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Rice Water
Two tablespoons of rice, one quart of boiling water. Simmer two hours, strain, add a pinch of salt, sugar and brandy to taste. Use either hot or cold.
A few raisins can be boiled in with the rice sometimes.
A sickroom drink rather than a dish: two hours of simmering pulls starch out of the rice into the water, which is then strained and flavoured. The rice itself is discarded, or eaten separately.
- Keep it coveredA quart of water simmered two hours will reduce considerably if left uncovered. Use a lid and check the level, topping up with boiling water so you finish with roughly a pint to a pint and a half of liquid.
- Which riceOrdinary long-grain white rice works, but short-grain or pudding rice gives a thicker, more emollient liquid because it sheds more starch. Do not rinse the grains first — the surface starch is the point.
- Strain properlyA fine sieve leaves grit and broken grains behind; for a clean drink, pass it through a sieve lined with muslin or a coffee filter. Strain while hot, as the liquid thickens noticeably on cooling.
- The brandy"To taste" here means a small quantity; brandy was regarded in this period as a stimulant for invalids. It is entirely optional and inappropriate for children or anyone on medication; the drink is unharmed without it.
- RaisinsAdded at the start, they contribute sweetness and a faint fruit flavour; raisins also carried a traditional reputation as mildly laxative. Strain them out with the rice.
- Yield and keepingAbout two servings. Rice water is a starchy, low-acid liquid and spoils quickly — refrigerate promptly and use within a day, reheating to a simmer if serving hot.
- What it is notThis is a soothing, lightly caloric drink, not oral rehydration therapy or nutrition. Anyone genuinely unwell needs current medical advice, not sickroom cookery.
Nineteenth-century cookbooks commonly carried an "invalid cookery" chapter, because nursing the sick happened at home and the cook was expected to supply it: beef tea, barley water, gruel, arrowroot, toast water, and rice water. Rice water was among the plainest of them — something to give a patient who could keep almost nothing down. The reasoning behind it was old and largely sound in outline: starchy liquids are bland, easy to swallow, and supply fluid with a little energy, and rice water is still used in parts of Asia and Latin America as a domestic drink for upset stomachs. The brandy reflects a period conviction, since abandoned, that spirits were a restorative to be dosed like medicine. The instruction to boil in "a few raisins sometimes" is a reminder that these preparations were served over days and weeks, and that even a very plain drink had to be varied to remain drinkable.