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RICE, BOILED (a la Carolina)
Take a sufficient quantity of rice, and pick it free from rough grains and foreign substances, then wash it quickly in cold water, and hurry it to the pot before the grain is at all softened. As to the quantity of water to be used in boiling, there are two modes. One is to put in twice as much water as rice, and allow it all to be absorbed by the grain; the other is to put in three or four times as much water, but to pour almost all of it off as soon as the grain changes from its pearly-white colour and gives proof of having softened. In both modes, when this stage of boiling has been attained, the pot is to be withdrawn from the hot fire and set where it will be kept at a low steaming heat until the water is all gone. The last process is called "soaking." Properly conducted, the rice comes from the pot perfectly done, of a clear white colour, with each grain firm and distinct and swelled to double its original size. Salt, of course, is to be added. Rice prepared in this way should not be stirred much in boiling, or it will become gluey; a large open fork passed through it once or twice will be sufficient to prevent the grains adhering.
A method rather than a formula: the book gives no quantities, only two ratios and a technique. Both still work on a modern hob, and the hinge is the final rest.
- The hinge: the "soaking"Once the grains have lost their pearly translucence, the pot must come off direct heat and finish on the barest steaming warmth, lid on, until the remaining moisture is absorbed. On a gas or electric hob this means the lowest setting, or the burner switched off entirely with the pan left covered for 10-15 minutes. Lifting the lid early is what produces wet, unevenly cooked rice.
- Ratios in practiceThe absorption method here is two parts water to one part rice by volume — 1 cup rice to 2 cups water. That is generous against much current guidance for long-grain white rice, which is usually given as 1.5 to 1.75 parts water; the extra may be allowing for the slow steaming finish.
- The drained methodThe second mode — three or four times the water, poured off when the grain softens — is the 'pasta method', still widely used across much of South Asia. Drain at about 10 minutes, when a grain crushes between the fingers with a faint firm core, return to the pan and steam. It gives the driest, most separate grains.
- What Carolina rice wasCarolina long-grain, grown in the Lowcountry until the industry collapsed in the early twentieth century, was the benchmark white rice of the English-speaking kitchen. Any plain long-grain white rice behaves the same way. Parboiled (converted) rice needs more water and longer, and basmati wants a soak beforehand, which this method explicitly avoids.
- Washing, then and nowThe recipe pairs picking out rough grains and foreign matter with a quick wash; hurrying the rice to the pot is to stop the grain softening before it boils, and the rinse also carries off surface starch. Modern rice is clean, but a brief rinse under cold water in a sieve until the water runs clear still helps the grains stay distinct. Rice sold enriched in the United States loses some of its added vitamins to rinsing and to the drained method.
- SaltThe recipe says only that salt 'is to be added', without saying when; salting the water at the start is the usual reading — about half a teaspoon to a teaspoon per cup of dry rice for the absorption method. With the drained method most of it goes down the sink, so salt more freely or season after.
- StirringThe warning is sound. Agitation abrades the grain surface and releases amylopectin, which is exactly how risotto is made and exactly what is not wanted here. Fluff once with a fork after the rest, not during cooking.
- Timing and yieldFigure 15-18 minutes total for long-grain white rice before the rest. One cup of dry rice yields about three cups cooked, enough for three or four as a side dish.
Carolina rice gave its name to a style as much as to a place. Rice growing began in South Carolina in the late seventeenth century, and the plantations of the Lowcountry produced long-grain white rice on a scale that made it a staple export to Britain; the cultivation itself drew heavily on the rice-growing knowledge of enslaved West Africans, a debt now widely acknowledged by historians of the Lowcountry. By the time Cassell's was compiled, "a la Carolina" on an English page signalled a particular result rather than an origin: dry, separate, doubled-in-size grains, in deliberate contrast to the milk-stewed rice puddings and thickened soups that made up most British rice cookery.