Do you wash/rinse your rice?

[crp]

and when you answer please provide culinary cultural background.

 

[abarbarian]

Off course I do. I also rinse all my vegetables. I was brought up and learnt my culinary skills and hygiene practices in Yorkshire.

[sunrat]

3 hours ago, abarbarian said:

Off course I do.

What do you do on course?

Sorry for picking on your typo.

 

I sometimes rinse rice but not usually. I get beautiful Basmati rice from our local market to have with home made Indian style curry. You're all invited for dinner whenever you can make it. My friends love my curry.
I actually did sciencing on this recently; washing or not before cooking, didn't notice any difference. I've read it's supposed to reduce starchiness or something.

I do wash vegetables though.

Presumably you are asking about pre-washing? I use a rice cooker so it's perfectly cooked so no rinsing after cooking either.

[zlim]

I'm an American housewife with no special cooking skills. I took a Chinese cooking class at night school decades ago.

When I make bacon fried rice, like the recipe in the cookbook authored by my class teacher, a Chinese woman, I wash and scrub the rice rubbing it together between my hands, three times. I empty the water and use fresh water each time as she demonstrated. This is so the rice doesn't stick together as much. After three scrubbings and rubbings, I measure out the proper amount of water for the amount of rice, put a lid on the pot and cook for 15 minutes.

 

For other recipes, when I use partially cooked minute rice which cooks in 5 minutes. I don't rinse nor scrub that.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Nope. I do not wash/rinse my rice. Cultural background: Anglo-American (South) and Spanish (Northwestern Spain).

[Bookmem]

I grew up in south Louisiana with Cajun and Creole cooking.  I wouldn't dream of washing the flavor from rice.  In fact, I prefer "dirty rice".  LOL  One of my favorite ways to cook rice is to strain the water used to boil crab, crayfish or shrimp, and cook the rice in that.

Edited July 14, 2021 by Bookmem

[Pete!]

IMHO - Bring the water to a rolling boil before you add the rice. It won't "stick".

Reheated left overs may get sticky.

[saturnian]

Thanks for starting this thread, crp. I haven't been rinsing my rice, but I always rinse quinoa (the cooking instructions say to do so). Looking into all this, I see that rinsing/washing is recommended for some rice varieties, and not for others. Something like "Indian Basmati", I guess you're supposed to rinse it and soak it. Very interesting stuff online on this topic. I'm gonna start rinsing my rice when it seems appropriate.

 

I like trying out different varieties.

 

And, rice cookers, FTW!! I think maybe it's about time for me to get a new one -- mine is getting kinda old.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Rice cooker? Heh! Here's my rice cooker... it's called a "pot":

 

 

 

[saturnian]

And, nothing at all wrong with that! For me, buying a rice cooker (maybe 15 years ago?) was somewhat of a game-changer, because I started having rice a lot more often after that. Now, is the end result better or worse than rice cooked in a pot? I have no idea. Seems like it has made things a lot easier for me, though.

 

Funny thing about it, I have a rice cooker but I don't own a microwave oven! Mine died a couple of years ago and I never replaced it. As it turns out, there's one thing I miss: those Stouffer's frozen mac and cheese things. It's comfort food that I probably shouldn't have been eating anyway!

 

Well, giving up the microwave and staying away from a lot of the more heavily processed foods I used to eat, I've trimmed down quite a bit over the last few years. Lol, used to also get those cups of rice that you add water to and pop into the microwave. For those, don't rinse the rice first!

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Heh! I was just being a smart-arse, @saturnian. Just like with computering... use what works best for you.

 

I've actually heard a lot of good things about rice cookers. I just never had a need for one. I don't do a lot of rice/pasta stuff because of the high carbs... not a good option for a diabetic. I stick mostly to meat, veggies, and salad these days. I might be a "naughty" boy occasionally and have a frozen pizza (heavily doctored up with extra cheeses and meat). :)

[ebrke]

I used to eat a lot of rice but have cut down over past 10 years or so after reading that it can have very high arsenic content. And I always use brown rice, keeping to my whole grains eating. Never had a rice cooker though.

[saturnian]

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/arsenic-in-rice

 

I'm doomed. Wow, trying to eat healthy. Seems like they get you one way or the other!

[Bookmem]

23 hours ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

Rice cooker? Heh! Here's my rice cooker... it's called a "pot":

 

 

 

I'm with you!  Cooking rice in a pot is so easy, that I just don't see the justification for spending money on a "rice cooker".  Just be sure to leave the lid on the pot!!  Even Bobby Flay was guilty of that mistake on one of his "battles" on TV.  Kept removing the lid to see if the rice was "done".  The half-hour show was over and his rice still wasn't "done".

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Arsenic in rice? Meh... little arsenic never hurt no one. ;)

[Bookmem]

IMHO, the first mistake most people make when cooking rice is boiling water.

[saturnian]

7 hours ago, Bookmem said:

I'm with you!  Cooking rice in a pot is so easy, that I just don't see the justification for spending money on a "rice cooker".  Just be sure to leave the lid on the pot!!  Even Bobby Flay was guilty of that mistake on one of his "battles" on TV.  Kept removing the lid to see if the rice was "done".  The half-hour show was over and his rice still wasn't "done".

