Home › Food for the Sick › PARCHED RICE
PARCHED RICE
Cook in custard-kettle a half cup parched rice in one pint boiling salted water; when done serve with cream and sugar.
An invalid-cookery recipe that amounts to toasted rice porridge cooked gently in a double boiler. Two details in the wording do the real work: "parched" and "custard-kettle."
- Parched riceParching means toasting the dry grains in a heavy skillet over medium heat, shaking often, until they smell nutty and take on a pale tan colour, roughly 5-8 minutes. Do it before measuring the half cup if you want to be exact, and let the grains cool a moment before they hit the water so the pan does not spit.
- Custard-kettleThis is a double boiler, not a casserole. The rice goes in the upper vessel over simmering water so it can never scorch or catch, which is the whole point in an invalid dish where a burnt note would be unwelcome.
- Cooking timeOver water rather than direct heat, a half cup of parched long-grain rice in a pint of water will likely need somewhere around 45 minutes to an hour, covered. The recipe's ratio is a generous 4:1, which suits a soft, porridge-like result; toasted grains also tend to absorb more slowly than raw ones.
- The one thing that mattersBeyond an initial stir to distribute the grains, agitation releases starch and turns the dish to paste, so leave it alone once settled. That gives separate, softened grains loose in a little thickened liquid.
- SaltThe recipe says only 'salted water' and gives no quantity; a light hand is sensible, since the dish is finished with cream and sugar.
- Cream and sugarCream poured over rather than stirred in keeps the grains distinct; sugar to taste. Nineteenth-century cream was often richer than modern half-and-half, so heavy cream is a reasonable substitute.
- YieldAbout two cups cooked, enough for two or three small servings; the recipe itself gives no yield.
Buckeye Cookery devotes a whole section to "Food For The Sick," reflecting an era when nursing an invalid at home was ordinary domestic work and the cook, not a hospital kitchen, decided what a convalescent ate. The governing ideas were blandness, easy digestion and gentle heat, hence the custard-kettle: food that could not scorch, sharpen or surprise. Toasting rice before boiling it carries a mild roasted flavour that plain boiled rice lacks, which mattered when the patient's diet was otherwise monotonous. The technique is not peculiar to sickroom cookery; dry-toasting grain before wetting it is old and near-universal, appearing in everything from pilafs to roasted-rice teas and thickening flours.