# What's the opposite of the term al dente



## perfection (Aug 18, 2007)

I know what is 'al dente' - but i do not recall the culinary term (italian or otherwise) to describe a pasta cooked mushy or soft (deliberately or accidently). In other words i want to know the term that could describe and mean the opposite of al dente - i am sure there is one

Any help ?


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## nowiamone (Jan 23, 2005)

I know a term within my Italian family that has always been used but don't know if it has any real linguistic or culinary basis. 

Over the years, the one generation that came here as toddlers, or the ones born here soon after arrival, that were raised in the Italian speaking house developed what might one might call a "pigeon Italian" or terms and language that are half English, half Italian and what may be a smattering of Japanese-Filipino terms (from the farm workers) thrown in. Took me years to figure out that they had developed their own version of the Italian language as the neighborhood understood them for the most part! I don't even know how it would be spelled, but phonically "mush-shod" 

This is more than you ever needed to know and probably no help what so ever.


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## ma facon (Dec 16, 2004)

Al Dente = "To The Tooth" The opposite would be mush/overcooked/baby food, Because they don't have teeth yet.


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## gonefishin (Nov 6, 2004)

How about...

alla gomma = "to the gum"



dan


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## perfection (Aug 18, 2007)

So there isn't really an fficial term to describe this eh? 

Any Italian chefs on this forum ?


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## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

rofl Dan - pretty much what I was thinking.

I've not heard a term for it - maybe "pap"? (as in baby food)

Why would one want to cook it that way anyway? My family call it - "Mum, this pasta is horrible!" if I leave it too long.


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Hi everyone, 
the term for overcooked pasta is "scotta" - which means overcooked. (The word when used as a verb means very hot, but as an adjective it means overcooked.) If an italian were to eat overcooked pasta he would say "la pasta e' scotta"


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

NowIamone,
Mushad is correct for the Italian-American slang. Mushy, slouchy,wrinkled. It can also be used to comment on someones personality or dress.


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## abefroman (Mar 12, 2005)

It goes
al dente 
regular
well done

I read that on the back of a package once


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## abefroman (Mar 12, 2005)

I wouldn't use the phrase in Greece 

lol


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## gonefishin (Nov 6, 2004)

Hi pan 


dan


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

oh, right. My greek friend had told me that once. But i hear greek pasta is usually "scotta" (in the italian sense)


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Hmm, if it;s "pasta" you're talking about, which is an italian word for flour and water alimentary paste (what a horrible term) - then what they call "well-done" is not *well* done at all, but badly done, because overdone. Ok, just being funny. I'm actually not a snob about how these things are cooked, and if the dish is supposed to have soft noodles, that's fine with me, but not italian pasta dishes.


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## blueschef (Jan 18, 2006)

hammered! Killed! Dead! Inedible!


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## bubbamom (Jan 30, 2002)

how about "al-mushy" :roll:


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## raystaar (Sep 9, 2014)

I think al dente translates literally as 'to the tooth,' or toothsome. This is probably not the correct answer, if indeed there is one, but when pasta was overcooked, my grandmother used to say it was 'per le gengive,' meaning you could chew it with your gums, a thing she regarded as an unspeakable sin. Hope that helps.


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## ordo (Mar 19, 2009)

Where's Siduri?


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## dcarch (Jun 28, 2010)

You are assuming the opposit of al dente is bad.

There are people who enjoy less chewy pasta. They consider al dente bad, as in uncooked.

dcarch


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

My wife's dad loves his pasta mushy.  Of course he has no teeth.


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## ordo (Mar 19, 2009)

You may overcook some Asian pasta dishes, but no Italian pasta or Soba to give an example. It's said that _pasta al dente_ helps a better digestion. Also:

Scotta. Molto cotta. Troppo cotta. Ben cotta.

And a lot of dialectal terms.


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

I'm not so sure that a lot of chefs really know what al dente is. I'm also not crazy about the use of chewy. Lately I've been served pasta called al dente and the core was not cooked through. I understand the tooth thing but you should not have to bite through the core. course this is less of a problem with fresh pasta.


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## earl33 (Sep 29, 2014)

I heard a few different ones from my Italian relatives 'pane polpa' bread pulp or 'pasta polpa' pasta pulp and a pig-Italian 'mush-alid' mush-a-leed.

I like 'pasta polpa' pasta pulp, since this one has a double meaning. 'Pasta' is used as  the word for wood-pulp/cellulose pulp in the paper industry so you are comparing over cooked pasta to unappetizing chemically digested cellulose.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

dcarch said:


> You are assuming the opposit of al dente is bad.
> 
> There are people who enjoy less chewy pasta. They consider al dente bad, as in uncooked.
> 
> dcarch


The Chinese for example prefer a slippery softer noodle generally.


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## spoiledbroth (Sep 25, 2014)

In my mind it goes al dente -> overcooked!


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## earl33 (Sep 29, 2014)

Of course the other generally accepted word for over cooked pasta is 'un'*abominazione'.*


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

@Earl33, not so sure about that word although probably right and proper. I can remember the old man sending back his pasta telling the waiter it was musciad. He did this with vegetables and mushrooms and pizza. Probably slang.


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## earl33 (Sep 29, 2014)

Since my family was from Naples and came over on the boat in 1910 no one pre-WWII from the rest of Italy had a similar dialect so that may have been more widely used.  Looking online it seems so.


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## ordo (Mar 19, 2009)

BTW: if you overcooked your pasta and entered the realm of abomination, here's a tip: put them in iced water like in soba noodles. Of course that will no make a pasta scotta al dente, but works.





  








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Sep 30, 2014


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## spoiledbroth (Sep 25, 2014)

Generally I'd rather eat overcooked noodles that are capable of soaking up sauce (ie. having not been washed) than slightly less overcooked noodles which don't (because you've rinsed the starch off!)


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## search1110 (Oct 30, 2014)

People need such kind of a term, 'cause there is something else in the world's cuisine other  than PASTA, dumb!


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## search1110 (Oct 30, 2014)

DC Sunshine said:


> Why would one want to cook it that way anyway? My family call it - "Mum, this pasta is horrible!" if I leave it too long.


People need such kind of a term, 'cause there is something else in the world's cuisine other than PASTA, dumb!


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