Boiled Rice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick over the rice carefully, wash it in 1 or 2 cold waters, and drain.
Boil and steam
Put the rice into a pot of boiling water, add the salt, cover, and boil steadily for 15 minutes.
Thoroughly drain the water. Cover the pot and place it into another vessel of boiling water to steam for 10 minutes.
Uncover the rice and steam for an additional 5 minutes until cooked.
Do not stir the rice while cooking.
Alternative drying method
If steaming is not convenient, after boiling and draining, wipe out the pot, sprinkle a little salt on the bottom, and rub it with a dry cloth.
Put the rice back in the pot, cover, and place it in a slow oven or near the fire for 15 minutes to dry and swell.
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
- Forms the body of the dish as its starch gelatinises and swells in boiling water.
- Salt
- Seasons the grains as they cook, lightly flavouring the rice from within.
The step that matters
Do not stir the rice while cooking. Stirring breaks the grains and releases surface starch, which makes the rice gluey instead of light and separate.
“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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