Ask me about rice.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about rice.

Coasterphreak: May 29, 2007; I like cookies.

There aren�t a ton of Indian people where I�m at (bumfuck SC) but you bet your rear end I�ve been pestering the local Hispanic and East Asian people I encounter and/or work with. Picked up a couple tips, including which ethnic supermarkets locally carry rice work a drat and which just sell garbage.

# ? Mar 22, 2024 03:22

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# ? May 1, 2024 13:48

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

dino. posted:

From what I recall, the fortification issue is less to do with the manufacturer wanting to do a thing, and more with legislation. Somewhere I read that all the cereal companies and white bread makers had to enrich their products with vitamins and minerals that were stripped away in the milling process when turning it into white ____ grain product. I believe rice in the USA may have been caught up in that same wave of concern.

IMO, no manufacturer is going to voluntarily increase their costs (by fortifying food) if they don�t have to, because those added back in vitamins and whatnot are not free, nor are the processes to add them to the food. That said, if you�re eating more than just plain white rice, you don�t really need to worry about washing away the artificially added vitamins and minerals. You�re going to get more than enough nutrition from other food you�re eating. Let your rice be a starchy delicious thing, and let the rest of your food do the nutritional heavy lifting instead.

The enriched rice standard is available at 21 CFR 137.350.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-137/subpart-B/section-137.350

Of note the standard includes the requirement that unless the packaging says the rice shouldn't be washed, the fortification has to meet specs to ensure a sufficient amount of the enriched substances are retained if it's washed per AOAC methods. I believe milled rice doesn't technically have to be enriched, but there is significant market and public health pressure to do so and it's common practice.

I want to note my disagreement with the idea that you shouldn't care about fortification- it was done because absent the fortification, people who had diets heavy in the fortified foods would, in fact, develop nutrient deficiency conditions, and additionally, fortification programs compensate for substances that aren't predictably naturally occurring in even relatively balanced diets- folic acid being the big example, ending the incidence of an entire category of birth defects. The amount of fortification required is periodically updated to reflect improvements and changes in scientific evidence (though it's slowed due to a lack of stable research funding and general decay of research programs under Republican sabotage). Like vaccines, these are programs that operate mostly silently and vastly reduce human suffering.

# ? Mar 22, 2024 07:49

mawarannahr: May 21, 2019

Discendo Vox posted:

The enriched rice standard is available at 21 CFR 137.350.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-137/subpart-B/section-137.350

Of note the standard includes the requirement that unless the packaging says the rice shouldn't be washed, the fortification has to meet specs to ensure a sufficient amount of the enriched substances are retained if it's washed per AOAC methods. I believe milled rice doesn't technically have to be enriched, but there is significant market and public health pressure to do so and it's common practice.

I want to note my disagreement with the idea that you shouldn't care about fortification- it was done because absent the fortification, people who had diets heavy in the fortified foods would, in fact, develop nutrient deficiency conditions, and additionally, fortification programs compensate for substances that aren't predictably naturally occurring in even relatively balanced diets- folic acid being the big example, ending the incidence of an entire category of birth defects. The amount of fortification required is periodically updated to reflect improvements and changes in scientific evidence (though it's slowed due to a lack of stable research funding and general decay of research programs under Republican sabotage). Like vaccines, these are programs that operate mostly silently and vastly reduce human suffering.

Thank you for sharing; the regulatory perspective and reasoning is interesting.

# ? Mar 22, 2024 07:56

VictualSquid: Feb 29, 2012; Gently enveloping the target with indiscriminate love.

I would be interested in knowing how they prevent the washing off of the fortification.
Do they just put a lot on the rice, or make it insoluble in cold water, or let it soak in?

# ? Mar 22, 2024 09:35

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

VictualSquid posted:

I would be interested in knowing how they prevent the washing off of the fortification.
Do they just put a lot on the rice, or make it insoluble in cold water, or let it soak in?

I'm not knowledgeable about that as much; there's a WHO guideline on rice fortification that does include some discussion of other fortification practices (with the caveat that WHO docs are sometimes very poor quality and there are other issues with this one):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK531758/

# ? Mar 22, 2024 10:22

dino.: Mar 28, 2010; Yip Yip, bitch.

Discendo, I�m with you in that I�m down with fortification as a general rule when food has been altered to remove it. The beriberi outbreak in China was no joke. In populations where you see the consumption of those nutrient poor foods comprise the staple of the diet, those vitamins and minerals aren�t a trivial matter. They�re necessary.

