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

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Terry Decker/Bear wrote:
>Brown rice is any rice which has not been milled to the point of removing
>the aeluronic layer.  Polished rice is milled rice that has been treated
>with linseed oil to provide a "polish" coat.

In Indonesia i loved red rice. This is rice that has not been 
completely milled. The outside is an opaque brick-red-brown. When 
cooked, each grain expands and the inside becomes a lovely pink. It 
has been a couple decades since i've been in Indonesia, but my memory 
of it is that is is "nuttier" and more strongly flavored than white 
rice, and had a distinctive flavor i am unable to remember clearly 
enough to attempt to describe. This to me what what "brown rice" 
ought to be more like. Red rice is sold in the US at obscenely high 
prices in supermarkets and health food stores. I have not yet cooked 
any to compare with my memories.

We also had black rice. Again an opaque outside, this time nearly 
black, but when cooked the paler inside expands to a lovely lavender 
color. There are two kinds i know of, one a sticky (short, i believe) 
grain, the other a non-sticky (long, i believe) grain. Black rice was 
served as a snack food in Indonesia, where it was cooked with coconut 
milk (NOT the liquid inside a coconut) and slices of fresh ginger and 
a bit of palm sugar. But i have read that in some rural mountainous 
regions of mainland Southeast Asia is a staple. I have found this 
sold as "Forbidden Rice" in very expensive packages in supermarkets 
and health food stores with amazingly outrageous stories on the 
packages, which make me laugh. It is also sold for a more reasonable 
cost at Southeast Asian markets, where they know better.

>Most rice in the U.S., brown and white, is long-grain rice, which is to what
>I suspect you are really objecting.  Short grain and medium grain rices seem
>to be starchier, cook better and have better flavor.

As far as i can tell, i prefer long grain rices, and secondarily 
medium grain. My experiences with short grain rice is that they are 
preferred for specific uses or certain cuisines, but not as my daily 
rice. I used to eat rice with great frequency - when i lived in 
Indonesia 2 or 3 times a day, when back in the states not daily but 
several times a week - although now that i am on the A****s D**t, 
rice is right out - too high a glycemic load.

>Some of the health
>food brown rices I have encountered have actually been partially hulled
>brown rice with a lot of chaff remaining.  Nutritional--maybe, but certainly
>textural and taste deficient.

This is my experience. I am content to eat other whole grains, but 
brown rice, well, i've already made my opinion clear.

It seems to me, however, that "brown rice" is either being processed 
differently now or else is a different variety, than back in the 60s 
and 70s when i was first introduced to it. Another problem with it 
back then was that it took *ages* to cook (45 minutes *minimum*, 
compared to 12-15 minutes for white rice), and all too often i was 
served under cooked rice when i was not cooking it myself. According 
to packages i've read, current varieties of "brown rice" cook in a 
much shorter period of time.

>The primary nutritional difference between white and brown rice is the
>epicarp, mesocarp, endocarp, spermoderm, germ and aeluronic layer of brown
>rice contain the B vitamins.  When those are milled away to make white rice,
>the rice loses much of its nutritional value.  If the diet consists mainly
>of white rice without something to provide supplemental B vitamins, then
>there is a possibility of beriberi.  Apparently some commercial processors
>have been adding B vitamins to the coatings in the polishing process to help
>reduce the chances of beriberi.

While i understand that brown rice is supposed to be more healthful, 
having more naturally inherent vitamins, minerals, and other 
nutrients, as well as more fiber, i don't like its flavor or texture.

I am content to eat milled rice - polishing is not necessary for me, 
although i realize that it may be what is generally commercially 
available. I avoid rice that mentions using talc on the packaging 
(although i suppose it may be used but not listed).

I tend to buy Thai Jasmine rice (although i notice a degradation in 
quality over the past couple decades) or South Asian basmati rice 
(and these are quite variable in quality). While Master Adamantius, 
whose taste buds and nose i am certain are more finely and 
sensitively attuned than my own, smells no difference between his 
packages of Carolina and Jasmine rice, i notice a difference and to 
me they smell different when cooked. I was not prejudiced against 
American rices until after i returned from Indonesia. On a few 
occasions, especially when financially strapped, i purchased American 
rice, thinking there couldn't be a big difference. However, upon 
cooking and eating it, i found i really could taste and smell a 
difference.

Anahita