5 ms·

So you cannot cook rice in salt water?

by auggierose 9y ago

sitharus 9y ago
Not in sea water, it’d be far too salty to be edible. You’d end up drinking more water to compensate.
- whathaschanged 9y ago
  That sounds like a speculation rather than actual fact. The human body needs salt and there are other minerals in sea water.
  - jey 9y ago
    It's simple physics. Think about the volume of seawater being evaporated, which has about 35 g/L of salt in it. Human body needs salt, but too much salt will kill you.
  - sitharus 9y ago
    No, it's well known that humans cannot safely ingest the quantity of salt contained in sea water. In a normal situation with available fresh water it would not kill you, but if you were stuck at sea with no fresh water the 35g/L of salt you'd be consuming is way beyond the recommended upper limit of 5g/day. Excess sodium in the bloodstream isn't pleasant: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernatremia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernatremia
- gvb 9y ago
  At one point I wondered how seawater killed you since there isn't anything (directly) toxic in it. Your kidneys excrete the excess salt you ingest. The problem is, sea water has higher salinity than the kidneys can excrete so your kidneys have to excrete more water than you ingested of sea water and you actually die of dehydration. This is why it is so horrible: the more sea water you drink, the more dehydrated you become, the thirstier you get, and the faster you die. Ref: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/drinksw.html https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/drinksw.html See also salting slugs: http://www.slugoff.co.uk/slug-facts/salt http://www.slugoff.co.uk/slug-facts/salt
- spurcell93 9y ago
  According to the book "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" the optimal salinity for pasta water is about 2%. So 1 part sea water, 1 part fresh water - roughly.
  - stefantalpalaru 9y ago
    > the optimal salinity for pasta water is about 2% Just 1%, according to the Italian tradition, and that's an upper limit because modern tastes moved towards less salt. The old rule of thumb is known as the 10-100-1000 rule: 10 grams of salt for 100 grams of pasta and 1000 grams (1 litre) of water.
clort 9y ago
I understand that pasta cooked in seawater is passable as most of the water (and salt) is discarded. Normally rice absorbs all the water, I don't know if you were clever and boiled it in lots then drained it if that would work. Would take a lot of fuel though, usually propane for the USA, I think? In the UK many use Butane instead, or CampingGaz - in any case you don't really want to use it all up when you are out at sea.
- 8fGTBjZxBcHq 9y ago
  This dude is fairly respected in the food blogging world and took on the old adage "your pasta water should be as salty as the sea." http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/how-salty-should-pasta-water-be.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/how-salty-should-pasta-wa... He concluded that is inedibly salty and even half that is on the upper end of what tastes good.
URSpider94 9y ago
No, because all of the water ends up incorporated in the rice. Try making rice where you add 1 1/2 tsp of salt to each cup of water
InclinedPlane 9y ago
Not if you want to live very long.
AndrewNCarr 9y ago
Some brief searching ("cooking rice with seawater") indicates that at a minimum you can use seawater diluted with fresh water for cooking if your survival depends on it. Seawater is around 3.5% salt. For perspective, that is something on the order of a soup spoon of salt per soda can volume of water (12fl oz/355mL). Undiluted seawater suitability seems to vary by food[1][2], my cursory search didn't provide any factual specifics for rice, oatmeal, and vegetables. Some comments indicate you can boil fish in straight seawater. That's all without considering pollution and natural toxins from algae blooms. The sources I skimmed mentioned commercially sourced culinary "sea water", I would expect some amount of filtering and heat treatment. [1]https://www.chowhound.com/post/cooking-seawater-785862 https://www.chowhound.com/post/cooking-seawater-785862 [2]https://www.quora.com/Could-seawater-be-used-for-cooking-e-g-potatoes-vegetables-rice-etc-or-is-it-too-salty https://www.quora.com/Could-seawater-be-used-for-cooking-e-g... https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/51729/can-i-use-ocean-water-to-cook-my-pasta https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/51729/can-i-use-...
agumonkey 9y ago
I wonder if you could use dry rice to soak up salt

