FOOD NEWS
Why It's Important To Rinse Rice Before Cooking It
By Kimberley Laws
When it comes to cooking rice, there’s one rule that most people don’t adhere to — always rinse your rice before cooking it. However, rinsing your rice before cooking is quite important for many reasons, especially if you prefer your rice to be free of clumps, residues, and strange odors.
Unlike potatoes and pasta, rice travels from faraway corners of the globe to make it to your kitchen cupboard, and during these travels, the tiny grains rub against one another to create a dusty jacket around each granule. This is starch and, if not removed, it will transform your grains of rice into a gluey, clumpy mess.
According to Martha Stewart, rice's lengthy journey can also lead to it picking up "dirt, dust, debris, chemicals, and bugs," and sometimes, the manufacturing process can introduce undesirable things. Rinsing can also help remove heavy metals from your rice that get there when rice paddies are compromised by contaminated groundwater.
Additionally, rehydrating the rice via rinsing is actually a key secret to making perfect rice and can completely transform your final product. However, a failure to rinse your rice could leave your end product with an unpleasant odor and result in it going bad much more quickly, making it difficult for you to store it as leftovers.