 

Well, rice cookers are cheap. Mine was, anyway. And I don't have to remove the lid to check. I think it turned out to be a great investment. Or I thought so until I learned about the arsenic part!! Well, everything in moderation, I guess. Definitely burst my little bubble, though.

[Bookmem]

14 minutes ago, saturnian said:

 

Well, rice cookers are cheap. Mine was, anyway. And I don't have to remove the lid to check. I think it turned out to be a great investment. Or I thought so until I learned about the arsenic part!! Well, everything in moderation, I guess. Definitely burst my little bubble, though.

If you ate rice three times a day, you wouldn't ingest enough arsenic to harm you.  And cheap isn't the same as free and I just don't see ANY advantage over a plain old pot with a lid.  And, personally, I don't have room in my tiny kitchen for one more gadget. 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

1 hour ago, Bookmem said:

And, personally, I don't have room in my tiny kitchen for one more gadget. 

 

Yes. That's another point in favor of the regular ol' pot for me, for sure... not enough countertop space. :)

[Bookmem]

6 hours ago, Bookmem said:

IMHO, the first mistake most people make when cooking rice is boiling water.

I'm surprised no one bit on this.  Why don't I boil water when cooking rice? 'Cause I never cook rice in water.  I always use a stock or broth of one kind or another.

[abarbarian]

On 7/14/2021 at 12:44 PM, sunrat said:

What do you do on course?

 

Loose money usually. Though every now and again I have a long priced winner.

 

As to rice.

 

I was given a tip on how to cook rice by my Tai Chi master way back in the late eighties. It works and produces perfectly cooked rice.

 

One cup of rice to one and three-quarters cups of water in a pan. Bring to boiling point with the lid of the pan. Once boiling turn down heat and simmer for two or three minutes still with lid of the pan. Turn of the heat and place lid on pan. Leave for ten to fifteen minutes take lid of pan and serve.

You can rinse the rice or not as you please.

You can use stock instead of plain water and the method still works.

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by abarbarian

[Bookmem]

9 hours ago, abarbarian said:

 

Loose money usually. Though every now and again I have a long priced winner.

 

As to rice.

 

I was given a tip on how to cook rice by my Tai Chi master way back in the late eighties. It works and produces perfectly cooked rice.

 

One cup of rice to one and three-quarters cups of water in a pan. Bring to boiling point with the lid of the pan. Once boiling turn down heat and simmer for two or three minutes still with lid of the pan. Turn of the heat and place lid on pan. Leave for ten to fifteen minutes take lid of pan and serve.

You can rinse the rice or not as you please.

You can use stock instead of plain water and the method still works.

 

 

 

The method I learned from Gramma back the the 50s is even simpler.  Two to one liquid to rice.  Bring to rolling boil.  Place lid on pot and turn heat to minimum.  Let stand, without removing lid, for 20 minutes.  Works every time.

Edited July 18, 2021 by Bookmem

[V.T. Eric Layton]

1 hour ago, Bookmem said:

Two to one liquid to rice.  Bring to rolling boil.  Place lid on pot and turn heat to minimum.  Let stand, without removing lid, for 20 minutes.  Works every time.

 

That's basically my method taught to me by mommy when I was a wee lad.

[Bookmem]

1 hour ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

 

That's basically my method taught to me by mommy when I was a wee lad.

Yeah, I've watched many a chef try to tweak that method for decades.  And all they've succeeded in doing, IMO, is to complicate the process.  I guess if you complicate it enough, then an automated machine becomes viable.

[saturnian]

Sounds like I'm the only one here who has ever actually owned a rice cooker. Anyway, no big deal. I cooked in a few different restaurants over a couple of decades, and it wasn't until many years later that I picked up this rice cooker. Didn't need one for all those years, and probably would have said a lot of the things that have been said here about the idea. Lol -- including the comments about tiny kitchens and lack of counter space!

 

Then I finally got one. Glad I did. Hey, I can get along perfectly fine without a coffee maker, too, but I'm also glad I have one of those! (shrugs)

 

It does seem like a good idea to rinse the rice, in a lot of cases. We did it in the restaurants; not sure why I never got into the habit of doing it home. I will now, though.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Heh... I use a Mr. Coffee drip coffeemaker, but in all honesty... there's NOTHING like a cup of percolated coffee.

 

A couple years back when Hurricane Irma blew by near me, I lost power for 4 days... MUST HAVE COFFEE, though! I made it out on my back porch on top of the washing machine with a Sterno camp stove and my ol' camp coffee pot.

 

 

Now, I don't know for sure if it was just my dire need for a cup of coffee after that long night of 90mph winds and debris banging against the metal panels I had put over my windows, but that first cup was stupendously good; as was the rest of the pot, and the numerous pots that I made for three more days after this.

 

Yet, when the electricity came back on, I went right back to Mr. Coffee. :(

[Bookmem]

Awh come guys!! Don't get me started on coffee.  I haven't had a really good cup of coffee since my wife died.  Ever heard of Nawlins' French Drip?

[sunrat]

3 hours ago, saturnian said:

Sounds like I'm the only one here who has ever actually owned a rice cooker.

 

I never had one for most of my life, just used a saucepan. After a trip to Vietnam where every place used a rice cooker and rice was always delicious I picked up one on special and never regretted.

Method - 2 cups water to 1 cup basmati rice, switch on, eat when it automatically switches off. Yum!