Rice: Varieties, Storage, Preparation, Use

[JoNorvelleWalker]

7 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Indeed. I've never seen such an environmentally irresponsible, idiotic method in my life.  To say nothing of the expense.

 

I cook wild rice 10 minutes on the stovetop.  I was reading an ATK recipe that called for baking in the oven 70-80 minutes.

 

[AlaMoi]

8 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

Understandable, but when you eat rice at least twice a day as most people do here, the rice cooker will always win.

 

 

Indeed. I've never seen such an environmentally irresponsible, idiotic method in my life.  To say nothing of the expense.

might want to consider just perhaps maybe could happen . . . the oven is already on for other purposes and doing the rice is a side cook.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, AlaMoi said:

might want to consider just perhaps maybe could happen . . . the oven is already on for other purposes and doing the rice is a side cook.

Yes that is what frugal grandma did - in an enamel pan. It had almost a tahdig we fought over

[KennethT]

Slightly OT but I couldn't find anything else close to it. After the move, I discovered a glass jar with Thai sticky rice that is of an undeterminable age.  It's old.  I was planning to make a Dai beef with herb dish discussed on another thread.  When I opened the jar, I noticed a slight rancid smell.  Can rice go rancid?  I was planning to throw it out just because it doesn't smell good, but it got me curious...

[weinoo]

Just now, KennethT said:

Can rice go rancid?  I was planning to throw it out just because it doesn't smell good, but it got me curious...

 

I think so, absolutely. 

 

And I know that smell you're referring to!

[Gayle28607]

37 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

I think so, absolutely. 

 

And I know that smell you're referring to!

What kills me is when that is the smell the rice has when it first comes out of the bulk bin at my local, high traffic organic food store. It makes me wonder how long the big bag of rice for restocking has been hiding in a corner of their stockroom.

[weinoo]

Just now, Gayle28607 said:

What kills me is when that is the smell the rice has when it first comes out of the bulk bin at my local, high traffic organic food store. It makes me wonder how long the big bag of rice for restocking has been hiding in a corner of their stockroom.

 

Or maybe the last time they actually cleaned the bin.  Even if @KennethT or I dump the rice out of the jar, the smell remains until that jar is washed out!

 

White flour spoils too, and emits a very similar smell when it's old.

[Gayle28607]

Excellent point, @weinoo. Maybe I'll try buying their rice again? Or does the rancidness in the bin promote rancidness in the rice? I am pretty sure they never wash the bins out. And I've bought rancid rice from their bins, only to have to dump it.

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, Gayle28607 said:

Or does the rancidness in the bin promote rancidness in the rice?

I think this may accelerate the process.

 

I think you're better off buying rice in sealed bags.  It's not more expensive, considering the expense of throwing stuff out.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Totally agree.    Ii am put off by possibility of contamination and loss of fragrance/flavor when exposed to open air.    Many spice markets offer bins of spices from which you fill a bag.   Charming but off-putting to me.   There is enough bulk transport of product before it is packaged for sale.   I avoid it at retail.

[Katie Meadow]

2 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Totally agree.    Ii am put off by possibility of contamination and loss of fragrance/flavor when exposed to open air.    Many spice markets offer bins of spices from which you fill a bag.   Charming but off-putting to me.   There is enough bulk transport of product before it is packaged for sale.   I avoid it at retail.

Buying high quality rice in small packages may not be cheap, but opening the package for the first time is something I consider a cheap thrill. Fresh rice! For basmati rice I really like Lundgren, grown in CA, especially the organic one. For sushi or medium grain rice I prefer buying it in 5 lb bags, for the same reason. And I do eat a lot of rice.

