5 ms·

I 'wash' my rice several times before it goes in the rice cooker. I wonder what percent of the arsenic I'm removing.

by clircle 8y ago

jayalpha 8y ago
All Chinese do.
- devnonymous 8y ago
  All Asians do AFAIK. Also, Indians (and perhaps a lot of south-asians) cook a lot with (ground/) parboiled rice.
  - GordonS 8y ago
    At least in India, I believe this is generally done to help wash out any grit - the same process is used for lentils too.
    - oska 8y ago
      Not so necessary now, with most rice and lentils (including in India) being passed through a sortex machine. [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUFe1et8qu8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUFe1et8qu8
  - selimthegrim 8y ago
    Do you mean poha?
    - sfifs 8y ago
      There's "raw" rice and there's parboiled rice. Parboiled rice is more nutritious. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parboiled_rice https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parboiled_rice Poha is flattened or beaten rice. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattened_rice https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattened_rice
      - chipperyman573 8y ago
        In the article about parboiled rice, it says that it's often called "easy-cook rice". Does this mean minute rice is better for you than regular rice?
        wolco 8y ago
        Could be less of one poison type depending on source but not healthier.
    - devnonymous 8y ago
      No, I meant rice that is usually preferred to made dosa/appam/idli batter.
duxup 8y ago
Handy for removing some starch too.
- mikekchar 8y ago
  Another reason for doing it is that the bran contains some fat. When you are washing the rice, one technique is to push down with your hand to cause the rice grains to rub against one another. This polishes the rice a little bit more and removes a bit more bran from the outside (including any potentially rancid fat). Unless you have ridiculously polished rice, there will always be a bit of bran on the outside, so it can potentially improve the flavour. I eat a lot of rice on its own (no sauce, etc) and I do find that washing it this way improves the flavour slightly.
walshemj 8y ago
Me to I normally leave it over night and rinse 3 or 4 times. I do use the 100g rice 100ml water method not sure if adding more water and steaming for longer would work or not.
gniv 8y ago
> I 'wash' my rice several times before it goes in the rice cooker. I wonder what percent of the arsenic I'm removing. Very little apparently: https://youtu.be/H_Lui1v2A1M?t=135 https://youtu.be/H_Lui1v2A1M?t=135
- youeseh 8y ago
  To add to that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LOVLoWqD7E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LOVLoWqD7E Btw, the parts pertinent to our discussion in this video is about arsenic and other contamination in rice and other foods. He also goes on to make observations about dietary changes in populations in East and far East, but knowing what we know about low-carb diets, those bits may be more controversial. He isn't wrong, he just provides a strong opinion without commenting on other methods of eating healthy =)
ianai 8y ago
I wonder if rinsing it helps remove the bacterial spores that can contaminate improperly cooled rice, too?
- harshreality 8y ago
  Very few medically significant bacterial spores survive boiling temperatures. Clostridium botulinum (botulism) is the common one, and it prefers an anaerobic environment (and other requirements: low salt and low acidity[1] — which is why home fermentation, done properly, avoids the risk) and not a lot of microbial competition, in order to get a foothold. Even if you ignore the standard recommendations, to refrigerate within 1-2 hours, and to toss refrigerated food after 4-5 days, contamination with less-hardy bacteria is far more likely if the food isn't sealed. You tend to have to go out of your way with unsafe canning[2] or fermenting[3] to get botulism poisoning. Food contamination is generally the result of airborne or insect-borne or utensil-borne microbes that are far less robust than botulinum. Typical contamination tends to occur after the food has been removed from heat, and has cooled enough so the microbes won't be killed almost instantly. Or, of course, if the food was improperly cooked and wasn't uniformly heated to sufficient temperature in the first place. [1] https://jfoodprotection.org/doi/pdf/10.4315/0362-028X-42.3.245 https://jfoodprotection.org/doi/pdf/10.4315/0362-028X-42.3.2... [2] https://www.cdc.gov/Mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6429a6.htm https://www.cdc.gov/Mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6429a6.htm [3] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5032a2.htm https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5032a2.htm

