Grasses

Magnolias

• Buying, Cooking and Storing Rice
• Forms & Processing - preparing rice for market.
• Varieties -
• Ethnic Preferences - which variety and how cooked?
• Health Considerations
• Links - to sites dealing with rice.

Domesticated Asian (as distinct from African) rice derives from Asian wild red rice, Oryza rufipogon, which still exists and is a difficult to eradicate pest in commercial crops. This wild rice can still crossbreed with domesticated rice providing any number of intentional and unintentional hybrids. Oryza rufipogon is thought native to India and Southeast Asia, but the oldest accepted evidence of rice cultivation is from China, about 5000 BC.

Arab traders brought rice from India to the Near East, and then on to Spain. From Spain it was taken to Italy, but the rest of Europe is unsuitable for rice cultivation.

Rice came to the U.S. in colonial days when a ship out of Madagascar was captured and diverted to Englind. It was damaged in a storm and put into Charlston, South Carolina for repairs. The captain thanked his hosts with a bag of Patna type rice, which was successfully planted and from it grew a major rice growing and exporting business. Unfortunately for South Carolina, its growing paractices were too dependant on slave labor and rice went into decline after the Civil war. Today Carolina Rice is grown in Arkansas and Texas.

While rice consumption is relatively low in the U.S. it has been rising to the point that around 75% of households now serve rice at least once a week, up from around 45% in the mid 70s. This large increase is partially due to immigration from rice eating cultures who not only consume rice themselves but influence the diversity of what other Americans eat.

Different cultures prefer different rice, though all are pretty picky about it being cooked exactly right.

• Italy and Spain prefer a medium grain rice such as Arborio cooked to a creamy consistency, generally mixed with other ingredients during the cooking.
• India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Burma prefer a long grain rice cooked relatively dry and fluffy with salt. This may be a Patna type rice or better the more expensive Basmatti.
• Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam prefer a long grained rice cooked medium dry and fluffy and cook it without salt because it will be eaten with food made salty by fish sauce, bean sauce or similiar. Jasmine rice is preffered.
• China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Cambodia prefer medium grain rice cooked without salt. The rice must have firm distinctly separate grains but they adhere to each other making it practical to eat with chopsticks. A Calrose type rice works well enough for most uses.
• Laos: Laotians prefer a very short grained sweet rice that in other countries would be used mainly for sweets and wrapped snacks. This rice must stick together well because a lump of rice held in the fingers is used as an eating utensile. True sweet rice is reasonably available in the U.S. now.
• Turkey: A long grain rice is used for pilafs and medium grain for soups. In the U.S. one or another variety of Basmati can be used.

Rice has, until recently been little exported, most being consumed in the area where it is grown. Most rice eating cultures don't even like the types or rice that come from other areas. The exception has been the U.S. which started exporting quantities of rice in colonial days. Today, however, several other countries are major exporters. In order of volume are: Thailand, Vietnam, United States, India and Pakistan.

In general, exporting countries export the types of rice their own people prefer, but in the U.S. California growers produce a number of specialty types specifically for export, particularly to the Japanese market where a good price can be fetched.

• Paddy Rice is rice as threshed from the grass and includes husk and bran. The final weight of milled white rice is about 68% of it's weight as paddy rice.
• Brown Rice is rice that has gone through a mill to remove the husks but the bran coating and germ are still on the grains. Brown rice is more nutritious than white milled rice (fiber, protein and vitamins) and it has a nutty flavor and chewey texture. On the downside, the flavor is less delicate than white rice making it unsuitable for many recipes, cooking time is much longer, and it is far more vulnerable to rancidity. Storage time is just a few months while white rice is practically eternal.
• White Rice is brown rice run through an additional milling process to remove the bran and germ. Most of the rice consumption in all countries is white rice, preferred for its delicate flavor and short cooking time. When white rice first became cheap enough for normal people to buy it it resulted in the vitamin deficiency disease beriberi.
• Parboiled Rice (converted rice) is still in the outer husk when it is soaked, steamed and then dried. After this it is milled into white rice the usual way. This process drives some of the nutrients from the bran coat into the rice body making a white rice with more vitamins, and makes the rice more durable during the milling process. Rice processed this way takes slightly longer to cook than regular rice, and the slightly yellow tint is overwhelmed by white when cooked.

