Can You Really Tell If Spaghetti Is Fully Cooked By Throwing A Noodle At The Wall?

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If you're Italian or have an Italian mother-in-law (raises hand slowly), you'll have heard the old adage of throwing spaghetti at a wall to judge its doneness. It's always seemed a little wonky, but like many kitchen myths (and the spaghetti, in some cases), this one seems to have stuck. The legends go that once your spaghetti is perfectly al dente and ready to be either finished in a pan, cased in sauce, or just eaten, it'll stick to your wall after being, um, thrown at it. But, it turns out that this old wives' tale isn't true at all.

The idea of throwing spaghetti at a wall was reportedly first written down in a 1946 cookbook entitled "You Can Cook If You Can Read." There are plenty of ways to debunk the idea, too, despite what your mother-in-law may say. For instance, this bit of advice never says what kind of wall the spaghetti would or should stick to, how long it should stick, or from how far away you should be throwing it. If one person threw a piece of spaghetti at a tiled backsplash from two feet away, how could they guarantee that a second person, throwing it on a wallpapered wall 10 feet away, would have the same experience? You can see the holes in the logic. Plus, starch-coated spaghetti is always going to be a bit sticky, even if it isn't done cooking. This myth isn't going to help you cook al dente pasta, but luckily, there's a much simpler trick that will. 

Tale now debunked, there is one surefire way to tell if your pasta is perfectly al dente. First and foremost, taste it. It's really that simple. If you're making regular spaghetti, chances are that your particular brand of pasta is going to need to cook in boiling, salted water for five to eight minutes. At around the five-minute mark, pull out a strand with a pair of tongs or a pasta spoon and taste it. A perfectly al dente piece of pasta should have a slight bite to it, with a bit of resistance, but shouldn't be difficult to chew.

If you're cooking pasta other than spaghetti — like fettuccine, angel hair, or restaurant-worthy bucatini pasta, times may vary. Start testing early and go from there. Al dente pasta also has a whitish dot in the center. Just don't wait too long to test — there's no coming back from mushy, overcooked pasta!