Rice. Can you tell the difference?
- Thread starter kirei_na_me
- Start date
joaniedark
Little Gothy Crazyface
- 1 Feb 2008
- 23
- 0
I can't tell the difference between brands, but I can tell the difference between origin countries. If I'm having plain rice, I prefer the kind from India, for example, though it is not at all suitable for sushi or sticky rice.
- 23 Sep 2005
- 1,295
- 76
I can tell the difference between the different varieties of rice, but i do find difficulty in telling difference between the taste of different brands of rice.
Since the cooking of rice has been raised in this thread, i would like to comment on a few things;
1.a. Now days you do not have to wash rice, people did this in the olden days when it was often quite dirty/dusty, but now days almost all rice sold in shops is pre-cleaned and so there is no need to wash it yourself after buying it- i've also heard that washing pre-washed rice can also make it loose some of its nutrients.
1.b. I used to have difficulty cooking rice in the past, but i would say i am pretty good at cooking it now i have honed my methods to better perfection.
My way of cooking rice;
a. Measure out 100ml's of rice- 100ml's/1 cup of rice equals one decent sized portion roughly.
b. Get your saucepan- the more surface area it has on the bottom the better. Put a tiny amount of oil (i personally use olive oil) in the bottom of the pan- this will help prevent the rice sticking to the bottom of the pan and also help flavor it. If you want, you can also add a small handful of finely chopped white onion.
c. Heat the pan up to a medium to high heat- if you've added chopped onion, fry it in the small amount of oil in the pan until it starts to soften, then add the rice and stir the rice in the pan to help coat it in oil. If you are not using onion, then as soon as the pan is hot enough, just stir the rice in the oil to coat it in the oil.
d. Once you've done this add cold water to the rice- the amount of water you use depends on the amount of rice you are cooking, generally speaking, you should use twice as much water as you use rice (so 100mls of rice needs 200mls of water).
e. As soon as you've added the water, turn the heat on the hob down to the lowest setting and put the lid on the pan.
f. After you've done this, just leave the rice alone to let it cook.
Try and refrain from stirring the rice like you would with pasta- the steam/heat which builds up in the saucepan once the lid on it has been put on and the temp has been turned down on the hob is crucial to cooking the rice well (and preventing it from drying out), so if you take the lid off you will loose a lot of this important steam.
Also, rice releases starch easily when it is stirred, and if you stir it while cooking it will release a lot of starch which will make the rice stick together in a bad and un-tasty way.
As long as you use the right amount of water and cook the rice on the right heat (and use a little oil too), it should not stick to the bottom of the pan even when the rice has absorbed almost all of the water.
g. How long the rice takes to cook depends on the variety. Basimati (sp?) rice can take as little as 15mins to cook, while short grain rices can take as long as 30mins to cook.
h. When the rice looks cooked enough, remove the pan from the heat and fluff up the rice with a spoon (preferably wooden) and leave it to steam/cool off in the pan a bit with the lid taken off the pan for about 10mins. Then serve
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i. I found a lot of difficulty finding Japanese varieties of rice where i live, however i have found that risotto rice makes a good substitute for short grain Japanese white sticky rice.
If you want to make sushi, its vital you use a sticky rice (short grain white risotto rice can be used if you can't find any Japanese rice) and you will need to add a special warm rice wine vinegar solution (i think it has salt and sugar in it, i have a recipe for it somewhere) to the rice after its cooked to help give it a glossy look and authentic flavor.
Since the cooking of rice has been raised in this thread, i would like to comment on a few things;
1.a. Now days you do not have to wash rice, people did this in the olden days when it was often quite dirty/dusty, but now days almost all rice sold in shops is pre-cleaned and so there is no need to wash it yourself after buying it- i've also heard that washing pre-washed rice can also make it loose some of its nutrients.
1.b. I used to have difficulty cooking rice in the past, but i would say i am pretty good at cooking it now i have honed my methods to better perfection.
My way of cooking rice;
a. Measure out 100ml's of rice- 100ml's/1 cup of rice equals one decent sized portion roughly.
b. Get your saucepan- the more surface area it has on the bottom the better. Put a tiny amount of oil (i personally use olive oil) in the bottom of the pan- this will help prevent the rice sticking to the bottom of the pan and also help flavor it. If you want, you can also add a small handful of finely chopped white onion.
c. Heat the pan up to a medium to high heat- if you've added chopped onion, fry it in the small amount of oil in the pan until it starts to soften, then add the rice and stir the rice in the pan to help coat it in oil. If you are not using onion, then as soon as the pan is hot enough, just stir the rice in the oil to coat it in the oil.
d. Once you've done this add cold water to the rice- the amount of water you use depends on the amount of rice you are cooking, generally speaking, you should use twice as much water as you use rice (so 100mls of rice needs 200mls of water).
e. As soon as you've added the water, turn the heat on the hob down to the lowest setting and put the lid on the pan.
f. After you've done this, just leave the rice alone to let it cook.
Try and refrain from stirring the rice like you would with pasta- the steam/heat which builds up in the saucepan once the lid on it has been put on and the temp has been turned down on the hob is crucial to cooking the rice well (and preventing it from drying out), so if you take the lid off you will loose a lot of this important steam.
Also, rice releases starch easily when it is stirred, and if you stir it while cooking it will release a lot of starch which will make the rice stick together in a bad and un-tasty way.