 

@Margaret Pilgrimif you are ever in the East Bay and haven't already checked it out, try Oaktown Spice; they have a shop in Oakland on Grand Ave and one up on Solano in Berkeley, which I've never been to, and has nearly all the things I use, including a blend of blackening spice that's better than any other I've tasted; I tried finding a blend of cajun or blackening spice when in Atlanta recently, bought several and struck out on all counts. All were so salty I could barely stand them. My daughter and SIL loved the one I brought in my suitcase from Oaktown Spice, and I'm not often a fan of store-made blends. Also they always have the option of buying spices in bags that are often the right size for refill of jars.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

32 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

Buying high quality rice in small packages may not be cheap, but opening the package for the first time is something I consider a cheap thrill. Fresh rice! For basmati rice I really like Lundgren, grown in CA, especially the organic one. For sushi or medium grain rice I prefer buying it in 5 lb bags, for the same reason. And I do eat a lot of rice.

 

@Margaret Pilgrimif you are ever in the East Bay and haven't already checked it out, try Oaktown Spice; they have a shop in Oakland on Grand Ave and one up on Solano in Berkeley, which I've never been to, and has nearly all the things I use, including a blend of blackening spice that's better than any other I've tasted; I tried finding a blend of cajun or blackening spice when in Atlanta recently, bought several and struck out on all counts. All were so salty I could barely stand them. My daughter and SIL loved the one I brought in my suitcase from Oaktown Spice, and I'm not often a fan of store-made blends. Also they always have the option of buying spices in bags that are often the right size for refill of jars.

I LOVE Oaktown Spice!  We use the  Solano Avenue branch.    As I remember, Food and Wine named them the or one of the best spice dealers in the US.         And, yes, I love being able to buy the sachets of product rather than bottled, not least saving a dollar or so.    I found that the half-cup in the sachet filled two normal spice bottles.

 

Ad, yes, Lundgrens are excellent rices.  

[weinoo]

5 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Totally agree.    Ii am put off by possibility of contamination and loss of fragrance/flavor when exposed to open air.    Many spice markets offer bins of spices from which you fill a bag.   Charming but off-putting to me.   There is enough bulk transport of product before it is packaged for sale.   I avoid it at retail.

Nothing from bulk bins for this shopper. I don’t think they are cared for properly.

 

As mentioned previously,  The Rice Factory mills to order and to spec.  All my Japanese rices come from them.

[jaw]

On 5/12/2021 at 10:35 AM, weinoo said:

I don't even dip. I put the rice cooker bowl on a scale, and weigh the rice - now it's in the bowl I wash the rice in, and after draining, it's back on the scale for the amount of water needed. I find that by subtracting how much water is left clinging to the rice from the total amount of water needed, the rice comes out beautifully.

 

i'm with you. i have various scales in various capacity/resolution ranges for different tasks. for this one, i have a Jennings CJ-4000 (4kg x 0.5g) that lives on my countertop connected to AC power.

 

i put the rice cooker bowl on the scale, tare, weigh the rice, tare, wash the rice, and then weigh the water. notice that i tare before rinsing. the rinse residue is included in my water weight.

 

for me, i wager that this is at least as fast as measuring the rice and water volumetrically. i can just pour the rice directly in the bowl without stopping. no fiddling with the stupid measuring cup up to 6 times, making sure each cupful is level, etc.

 

i have a small table taped to my wall next to my scale with measurements i've tweaked bit by bit over time. the columns are for "portions" -- 1-6 portions, where 6 portions represents the max capacity of my cooker. the first row is rice mass. the subsequent rows are water masses for various kinds of rice i use (water for tamaki gold, water for brown rice, etc).

 

i use scales whenever it makes sense (which is almost always). my recipes are all formulated gravimetrically in spreadsheets in google drive in a recipe folder. i just have to change the value in the "portions" cell to quickly scale the measurements. i like this system.

Edited September 15, 2021 by jaw (log)

[weinoo]

3 hours ago, jaw said:

i use scales whenever it makes sense (which is almost always). my recipes are all formulated gravimetrically in spreadsheets in google drive in a recipe folder. i just have to change the value in the "portions" cell to quickly scale the measurements. i like this system.

 

Sounds good to me, though my daily scale use is mostly for coffee; whenever any baking or rice making happens, the scale is used. And I have two tiny scales for tiny amounts, when making ice cream.

