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Rice for Curried Oysters and Similar Dishes
Wash a quarter of a pound of rice in two or three waters. Drain it, throw it into a saucepan of fast-boiling water, and let it boil quickly for ten minutes. Drain it again, and boil it in three-quarters of a pint of milk till the grains are tender without being broken. Drain, dry it on a sieve, tossing it lightly with two forks, to separate the grains, and serve hot. Time, from ten to fifteen minutes to boil the rice in the milk. Probable cost, 2 1/2d. Sufficient for four or five persons. (See also RICE, BOILED, FOR CURRY.)
A two-stage method: a fast boil in water to swell the grains, then a gentler simmer in milk that both cooks and enriches them. The point of the whole exercise is separate, dry grains, so the drainings matter as much as the boilings.
- Quantities in modern termsA quarter pound of rice is 4 oz, roughly two-thirds of a cup of long-grain. Three-quarters of an imperial pint is 15 imperial fl oz, about 1 3/4 to 2 US cups of milk.
- Use long-grain riceCassell's most likely had in mind the hard, long-grained Patna-type rice usual in Victorian Britain, though the recipe does not say so. Basmati or any long-grain works; avoid arborio, pudding rice or short-grain, which will break down into the starchy mass this method is designed to prevent.
- Milk scorchesRice in milk sticks and catches far more readily than rice in water. Keep it at a bare simmer over low heat in a heavy pan and stir up from the bottom every couple of minutes.
- Total timingTen minutes in water plus ten to fifteen in milk is about right for older long-grain rice; modern rice may be tender at the shorter end. Test a grain rather than trusting the clock, and pull it the moment the centre is no longer chalky.
- Don't discard the milk without tasting itThe drained milk will be sweet and thickened with rice starch, and is worth saving for a soup or sauce. The recipe says only to drain, and does not say what becomes of it.
- Drying the grainsTossing with two forks on a sieve works, but a shallow tray in a 250F oven for a few minutes is easier and keeps the rice hot while you finish the curry.
- YieldFour to five servings by Victorian standards, where rice was presumably a border or bed for the oysters rather than the bulk of the plate. Reckon on three modern portions, or double the quantities.
Cassell's treats a properly separate, dry rice as a technique to be mastered once and applied to anything served "curried" — the page speaks of curry "and Similar Dishes." The milk is the English signature: the enrichment here reflects a British domestic taste for something closer to a savoury rice pudding in texture, if not in sweetness. Curried oysters were a common enough supper dish in Victorian London, where oysters were still cheap and plentiful; the given cost of 2 1/2d for the rice suggests just how minor an expense the starch was beside the fish. The rice is parboiled in water before being finished in milk.