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Rice Water No. 1
3 tablespoons rice 4 1/2 cups cold water Salt, sugar Milk Wash the rice thoroughly; add the cold water, and soak half an hour; heat to boiling point, and cook one hour or until the rice is tender. Strain. Season with salt and sugar.
A plain invalid's drink: rice simmered to exhaustion in a large volume of water, then strained. The method is undemanding, but a few details in the original need filling in.
- The milk is never mentioned againMilk appears in the ingredient list but not in the instructions. Presumably it was to be added to the strained liquid at serving, to taste, as with barley water. Add it cold or warmed, after seasoning.
- Cover the pot, and check the waterAn hour of open simmering will boil away a good part of 4 1/2 cups. Keep the lid on and the heat low; top up with hot water if the level drops much below the starting point, or the drink will be thick rather than a beverage.
- Which riceLong-grain white rice gives a lighter, cleaner liquid; short-grain or arborio releases far more starch and will produce something closer to thin gruel. The recipe does not specify, but ordinary polished white rice is the likeliest intention; parboiled or converted rice resists breaking down.
- StrainingA fine sieve is enough for a cloudy, slightly bodied drink. For a clearer result, pour through a sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth and do not press the grains, which forces starch through.
- SeasoningNo quantities are given. Start with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of sugar per cup and adjust; the point is to make the liquid palatable, not sweet. A strip of lemon peel or a small piece of cinnamon added during cooking is a period-appropriate variation.
- YieldExpect roughly 3 to 3 1/2 cups of strained liquid if the pot is not topped up, or two to three servings. It may thicken a little as it cools and can be thinned with a little hot water or milk if held.
- KeepingA starchy, low-acid liquid, especially once milk is added, spoils quickly. Refrigerate and use within a day.
Rice water belongs to the branch of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century cookery known as invalid cookery, which often occupied its own chapter in household manuals: thin gruels, barley water, beef tea, arrowroot and toast water, all intended for people who could not manage solid food. It is also one of the few such preparations that requires no meat stock. The drink is much older than the books that print it, being long used across Asia, the Caribbean and Europe both as a mild nourishing liquid and as a household remedy for digestive upset; the modern oral rehydration research of the twentieth century gave some support to the traditional use of rice-based fluids in that role, though the recipe here was written simply as something bland and easy to swallow.