 

There's one thing, however, I never use a scale for - popcorn!

[lindag]

I found this old thread while using The Wayback Machine.

I've tried making brown rice any number of times but never like it much until...

I used the CI recipe for Foolproof Oven baked Brown Rice.

Game changer. 

[heidih]

1 hour ago, lindag said:

I found this old thread while using The Wayback Machine.

I've tried making brown rice any number of times but never like it much until...

I used the CI recipe for Foolproof Oven baked Brown Rice.

Game changer. 

Many like baked and attribute to Aton Brown My Zo rice cooker seems to have it down. Type of brown rice surely makes some difference.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Timely topic, thanks!  Yesterday I received ten pounds of Tilda Basmati.  How best to store it, given that I have a capacious bedroom but no container large enough?

 

Brown rice I typically detest.  However not too long ago I cooked up a batch Ranch Gordo from the bean club using the Zojirushi.  The Rancho Gordo was not bad but there is so much non-brown rice I like better.

 

[DesertTinker]

16 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Timely topic, thanks!  Yesterday I received ten pounds of Tilda Basmati.  How best to store it, given that I have a capacious bedroom but no container large enough?

 

Brown rice I typically detest.  However not too long ago I cooked up a batch Ranch Gordo from the bean club using the Zojirushi.  The Rancho Gordo was not bad but there is so much non-brown rice I like better.

 

Vacuum bag in whatever size you think you’ll use in reasonable time, or the amount you typically cook in a batch. Don’t forget to label it!

[weinoo]

8 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Timely topic, thanks!  Yesterday I received ten pounds of Tilda Basmati.  How best to store it, given that I have a capacious bedroom but no container large enough?

 

Brown rice I typically detest.  However not too long ago I cooked up a batch Ranch Gordo from the bean club using the Zojirushi.  The Rancho Gordo was not bad but there is so much non-brown rice I like better.

 

 

The partially milled Japanese brown rices I get from The Rice Factory are the best brown rices I've ever had - and they cook perfectly in the rice cooker.  (These are not the brown rices of my misspent youth in Santa Barbara, shopping at health food stores, and trying to ignore the scent of lentils and whatever else they were badly cooking. Anyone who shopped in health food stores back in the 70s knows the smells I'm referring to - curried lentils - blech! And as George Carlin once noted, how come everyone shopping in those health food stores looks so damn uhealthy?)

 

I go for 50% milled on the brown, but you can go even higher (or lower, actually).  Key is really washing the rice well before cooking, and don't forget to adjust water quantity based on how much water clings to the washed rice! That's why I find using the scale when cooking rice to be helpful, but the water lines in the Zojurishi are pretty darn accurate.

 

I usually "decant" a Mason jars worth of rice from the bigger bags, and vacuum pack the remainder until needed. White rice goes off, but nowhere near as quickly as brown.

Edited February 11, 2022 by weinoo (log)

[ElsieD]

I picked this up today.  Anyone know how to cook it?  I don't have a rice cooker.

[liuzhou]

28 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I picked this up today.  Anyone know how to cook it?  I don't have a rice cooker.

 

 

Just as you would cook brown rice.

[lindag]

I just did a search for 'rice' and found @weinoo's post about 'Seductions of Rice' and about rice storage.  

I ordered a copy of the book from Thriftbooks aofr $6.99, pretty good price.

My storage of rice is now in Foodsaver bags, which works pretty well.

We now have a small Asian grocery store here which makes it nice for finding unusual ingredients now found in the usual stores.

I really like the idea of using canning jars for rice storage and will start with the extra jars and lids that I already have taking up space.

I'm keen to have the book to find new types and ways of cooking rice.

 

[rotuts]

@JoNorvelleWalker 

 

 

I only 

 

currently

 

use Basmati 

 

so that you !

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@JoNorvelleWalker 

 

 

I only 

 

currently

 

use Basmati 

 

so that you !

 

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

 

At least you are not pursued by angry gods.