TRUTH OR MYTH: Pasta cooking water should taste as salty as the ocean.

Where did this myth come from? Probably not from Italy, where “salted water’ is understood to mean a palmful of salt in a standard 5-liter pasta pot. (The myth Italian cooks argue about is when, not whether, to add the salt.)

And more important, what does the ocean taste like, anyway? According to NASA, the average salinity of the Earth’s oceans is 3.5% by weight. That works out to 35 grams of salt per liter of water, or half a cup per gallon in home-cook terms.

To test the myth, I cooked eight batches of spaghetti at salt levels ranging from none to Pacific Ocean (3%) to Mediterranean Sea (4%). I can confirm that seawater is too salty. As I worked my way up from a teaspoon to a tablespoon of kosher salt per gallon, the pasta was noticeably undersalted, and its flavor got lost in the finished dish. I most liked water that tasted as salty as a light chicken stock, or 2 tablespoons per gallon of water.

Of course, the salted water rule doesn’t apply to all kinds of noodles. Italian pasta doesn’t contain salt because it interferes with gluten development, which makes it possible to roll pasta into sheets (as for fresh pasta) or extrude it through machines (for dried). Salt is added to the cooking water for flavor, and to make the noodles less sticky.

Asian wheat noodles like udon and lo mein have alkaline salts added to the dough, and they are traditionally cooked in unsalted water. Rice noodles are unsalted; like rice, they are supposed to taste neutral and fresh, so they are also typically cooked in unsalted water.

VERDICT: False. Salt to taste.