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Boiled Rice
1 cup rice 2 qts. boiling water 1 tablespoon salt Wash the rice thoroughly in several changes of water; cook in rapidly boiling water for thirty minutes or until soft, which is determined by tasting the kernels. Drain in a strainer and pour boiling water over it. Shake slightly and let it stand in a warm place until ready to serve.
This is the pasta method for rice: a large volume of salted boiling water, then drained. It works, but the timing assumes a rice that no longer dominates American shelves.
- Cooking timeThirty minutes is longer than modern rice needs; long boiling times are usual in recipes of the period. Modern long-grain white rice is generally done by this method in 15-18 minutes; start tasting at 12. Parboiled (converted) rice will take closer to 20.
- WashingRinsing in several changes of water until it runs nearly clear removes surface starch and keeps the grains separate, which is the whole point of the method. Skip it only if the package says the rice is enriched, since rinsing washes the added vitamins off.
- The saltA tablespoon in two quarts is roughly the salinity of light pasta water and is not excessive, since nearly all of it is drained away.
- The boiling-water rinsePouring boiling water through the drained rice washes off the last of the loose starch. Use water hot from the kettle, not the cooking water, and let it drain fully or the grains will steam into a mass.
- Holding it warm"A warm place" would have meant somewhere like a cooler corner of the range top. Set the strainer over the empty pot off the heat, cover with a folded towel rather than a lid so condensation does not drip back, and serve within about 20 minutes.
- YieldOne cup of raw rice gives roughly three cups cooked, enough for four as a side dish.
- What not to doDo not stir the rice while it boils. Agitation breaks the grains and releases starch, which is exactly what the washing and rinsing are meant to avoid.
Boiled rice was eaten in American households around the turn of the century as a plain side, buttered or gravied, alongside meat, and in the South frequently at breakfast. The drain-and-rinse method here is often described as the older European and colonial technique, treating rice like a pasta and prizing dry, distinct grains over the absorbed-water method now standard in most home kitchens. Gold Medal's cook books were promotional publications from the Washburn-Crosby milling company of Minneapolis, and their non-flour recipes tend to be exactly this: unadorned, reliable instruction for the basics a cook was expected to have at hand, with the branded baking recipes carrying the sales work.