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Southern Rice
After thoroughly washing and rubbing the rice, put it in salted water enough to cover it twice over, in a custard-kettle, or tin pail set in a kettle of boiling water; cover the whole closely for fifteen or twenty minutes, until the grains of rice are full and plump but not "mushy;" drain off all the water possible, and replace rice in the kettle, allowing it to cook for half an hour longer, when it is ready to serve. The grains should be full and soft, and each one retain its form perfectly. During the last half hour it should be occasionally stirred lightly with a fork, and it is improved by standing on the back of the stove a few minutes before serving. - Mrs. P. T. Morey, Charleston, S. C.
This is the double-boiler method for rice: parboil, drain, then steam dry. It is slow but nearly foolproof, and it produces separate grains rather than a paste.
- The custard-kettleA custard-kettle is a double boiler. The improvised version described here — a tin pail set in a kettle of boiling water — works equally well as a metal or heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, kept covered. The point is that the rice never touches a direct flame and cannot scorch.
- The hinge: drain hardEverything depends on pouring off all the water you can before the second stage. Residual liquid is what turns the grains mushy. Tilt the vessel and hold the lid on to drain, then return it to the steam.
- "Water enough to cover it twice over"Roughly twice the depth of the rice in the vessel: the rice cooks loose in plenty of water rather than absorbing a measured amount. The recipe gives no measured quantity, so judge it by eye.
- Washing and rubbingRice of the period often arrived dusty, and coated or polished rice was sold in some markets, so the rubbing was hygienic as well as culinary. With modern packaged rice, three or four rinses until the water runs nearly clear is enough; it still removes surface starch and helps the grains stay separate.
- Rice to useA Southern cook in Charleston meant long-grain white rice — the Carolina type. Any long-grain white rice behaves as described. Do not substitute arborio or sushi rice; they are bred to go sticky. Parboiled converted rice behaves differently again and will not follow these timings.
- TimingFifteen to twenty minutes in the boiling water and half an hour of steaming is long by modern habit, but in a double boiler the second stage is gentle drying rather than cooking, so it does not overcook. Start checking at 15 minutes of steaming; the grains should be soft through with no chalky center.
- "The back of the stove"On a wood range this was the coolest zone — a warm rest, not more cooking. Off the heat, lid on, five to ten minutes does the same thing and lets the moisture even out.
- YieldThe original gives no quantity. One cup of raw long-grain rice yields about three cups cooked and serves four as a side dish.
Charleston is the right return address for this recipe. The South Carolina Lowcountry grew rice on tidal plantations from the late seventeenth century onward, and "Carolina rice" was for a long time the standard by which American cooks judged the grain, prized for long, firm kernels that stayed distinct when cooked. That reputation is worth keeping in mind when a Minnesota-published compendium like Buckeye Cookery prints a rice method from a Charleston contributor. The technique itself, boiling in abundant water and then steaming dry, is often described as the Lowcountry approach: rice was a daily starch there, not an occasional one, and the aim, by most accounts, was that each grain should stand alone. Commercial Carolina rice culture collapsed after the Civil War and a run of destructive hurricanes at the end of the century.