Why do we do the things we do?

Well, you probably know the story about the woman who always cut a slab off one end of a pot roast before putting it in the roaster. When asked why, she said that’s how her mother always did it. Intrigued, she called her mother and asked her why she always cut some of the meat off the roast. “That’s the way my mother always did it,” she replied.

They called Grandma and asked, “Why do you always cut a chunk off a roast before baking it?” to which Granny replied, “Because I never had a pan big enough.”

One thing my mother always did was break spaghetti in half before putting it into the boiling water, but I know why she did that – she didn’t have a pot big enough. She always used a Mirro four-quart aluminum pot for pasta, and she always broke the long strands in half so they would fit better.

I’m still using that same pot, which is at least as old as I am (i.e., 70), and I have been breaking the long pasta in half my whole cooking life.

Until now. Mueller’s has started packaging “Pot-Sized” spaghetti, linguini, and angel hair (my personal favorite) already broken into what you might call half sizes.

There must be more people out there than I ever realized who are using four-quart pots for boiling s'getti.