[Sca-cooks] Partly OP: Brown vs. white rice?

[Terry Decker]

Your theory is definitely psychoceramic.  Rice cultivation appears to have
begun in China and spread into southern Asia and India.  From there it
spread to Mesopotamia and on to Syria and Egypt by about the 3rd Centiury
BCE.   Rice cultivation was brought into wide-spread use in the
Mediterranean Basin with the Islamic Expansion.  Rice was grown wherever
possible in the Arab world.

Period (and often modern) European rice production was in the Ebro Delta of
Spain, the Caramague of France, parts of Italy and Sicily.  Rice growing was
not a happy occupation (or overly successful) in the Caramague of the 16th
Century as is documented in the Quiqueran de Beaujeau's "De laudibus
Provinciae."  Spain and Italy were better producers and the Spainish brought
rice production to the New World early in the 16th Century.

Had rice been imported from the Far East it would have been as expensive as
spices and would not have been used in the quantities the recipes require.

Milling rice is a very old process which appears to have originated in
brewing.  Milled rice is almost pure starch which makes it easier to
ferment.  As for period milling the question is, how far did they go?
Modern milling goes through four stages after hulling, 1) removal of the
epicarp, mesocarp and part of the germ, 2) removal of the endocarp, 3)
removal of the spermoderm, and 4) removal of the aleuronic layer and the
remaining germ.  The refined rice is then "polished" with linseed oil and
"shined" with glucose and talcum (polishing and shining are apparently
fairly modern techniques.  As I understand it, each stage of the refining
leaves the rice lighter in color.

It is interesting to note that stage four milling removes all of the B
vitamins from the grain.  Lack of B vitamins is what causes beriberi.
Beriberi was not described until the 17th Century, which may mean that level
four milling wasn't practiced until then or that the diet changed so that
other sources of B-complex were unavailable.

Bear


>Ok, this is a bit of a crank theory of mine, so be patient with me.
>
>My (non-expert) understanding of the whole brown vs. white rice thing
>is that polishing the bran off of the rice does two things: 1. it makes
>it easier to digest, and 2. it helps it keep from spoiling.  I've heard
>(on this list) that brown rice is looked down upon in asia as being bad
>for you and peasant food, and that they've been polishing rice in asia
>pretty much for all of recorded history.  If someone knows otherwise on
>any of this, please correct me.
>
>So here's where the crackpot theory comes in:  the rice used in period
>was white rice.
>(all references to period here refer to England and France between 1100
>and 1600 -
>any other region or time and I'm liable to be way off base).
>
>In support:
>1.  Rice wasn't grown in northern Europe in period, and all of the rice
>they ate was imported from the far east.  Polished rice would have been
>sent to prevent it from spoiling on the trip.
>
>2.  Many of the dishes made with rice in period cookbooks reference the
>color white.
>
>3.  I have yet to see a period source refer to rice as being brown.
>
>4.  Numerous examples can be found of instructions for removing hulls
>and such from just about every grain grown - except for rice.
>
>5.  Exporting polished rice would have helped keep a sort of monopoly
>going since the rice then couldn't be planted (this may have been
>unintentional).
>
>
>So ... <donning asbestos underwear> ... how's that?
>
>- Doc (who should know better than to air such theories in public)