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Al dente

 

 
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Al dente
 
 
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In cooking
Cooking

Cooking is the process of preparing food by applying heat, selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food....
, the adjective al dente describes pasta
Pasta

Pasta is a generic term for Italian cuisine variants of noodles, food made from a dough of flour, water and/or Egg , that is Boiling. The word can also denote dishes in which pasta products are the primary ingredient, served with sauce or seasonings....
 and (less commonly) rice
Rice

Rice is a staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in tropical Latin America, and East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, making it the second-most consumed cereal grain, after maize....
 that has been cooked so as to be firm but not hard. "Al dente" also describes vegetable
Vegetable

The term "vegetable" generally means the Eating parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however, and therefore the usage of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation....
s that are cooked to the "tender crisp" phase - still offering resistance to the bite, but cooked through. It is often considered to be the ideal form of cooked pasta. Keeping the pasta firm is especially important in baked or "al forno
Al forno

In cooking, al forno is an Italy phrase describing food that is "at/from the oven". Baked pizza, breads and pasta dishes are often part of this genre....
" pasta dishes. The term comes from Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 and means "to the tooth
Tooth

Teeth are small whitish structures found in the jaws of many vertebrates that are used to tear, scrape, and chew food. Some animals, particularly carnivores, also use teeth for hunting or defense....
" or "to the bite
Bite

A bite is a wound received from the mouth of an animal, including humans. Animals may bite in self-defense, in an attempt to predate food, as well as part of normal interactions....
", referring to the need to chew the pasta due to its firmness.






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Encyclopedia


In cooking
Cooking

Cooking is the process of preparing food by applying heat, selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food....
, the adjective al dente describes pasta
Pasta

Pasta is a generic term for Italian cuisine variants of noodles, food made from a dough of flour, water and/or Egg , that is Boiling. The word can also denote dishes in which pasta products are the primary ingredient, served with sauce or seasonings....
 and (less commonly) rice
Rice

Rice is a staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in tropical Latin America, and East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, making it the second-most consumed cereal grain, after maize....
 that has been cooked so as to be firm but not hard. "Al dente" also describes vegetable
Vegetable

The term "vegetable" generally means the Eating parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however, and therefore the usage of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation....
s that are cooked to the "tender crisp" phase - still offering resistance to the bite, but cooked through. It is often considered to be the ideal form of cooked pasta. Keeping the pasta firm is especially important in baked or "al forno
Al forno

In cooking, al forno is an Italy phrase describing food that is "at/from the oven". Baked pizza, breads and pasta dishes are often part of this genre....
" pasta dishes. The term comes from Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 and means "to the tooth
Tooth

Teeth are small whitish structures found in the jaws of many vertebrates that are used to tear, scrape, and chew food. Some animals, particularly carnivores, also use teeth for hunting or defense....
" or "to the bite
Bite

A bite is a wound received from the mouth of an animal, including humans. Animals may bite in self-defense, in an attempt to predate food, as well as part of normal interactions....
", referring to the need to chew the pasta due to its firmness. The term is also very commonly used as a name for Italian restaurants around the world.

Cooking pasta to the "al dente" stage without over-cooking requires a certain amount of practice and skill, since both have a relatively brief midway stage between the under-cooked phase, where rice or dried pasta stays hard in the middle and where fresh pasta tastes "floury", and the over-cooked phase, where the dish lacks texture and is considered too soft. Using plenty of salt helps achieve the "al dente" texture.

Misconceptions of "al dente"


Perhaps the most common misconception about the term is the idea that "to the tooth" means the item should stick to the teeth. If pasta sticks to the teeth when it is being chewed, it is widely considered undercooked.

The term is also occasionally used in reference to cooking vegetables, such as green beans, though this is often misunderstood as meaning that instead of being cooked all the way through, they still have a raw taste to them, generally undesirable in cooking. It should be interpreted as cooking them just until they lose their raw taste, as a way to avoid overcooking them.