I 'wash' my rice several times before it goes in the rice cooker. I wonder what percent of the arsenic I'm removing.

jayalpha 8y ago

All Chinese do.

devnonymous 8y ago
All Asians do AFAIK. Also, Indians (and perhaps a lot of south-asians) cook a lot with (ground/) parboiled rice.
- GordonS 8y ago
  At least in India, I believe this is generally done to help wash out any grit - the same process is used for lentils too.
  - oska 8y ago
    Not so necessary now, with most rice and lentils (including in India) being passed through a sortex machine. [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUFe1et8qu8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUFe1et8qu8
- selimthegrim 8y ago
  Do you mean poha?
  - sfifs 8y ago
    There's "raw" rice and there's parboiled rice. Parboiled rice is more nutritious. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parboiled_rice https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parboiled_rice Poha is flattened or beaten rice. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattened_rice https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattened_rice
    - chipperyman573 8y ago
      In the article about parboiled rice, it says that it's often called "easy-cook rice". Does this mean minute rice is better for you than regular rice?
      - wolco 8y ago
        Could be less of one poison type depending on source but not healthier.
  - devnonymous 8y ago
    No, I meant rice that is usually preferred to made dosa/appam/idli batter.

duxup 8y ago

Handy for removing some starch too.

mikekchar 8y ago
Another reason for doing it is that the bran contains some fat. When you are washing the rice, one technique is to push down with your hand to cause the rice grains to rub against one another. This polishes the rice a little bit more and removes a bit more bran from the outside (including any potentially rancid fat). Unless you have ridiculously polished rice, there will always be a bit of bran on the outside, so it can potentially improve the flavour. I eat a lot of rice on its own (no sauce, etc) and I do find that washing it this way improves the flavour slightly.

walshemj 8y ago

Me to I normally leave it over night and rinse 3 or 4 times. I do use the 100g rice 100ml water method not sure if adding more water and steaming for longer would work or not.

gniv 8y ago

> I 'wash' my rice several times before it goes in the rice cooker. I wonder what percent of the arsenic I'm removing. Very little apparently: https://youtu.be/H_Lui1v2A1M?t=135 https://youtu.be/H_Lui1v2A1M?t=135

youeseh 8y ago
To add to that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LOVLoWqD7E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LOVLoWqD7E Btw, the parts pertinent to our discussion in this video is about arsenic and other contamination in rice and other foods. He also goes on to make observations about dietary changes in populations in East and far East, but knowing what we know about low-carb diets, those bits may be more controversial. He isn't wrong, he just provides a strong opinion without commenting on other methods of eating healthy =)

ianai 8y ago

I wonder if rinsing it helps remove the bacterial spores that can contaminate improperly cooled rice, too?

harshreality 8y ago
Very few medically significant bacterial spores survive boiling temperatures. Clostridium botulinum (botulism) is the common one, and it prefers an anaerobic environment (and other requirements: low salt and low acidity[1] — which is why home fermentation, done properly, avoids the risk) and not a lot of microbial competition, in order to get a foothold. Even if you ignore the standard recommendations, to refrigerate within 1-2 hours, and to toss refrigerated food after 4-5 days, contamination with less-hardy bacteria is far more likely if the food isn't sealed. You tend to have to go out of your way with unsafe canning[2] or fermenting[3] to get botulism poisoning. Food contamination is generally the result of airborne or insect-borne or utensil-borne microbes that are far less robust than botulinum. Typical contamination tends to occur after the food has been removed from heat, and has cooled enough so the microbes won't be killed almost instantly. Or, of course, if the food was improperly cooked and wasn't uniformly heated to sufficient temperature in the first place. [1] https://jfoodprotection.org/doi/pdf/10.4315/0362-028X-42.3.245 https://jfoodprotection.org/doi/pdf/10.4315/0362-028X-42.3.2... [2] https://www.cdc.gov/Mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6429a6.htm https://www.cdc.gov/Mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6429a6.htm [3] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5032a2.htm https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5032a2.htm