. You've probably heard the phrase "al dente" when it comes to pasta, and that literally means "to the tooth" — so why not let your teeth be the judge? You want your spaghetti (or just about any other kind of pasta, really) to be soft with just a little bit of resistance to your tooth. You don't want it mushy and insubstantial, but you certainly don't want it chewy or crunchy, either. A quick taste is all you need to know whether your pasta is done or if it needs a couple more minutes in the pot.

Once you do get your pasta right, you can use it in all sorts of different ways. You can make Sophia Loren's famous lemon spaghetti; you can use Jamie Oliver's hack to get orzo in a pinch; or you can even make some good old-fashioned spag bol, which is the rather ugly British slang term for spaghetti bolognese. Whatever you decide to do, you can be sure you don't have to fling noodles at your wall to get there.