Joseph Littleshoes wrote:
>
> 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.

Well, Damsel was talking about stuff that was over 2 feet
long after folding in half. I've never seen a 2 1/2-3 foot
high 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.

Yeah, I know about that. Not the same thing. I'm talking
regular dried spaghetti in a box.

> > 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.

Not my experience, but it might happen that way with really
fine spaghettini or angel hair. The "regular" size spaghetti,
which is what I prefer, takes forever to soften enough to get it
all under the water. I don't cook mine in a tall stockpot but
in my dutch oven and even the regular foot-long stuff doesn't
go completely under the water until it has softened up enough
to bend.

Kate