However if you are eating a varied diet, that isn�t 90%+ rice cooked in a lot of water to stretch it out, you�re likely gonna be fine washing the added fortification down the drain. That is smart though that the added stuff isn�t soluble in water, per the fascinating document you linked. That hella makes sense when you look at it.

# ? Mar 22, 2024 10:49

VictualSquid: Feb 29, 2012; Gently enveloping the target with indiscriminate love.

lol:

quote:

Hot extrusion: dough made of rice flour, vitamin/mineral mix, and water is passed through a single- or twin-screw extruder that cuts it into grain-like structures that resemble rice grains. Hot extrusion involves relatively high temperatures (70–110 °C), obtained by preconditioning and/or heat transfer through steam-heated barrel jackets. It results in fully or partially precooked simulated rice-like grains that have a similar appearance (sheen and transparency) to unfortified rice kernels

Remember that meme video about sushi, where they decorate that the cheapest sushi actually uses pasta.

VictualSquid fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Mar 22, 2024

# ? Mar 22, 2024 10:56

dirby: Sep 21, 2004; Helping goons with math

VictualSquid posted:

Remember that meme video about sushi, where they decorate that the cheapest sushi actually uses pasta.

# ? Mar 22, 2024 17:09

MeatRocket8: Aug 3, 2011

In a general questions thread, I asked if rice should not be rinsed, because doing so washes away whatever the powder is than makes rice enrinched. Then another goon said, dude, someone just asked that question in the last page. Weird coincidence. They probably watched the same youtube video as me where an asian cook talked about that.

99 percent of white people don't know how much better quality white japanese rice is from the cheap poo poo.

MeatRocket8 fucked around with this message at 17:28 on Mar 22, 2024

# ? Mar 22, 2024 17:26

mystes: May 31, 2006

MeatRocket8 posted:

In a general questions thread, I asked if rice should not be rinsed, because doing so washes away whatever the powder is than makes rice enrinched. Then another goon said, dude, someone just asked that question in the last page. Weird coincidence. They probably watched the same youtube video as me where an asian cook talked about that.

99 percent of white people don't know how much better quality white japanese rice is from the cheap poo poo.

I mean if you read the packaging for enriched rice it probably says not to wash it, so it's not something you would need to have watched a specific YouTube video for.

# ? Mar 22, 2024 17:41

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

The point of my response above was that both a) the fortification of enriched rice is commonly intended to be able to withstand washing one way or another, and b) the fortification is not just meant to compensate for deficiencies in the immediate rice if eaten as part of an incomplete diet.

# ? Mar 23, 2024 00:38

bob dobbs is dead: Oct 8, 2017; I love peeps; Nap Ghost

neural tube defect (caused by folic acid deficiency) incidence

so like 0.2% of hispanic peeps' fetuses were saved. in births, spina bifida in specific affected 0.05% of general full term births before fortification, 0.035% after

bob dobbs is dead fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Mar 23, 2024

# ? Mar 23, 2024 04:16

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

The key findings from that mmwr:

quote:

The birth prevalence of NTDs during the post-fortification period has remained relatively stable since the initial reductions observed during 1999�2000, immediately after mandatory folic acid fortification in the United States. The updated estimate of approximately 1,300 NTD-affected births averted annually during the post-fortification period is slightly higher than the previously published estimate (3). Factors that could have helped contribute to the difference include a gradual increase in the number of annual live births in the United States during the post-fortification period and data variations caused by differences in surveillance methodology. The lifetime direct costs for a child with spina bifida are estimated at $560,000, and for anencephaly (a uniformly fatal condition), the estimate is $5,415 (4); multiplying these costs by the NTD case estimates translates to an annual saving in total direct costs of approximately $508 million for the NTD-affected births that were prevented.

[...]
What is added by this report?

The prevalence of NTDs during the post-fortification period has remained relatively stable since the initial reduction observed immediately after mandatory folic acid fortification in the United States. Using the observed prevalence estimates of NTDs during 1999�2011, an updated estimate of the number of births occurring annually without NTDs that would otherwise have been affected is 1,300.

What are the implications for public health practice?

Current fortification efforts should be maintained to prevent folic acid�sensitive NTDs from occurring. There are still opportunities for prevention among women with lower folic acid intakes, especially among Hispanic women, to further reduce the prevalence of NTDs in the United States.

This is, to be clear, the direct costs of the most easily measured outcomes of one category of fortification not tied to the direct commodity preexisting nutrients.

# ? Mar 23, 2024 05:43

dino.: Mar 28, 2010; Yip Yip, bitch.

dirby posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDL8yu34fz0

# ? Mar 24, 2024 01:36

Decoy Badger: May 16, 2009

How does modern rice milling work and what happens to the by-products?

