White rice generally needs a good rinse before cooking, to remove its starchy coating – not washing it leads to smellier rice that spoils faster. You put the rice in a bowl, cover with cold water and swirl around with your hand, repeating this several times until the water runs clear.
The best way to do it is to wash the rice under running water. You can do it with or without a strainer. Use only room temperature water or cold water because warm water will soften the rice resulting in it being soggy.
Rinse the rice with cold water until the water is clear. Rinsing the rice is optional, but it's how to make the rice less gooey. In a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid, combine the rice and 1 3/4 cups of liquid, either water or stock.
This "gives the cooked, finished product a fluffy texture with separate rice kernels," says Matt Slem, a culinary scientist and rice cooking expert at Lundberg Family Farms. Otherwise, without rinsing, the excess starch will remain on the rice, potentially yielding gummy or overly sticky rice once cooked, says Slem.
How do you rinse rice? Start by placing your rice in a large bowl and cover the grains with water. Using your hand, gently swirl the rice around until the water becomes cloudy. Pour out the water—but make sure the rice remains in the bowl—and repeat until the water is clear, about three to four rinses.
Rinsing rice before cooking is an Asian practice to remove dirt, dust and excess starch; but it's actually optional. However, we recommend cooking with a little less water if you rinse, because, without the starch to absorb the bit of extra water, your white rice may turn out too mushy.
Rinse basmati rice very well before cooking.
Wash a few times (4 to 5) until the water runs clear. This will help remove starch from the surface of the grains. Starch is what makes cooked rice sticky and gummy, so for fluffy rice, it is important to remove the starch.
What happens if you don't wash rice? Contaminants like water-soluble arsenic, lead, and cadmium are true, dangerous side effects of not washing your rice. Heavy metals get into rice plants via the polluted groundwater that floods rice paddies.
This friction between the dry grains of rice creates starch dust that coats the grains. If the grains aren't washed before cooking, this residual starch will gelatinize in the hot cooking water and make the cooked grains of rice stick to each other.
Types of rice and how to cook them
Soaking it in cold water for at least 30 minutes and up to several hours will help cut the cooking time. To use the method below, add 1¼ times the amount of water.
Rinsing Jasmine rice is not necessary, it comes out great without the rinsing. If you do want to rinse it: add your rice to a medium bowl, add water and stir the rice until the water is cloudy. Strain the cloudy water on a sieve and repeat the process two more times.
Soaking Rice
Soaking any variety of rice covered in water for just 30 minutes plumps the grains of rice. This plumping allows the grains to absorb a little water prior to cooking, the grains of rice will be very tender without getting mushy and the rice cooks very evenly.
What is this? Mushy or soggy rice is usually caused by two things: the rice is overcooked, and too much liquid is absorbed into the rice.
How often should I use rice water on my hair? For optimal results, the ideal frequency for using rice water on your hair is once or twice a week. It's not recommended to make rice water part of your daily routine, as there's really no benefit.
The bottom line from that group is that if you use US-produced rice, no matter which type (brown, white, wild or the various varieties that come in both white and brown such as basmati, jasmine, sushi or “regular” short, medium and long grained), you do not need to wash the rice before cooking it.
Thanks to technology introduced about 30 years ago, processors can now remove this sticky coating so consumers don't have to. Rice processed in the new way is called musenmai (no-wash rice), the advent of which has eliminated the time-old ritual of washing rice from some but certainly not all kitchens.
Once cooked, unwashed rice comes out with big, sticky clumps. Washed rice grains separate more easily. Unwashed rice has a gluey texture while washed rice is fluffier, more al dente.
"[Basmati] rice, that comes from the northern part of India and all the way through to Afghanistan, is a very long-grain rice and long-grain rice absorbs a lot of water," says Tan. "So that's why [South Asian people] always tend to wash the rice first and then, after that, it soaks [in order] for the rice to expand."
If your rice has absorbed too much liquid, the grains may have split and the starches may have given the rice a soft, gluey consistency. One way to fix that? Add even more liquid. Pour in some milk, a dash of vanilla, and spoonful of sugar, and suddenly your mushy rice is a rich rice pudding.
This is mixed in with freshly steamed Japanese rice and then left to be absorbed by the still hot and steaming rice. Some of this vinegar evaporates along with the steam and results in rice that's just a little tangy but still tastes delicious. The vinegar in the rice does a few things: 1 The vinegar seasons the rice.
It Has A Higher Amylose Content
Japanese rice also has a higher amylose content than other types of rice. Amylose is a type of starch that gives the rice its sticky texture. A high amylose content makes Japanese rice more sticky and chewy than other types of rice.
The reason is to get rid of impurities such as dust, rice bran, and potential agricultural chemicals. There are some brands that are pre-rinsed before they are packed, but they are usually 20-30% more expensive.
Natural way to tenderize
To ensure tender meat, Chinese cooks wash it thoroughly. The meat is tenderized as they rinse the meat and wring it out (via Milk Street).