Neutron scattering explains why gluten-free pasta falls apart (2025)
phys.org85 points by layer8 3 days ago
85 points by layer8 3 days ago
There are some corn/rice pastas that are pretty close to the real deal. Sure a seasoned pasta officianado could tell the difference, but we have gluten intolerant in the house so predominantly eat gluten free pastas. Never had a visitor or kids friends complaining (and kids will complain about anything). Happily chow down. There are also some pretty good grain free varieties made from tapioca and egg, we get lasagne sheets that are approved of by the only real Italian I known, they maintain the chewy/rubbery texture of lasagne well.
You don't need the wheat protein 'gluten' to make pasta at all.
You do need some kind of protein. Carbohydrate hydration is a reversible process whose other endpoint is a solution, while (most) protein coagulation is a non-reversible polymerization process that creates an insoluble matrix. The less protein is available, the easier it is to "overcook" pasta into goop and then a starchy beverage. You see it in cooking the two common varieties of 'normal pasta' already - egg durum wheat pasta has more protein than pure durum wheat pasta, and is much harder to overcook.
Pasta is the only thing I don't miss.
I recently found some pasta made with 100% red lentils, rice or peas, which is really good, I can gladly offer it to people.
They cost a premium but the state gives us around 100€ a month to spend, and I don't eat that much gluten free stuff. Pizza on the other hand makes me sad ;(
Gluten-free cooking has come a long way since I was a five year old with celiac eating bread with the texture of cardboard! For pizza check out the America's Test Kitchen's recipe, which apparently gets pretty close (however it might be off, I've never had wheat pizza! haha):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh50Cht9tUc
https://www.reddit.com/r/glutenfree/comments/81pvql/the_best...
There's also this guy's recipe which is apparently pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZH-GUFBrz0
Personally I do a 'lazy pizza' which is just a really basic primitive bread (like how people would have made bread before yeast):
The original recipe was:
- 8oz doves farm self raising flour (or any celiac self raising flour. but doves is the og and the best IMHO)
- 1 large or medium egg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- cold water to mix (alternatively: a cup and a bit of water with 1tsp chia seeds in it, you want them in the water for about 10 - 20 minutes with regular (regular!) stirring. stirring every time they kinda coalesce at the bottom. it should look like frogs spawn by the time you're through.)
Oil pan well, put soft dough in (you want it like. soft enough that it starts to spread just a little. but not so wet that it's spreading a lot. you do NOT want it as dry as a normal non-celiac bread because there is no gluten to hold on to the water). flatten with oily silicon brush, then top. cook at 180°C for 20 minutes or so. You might want to cook it a little before topping if your toppings are cooked already. And honestly, I just eyeball the cooking time based on how it behaves.
The chia seeds help make it a little chewy, which apparently is part of how pizza dough usually reacts, as well as pulling and stabilising any moisture so it doesn't get soggy.
Mod Pizza does or did offer a Gluten free crust made from cauliflower. Had a distinctive taste to it, it tasted good.
Yeah, the Rummo Gluten Free pasta is just on another level in the UK vs the own-brand stuff. Thank goodness!
Rummo is pretty good, but you have to cook it just right - a minute either side, and it's either grainy or falls apart as a soggy mess.
Still, gluten-free pasta has come a long way.
I think the Tesco own-brand pasta is good right now, also think that Barilla used to be better a few years ago.
I buy Jovial which is a just straight brown rice flour and as long as you cook it right (which in Albuquerque is a problem with wheat pasta too) it's great.
OK, fun article. But holy smokes, when I first read the title, I thought it was saying, "GF pasta falls apart because of neutron scattering." Whew!
Reminds me a bit of the research dept of the company I'm working for.
If they have too much free time they put much weirdo stuff into their devices just to see what.. happens.
They have a spectacular collection of crystals scanned.
This might be the most Italian thing I have ever read.
