Do you rinse your rice before cooking it?

queenbellevue said:
Rice that has arsenic in it?? In the US?? You guys do realize that the US has mega strict rules for imports, right? I think maybe the news headlines just made that up. My country is right next to China, has super lax import rules, and there's never been a problem with the rice. With a lot of other stuff from China, but never rice
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If you read the article I linked to you would know why it has arsenic in it.

4. Rice has higher arsenic levels than other grains because of the way the rice plant grows, since it absorbs more water than other plants. Arsenic is released into the environment through fertilizers and pesticides, which are then absorbed as the plants grow.
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So the use of fertilisers and pesticides iare the main source of arsenic. But we are taking about minute amounts here. I expect the same could be said for say aluminium or any other heavy metal...
Yes the import laws are strict, but they still allow some arsenic in good because apart from anything else it is a naturally occurring element and impossible to completely get rid of in your diet. So import laws set maximum limit because the human body can handle certain amounts of arsenic, it is only possibly poisonous at a certain level/dosage.
 
We do at my house because it needs to be cleaned. If you wash it, the water gets white, so washing the rice does do something.
 
I've always been a rice-rinser too. Honestly I don't even know how or why it started - I'm assuming someone told me to do it for some reason, but I can't recall!

I thought it was something to do with getting excess starch off it, but who knows if that's the exact reason or my brain is making that up...
 
Yes I do. It is more out of habit than anything as I have always done it. I have no particular reason for doing it but I am glad I do anyway. Just a random habit!
 
We rinse the rice not once but twice to make sure that dirt is out. Sometimes the rice from the market is dirty with soil or tiny stones. There are times that we filter the rice - manually with our eyes - to check on foreign objects just to be sure that it would be clean before cooking. And after rinsing with water twice, we let it stand for 5 minutes or so before cooking. That would give way for the rice to be soaked with water for faster cooking. And with the rice cooker, the cooking time is noticeably lessened.
 
I grew up watching my mom rinsing the rice before she cooked it so I do it too. I thin it removes some of the starch so it's not so sticky which is the way I like to eat rice. I also learned from my mom when you are "washing"/rinsing the rice to look for black little pebbles in the rice and remove it from the rice.
 
I always do, just as my mom and nana always rinsed rice before they prepared it, when I was growing up. Although, I'll be honest sometimes I'll just use Uncle Ben's microwavable rice for convenience.
 
I think it is ok not to rinse it but I am in the habit of rinsing everything that I cook. I actually rinse it two to three times to remove whatever dirt it might have in there.
 
If it comes in a package, then I wouldn't bother. I might rinse it if I bought it scooped out of a sack in a market. I lost a filling once from a stone in lentils that I bought that way, though the chances are that rinsing the lentils beforehand wouldn't have made any difference.
 
Duck59 said:
If it comes in a package, then I wouldn't bother. I might rinse it if I bought it scooped out of a sack in a market. I lost a filling once from a stone in lentils that I bought that way, though the chances are that rinsing the lentils beforehand wouldn't have made any difference.
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Those packets aren't as clean as you may first think. The will have a coating, applied at the factory at the time of manufacture, that may have worked its way onto the rice.
Dry rice in a bag is ideal for soaking any water up when its been spilt on say your mobile.

As an aside the word spilt isn't recognised.
 
classic33 said:
Those packets aren't as clean as you may first think. The will have a coating, applied at the factory at the time of manufacture, that may have worked its way onto the rice.
Dry rice in a bag is ideal for soaking any water up when its been spilt on say your mobile.

As an aside the word spilt isn't recognised.
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I work on the basis that I'm going to boil the rice and rinse it after boiling, so it seems rather pointless to rinse it first.

The joys of US English, I'm afraid. Use a word like realise and you'll get the red line of death. Put realize and you're okay.
 
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Rice is boiled so it doesn't seem important to rinse it. That being said, I have heard that it contains arsenic as well. I don't tend to eat a lot of rice so I don't really worry about it. I think you would have to eat rice on a daily basis, and probably a lot of it to have ill effects from eating rice. I just don't see it as being a problem. I also don't tend to use packets of rice, I just use the rice that comes in bags.
 
Always. I think it's only proper especially when you gey your rice in the local market. Dirt residue and insects sometimes get on there and I'm just being safe. I also don't buy rice that isn't organic because protecting yourself from GMOs is also very important. Organic might cost more but it's worth it for your health.
 
I always rinse my rice prior to cooking it. I found that it helps avoid a lot of the stickiness that comes with making rice. It's also just something that I've learned to do over the years. I couldn't give you a "real" list of reasons, but I know that you're "supposed" to rinse it out. I remember one time not doing so and the results weren't as great as I'd liked. I ended up with sticky weird-textured rice.
 
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