In article >,
sf > wrote:

> On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:14:25 -0600, Christine Dabney
> > wrote:
>
> >Yes, he says the water you cook vegetables in, should be as salty as
> >the ocean.
>
> No way Jose. I steam vegetables and do not, will not, salt the water
> for potatoes. I can't stand all that salt, I'm still trying to get it
> out of my system. I salt pasta water. Period.

Why? (I mean, why salt pasta water -- if you don't salt for potatoes,
why do you do it for pasta?) I go back and forth on this, and do not
have any strongly principled (or empirically useful) basis for doing
the salting or not. I _tend_ to think that potatoes _need_ salt, and
it helps to add it in cooking. But I could wrong. I don't have any
such sense that pasta needs salting, and in fact I will generally
_not_ salt pasta-cooking water. And have never had any problem with
the results. So, once again, _why_ do you think you have to salt
pasta cooking water?