# ? Mar 25, 2024 21:36

dino.: Mar 28, 2010; Yip Yip, bitch.

Decoy Badger posted:

How does modern rice milling work and what happens to the by-products?

So there's a How It's Made video that goes through the steps really nicely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ray8LsGvvgQ

For the husks, they're mixed with various other things, and composted into fertilizer. The bran is sold off to make rice bran oil or to be used in animal feed. Then when the rice is polished into white rice, the broken grains get removed, and sent for making flour, or sold as broken rice.

# ? Mar 26, 2024 15:53

Grumio: Sep 20, 2001; in culina est

How is Costco's rice? A lot of their other ingredients are good quality due to their vertical supply chain

# ? Mar 26, 2024 17:46

Bread Enthusiast: Oct 26, 2010

We buy their 50 lb bags of Homai Calrose rice, each bag lasts maybe 9 months to a year for us. I'm not a rice connoisseur, but it seems fine. The bag says it's 'sushi rice', I dunno about that. Seems like ordinary normal rice to me.

I can say it's hella hard to wedge a 50 lb bag of rice in the freezer to kill the bugs so I only do that some of the time. Livin' dangerously, I know. But we do go through it pretty quick in the grand scheme of things.

Anyway, after (not) freezing, it's all split into separate 8-quart Cambro food storage containers (from Business Costco). We do the same thing with bread flour from Business Costco, but that is much more of a pain in the rear end to split up cause it tends to get everywhere. Thankfully that is way less often. I think the last bag I bought of flour was in 2021.

# ? Mar 27, 2024 22:22

bob dobbs is dead: Oct 8, 2017; I love peeps; Nap Ghost

thats quite the username to have in the rice thread

# ? Mar 27, 2024 22:57

Bread Enthusiast: Oct 26, 2010

All Carbs Are Beautiful.

# ? Mar 27, 2024 23:02

Picayune: Feb 26, 2007; cannot be unseen; Taco Defender

The Thai restaurant near us has 'brown rice' available as a side dish, but it's not the brown rice I'm familiar with - it's a blotchy dark red in color, chewier, drier, and with more taste to it. Asking the internet about it led me to this page, which contains a picture that looks exactly like what I get at the restaurant. So, as far as I currently know, the 'brown rice' in question is khao dum.

First of all, do you think this is correct? And, if so, what's a good brand of khao dum to buy and cook at home? Is it likely to be a fussy thing to cook?

# ? Mar 28, 2024 05:18

TychoCelchuuu: Jan 2, 2012; This space for Rent.

Hey rice nerds, check this rice out (uncooked on left, cooked on right).

Know what kind it is? It's matta rice. Tastes great. Awesome texture too. Super separate and hearty grains.

# ? Mar 30, 2024 10:47

mystes: May 31, 2006

TychoCelchuuu posted:

Hey rice nerds, check this rice out (uncooked on left, cooked on right).

Know what kind it is? It's matta rice. Tastes great. Awesome texture too. Super separate and hearty grains.

That image reminds me of when years ago my father tried to make rice for dinner and after an hour he was like "it's just not cooking; I can't figure it out" and I looked in the rice cooker and it turns out he had put oat groats that I had lying around in rather than rice

# ? Mar 30, 2024 16:39

Anne Whateley: Feb 11, 2007; i like nice words

What�s a matta rice?

# ? Mar 30, 2024 18:54

Thirteen Orphans: Dec 2, 2012; I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist and a theoretical philosopher. But above all, I am a man, a hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you.

Anne Whateley posted:

What�s a matta rice?

I dunno, what�s a matta with you?

# ? Mar 30, 2024 19:14

therattle: Jul 24, 2007; Soiled Meat

I hate wasting water (when I was growing up, there was a terrible drought) and word on the street is that the starchy rice water that is a byproduct from when one rinses rice is really good for plants.

# ? Mar 31, 2024 12:28

VictualSquid: Feb 29, 2012; Gently enveloping the target with indiscriminate love.

Are you still eating dumb rice?
Have some app supported smart rice instead, very original:

# ? Mar 31, 2024 12:57

therattle: Jul 24, 2007; Soiled Meat

VictualSquid posted:

Are you still eating dumb rice?
Have some app supported smart rice instead, very original:

I have been washing and soaking my rice more assiduously as a result of this thread and it does make a difference. I�m yet to use smart rice though.

