Also aren’t you afraid something will come to live in 2 days in warm salty water
Wasn’t salt the most popular preservative in the days before refrigeration existed? The stuff boils with heavy salt, so starts off semi-sterile. Then I don’t imagine many things looking for a home in brine, which then boils again the next day.
This water is saltier than foods that rely on salt for preservation.
Pickling brine is salty to create an environment that’s more friendly to lactobacillus (and other friends!).
It helps to advantage the bacteria we want to grow to preserve things, not stop all growth.
bruh you’re gonna have vinegar scented pasta water lmaoo
plinky@hexbear.net 8 months ago
Ocean water is self evidently friendly for microorganisms. I was thinking that brine was saltier than ocean tbh (and long term salt was used dry (?) for fish and meat), but this is more my half memories, if stuff doesn’t grow for you, then its probably fine
plantteacher@mander.xyz 8 months ago
Yeah, indeed I just realized salt only works as a preservative by drying out food. So salt water is indeed useless.
plinky@hexbear.net 8 months ago
And i should mention, that food safety issue is more connected to toxins from fungi/bacteria, not the organisms themselves. They’ll die at 100 C, but some toxins might remain intact. And after cooking pasta your salty water contains not only salt, but starch (food).
plantteacher@mander.xyz 8 months ago
Indeed. I used to think “nothing will survive 250°F in my pressure cooker” and was tempted to cook some questionable pork. But yeah, would have been a bad idea because chemical toxins from bacteria output would “survive” (persist) in 250°F. So I tossed it. Though I would be surprised if 24hrs is enough time for brine to not only accumulate bacteria in high numbers but also allow enough time for bacteria toxins to be produced. I would have thought a day is too short (I don’t think I ever let more than a day pass between boils).