Carbonara
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NN-SC · carbonara
Study
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Carbonara
Roman carbonara with a sauce of egg yolk, cheese, pork fat and pasta water. Four yolks dress 280 g of pasta for four people. The cheese is only 50 g, so the sauce tastes of yolk more than of cheese. The pepper is high at 20 g.
Mechanisms
twoM1
A sauce led by yolk yolk sets 65 °C → 70 °C pan off the heat
Four yolks are about 70 g. The cheese is 50 g. Most carbonara uses more cheese for each yolk, so this sauce is looser and tastes more of yolk.
The yolk phospholipids, mainly lecithin, hold the pork fat and the pasta water together as an emulsion. The yolk proteins start to set near 65 °C. Above about 70 °C they join into grains and the sauce becomes scrambled egg.
Take the pan off the heat before the paste goes in. The pasta and the fat are hot enough to thicken the sauce without the burner.
M2
Starch and casein protect the yolk starchy pasta water added in 15 ml steps
Amylose from the pasta water and casein from the cheese sit between the yolk proteins. They slow the proteins from joining, so the sauce can take a few degrees more before it goes grainy.
This recipe has little cheese, so the pasta water does more of this work. Spaghettoni is thicker than spaghetti and gives off more starch into the water.
Add the water in small amounts. Too much water drops the temperature and the sauce stays thin.
The method
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