Home › The Principles of Cookery › Rice, Varieties Of

Rice, Varieties Of

What is known in England as cargo rice is a Bengalese variety, having a reddish cast and being rather coarse-looking. The unusual size and sweetness of the grain, however, cause it to be esteemed by the Hindoos above all other kinds.

The red rice, sometimes seen in American shipments scattered among the white grains, is not a distinct variety, like that of the Bengalese, but is the result of careless cultivation. Seeds of the whitest kinds, allowed to fall into the earth at harvest, and to lie there all the winter, will mature the next year into red rice. Its presence is regarded as a blemish. The small variety known as Patna, and remarkable for the slenderness and whiteness of the grain, is no doubt the best known and most highly esteemed in Europe of all the Eastern importations.

The Carolina rice, acknowledged to be the best in the world, is cultivated in its greatest perfection at Wacamaw, near Georgetown, South Carolina, and on the Savannah and Altamalia rivers; but can be produced in equal perfection along the tideway of the Floridas, as well as of Carolina and Georgia. Of the many sub-varieties in favour with American rice-planters the two most highly prized are the white and the golden, so called from the colour of their chaff. Both kinds produce abundant crops, and turn out beautiful grains; but the white is preferred by some planters as being more prolific, and better suited to a highland or semi-highland culture; and the golden is preferred by others as better suited to tide-water culture, and as furnishing more pearly grain.