How to Use Pasta for Glue

If you were one of those kids who loved to eat paste while in school, chances are that it was made out of pasta. In fact, the very word "paste" is derived from "pasta," since wheat-based noodles have been cooked, mashed up and used for glue or adhesive for thousands of years.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Pasta
• Flour
• Water
• Pot for boiling
• Oil
• Potato masher
• Air-tight container
• Sweetened condensed milk

1. Use pasta for glue by boiling it in a pot of water. You will want to cook the pasta for a slightly longer period of time than usual in order to make it softer and easier to mash up. Wait until the pasta starts to lose its color while it is boiling in the water, and then it should be ready to mash into paste.
2. Remove the cooked pasta from the pot and place it in a bowl. You will want to drain most of the water from the pasta, but leave just enough to give your glue the right consistency. The amount of water you leave in the pot will depend upon the type of pasta that you use.
3. Mash the pasta into glue using a potato masher or similar utensil. Mix the pasta up until it becomes creamy in consistency and starts to resemble paste. You can add warm water if the paste becomes too thick, or flour if the paste becomes too thin.
4. Add a little cooking oil to the paste before you use it as glue. This will improve the adhesive qualities of your pasta glue, and also prevent mold or mildew from forming in the mixture over time. Just add a few drops of oil for every qt. or so of pasta glue.
5. Store your glue in an air-tight container, such as Tupperware, to keep it moist. Note that your pasta glue will probably dry out within a day or two, so you should use it as quickly as possible for best results. Besides, it's relatively easy to make more paste from pasta as you need it, so don't worry about disposing of old, dried-out paste.

Tips & Warnings

• Glue made from pasta is commonly used to hang posters in public areas. The posters can then be easily removed by washing the surfaces with hot soap and water, reconstituting the paste.
• Sweetened condensed milk can be added to paste to improve the adhesive qualities. Condensed milk on its own also makes an excellent homemade paste.

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