Neutron scattering explains why gluten-free pasta falls apart (2025)

hckrnws

Neutron scattering explains why gluten-free pasta falls apart (2025)

(phys.org)

by layer8

bokkies
1220h
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.
1. mapt
  018h
  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.
2. DuncanCoffee
  515h
  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 ;(
  1. fao_
    013h
    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.
3. agoose77
  218h
  Yeah, the Rummo Gluten Free pasta is just on another level in the UK vs the own-brand stuff. Thank goodness!
  1. GordonS
    018h
    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.
4. avree
  011h
  The very article you're commenting on says "gluten free" pasta (or at least the one type of Barilla spaghetti they tested) becomes the "real deal" when boiled with salt, which you should be doing anyways.
5. Avshalom
  017h
  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.
jakzurr
214h
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!
1. cubefox
  011h
  The word "explains" is ambiguous. Compare:
  Jack's girlfriend explains why the sky is blue.
  Rayleigh scattering explains why the sky is blue.
  "Rayleigh scattering explains the blueness of the sky", Jack's girlfriend explains.
code_duck
017h
"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.
hunterpayne
022h
This might be the most Italian thing I have ever read.
MiracleRabbit
019h
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.
gcanyon
09h
HA! I thought this headline meant that neutron scattering was the underlying cause of gluten-free pasta falling apart, rather than the tool used to understand the issue.
fnordpiglet
1123h
God bless science
1. analog31
  923h
  God bless gluten. ;-)
throw567643u8
221h
> Greg Smith from ISIS as well as collaborators
Didn't know ISIS gave a hoot about gluten free.
1. dav_Oz
  112h
  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
  > The name ISIS is not an acronym: it refers to the Ancient Egyptian goddess and the local name for the River Thames. The name was selected for the official opening of the facility in 1985, prior to this it was known as the SNS, or Spallation Neutron Source. The name was considered appropriate as Isis was a goddess who could restore life to the dead, and ISIS made use of equipment previously constructed for the Nimrod and Nina accelerators.[0]
  [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISIS_neutron_source
virtualritz
016h
"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...
cubefox
016h
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.
SV_BubbleTime
022h
> 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.
throw310822
019h
There's a reason it's called gluten.
From Middle French gluten, borrowed from Latin glūten (“glue”).
Traubenfuchs
520h
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.
1. tigermafia
  019h
  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.