So you cannot cook rice in salt water?

sitharus 9y ago

Not in sea water, it’d be far too salty to be edible. You’d end up drinking more water to compensate.

whathaschanged 9y ago
That sounds like a speculation rather than actual fact. The human body needs salt and there are other minerals in sea water.
- jey 9y ago
  It's simple physics. Think about the volume of seawater being evaporated, which has about 35 g/L of salt in it. Human body needs salt, but too much salt will kill you.
- sitharus 9y ago
  No, it's well known that humans cannot safely ingest the quantity of salt contained in sea water. In a normal situation with available fresh water it would not kill you, but if you were stuck at sea with no fresh water the 35g/L of salt you'd be consuming is way beyond the recommended upper limit of 5g/day. Excess sodium in the bloodstream isn't pleasant: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernatremia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernatremia
gvb 9y ago
At one point I wondered how seawater killed you since there isn't anything (directly) toxic in it. Your kidneys excrete the excess salt you ingest. The problem is, sea water has higher salinity than the kidneys can excrete so your kidneys have to excrete more water than you ingested of sea water and you actually die of dehydration. This is why it is so horrible: the more sea water you drink, the more dehydrated you become, the thirstier you get, and the faster you die. Ref: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/drinksw.html https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/drinksw.html See also salting slugs: http://www.slugoff.co.uk/slug-facts/salt http://www.slugoff.co.uk/slug-facts/salt
spurcell93 9y ago
According to the book "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" the optimal salinity for pasta water is about 2%. So 1 part sea water, 1 part fresh water - roughly.
- stefantalpalaru 9y ago
  > the optimal salinity for pasta water is about 2% Just 1%, according to the Italian tradition, and that's an upper limit because modern tastes moved towards less salt. The old rule of thumb is known as the 10-100-1000 rule: 10 grams of salt for 100 grams of pasta and 1000 grams (1 litre) of water.

clort 9y ago

I understand that pasta cooked in seawater is passable as most of the water (and salt) is discarded. Normally rice absorbs all the water, I don't know if you were clever and boiled it in lots then drained it if that would work. Would take a lot of fuel though, usually propane for the USA, I think? In the UK many use Butane instead, or CampingGaz - in any case you don't really want to use it all up when you are out at sea.

8fGTBjZxBcHq 9y ago
This dude is fairly respected in the food blogging world and took on the old adage "your pasta water should be as salty as the sea." http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/how-salty-should-pasta-water-be.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/how-salty-should-pasta-wa... He concluded that is inedibly salty and even half that is on the upper end of what tastes good.

URSpider94 9y ago

No, because all of the water ends up incorporated in the rice. Try making rice where you add 1 1/2 tsp of salt to each cup of water

InclinedPlane 9y ago

Not if you want to live very long.

AndrewNCarr 9y ago

Some brief searching ("cooking rice with seawater") indicates that at a minimum you can use seawater diluted with fresh water for cooking if your survival depends on it. Seawater is around 3.5% salt. For perspective, that is something on the order of a soup spoon of salt per soda can volume of water (12fl oz/355mL). Undiluted seawater suitability seems to vary by food[1][2], my cursory search didn't provide any factual specifics for rice, oatmeal, and vegetables. Some comments indicate you can boil fish in straight seawater. That's all without considering pollution and natural toxins from algae blooms. The sources I skimmed mentioned commercially sourced culinary "sea water", I would expect some amount of filtering and heat treatment. [1]https://www.chowhound.com/post/cooking-seawater-785862 https://www.chowhound.com/post/cooking-seawater-785862 [2]https://www.quora.com/Could-seawater-be-used-for-cooking-e-g-potatoes-vegetables-rice-etc-or-is-it-too-salty https://www.quora.com/Could-seawater-be-used-for-cooking-e-g... https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/51729/can-i-use-ocean-water-to-cook-my-pasta https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/51729/can-i-use-...

agumonkey 9y ago

I wonder if you could use dry rice to soak up salt