Kate Connally wrote:

> Damsel wrote:
> >
> > When I was a kid, we got boxes of spaghetti that were about 4 inches
> square
> > on the ends, and around 3 feet long. The pasta inside was folded in
> half,
> > so you were talking strands at least 5-1/2 feet long. One or two
> were all
> > that a fork could hold.
>
> Good grief! How did you get them into the pot to
> cook them if they were that long? Even folded in half
> they'd be too big for any pot I've ever seen.

Our local Italian deli sells them, one is even a thin tubular, hollow
spaghetti, not a cannelloni but a long tubular spaghetti. it also sells
regular solid spaghetti in those lengths that are meant to be broken up,
but can be cooked whole in a tall stock pot. But even when cooked and
served whole are usually served with a carving knife and the pasta is
cut up into manageable pieces as it is served.

>
>
> I've been around over 50 years and I've never come across
> spaghetti that was more than about a foot long.

The Chinese method of making long spaghetti like noodles produces 4 - 5
foot long strands.

> Even
> foot-long spaghetti is tough to get under the water all
> at once, so I can't even begin to see how people would
> manage anything longer. I suspect it was meant to be
> broken into more manageable lengths when put in the
> pot.

That is how it is most often cooked but it can be cooked whole in a tall
pot. It quickly softens and folds itself into the water. I have done
so as a kind of practical joke on people. 1 whole strands can be laid on
a plate and look like a ordinary dish of pasta till the person tries to
eat it and they find it is one long strand. Most people figure out very
quickly to cut up the pasta into manageable bites but i have seen people
struggle with it for several minutes, wrapping the whole thing up on a
fork till they have a big unwieldy ball of pasta on their fork.

The long pasta is probly the basis of the 2 people eating the same
strand of spaghetti cliché like the scene in the Disney movie "Lady and
the tramp".
---
Joseph Littleshoes