In
cooking
Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science and craft of using heat to Outline of food preparation, prepare food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric ...
, al dente () describes
pasta
Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Rice flour, or legumes such as beans or lentils, are som ...
or
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
that is cooked to be firm to the bite.
The etymology is
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
"to the tooth".
In contemporary Italian cooking, the term identifies the ideal consistency for pasta and involves a brief cooking time.
''Molto al dente'' is the culinary term for slightly undercooked pasta.
Undercooking pasta is used in the first round of cooking when a pasta dish is going to be cooked twice.
According to the
American Diabetes Association
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is a United States-based nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about diabetes and to help those affected by it through funding research to manage, cure and prevent diabetes (including type 1 diabetes, ...
, pasta that is cooked ''al dente'' has a lower
glycemic index
The glycemic (glycaemic) index (GI; ) is a number from 0 to 100 assigned to a food, with pure glucose arbitrarily given the value of 100, which represents the relative rise in the blood glucose level two hours after consuming that food. The GI of ...
than pasta that is cooked soft.
When cooking commercial pasta, the ''al dente'' phase occurs right after the white of the pasta center disappears.
See also
*
Food science
Food science is the basic science and applied science of food; its scope starts at overlap with agricultural science and nutritional science and leads through the scientific aspects of food safety and food processing, informing the developm ...
*
Molecular gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy is the scientific approach of nutrition from primarily the perspective of chemistry. The composition (molecular structure), properties (mass, viscosity, etc) and transformations (chemical reactions, reactant products) of an ...
*
Culinary art
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Al Dente
Cooking
Pasta
Italian cuisine