re: Pastalaya - How much liquid?

And you can not accept that there is more than one right way to do things, instead of saying you are wrong, you are not doing it correctly, etc, how about saying I do it like this, I find it inproves such n such, and then you don’t come off as a dick, but then again maybe you are

I think there’s numerous ways to cook, especially pastalaya. It’s yours, cook it the way you want.

But…browning ingredients in a jambalaya or pastalaya provide flavor. Browning ABSOLUTELY adds flavor and enhances the final product.

Do you have to brown? Of course not. But…you are missing out on crucial steps in building flavor.

Can you make it good without browning? Of course you can. But…you can make it better with browning.

There is absolutely no way you can seriously take the stance that browning a jambalaya or pastalaya is not better than not browning. GTFOH.

In addition, your chicken is shredded to pieces. I’m all for tender pieces and some shredding, but not like it was cooked in a crockpot. Cooking your chicken first and keeping it in is cooking it too long. If you like it, great! But don’t try to convince us over cooked shredded chicken is the best.

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Ten or so years ago there was no such thing as pastalaya yet you know the proper way

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I’ve been cooking pastalaya for at least 20 years and I didn’t invent it. The steps before adding the rice or pasta is the same for jambalaya as it is pastalaya, so does it even matter when pastalaya was invented? What a dumb argument.

You can cook yours any way you want. But you cannot convince me browning the ingredients properly DOES NOT produce a better product. As I said, it can produce a product you’re happy with, but don’t try to say there is NO difference.

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And your statement telling us there is a change tells us you don’t know what you are saying.

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You’re seriously going to argue that changing the way you brown the ingredients creates no change? Bro…

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you are a pretentious a-hole.

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Stay classy.

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Rat, I’m curious. Have you found specific pastas need more or less water? What’s your thinking on this?

Always kind of wondered but I’ve never had an issue so I never tried differently.

I use spaghetti or penne and have used rotini and bow tie before because that’s what I was given per the preference of the event organizer.

I like spaghetti and penne but if you cook penne in a large pot and let it sit a while, the pasta can collapse and not look as nice. I personally just don’t care for the bite of rotini but I don’t mind it. I don’t like bow tie at all, it just doesn’t seem right to me.

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It varies some due to the shape of the pasta, but not that much. Posters here for the most part have said to use liquid to pasta ratios anywhere from 1-1 to 2-1, so you have a lot of forgiveness. The shape of the pasta should be chosen by what shape you like to eat. It matters little in the long run.

I prefer linguine because it holds onto sauces better than spaghetti due to its flat curvature.

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I prefer linguine because it holds onto sauces better than spaghetti due to its flat curvature.

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I dont really like stringy pasta in pastalaya, but if Im not cooking it Im not complaining either, Ill eat it all.

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I personally just don’t care for the bite of rotini

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This is a great example of varying taste. The bite of rotini is exactly why I like it.

I always break spaghetti in half for pastalaya. Just easier to eat. Never break it for spaghetti and red gravy though.

Never seen the half spaghetti. If only I could get that in food service bulk size or Walmart brand cheap packs. Breaking 20-80 pounds of spaghetti is taxing.

I’ll have to check. Never noticed it. It will make it a whole lot easier.

It wouldn’t be the first time I went to 4 Walmarts to get enough. Ha!