# ? Mar 31, 2024 14:35

bloody ghost titty: Oct 23, 2008; tHROW SOME D"s ON THAT BIZNATCH

therattle posted:

I hate wasting water (when I was growing up, there was a terrible drought) and word on the street is that the starchy rice water that is a byproduct from when one rinses rice is really good for plants.

It certainly doesn't hurt. Also good for adding body to stock, if you are the save-the-scraps type.

# ? Mar 31, 2024 15:04

El Spamo: Aug 21, 2003; Fuss and misery

therattle posted:

I have been washing and soaking my rice more assiduously as a result of this thread and it does make a difference. I�m yet to use smart rice though.

I live in a desert so conserving water is always a thing in the back of my mind, so unless I'm trying to impress someone or it really matters I just cook the rice w/o rinsing. Rice sins, I know.

# ? Apr 1, 2024 19:26

MadFriarAvelyn: Sep 25, 2007

So I tried making saffron rice with the only saffron I was able to source locally. Usual procedure: golden sella basmati, washed, soaked in fresh water for an hour, drained, added to rice cooker, water to the necessary line and with a generous pinch of salt plus a generous pinch of saffron. The end result tastes...fine, if not much different from usual? But it had a pretty strong metallic scent, and from a quick Google search this means I got got and the saffron I got wasn't actually good, or more likely fake, saffron.

Anyone have a trusted online supplier of the stuff so I don't waste $20 on another bottle of McCormick bullshit?

# ? Apr 2, 2024 01:24

Happiness Commando: Feb 1, 2002; $$ joy at gunpoint $$

Penzey's or probably any of these https://www.bonappetit.com/story/where-to-buy-spices-online

# ? Apr 2, 2024 01:36

Inceltown: Aug 6, 2019

El Spamo posted:

I live in a desert so conserving water is always a thing in the back of my mind, so unless I'm trying to impress someone or it really matters I just cook the rice w/o rinsing. Rice sins, I know.

I have called the rice police. Your days are numbered scofflaw.

# ? Apr 2, 2024 01:40

dino.: Mar 28, 2010; Yip Yip, bitch.

Grumio posted:

How is Costco's rice? A lot of their other ingredients are good quality due to their vertical supply chain

Never supplied to or bought from them, so I can't speak to it.

Picayune posted:

The Thai restaurant near us has 'brown rice' available as a side dish, but it's not the brown rice I'm familiar with - it's a blotchy dark red in color, chewier, drier, and with more taste to it. Asking the internet about it led me to this page, which contains a picture that looks exactly like what I get at the restaurant. So, as far as I currently know, the 'brown rice' in question is khao dum.

First of all, do you think this is correct? And, if so, what's a good brand of khao dum to buy and cook at home? Is it likely to be a fussy thing to cook?

It's likely sold as "red cargo rice", which has a much deeper color than typical brown rice does (AKA "cargo" rice).

TychoCelchuuu posted:

Hey rice nerds, check this rice out (uncooked on left, cooked on right).

Know what kind it is? It's matta rice. Tastes great. Awesome texture too. Super separate and hearty grains.

Kerala red rice?

mystes posted:

That image reminds me of when years ago my father tried to make rice for dinner and after an hour he was like "it's just not cooking; I can't figure it out" and I looked in the rice cooker and it turns out he had put oat groats that I had lying around in rather than rice

WELP. I can imagine how horrible it must have tasted if it was going into a rice cooker!

therattle posted:

I hate wasting water (when I was growing up, there was a terrible drought) and word on the street is that the starchy rice water that is a byproduct from when one rinses rice is really good for plants.

This is because it's water. I think plants like water.

VictualSquid posted:

Are you still eating dumb rice?
Have some app supported smart rice instead, very original:

We laugh, but companies are doing it so that it give a veneer of traceability. In reality, you're going to have to make your own informed decisions when you're buying rice. No amount of security theatre is going to get you the good stuff. Trust your nose and your tastebuds. Trust your eyes to look at the grains in the bag. The best quality rice is the rice that you enjoy eating the most, and that's going to differ for each person, with or without a QR code.

Overall, rice is considered a "low risk" food when it comes to the general consumer. The moisture content is low enough that bacterial activity doesn't really factor in. Furthermore, the customer is taking it home, and then cooking it at boiling temps for a very long time to get the rice to get cooked ("kill step" as it's called in manufacturing).

therattle posted:

I have been washing and soaking my rice more assiduously as a result of this thread and it does make a difference. I�m yet to use smart rice though.

Yeah, trust your own judgement of the stuff over any amount of QR codes.

bloody ghost titty posted:

It certainly doesn't hurt. Also good for adding body to stock, if you are the save-the-scraps type.

