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Do You Need To Wash Rice Before Cooking? Here’s The Science
(www.iflscience.com)
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this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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Cooking
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tldr; no
(Yes if you’re a clean freak)
You don’t wash rice for cleanliness. You wash rice to remove excess starch.
This was the question in the article. They did a test of unwashed, washed 3 times, and washed 10 times, then compared the rice. The scientists found no difference between the samples. They further speculate that the stickyness level of the rice has to do with the starches that leech from inside the rice.
The article goes on to talk about how, depending on how (and where) the rice is processed, you may want to rinse rice to remove bits of husk, dust, pebbles, and possibly arsenic or microplastics.
Now, having said all of that, take the results of the study with a grain of salt. Washing 3 times isn't going to do much of anything, and 10 times doesn't actually tell us that they washed the rice properly. As soon as the starch is wet, it's sticky. You really have to rinse and agitate the rice, and wash until the water runs clear. Maybe that also leeches some of the more available starch from inside the rice, but the difference is noticeable to anyone who cooks rice on a regular basis. So I'm not going to question the suggested mechanism of action, but I know how to make rice that is and isn't sticky.
Im glad they mentioned the debris. My mom always told me they (family when they were in Vietnam) used to wash rice because of the pebbles, dust and bugs that may get into it. The water makes the bugs move which made it easier to pick out. She does it now because of the dust or whatever that may be on it. Never heard of the starch thing until watching youtube videos.
Still going to wash my rice though. Its better this way.
This is the reason I wash rice. Empty hulls, dirt, and bugs naturally float so it’s easier to take them out. We use brown or red rice so it’s not as “clean” as polished white rice. Also, even if the study says washing doesn’t do anything, the fact that the water turns a different color when rinsing shows that something gets removed when washing.
Yeah I wash rice like I wash rice just like I wash all my other fruits and vegetables... To get dirt and other crap off