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To Cook Rice

Rice cooked by soaking, drying, boiling, and rinsing until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Cook Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash the rice in three waters.

  2. Remove discolored grains and husks.

  3. Soak the rice in cold water for 2 hours.

  4. Drain the rice using a colander lined with a piece of cheesecloth.

  5. Place the drained rice in a warming oven to dry for 30 to 45 minutes.

Cook and serve

  1. In a kettle, bring 3 pints of boiling water and 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt to a boil.

  2. Add the rice to the boiling water and boil hard for 20 minutes without stirring.

  3. Test the rice for tenderness.

  4. If tender, drain immediately in a colander.

  5. Rinse the rice under cold water until thoroughly rinsed.

  6. Return the rice to the warming oven until ready to serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Rice
Provides the starch that gelatinizes during boiling, forming the cooked grain's texture.

The step that matters

Boil hard without stirring. A vigorous boil keeps the water churning around the grains so they cook evenly. Stirring releases surface starch, which makes the cooked rice gummy and sticky.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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