Genius TikTok hack shows how to stop pasta water from boiling over

Sick of mess when cooking pasta?

Eleanor Katelaris

2 min read

November 9, 2022 - 9:23AM

You can always rely on TikTok to teach you a hack you never knew you needed.

This mum's viral video promises to seriously level up your pasta game, but of course, it's been met with plenty of varied responses.

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The woman insists this is the best way to avoid pasta water making a mess. Image: TikTok / @sarahhaulbrook

Mum's hack stops kitchen messes

Sarah Aulbrook (@sarahaulbrrok) posted the video this week and started by saying, "So, random tip I was told and has saved me so many messes...

"Take olive oil, put it on this brush and just brush it around the top of a pot when you're boiling pasta or anything like that."

In the clip, Sarah takes a silicone brush used for brushing oil and brushes it around the top of the pan, above the water level.

She continues, "The water won't boil over that olive oil line."

"You're welcome."

She brushes olive oil on the top of the pan. Image: TikTok / @sarahhaulbrook

"Just put a wooden spoon across the pot."

Her clip has been viewed 294.5k times and has 14.7k likes. But as with any cooking hack, it's been met with plenty of criticism.

A lot of people insisted they know better and that you should just stick to the more common methods.

"Or just turn it down and stir it???" one user commented, to which Sarah replied, "Thing is the kids always seem to need something while making dinner and I do walk away from the stove. ðŸ¤·‍â™€ï¸"

"Just put a wooden spoon across the pot. It won't overflow," another shared.

Sarah responded to that comment by saying, "Lies haha, I've had so many messes from that one."

Many users agreed that a better method would be to "add the oil to the pot" as it's "so much simpler."

Another suggested that using spray oil would be easier as well.

"Just use a bigger pot or less water," someone else chimed in.

One person insisted she should "show the boiling water, side by side, same temp, using a wooden spoon vs. olive oil method" and WHY do people put such labour on other people when they could just test it themselves?!

Just me?