Thread by @andreamatranga

Two things can simultaneously be true. Most carbonaras that are made would improve with the addition of cream. And yet its addition is always a mistake.

To pull off correctly, the carbonara requires achieving a number of rather difficult goals. A creamy sauce requires a the egg to achieve a temperature above 60 C but below 80 C. The pecorino will have its own temperature ranges depending on how aged it is. You need a specific...

... range of cooking water, with a specific range of starch in it, otherwise the emulsion won't form correctly. The fat from the guanciale and the pecorino must be in specific proportions to have the right melting point.

And this is just to get the rough chemistry within parameters. Then the choice of egg, pork product and cheese have to have compatible flavor products, and the pasta must be seasoned based on the other ingredients. It's a pretty fine balance.

Now if you grew up eating correctly executed carbonara very often, you know exactly what it should taste like, you heard your parents arguing that time that your dad brought home the wrong pecorino, you did your dumb mistakes when you went to study in Milan and started cooking.

But broadly speaking you have settled on a shipping list and a sequence if steps that provides reasonable outcomes. Even with a detailed recipe, without knowing what it should feel like, its very hard to get it right.

And even if you do know how to get close, if you don't have access to Pecorino Romano, or the Guanciale, or you're cooking while parenting, it's easy to screw up. Now since the objective is achieve a creamy sauce, it's perfectly reasonable to add cream.

Milkfat is in the flavor profile anyway because pecorino. And in many, perhaps most cases, adding cream will improve the result.

So why is it a mistake? Because the point of Italian cooking is to introduce the diner to characterful ingredients. The eggs from the free range chickens. The pecorino from sheep that graze on a specific mountain. The guanciale, etc.

So if you add cream, made in some centrifugal separator from the refined, mixed milk of every cow in three states, you are achieving the desired textural outcomes, but at the expense of diluting the flavors of your star ingredients.

A carbonara with cream is not a mistake, but it's a missed appointment with immortal greatness. If all you have are industrial ingredients, go right ahead.

Otherwise it's like casting Pesci and De Niro, and covering their faces in CGI. But enough about Scorsese.

This also highlights the reason to use Pecorino Romano and Guanciale from Lazio. It's already hard enough to get the chemistry within parameters. The other ingredients need to be well matched. You can trust the Roman market to ensure any Pecorino that doesn't work well with...

... the average Guanciale to be taken off the shelves, and vice versa. But note that many exported Pecorino Romanos are overaged to prolong shelf life, and thus to hard/salty. In that case you're better off with a local sheep's cheese, aged around a year.

Fun fact. I did my visiting at Brown, at the same time as @fcinnio, and we ended up having rooms in the same house. I had met him st Clio and we did the two Italians meeting abroad thing, but it's not like we knew each other well.

Of course Francesco is from Rome. When he arrived at the house we sat down in the kitchen and i think the first question I asked:
"Francesco. Ma secondo te. Nella carbonara..."
" 'un ce va"

Translation:
"Francesco. But in your opinion. In the Carbonara.."
"You shouldn't put it in.