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Boiled Rice
Clean and wash well quarter of a pound good rice; place it in a saucepan with a pint and a half cold water and a teaspoon salt; put the lid on and boil for twenty-two minutes. Drain through a colander, being careful to let it drain thoroughly without crushing the rice, otherwise it is liable to spoil. Return it to the pan, put the lid on, set it on the corner of the range for five minutes and serve as required.
This is the excess-water method: rice is boiled loose in plenty of salted water, drained, then dried out in its own steam. It still works, but the timing belongs to an older, coarser milling.
- QuantitiesA quarter pound of rice is about 115 g, or a generous half cup uncooked. A pint and a half is three cups in US measure, about 3 3/4 cups if the book is using imperial pints; boiling rice does not need precision here, since the surplus is poured off.
- The timing is the thingTwenty-two minutes will give you mush with modern long-grain white rice, which is done in 12 to 15 minutes from the boil. Start tasting a grain at 11 minutes and drain the moment the centre loses its chalkiness.
- Lid on, water boilingBecause the rice is drained rather than absorbed, keep the water at a true rolling boil and give the pan an occasional gentle stir at the start to stop grains sticking to the base. The lid can come partly off if it threatens to boil over.
- Draining without crushingThe warning is real. Do not press or shake the rice hard in the colander; let it sit and drip for a minute or two. Broken grains release starch and the finished dish turns gluey.
- "The corner of the range"On a coal range that meant the coolest spot on the top plate, where residual heat dried the rice without cooking it further. Use the lowest gas setting, or set the covered pan on a still-warm but switched-off electric element or in a 200F oven for five minutes.
- SaltA teaspoon in three cups of water is modest by current standards for boiled rice. Since most of it goes down the drain, season more freely if the rice is to be served plain.
- WashingRinsing in several changes of cold water until it runs nearly clear removes loose surface starch and keeps the grains separate. Skip it only if the package says the rice is enriched, since rinsing washes the coating away.
- YieldAbout 1 3/4 to 2 cups cooked, enough for two or three as a side dish.
Boiling rice in a large volume of salted water and draining it, rather than measuring water to be wholly absorbed, was widely used in European and Anglo-American professional kitchens into the twentieth century, and a parboil-and-drain technique underlies Persian chelow and some South Asian rice cookery as well, though absorption methods are also common there. It suits kitchens where rice quality varies: the cook does not need to know in advance how thirsty a given lot of grain will be, only when it is tender. The final covered rest away from direct heat lets trapped steam finish the grains and dry their surfaces so they fall apart loose on the plate.