"Gluten free pasta" is not an adequate description. It's defining a food product by what it is not made out of. I assume they mean chickpea, or one of the kinds that's a blend with quinoa, because corn or brown rice pasta is actually much more resilient than gluten pasta. You can cook the rice pasta far overtime and it does not fall apart. Chickpea pasta disintegrates, though. Anyway, not to distract from the real topic.
God bless science
God bless gluten. ;-)
I and two of my three kids have coeliac(0), so we may have to disagree on that!
Can confirm that various GF alternatives really don't come close to the originals. Without the gluten things seem to be too "biscuity"...
0) Third child positive for "predisposition to coeliac" on a genetic test, but no symptoms and an endoscopy was negative too. Let's see.
gotta try the combo VEGAN + CELIAC hehehe
i literally gave up from Brazilian industrialized/processed food a long time ago :D
where’s the extra-gluten pasta?
the rise of the gluten-phobes is unchecked and I feel the rest of us are getting hosed.
The headline is ambiguous and misleading. The reason that different types of pasta have different structural integrity is not that they scatter neutrons differently.
Neutron scattering was merely the tool with which they investigated the different molecular structures, which ultimately explain the differences in stability.
"Materials
Two types of spaghetti (regular No. 5 and gluten-free) produced by the Barilla company (Italy) were purchased in a supermarket."
Are you kidding me? You did a study and tested /one/ kind of gluten-free pasta?
There are so many different kinds from different companies. One type from Barilla is nowhere near representative to draw a useful conclusion.
Especially as unlike many other gluten-free pasta products it lacks an important binding agent.[1]
As someone with a gluten-allergic partner I regularly make pancakes and bake bread with (Italian!) rice-based flour.
And they are difficult to distinguish from the flour based ones, in taste, texture, fluffiness and and structural integrity.
The secret to this is xantham gum. It acts as a binding agent in gluten-free baking, providing the elasticity and stickiness that gluten typically offers. It helps to hold ingredients together and improve the texture.
I learned this when eating excellent gluten-free pinza, in a small place in Catania, Sicily, whose owner has celiac disease.
Ah yes, as far as pasta goes there is also research about this ofc[2]
[1] https://www.barilla.com/en-us/products/pasta/gluten-free/glu...
[2] "Incorporation of xanthan gum to gluten-free pasta with cassava starch. Physical, textural and sensory attributes"
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00236...
> Greg Smith from ISIS as well as collaborators
Didn't know ISIS gave a hoot about gluten free.
It is unfortunate that at some point in midst of numerous renaming itself after a brief stint in mass media around 2014 the programming on both side was so successful that the latin string of "isis" to this day is basically reduced in many westerners minds as a pavlovian reflex to this meaning, ironic because most arabs in egypt and elsewhere lack the association
so kudos to the article/institute, leaving as it is
great band btw
> cooked in D20
Of all the options for heavy water, deuterium oxide, 2H2O, D2O… the latter is my least favorite because every time my inclination is to try and think of what element D is on the periodic table.
There's a reason it's called gluten.
From Middle French gluten, borrowed from Latin glūten (“glue”).
Gluten free pasta is the same kind of oxymoron as lactose free cow milk. Might look the same at first glance but absolutely fails at replicating the most important property: taste. And here we have scientists proving it‘s worse in other aspects as well.
Not true. There is brilliant gluten free pasta out there which tastes very good and most importantly holds sauces well - which is one of the most important properties of pasta. I assume you just have never attempted to substitute properly before making bold claims. Or your cooking is lacking so I lean towards ignorance + skill issue.
Removing lactose from things is largely solved at this point. If you’re experiencing an unfortunate taste you should try a different brand; the Lactaid brand (which is what everyone seems to know of) isn’t great.
I'm no expert, but aldi's cheap lactose free milk tastes the same as milk to me.
Meh, I disagree.
I get my GF pasta from a local italian food importer. the quality of the pasta is out of this world. i've done blind tasting tests with said importer and he couldn't tell the difference between GF and non GF.
there are crappy brands out there for sure and definitely some GF products are bad. some aren't.