[Sca-cooks] cooking rice

[James Prescott]

At 22:24 -0600 2004-01-11, Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Adamantius commented:
>> My theory, for lack of a better one, is that almond oil is _the_
>> perfect waterproofing material for rice, and that rice to be cooked
>> in almond milk either needs to be precooked in water or stock first,
>> or bruised or pulverized in some way to speed up the process. Maybe
>> it was extremely hard or soft water, I don't know. What I do know is
>> that rice, even in quantity, shouldn't take two hours to cook in
>> plenty of liquid and a heat range providing between a full, rolling
>> boil to a steady simmer all that time. And just as obviously, the
>> longer you cook it, the greater the likelihood that it'll burn.
> Could the rice have simply been old, like the beans we recently discussed? Or does that not happen to rice?


The following may or may not be relevant.

I cook a lot of short grain brown rice, always in a covered pot.

The only times I've "cooked it for two hours and it still wasn't done"
happened (a number of times until I figured out my problem) quite a 
few years ago when I was impatient and figured, just turn *up* the 
heat under the pot and it will cook faster.

Wrong.

I don't know why, but whenever I did that the rice definitely
resisted, and refused to get cooked.  Perhaps some food scientist
can explain it.

So I've learned to always always do the short grain brown (when
using the covered pot method) at a very low simmer.  Especially
when I'm in a hurry.


On the other mitt, basmati rice does fine in an open pot at a 
rolling  boil with a couple of tablespoons of oil or ghee over the 
highest flame I've got.  Clearly the oil is failing to waterproof it.


Thorvald