  This process was originally adopted in India to improve cheaper medium grain grades of rice. Parboiled grains stay fluffy and separate even if the rice it is prepared from would be stickier. Parboiled rice is now much used in the U.S. as restaurant rice because it is less vulnerable to improper cooking. It also holds up well in canned and processed foods. "Uncle Ben's" is a popular retail brand.

• Precooked Rice (Instant Rice) - rice that has been fully cooked and then dehydrated. This rice provides less nutrition than any other form, its sole advantage being that it re-cooks in 5 minutes in boiling water. "Minute Rice" is a leading brand.
• Coated Rice is white rice that has been given a coating of talc as a preservative. This was once common practice to protect rice on long sea voyages but can now be found only in a few ethnic rice varieties, mainly from South America. This rice must be clearly labeled as coated and must be thoroughly rinsed before use.
• Puffed Rice is made by two processes, "oven puffing" where the grains are exposed to a very high temperature, and "gun puffing" where the grains are heated moderately under high pressure. When the pressure is released the rice puffs up. The two processes provide a somewhat different product. Puffed rice is very popular in India for use in sweets and deserts. They use the oven method and fuel the ovens with burning rubber tires to get a high enough temperature which results in a serious negative impact on health and environment.
• Beaten Rice (Rice Flakes, Pounded Rice) are popular in India. The grains are flattened into flakes and dried making a product that cooks very quickly.
• Cream of Rice (Ground Rice) is much more course than rice flour and is used for poridge like dishes.
• Rice Flour is generally white rice ground very fine, or it can be ground from puffed rice (easier) or from brown rice, but brown rice flour will become rancid much more quickly, just as with whole wheat flour. Rice flour is used in confections, as a thickening agent in industrial processed food and in a number of ethnic cuisines. Because it varies significantly depending on the type of rice used it is safest to get a variety of the same ethnicity as the recipes you will be cooking.

Rice comes in three general types (disregarding African rice O. glaberrima which is a different species and not marketed due to low yield):

• Long Grain (indica) properly cooked is "fluffy" with very separate grains. This is the predominant rice in India, Thailand and major parts of China.
• Medium Grain (japonica) produces a bowl of rice with grains that adhere to each other making it easier to pick up lumps of it with chopsticks.
• Short Grain (japonica) includes varieties known as "glutenous rice" (which contains no gluten), "sticky rice", "waxy rice" and "sweet rice". Short grain rice cooks up sticky.

The controlling factor is the ratio between two starches, amylose and amylopectin with long grain high in amylose and short grain high in easily gelatenized amylopectin.

Listed here are common varieties available in Southern California and descriptions of some uncommon ones so you can select a suitable substitute.. I keep these on hand: Aged Basmati (Royal brand), Jasmine, Cal Rose, and one or another variety of brown rice.

Thailand: Most Thais use long grain rice similar to Indian basmatti. The preferred variety is Jasmine rice which is cooked without salt because it will be eaten with food containing salty fermented fish sauce and other salty seasonings. In the north, areas influenced by Laos use short grained sweet rice instead, which is eaten with the fingers.

Cooked white rice contains just over 100 calories per cup, and brown rice just a couple more. Rice is high in carbohydrates, gluten free, very low in fat and sodium and has about the best protien balance of any grain with all 8 essential amino acids present in reasonable proportions.

There are few risks involved with rice beyond slipping on thrown rice at a wedding (a custom adopted from India). If left out too long cooked rice will sour but not generally become toxic.

Brown rice is more nutritious than white rice since the bran layers contain protein, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, B vitamins, fiber and vitamin E, while the white part is mustly just starch. When a cheap milling process was developed rice subsistant people wanted white rice just like that rich people had long enjoyed.

Unfortunately, this resulted in a debilitating B vitamin deficiency disease beriberi. A nutritional fix was found, but the medical profession was so hung up on microbal theories of disease doctors continued to search for "the real cause" long after.

Beriberi was a serious problem in the southeast U.S. as well, so the US Food and Drug Administration requires "enrichment" of white rice with niacin, thiamin and iron. This is washed off if you rinse the rice which is why the package says "don't rinse". Recipes say "do rinse" (for better texture) and few of us are so rice subsistant the loss will make much difference.

Rice flour is used for baked goods and otherwise as a substitute for wheat flour for the gluten intolerant. Unfortunately, without gluten it can not make a risen dough bread.

• R1 - Rice, detailed information - Sage V Foods
• R2 - Rice in food products - Food Product Design
• R3 - Rice Flour - Sage V Foods