Phase behavior of Cacio and Pepe sauce

• Published in 2024
• Added on 2025-01-07

"Pasta alla Cacio e pepe" is a traditional Italian dish made with pasta, pecorino cheese, and pepper. Despite its simple ingredient list, achieving the perfect texture and creaminess of the sauce can be challenging. In this study, we systematically explore the phase behavior of Cacio and pepe sauce, focusing on its stability at increasing temperatures for various proportions of cheese, water, and starch. We identify starch concentration as the key factor influencing sauce stability, with direct implications for practical cooking. Specifically, we delineate a regime where starch concentrations below 1% (relative to cheese mass) lead to the formation of system-wide clumps, a condition determining what we term the "Mozzarella Phase" and corresponding to an unpleasant and separated sauce. Additionally, we examine the impact of cheese concentration relative to water at a fixed starch level, observing a lower critical solution temperature that we theoretically rationalized by means of a minimal effective free-energy model. Finally, we present a scientifically optimized recipe based on our findings, enabling a consistently flawless execution of this classic dish.

Links

• http://arxiv.org/abs/2501.00536v2
• http://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.00536v2

Other information

BibTeX entry

@article{PhasebehaviorofCacioandPepesauce,
	key = {PhasebehaviorofCacioandPepesauce},
	type = {article},
	title = {Phase behavior of Cacio and Pepe sauce},
	author = {Giacomo Bartolucci and Daniel Maria Busiello and Matteo Ciarchi and Alberto Corticelli and Ivan Di Terlizzi and Fabrizio Olmeda and Davide Revignas and Vincenzo Maria Schimmenti},
	abstract = {"Pasta alla Cacio e pepe" is a traditional Italian dish made with pasta,
pecorino cheese, and pepper. Despite its simple ingredient list, achieving the
perfect texture and creaminess of the sauce can be challenging. In this study,
we systematically explore the phase behavior of Cacio and pepe sauce, focusing
on its stability at increasing temperatures for various proportions of cheese,
water, and starch. We identify starch concentration as the key factor
influencing sauce stability, with direct implications for practical cooking.
Specifically, we delineate a regime where starch concentrations below 1{\%}
(relative to cheese mass) lead to the formation of system-wide clumps, a
condition determining what we term the "Mozzarella Phase" and corresponding to
an unpleasant and separated sauce. Additionally, we examine the impact of
cheese concentration relative to water at a fixed starch level, observing a
lower critical solution temperature that we theoretically rationalized by means
of a minimal effective free-energy model. Finally, we present a scientifically
optimized recipe based on our findings, enabling a consistently flawless
execution of this classic dish.},
	comment = {},
	date_added = {2025-01-07},
	date_published = {2024-01-07},
	urls = {http://arxiv.org/abs/2501.00536v2,http://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.00536v2},
	collections = {basically-physics,food},
	url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/2501.00536v2 http://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.00536v2},
	year = 2024,
	urldate = {2025-01-07},
	archivePrefix = {arXiv},
	eprint = {2501.00536},
	primaryClass = {cond-mat.soft}
}