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this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2026
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It changes the surface tension and keeps the pot from boiling over. Very useful if you’re also preparing a couple other dishes.
It most certainly does not keep the pot from boiling over. I’ve had it happen plenty. Same with the “place a wooden spoon across the top of the pot to prevent boilover” trick. That does not work either.
I agree that the wooden spoon thing is horse shit. Never once seen it work. The oil in the water does work for me. Now I know that many things may affect this. If you crank your stove up to eleven, maybe nothing will help. Maybe your altitude will affect it in some way. I live at about 350m above sea level. What I can say for sure is that in a large pot of water, at a rolling boil on my stove, about 3 tablespoons of oil in the water and a full pack of pasta, my pot will not boil over, but it absolutely will if I don’t add the oil.
It also interferes with the water getting into the pasta.
If you're making a couple other dishes, just make the pasta near the end.
Edit: correction, meant to say "with the sauce getting onto the pasta"
I'm curious about this but I'm also not buying it in the slightest.
Oil floats, pasta sinks.
I just realized I made a sleepy typo: meant to say the sauce, not the water. Here's a source on it:
https://www.inverse.com/science/cook-oil-pasta-myth