Do You Wash Your Rice?

ASo you enjoy all the bits of unidentified animal parts, broken glass, and chunks of fecal material?

shticky

That's exactly why I wash rice, to avoid that nasty goop. I hate risotto and rice that has the consistency of risotto. If I wanted slime I'd eat slime.

So far, I never had a problem with any of these bits. Maybe you and I buy our rice from different suppliers.

Slime?! You don't know what you're missing, Robert!

My Chinese friends tell me that rice has some sort of stuff added to keep it flowing and dry or something, and that this is the white goop that comes off when you wash it...and that this is not good for one. Hence the washing.

I suppose if specific rice says it doesn't need washing, it doesn't have the goop?

I have never found animal/insect parts in rice, I have to say! Even when bought in bulk outlets...unlike lentils which are prone to stones and such.

Arborio rice has always been a puzzlement to me....I don't make lots of risotto...but I do tend to give arborio a cursory rinse, cos I like it a bit more separate and less sticky.

I'd not have said slime, though!

On the other side of the risotto coin, I have had some rather unfortunate, way too crunchy experiences, of some chef's idea of "al dente". Like eating peanuts, or something. Not a pleasant experience.

I used to love love love my risottos, and then one day I lost the power. Nothing to do with washing, as I've never washed arborio. Nothing to do with moving to high altitude, although maybe a little - it happened when I bought california arborio back in northern california at low altitude. and that's what is available here too. Somehow just not as tasty. I should buy the real thing online, but that's pretty expensive to start with, and then one adds postage. It also may be a fluke re my competence deserting me at the same time as the 'local' arborio purchases happen, or some kind of weird ricial bias on my part...

I doubt that, osso. After all these years of risotto making? Nah.

I try it every year or so, and every time I think it would be so much better if it weren't for the consistency (reminds me of rice pudding, which I'm also not fond of).

So in other words I'll keep wishing risotto turns into a stir-fry type of dish and the risotto will keep wondering why I didn't just order something like that and leave it alone.

Many countries have a standard where they coat rice with talc after its been fianl polished. This retains the starch coating .
I always wash rice because a cursory inspection will not reveal the foreign matter (avg of 0.5 to 2% of rice depending on standards of the country producing it), or talc. (Remember TALC is an asbestiform mineral). If you dont wanna wash rice, why the hell do you make a big del about only eating organic?

I cannot understand you earthlings

According to this http://web.foodnetwork.com/food/web/encyclopedia/termdetail/0,7770,2760,00.html
talc coated rice is labeled as such. Anyway, I looked up arborio + talc and don't see arborio as coated.

"White rice has had the husk, bran and germ removed. Regular white rice is sometimes referred to as polished rice. For converted or parboiled white rice, the unhulled grain is soaked, pressure-steamed and dried before milling. This gelatinizes the starch (for fluffy, separated cooked rice) and infuses some nutrients of the bran and germ into the kernel. Converted rice takes slightly longer to cook than regular white rice. Talc-coated rice is white rice that has a coating of talc and glucose, giving it a glossy appearance. The coating acts as a preservative and the practice was once widely used to protect rice during long sea voyages. Today coated rice (clearly labeled as such) is available only in a few markets, usually those specializing in South American foods. It must be thoroughly rinsed before cooking, as the talc can be contaminated with asbestos."

Does it say that if the rice comes from Vietnam or Indonesia and is atlc coated, do we label that as such? Im kind of cynical about all imported foods from Asia or South AMerica.

I don't have any idea of the completeness of talc labelling in my store's brands and what the author knows about it.
I do trust Lotus Foods, which is a rice purveyor I occasionally buy from - though not very much due to price. And I trust the california arborio and italian arborio re talc, even if I may prefer, correctly or not, the italian.

And.... it looks like my Calrose rice has a glucose coat but not a talc coat - grown, I take it, in california, or, at least "a product of USA".

"JFC Botan Calrose Extra Fancy Rice, 5 lbs.
This product is in the form of a Granule and is packaged in a Bag. See all 19 products made by JFC.
Ingredients: Milled Rice, Coated with Glucose, Washing Not Necessary."

http://www.asiamex.com/proddetail.cfm?CFID=442707&CFTOKEN=224797&ItemID=466&CategoryID=26&SubCatID=36

Like I said, I wash rice, not sure what you are confused about.

I've been eating more Cal Rose rice lately, since I bought that 5 lb bag. I do soak it but don't think that for that particular brand it is necessary.

I just ran across an article about why Basmati rice tends to taste better in indian restaurants than home cooked basmati does - it's the soaking.
I don't cook basmati that much, using arborio or cal rose japanese rice or brown rice or, once in a while, bhutan red rice -
but now that I read this link, I want to buy some and try it again.

http://www.finecooking.com/item/13378/soaking-basmati-rice

The Food Geek on finecooking .com says"
"Soaking is generally an optional step in rice cooking, but people are more insistent about it with basmati rice. What makes it so special? Well, it's a long-grained rice, but there are plenty of those that don't require soaking, so that's probably not it. The other key to basmati rice is that it's flavored, which is much more important.

"According to June Chua, basmati rice is heavy in the flavor compound 2-Acetyl-1-pyrroline compared with other types of rice, and 2-Acetyl-1-pyrroline is a bready sort of flavor. The thing about flavor compounds is that they are often susceptible to heat. Spices that are left too close to the heat will degrade in flavor faster than properly stored spices. Unless there's something holding the flavor in, it will disappear rapidly.

Soaking rice will allow the rice to absorb some of its water at room temperature, which is relatively friendly to flavor compounds. Because some of the water is soaked in, the cooking time is lessened, thus preserving flavor. It's said that the flavor of basmati rice is what suffers when it's not soaked, rather than the texture, so that reaffirms my suspicions."

The article is followed by comments..

In my humble opinion washing the rice is such a dreadful waste of water. What is the real reason the rice needs to be washed, apart from the grubs etc? If my rice has any bugs or weavels in it then I throw it out regardless. Of course if it was recently bought I'd take it back to the store. It has always bugged me that the cooking instructions recommend washing/rinsing without giving a valid reason. They should make the rice "ready to cook" in the first place. Even it cost more. Probably the reason it annoys me is that no matter how much I rinsed the ruddy stuff, the water was always cloudy, it never ran clear, hence my whinging about wasting water.