Thermophobia
by Alireza Abbasy ︎︎︎Strands of spaghetti sometimes stick to each other after you throw them in boiling water.
Several spaghettos (yes, that is the term for a single strand of spaghetti) sticking together hard as if by glue is a common scene for lovers of the Italian phenomenon. But why does that happen?
The water is not sufficient, or the water is not hot enough, are the main answers you hear to the question. But those are nonsense.
They stick together because they are really scared. I mean, put yourself in their shoes. They are being thrown in boiling hot water. It is only natural to feel fear, if not terror. It is indeed an act of terror, throwing beings into boiling water, including strands of spaghetti and noodles. So the hotter the water, the more fear, and therefore more sticking together, in contrast to the commonly-believed fallacy that if spaghettos stick together, the water is not hot enough.
A reason for such faulty reasoning is that you can never do an objective experiment with neutral conditions. Spaghetti strands, like anything else, comprise a whole spectrum in terms of courage, in particular in relation to hot water. There are courageous ones who don't know fear, regardless of how dangerous the situation, aka how hot the water. And there are ones who, let's not say are cowards, but who have a phobia of hot water, aka the sticky ones. When thrown in hot water, trembling in terror, they just stick to each other, as hard as they can.
Now, you never know which type you are going to get in any given package of spaghetti. You might have a purely courageous package, in which case, no matter how hot the water, you would get no sticky spaghettos. And you might have a mixed package, in which case, you will have some sticky ones, as illustrated in the figure below.
In any case, you can never know beforehand. You have to throw them in water and see. Only then, you will realize which ones are courageous and which ones are thermophobic.
It has nothing to do with your cooking skills.