Please for the love of gently caress don't do this unless you discard the first and second rinsing waters. Why? Because part of the reason to rinse your rice is because you're removing surface dirt and other such hangers on that is inevitable, regardless of how fancy the stuff is. Rice is not a processed product, it's an agricultural product. That means that various types of ... stuff will get on its surface before and after processing into the edible stuff (be it brown or white), and it will collect even more ... stuff as it goes through the processing to get it edible.

El Spamo posted:

I live in a desert so conserving water is always a thing in the back of my mind, so unless I'm trying to impress someone or it really matters I just cook the rice w/o rinsing. Rice sins, I know.

Rinse your rice, and feed it to your plants. Or, use it to rinse down the sink. Or use it to wash your hair. Apparently water from rinsing rice is supposed to be really good for your hair. Not sure if it's an old Indian folk thing, or if it's actually a real thing.

MadFriarAvelyn posted:

So I tried making saffron rice with the only saffron I was able to source locally. Usual procedure: golden sella basmati, washed, soaked in fresh water for an hour, drained, added to rice cooker, water to the necessary line and with a generous pinch of salt plus a generous pinch of saffron. The end result tastes...fine, if not much different from usual? But it had a pretty strong metallic scent, and from a quick Google search this means I got got and the saffron I got wasn't actually good, or more likely fake, saffron.

Anyone have a trusted online supplier of the stuff so I don't waste $20 on another bottle of McCormick bullshit?

If you're cool with the texture of golden sella, try Andy Baraghani's Persian rice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy0aqjbwyVI

Also contact McCormick customer service, and let them know you're displeased. WroughtIrony's dad bought a jar of Persian saffron from these guys, and I was very pleased with what I got:

https://zaransaffron.com

The threads are all deep deep dark red in color, and the aroma is intense. Do not leave that stuff on your shelf. Throw it in the freezer, and remove tiny pinches as you like.

# ? Apr 2, 2024 14:24

therattle: Jul 24, 2007; Soiled Meat

dino. posted:

Rinse your rice, and feed it to your plants. Or, use it to rinse down the sink. Or use it to wash your hair. Apparently water from rinsing rice is supposed to be really good for your hair. Not sure if it's an old Indian folk thing, or if it's actually a real thing.

That�s because it�s water. Hair likes water. Apparently rice water actually really helps plants, because it has various beneficial nutrients. So there!

# ? Apr 2, 2024 20:36

Cached Money: Apr 11, 2010

Man I love rice, eating some rice rn, Thai Hom Mali.

# ? Apr 3, 2024 13:37

El Spamo: Aug 21, 2003; Fuss and misery

therattle posted:

That�s because it�s water. Hair likes water. Apparently rice water actually really helps plants, because it has various beneficial nutrients. So there!

I did just put in the early spring flowers around the house, no better time to start. I do this with the dog's water she doesn't drink, may as well do it with rice rinse water. Even one big bowl full of rice rinse water is better than not rinsing at all.

# ? Apr 3, 2024 15:25

therattle: Jul 24, 2007; Soiled Meat

El Spamo posted:

I did just put in the early spring flowers around the house, no better time to start. I do this with the dog's water she doesn't drink, may as well do it with rice rinse water. Even one big bowl full of rice rinse water is better than not rinsing at all.

The first rinse is the richest anyway.

# ? Apr 3, 2024 17:08

Decoy Badger: May 16, 2009

MadFriarAvelyn posted:

So I tried making saffron rice with the only saffron I was able to source locally. Usual procedure: golden sella basmati, washed, soaked in fresh water for an hour, drained, added to rice cooker, water to the necessary line and with a generous pinch of salt plus a generous pinch of saffron. The end result tastes...fine, if not much different from usual? But it had a pretty strong metallic scent, and from a quick Google search this means I got got and the saffron I got wasn't actually good, or more likely fake, saffron.

Anyone have a trusted online supplier of the stuff so I don't waste $20 on another bottle of McCormick bullshit?

If you grew up messing with electronics rather than eating saffron, even real saffron will smell like burnt electronics instead of food. Keep eating it and you'll learn to tell the other flavour notes apart. Aside from the smell, it is a relatively subtle flavour.

# ? Apr 6, 2024 13:58

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# ? May 1, 2024 13:48

VictualSquid: Feb 29, 2012; Gently enveloping the target with indiscriminate love.

I once asked the guy at the Turkish market near me for a cheap brand or alternative for saffron to try out saffron rice. He sold me a bag of yellow food coloring.

# ? Apr 6, 2024 15:39

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about rice.

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