Do you WASH YOUR RICE before you use it?

Question

My Indian friend, Raj Kumar used to comment on how dirty or clean the rice was wherever he would eat. Do you think cleaning your rice by rinsing it improves it? Raj thought so!

Answer 1

Yes, I wash/rinse most grains and lentils before soaking or cooking them. Its mostly to get rid of any dust or dirt in the air that may have accumulated on the grains while in storage.

Easiest way to make sure its well rinsed is to put the grains in a big strainer, rinse the grains while they are in the strainer. Then you may want to give it a quick pre soak by placing whats in the strainer into a large cup or pan. Fill up the pan/cup with water, let the grains sit in there for a half a minute and them pour out the water (mind you, make sure you have rinsed the grains in the strainer first or there'd be too much residue to make the quick pre soak worthwhile. Or ya can skip the pre soak and just use the strainer to rinse.)

Answer 2

THIS IS A GREAT QUESTION!!!!!!!
I am a cook and have been so for 23-24 years now.
In a cooking industry I am SO use to everything having been processed for saftey I take it granted. So I NEVER washed the rice before because the products were always, ummm how can I say "processed" or "american-ized", or they just come a Certified Food Vendor or Distribuator.
BUT when I married my wife (she's Indonesian) I SAW her washing it before it was cooked. So I was puzzled and I asked I got the "it's dirty" thing... I'm like NO it's Uncle Ben's (wahaha what a joke now). But I have realized that since I have been going to Atlanta the last 3 years to buy Asian foods (and yeah, LOTS of RICE!) Rice comes in Different qualitys of acceptance. Some are OVER processed and some are underprocessed (umm more natural state, if you will) and I noticed it has different grades also.
**grades don't always mean cleaner**
BUT I THINK THIS... Back in the day when rice was becoming a import/export and then when it was traded say from the Mountans where they don't grow it to the wet areas in the flater areas it probably WAS dirty and need to be washed and sorted through... so through thousands and thousands of years of HAVING to wash it, most Asian and other BIG rice eatin` Countries (My best friends wife from Mexico I saw her doing it recently) they was it automatically... great great great etc grandmother did it 3 times a day so daughter ..so grandaughter did etc.
I think MOST industralized countries we are so use to thinking that machines are cleaning and sorting it and then saying "ehhhhh" It's clean because we trust agencies like the USDA to keep us safe we take it granted that is indeed clean.

I can only guess...
OK that's my 2 cents on THAT.

PS. But 80% of americans think there are like only 3 kinds of rice.. white, brown and Uncle Ben's. LMAO (but true)

Answer 3

Rice is commonly mixed with a powder not unlike chalk in order to absorb moisture and stop clumping and insect infestation during storage. Other sources of contaminants are abrasive powders added during some parts of the polishing process for white rice.

Rice should be washed two to three times and stirred whilst under water in order to get rid of as much of this as possible. You will observe thick and dirty water coming off from the first wash and cleaner water by the third. This is no different to washing apples before eating them to remove pesticides and polishes.

Of course - if you buy organic brown rice then it only needs a quick rinse to remove any unwanted insect life.

Answer 4

I don't. The rice companies put vitamins and nutrients on the outside of the rice. Washing it takes everything but the carbs out of the rice. You might as well just eat a cardboard box instead. I took nutrition in college!

Answer 5

I've taken to washing it as well (unless making risotto).

It's appalling how much rinses off, and amazing how fluffy the rice is after cooking, if it's been rinsed. I believe it's because the outside excess starch and powdered rice (what washes off when you rinse before cooking) use to clump the rice kernals together.

Cheers

Answer 6

Rice has more starch... and catches dirt very easily... If its kept in moisture for a while it gets damped very easily.. just imagine if its packed in jute bags...

its better to wash the rice atleast once before you cook it...

for better cooking... wash teh rice and fill with necessary contnet of water and leave it for atleast 15 minutes... then the rice will cook well...

I eat a lot of rice... I am an Indian too

Answer 7

Usually rice has an amount of excess starch which is left on the grain. If your recipe calls for sticky rice, do not rinse as much as if you were making an ordinary pot of rice.

Answer 8

My mother always washed the rice before cooking. I don't as I figure I am putting it into boiling water for several minutes. If you read the bag it does say that for enriched rice, rice to which vitimins have been added, should not be washed.

Answer 9

I have never rinse them before boiling. But I think that boiling must be enough to kill the germs.... I don´t even wash a steak of beef and I don´t know where has it been before being in my frying pan either, so I think that if it´s necessary to rinse rice we should rinse all the food before eating because we never know where have all of them been before.

Answer 10

Indian ppl and many other nationalities..do wash their rice, get the starch off of it...and some rice needs to be soaked overnight*

5min rice doesn't need to be washed up tho*