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Rice Pilau
Throw half a pound of rice into a saucepan with plenty of cold water, add a small lump of salt and place it over the fire till it boils. After the rice has cooked for five minutes drain off the water, freshen it with cold water, drain that off also, cover the rice with a thick folded-cloth and leave it by the edge of the fire until swollen and soft. Put one-half pound of fresh butter into a basin and place it in the oven or near the fire until dissolved, then remove any scum that may have gathered on the top, and pour the butter over the rice. It is then ready for serving.
A parboil-then-steam method that predates the electric rice cooker and still works: the rice is shocked, drained and left to swell in its own residual heat. The one thing to fix is the fat, which is written for a hotel chafing dish rather than a home plate.
- The hinge: drain early, steam dryThe five-minute boil is short — the grains will still have a firm core when the water goes. The rest of the cooking happens away from direct heat, at the edge of the fire, under a cloth that absorbs steam and helps keep the grains separate. Boil it through and you risk a wet mass.
- Half a pound of riceAbout 1 1/4 cups of raw long-grain rice, yielding roughly 4 cups cooked. Use basmati or another long grain; short-grain and arborio will go sticky under this treatment.
- "Freshen it with cold water"A rinse under cold running water to stop the cooking and wash off loose surface starch. Drain it thoroughly — standing water at this stage will waterlog the steam.
- "By the edge of the fire"The cool margin of a coal or wood range — a warm spot rather than a heat source. The recipe gives no temperature; a workable modern equivalent is a covered pot in a very low oven (around 200F) for 20-25 minutes, or simply the covered pot on a turned-off burner. Put a folded tea towel under the lid to catch condensation.
- Half a pound of butterTwo full sticks for 1 1/4 cups of rice — restaurant richness, and far more than most cooks want. Three to four tablespoons coats the grains properly; scale up from there to taste.
- "Remove any scum"The recipe asks only that you skim the foam of milk solids off the melted butter. Take it a step further — pour off the clear yellow fat and leave the milky sediment behind — and you have clarified butter, which coats without leaving the rice speckled or tasting scorched.
- SaltSalt was commonly sold in blocks or loaves, so "a small lump" was probably a piece broken from one. Salt the water as you would for pasta — but the water is drained and the rice then rinsed, so very little seasoning stays; season again after the butter goes on.
- YieldServes four to six as a side dish.
Pilau is the English spelling, common through the nineteenth century, of a word that reaches English through Turkish pilav and Persian polow, and the technique here — parboil, drain, steam, enrich with butter — is recognisably the Persian and Turkish approach rather than the Italian risotto or the Spanish paella, where the grain absorbs its liquid in the pan. By Oscar Tschirky's day the dish had been thoroughly absorbed into the repertoire of grand hotel cookery, where it served as a plain, obliging accompaniment to curries, braised meats and anything with a sauce. The absence of onion, spice or stock is telling: this is the Waldorf's neutral starch, built to be dressed by whatever it sits beside, and the lavish half-pound of butter is the only luxury the recipe allows itself.