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Southern Rice
After thoroughly washing and rubbing the rice, put it in salted water enough to cover it twice over, in a custard-kettle, or tin pail set in a kettle of boiling water; cover the whole closely for fifteen or twenty minutes, until the grains of rice are full and plump but not "mushy;" drain off all the water possible, and replace rice in the kettle, allowing it to cook for half an hour longer, when it is ready to serve. The grains should be full and soft, and each one retain its form perfectly. During the last half hour it should be occasionally stirred lightly with a fork, and it is improved by standing on the back of the stove a few minutes before serving. - Mrs. P. T. Morey, Charleston, S. C.
This is rice cooked entirely by indirect heat, which is why the long timing works: nothing in the pot ever exceeds the temperature of the surrounding boiling water. The method is slow but nearly unburnable.
- Custard-kettleA custard-kettle is a double boiler. The alternative given — a tin pail set in a kettle of boiling water — is the same idea improvised; a heatproof bowl or a smaller saucepan set in a larger one of simmering water does the job. Keep the water in the outer vessel topped up over the whole 45-50 minutes of cooking.
- "Water enough to cover it twice over"This means water standing to about twice the depth of the rice; how many cups that comes to depends on the vessel. Because the excess is poured off partway through, the ratio is not critical here as it would be in an absorption method.
- Washing and rubbingRubbing the grains under running water until it runs clear removes surface starch and is the reason the finished grains stay separate. It matters more with long-grain Carolina-style rice than with modern parboiled rice, which needs no washing.
- The hinge: drain, then steam dryThe half hour after draining is a steaming stage, not a boiling one. The pot goes back over the water with the lid on and the residual moisture finishes the grains. Skipping it gives wet rice; this is what produces the "full and soft" texture the recipe promises.
- Timing in a modern potFifteen to twenty minutes over the water will only partly cook plain long-grain rice; the recipe wants the grains full and plump but not mushy at the point of draining. If you use a direct flame instead of a double boiler, the whole process collapses to about 18 minutes covered plus 10 minutes off the heat, and the long second stage is unnecessary.
- Stirring with a forkA fork separates grains; a spoon crushes them and releases starch. Lift from the bottom rather than stirring in circles.
- "Back of the stove"On a wood range this was the coolest area, used for holding food warm. The modern equivalent is the lidded pot off the heat, or a 200F oven, for five to ten minutes.
- Yield1 cup of raw rice gives about 3 cups cooked, enough for four as a side dish. Salt the water at about 1 teaspoon per quart.
Rice was the defining crop of the South Carolina lowcountry from the late seventeenth century until the industry collapsed in the decades after the Civil War, and Charleston cooks were credited nationally with knowing how to handle it. The mark of a Charleston rice dish was often said to be separate, dry, distinct grains — as against the sticky or creamy results prized in other rice cultures — and the double-boiler method here, along with the fork and the final rest, is entirely in service of that ideal. That a contributor is identified by her Charleston address is part of the point: the city's name was itself a guarantee on a rice recipe. The special-purpose "custard-kettle" in the instructions also says something about the period kitchen, where a range's heat was difficult to regulate downward and indirect cooking over water was the ordinary way to achieve gentleness.