As long as you use the right amount of water and cook the rice on the right heat (and use a little oil too), it should not stick to the bottom of the pan even when the rice has absorbed almost all of the water.
g. How long the rice takes to cook depends on the variety. Basimati (sp?) rice can take as little as 15mins to cook, while short grain rices can take as long as 30mins to cook.
h. When the rice looks cooked enough, remove the pan from the heat and fluff up the rice with a spoon (preferably wooden) and leave it to steam/cool off in the pan a bit with the lid taken off the pan for about 10mins. Then serve
.i. I found a lot of difficulty finding Japanese varieties of rice where i live, however i have found that risotto rice makes a good substitute for short grain Japanese white sticky rice.
If you want to make sushi, its vital you use a sticky rice (short grain white risotto rice can be used if you can't find any Japanese rice) and you will need to add a special warm rice wine vinegar solution (i think it has salt and sugar in it, i have a recipe for it somewhere) to the rice after its cooked to help give it a glossy look and authentic flavor.
I think we're conflating multiple topics here. Everyone can tell the difference between basmatii rice and tamaki rice - the two species are completely different in size, shape, and texture. Try eating indian curry with tamaki rice, versus gyudon with basmatii rice and tell me it doesn't matter. That's the difference between two *distant species* of rice. Nobody should be claiming that black wild rice is the same as any other rice. The nutrition content and flavor is completely different and scientifically proven.
Whereas on the other extreme, some people will claim that there is no difference between two different producers of the exact same species of rice, or a very similar species of rice (i.e. siblings rather than distant cousins). I can see how some people may believe this regardless of facts, because it's really a question of degree. But there can be important differences.
To use a Western example, it would be like saying there's no difference in wheat. In reality, it is scientifically proven and common industrial knowledge that the exact same species of wheat grown in the exact same plot of dirt will vary tremendously in gluten content depending on the season grown. So the same farm that produces two or three harvests of wheat will produce both high gluten wheat and low gluten wheat. The high gluten wheat will make awesome bagels, and the low gluten wheat will make horrible bagels. And yes as a matter of fact you can taste the difference, and you can chemically prove it.
People who deny that not all wheat was created equal probably have never been on a farm and probably also think pigs will never try to mate with the same gender. The absence of personal knowledge to the contrary isn't really meaningful when the facts are common and provable knowledge to people making and consuming these products.
Take sticky rice for example. It's actually sticky, and much sweeter than regular rice. You can see it for yourself. Even cooked plain, a blind taste test quickly verifies the difference. Try making a chimaki with regular rice and it would suck if you know the real thing - the texture, the sweetness, the overall flavor.
So giving people the benefit of the doubt, what they're probably actually talking about is the distinction between the same species of rice - for example grown in Japan vs. grown in China. I'd say the difference would be fairly small, although still in that case safety and contamination is a factor. Consistency of the grain and proper storage is also paramount, which is more a function of handling than growing. Again to say there's no difference is simply puzzling. But I guess the Burmese government had no trouble passing off moldy crumbling rice as perfectly edible. =)
What is true is if you buy "new harvest Akita rice", you're going to pay a premium and have some difficulty justifying the expense. That's especially the case for people who see it from a Chinese department store where the markup is 8x from the price you'd find in Japan. Though in that case, it's more a novelty item or luxury akin to drinking tea out of fancy cups and plates - a premium simply will exist for that. That said, for the average person the real better rice isn't that much more expensive. Some places do try to put special branding names to make good rice seem better than it is, but that doesn't mean there isn't a difference between good and bad rice or rice species.
Just to add, I've personally grown and harvested rice as a hobby. As a kid, my parents laughed at me when I suggested we eat it for dinner - all twenty grains.
Let it be known that that rice was an example bad rice - harvested too soon. Some places will produce nothing but bad rice, simply because of weather/sun problems that harvest. If it's China, they will definitely package it as rice and it's edible but that doesn't mean there isn't a difference.
Grow bad rice yourself and eat it if you want to prove me wrong. It's easier than it sounds!=)
Let it be known that that rice was an example bad rice - harvested too soon. Some places will produce nothing but bad rice, simply because of weather/sun problems that harvest. If it's China, they will definitely package it as rice and it's edible but that doesn't mean there isn't a difference.
Grow bad rice yourself and eat it if you want to prove me wrong. It's easier than it sounds!=)
This is an example of a big difference in rice, but a lot of it is due to the calrose rice species. Calrose was engineered to grow with less moisture requirements than typical Japanese rice, hence that's what we grow in California. So it's both species and moisture - growing Calrose in Japan makes as much sense as growing cactus in the tropics but if you did it the Calrose would still taste different than Japanese rice but not as much.
I never considered that Japanese have their "own rice". Calrose is a relatively modern rice designed to be cheap and grown where traditional rice won't grow. It's stickier which let's you make budget sushi rice and chimaki, something you wouldn't do with standard Japanese rice. They use their own version of Calrose for that - in Chinese that word translates to Calrose. =)
Lledargo
先輩
- 14 Jul 2010
- 486
- 12
I can generally tell the difference between brands of rice. I wouldn't be able to tell you the brand name, but different brands sometimes have different qualities and there is also the differences between sticky and non sticky rice. My favorite kind of rice is jasmine rice, don't ask me the brand name though because I couldn't tell you off the top of my head.
