Should a noodle be allowed to escape its fate?

[Tab]

(purely philosophical question here)

There are two kinds of situations. One is when you pour egg noodles or shells or whatever out of the box or bag, and a few fall on the counter. To my mind, they managed to escape and should be excluded from cooking (this time).

The other is after you've cooked noodles and you go to drain them. At that point there's usually one or two hanger-ons at the bottom of the pot. To my mind, they weren't smart enough to escape when they had the chance and hence should be taken into custody with the rest and eaten.

[hippywife]

1. Oddly enough

and I'm scared to admit this, but I've had these very same thoughts. LOL No, really...I have.

Anymore I look at it this way, anything I don't prepare and consume is pure waste. I know there is a child somewhere weakened by absolute hunger, actually many children in many somewheres, who would give anything to have what so many people in this country waste, even the smallest, roughest pieces. That keeps me from indulging such thoughts.

Sorry, I know you meant this to be funny, and it is, and didn't mean to be a downer. It's just the way my thought process work.

[Tab]

2. Neither of my scenarios waste the noodle

It just defers its fate a bit. Obviously if it is in an unsanitary landing spot, that's a different story.

It sounds like we both grew up in the "eat all your dinner - don't you know there are children starving in Africa/China/whatever" era. Not to mention in this country too.

It seems to me, though, that unless the noodle is burned to the bottom and you can't get it off without destroying it in the process, if it wasn't smart enough to escape before going into the boiling water, that it should be eaten. Perhaps even more so, as penance for being uncooperative.

Plus, they're a bitch to clean off after the pasta hardens and adheres. But that's a practical matter, not a philosophical one.

[hippywife]

3. The first eight years

of my education was in Catholic school, so yeah. But I really didn't appreciate what it all meant when the nuns would say that. Children are usually spared actually seeing the suffering that goes on around the world and it's only hinted at in that vague way. I never really got it until I became an adult and started paying attention for myself.

I agree about the unsanitary. Our floors are still unfinished wide pine board. With cats running around and us walking in and out of the house through a yard where chickens free range, needless to say there isn't any 30 second rule in our house. :rofl:

[Stinky The Clown]

9. So have I

I never spare them. But I come to it by a diametrically opposite philosophy. I figure they're all family and it would be kind to leave one out. Being eaten is simply what they do. They live for it. It is their reward.

[troubleinwinter]

4. I never thought about whether certain noodles were or "weren't smart enough to escape"

... never have anthropomorphized noodles. But I wouldn't want to hurt a noodle's feelings.

I do have a friend who is a rock and mineral collector. She communicates with a rock specimen to see if the rock wants to remain where it is or go with her, then whether it wants to remain in its natural state or become polished and/or set into jewelry.

Another friend grows the strongest, most pungent garlic around. He says that one must speak sternly to it as it grows.

:shrug:

[Tab]

5. Obviously, the ones that weren't

"weren't using their noodle".

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[hippywife]

6. I smell a set up!

:rofl:

[htuttle]

8. "You're mild! I could eat you raw over ice cream! Your father was a shallot!"

I'm trying to imagine how one speaks sternly to garlic... :shrug:

[htuttle]

7. The five second rule applies to dried noodles before cooking

Sometimes I administer a sanitizing 'blow on it' to make sure there's no fuzz.

After cooking, I always scrape the pot. They got cooked, they deserve to be eaten. If they land in the sink when I'm draining them, they're home free. No telling what's been sitting in the sink...

[Lucinda]

10. My philosophy is the total opposite.

The raw escapees shall not prevail. I am the mistress of their fate. However, if one is willing to stick itself to a hot pot to avoid consumption, it is rewarded.

[Tab]

11. Yes, but under your philosophy

... didn't they allow themselves to be cooked for no good reason? Because now their fate is what... consignment to the sink or garbage can?

Although they could be applauded for their bravery, wouldn't the smarter noodles be the ones that avoided that situation to begin with?

[pengillian101]

12. I wonder about this...

"Although they could be applauded for their bravery, wouldn't the smarter noodles be the ones that avoided that situation to begin with"

I put a pot on to boil, add noodles, macaroni, spaghetti, etc., I usually drop a little pasta on the flat surface stove top. It burns.

And if I don't boil and stir the pot enough, pasta sticks on the bottom. Boil furiously. That's the trick I believe.

[Lucinda]

13. If they truly were smart, they would have escaped prior to packaging.

Frankly I suspect that those who appear to "make a break for" it en route the the boiling water are merely experiencing a moment of serendipity due to pilot error on the cooks part.

Those who subject themselves to gummy hot pan stickage rather than be consumed are making a valiant attempt to thumb their noses at us. They are saying to us that they "will no go quietly"... I applaud that.

[Phentex]

18. Either they feel superior to the pot or they

are hoping the pot will save them from the unknown. I find them both weak.

[Lucinda]

19. Good point! I'm not feeling the whole "Noble Noodle" thing either.

And I hadn't even considered the pot's real role in all this.

[hippywife]

20. ...

:rofl: This is really getting pretty funny. :rofl:

[Lucinda]

21. This is serious business missy! Stop that laughing.

:eyes:
Who KNOWS what your pots and pans are plotting behind your back.

[troubleinwinter]

15. I have now changed my outlook on this subject.

I now am realizing that it may not be mere happenstance that one or two may land on the floor, stovetop or stick to the pan, but a deliberate act of defiance. From now on, I will utterly ignore the defiant ones. If they want to avoid their one and only chance to be APPRECIATED, then I shall NOT appreciate them.

[Lorax]

14. From one pot to another

I consider escapees at any point in the process to be volunteers for the compost pile. They just get scooped into the scrap pot that goes to the compost pile after dinner. That way it's not really wasteful, as they are providing nutrition for the next batch of food I'm growing.

[Phentex]

22. ah ha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX07j9SDFcc

[hippywife]

16. Now see...

this is why it's so much fun to have Tab around. He always comes up with the quirky little angles on things. ;)

[Phentex]

17. I provide no mercy to the cooked pastina...

those little ones get no sympathy from me and I'm not about to let them clog the drain or make the pot feel inferior. They get scraped with a wooden spoon!

Pre-cooked kamikazes on on their own. I won't put my fingers near an open flame and I won't risk slipping a disc in my back to get them off the floor. That's why I have dogs. :)

[Duer 157099]

23. Hehe, I was going to say the same thing about my dog

My dog is the eventual arbiter of the fate of escaped foodstuffs.

Is that why dog spelled backwards is... oh never mind