Boiled Rice
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Bring 3 pints of hot salted water to a fast boil.
Add ½ cup of washed and picked raw rice.
Keep boiling for 20 minutes, then test a grain for doneness.
If soft, drain all the water.
Set the uncovered pot at the back of the stove for 2 minutes to dry the rice.
Do not stir while cooking; shake the saucepan three times to prevent clumping.
Serve
Serve in a hot, uncovered dish with butter, salt, and pepper.
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
- Raw rice
- Starch that softens as it boils, becoming the body of the dish.
- Salted water
- Cooking medium that hydrates the grains and seasons them as they cook.
The step that matters
Keep the water at a fast boil and do not stir. A vigorous boil keeps the grains moving and cooking evenly, while stirring releases surface starch that makes the rice gummy and clumped.
“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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