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Comment by softskunk | Hacker News Reader

not washing the rice is generally a bad idea even disregarding this factor, because the texture of the rice will come out quite wrong.

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> the texture of the rice will come out quite wrong.

Out of curiosity, in what sense can the texture be wrong? I never wash my rice, and I like the texture.

Rice contains a lot of arsenic. Washing it can remove some of it. This article also recommends pouring off some water during cooking as well.

https://health.osu.edu/wellness/exercise-and-nutrition/how-t...

This doesn't answer the texture question.

Your somewhat inflammatory "rice contains a lot of arsenic" isn't supported by your source, which has the much more equivocal "rice may have arsenic in it — potentially high levels".

I doubt they meant it as being inflammatory. It's just a fact, if you don't read it as being perfectly literal. I parboil my rice and pour off the water before cooking it to try and avoid arsenic exposure (which is more or less a washing procedure). This also gives it a nice fluffy texture, but if asked why I do this, I would say something similar to GP.

> It's just a fact, if you don't read it as being perfectly literal

What other kind of fact is there?

"Rice has a lot of arsenic" reads the same as "rice may have arsenic in it — potentially high levels" if you don't take it as literally applying to all rice in all circumstances.

Washing rice is one of those hygienic practices that evolved into a social more and was incorporated into regional cuisine thereafter. If you're living in a developed country with effective food safety regulations, you don't need to wash your rice.

Which doesn't mean that it's a bad idea to wash your rice. But it's certainly not inherently wrong to not wash rice. For certain cuisines you're actually supposed to not wash the rice, like when making risotto or paella.

Unwashed rice is normally gummier or more starchy

There's nothing wrong with liking it that way, it's just more porridge-like because of the starch if you don't wash it and some people prefer individual rice grains.

Individual rice grains remind me of ant larvae.

So rice. Out of the plant, rice is not that white grain we're used to see. It has a protective layer (called bran). It has all kind of nice nutrient in it, but also contains quite a lot of oil and can go rancid. So for conservation purpose, it's usually removed. The way it's removed is by grinding it until we get to that white layer we all know.

Now this white layer is mostly starch. And by grinding the grain up to this white layer, you necessarily make a lot of microscopic starch powder (I'm simplifying).

When you rinse the rice, you remove this microscopic powder. So when cooking, it cannot gelatinize and provide that creamy (... or goopy, depending on your point of view) texture.

Note that this preference depends on the cuisine, cultivar and even recipe. As other mentioned, risotto is supposed to be creamy, banh chung is held together by magic, pilaf have distinct grains, etc...

You explained that very clearly, and I am grateful for that.

Try it for once. You'll notice the difference

I normally rinse the rice too, but some think rinsing washes out some vitamins. I suppose the tradeoff is less vitamins or more pesticides?

Rinsing it can remove some of the toxic arsenic.

https://health.osu.edu/wellness/exercise-and-nutrition/how-t...

But only about 20% of the arsenic.

If you want to significantly reduce the arsenic, it is apparently better to cook rice like pasta in a large amount of water, and then drain it (in a sieve / strainer)

I fancy myself a pretty decent cook, but rice has been the bane of my existence. I don't own a rice cooker, and I could never get it right.

Then I learned about the pasta method. It probably closed about 80% of the quality gap in my finished product.

If you can afford it and have space in your kitchen I'd recommend you get a rice cooker, preferably one with 'fuzzy logic' and ceramic bowl. It removes the starch preparation almost entirely from the meal preparation process and allows more focus on the rest of it, and it becomes trivial to turn some leftovers into a decent meal or make 'fast food' by putting some pre-/factory-made dumplings and greens in with the rice. Commonly rice cookers allow setting a start time in the future, so you can prepare dinner or lunch at breakfast and it'll be ready at the appropriate time.

The 'pasta method' is fine however, ignore people that whine about it. It's also rather easy to learn how to make paella and jollof and similar, which is a really nice way to cook with rice.

Thanks, I'll consider going that route!

It feels like giving up on a challenge, but life is short and maybe mastering traditional rice cooking techniques isn't the best use of my time.

This sounds like a great way to end up with rice that's soupy and slimy like watery oatmeal or shredded wheat.

Last week I accidentally halved the amount of rice:water, and it turned out quite disgusting.

It's really not that bad, you drain the extra water in a strainer or something, and the residual water that's left mostly gets absorbed into the rice.

Still not the same texture as traditionally cooked rice and my Asian wife doesn't care for the cooked-like-pasta rice herself, but I personally don't find it objectionable when I've had it.

Did you use a rice cooker? Rice cookers operate by “sensing“ when all the water is boiled off, by means of a temperature sensor that detects when the temp goes above 100°C. (If you have just the right ratio of water in there, this is what you want.)

Having too much water in a rice cooker is indeed terrible for the end result, but only due to the nature of how a rice cooker operates… I’m sure if you treat it like pasta and take it off the pot after 10 minutes or so ( not waiting for the water to boil away) you’d get much better results.

No, cooked on the stove. I'm not even that picky about rice, but I draw the line at sludge.

Yes, but about half the arsenic has been transferred to the cooking water, which you can pour down the drain.

So far the arsenic doesn't seem to have any quantifiable negative effects on me, so I'll continue as I've already been for decades. Your concern is appreciated, however.

Wow, don't tell Uncle Roger about your technique:

https://youtu.be/53me-ICi_f8

I actually only recently understood that rinsing the rice would improve the overall quality

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