Home › Rice Is Nice › Boiling Rice Over a Hot Fire
Boiling Rice Over a Hot Fire
I CUP RICE 2 TEASPOONS SALT 2 QUARTS BOILING WATER Wash rice thoroughly in several waters. Drain. Have boiling water ready in a deep saucepan, add salt, slowly drop in rice, and allow it to boil for from 12 to 20 minutes, or until a grain when pressed between the thumb and finger is entirely soft. In order to prevent the rice from sticking to pan, lift, if necessary, from time to time with a fork, but do not stir it. When sufficiently cooked, turn rice into a colander or sieve. A little hot water may be run through rice to wash off extra starch. After water has drained off, cover with a cloth and set over a pan of hot water on back of stove or in oven; or turn rice into a shallow pan, and place it in a warm oven for a short time. Treated in this way, the grains swell and are kept separate. This is the best method for cabin and galley stoves burning kerosene, gasoline or alcohol, since the secret of its success is to keep the water boiling like fury.
For the campfire, however, the following method is preferable:
This is the open-kettle method: rice boiled loose in a large volume of salted water, drained, then dried out in gentle heat. It is closer to cooking pasta than to the absorption method most modern cooks use, and it works well when you cannot control a flame precisely.
- The hingeKeep the water at a hard, rolling boil the whole time. If it drops to a simmer the grains settle, mat and stick, which is exactly what the no-stirring rule is meant to prevent.
- Do not stirStirring abrades the starch off the outside of the grains and turns the surface gluey. Lifting with a fork breaks up any raft on the bottom without that damage.
- Timing depends on the riceTwelve to twenty minutes is the range the recipe gives. Modern long-grain white will usually be done in 10 to 13 minutes; brown rice needs 30 to 40 and is not suited to this recipe's timing. Test by pressing a grain, as directed.
- Washing"Several waters" means rinsing until the water runs nearly clear, however many changes that takes. With enriched rice sold in the US today the rinse also removes some of the added vitamin coating, which is a fair trade for separate grains.
- Water quantityTwo quarts to one cup of rice is deliberate excess, and the point is thermal mass: the pot barely loses its boil when the rice goes in. Do not scale the water down.
- The drying stepA modern oven at its lowest setting, for five to ten minutes, stands in for the back of the stove. A covered pan set over barely simmering water works as well.
- SaltTwo teaspoons in two quarts is light seasoning for the water; most of it drains away. Salt the finished rice to taste.
- YieldOne cup of raw rice gives roughly three cups cooked, enough for four as a side dish.