The theoretically best technique (IMO) is to dump the rice in a tub of water and let it sit for 30+ min. That starts the hydration without wasting heat (thus a faster cook). Then I grab a handfuls and rub the grains together to wash mechanically. I know it’s working because the water gets quite cloudy on every cycle. After dumping and repeating 3—4 times, the water is still a dirty color.
How many times does it take?
If you don’t wash brown rice at all, there is a nasty ring of mud around the pot at the level the rice expands to. If you wash ~4 cycles, there is still a faint ring of mud (or so it seems).
I’m way too lazy to do 10 wash cycles, or whatever is needed. I used to put the rice in a strainer and run it under the faucet for a while. But I think that wastes water and you cannot readily see any indication of when the washing is done.
The other problem: people wash their rice not just to get the mud out but also to get the starches out. I want the starches. I’m not afraid of getting fat.
Don’t soak it. Wash it three times for about 30 seconds. The water will be almost clear by the third wash.
I just re-read your post. Rice doesn’t come with “mud” on it. You only wash it to remove the excess loose starch and any other debris.
Maybe we are handling different kinds of brown rice, but I don’t understand what “mud” you’re talking about. Usually I just put my brown rice in a fine strainer, and then wash it under running water while jiggling the strainer, for 30 seconds or a minute or so. I don’t think it wastes a significant amount of water compared to the other method. And the rice cooks alright afterwards, no mud or anything like that.
When people talk about rinsing off starch, that’s for white rice which has been milled, resulting in basically rice endosperm dust on the grains. It’s also not about eating excess starch, it’s about having extra starch in the liquid, which then ends up making the rice sticky.
Personally, most of the time, I don’t care about all my grains being nice and separate, and when I do, I use a modified pasta method. I boil a pot of water, and throw rice in, and when the rice is al-dente, I strain it off, and put it back in the pot. I then stick the pot with the lid on into the oven while I finish cooking whatever else I’m making. During that time, the rice absorbs any remaining water, and the texture is perfect. If you had particularly dusty brown rice, you could just rinse the rice a bit first.
When I do rinse rice, I just put it in my pot with an excess of water, and I stir in around with my fingers. I then pour the water off into a watering jug to reuse the water for my plants. I might do that a couple times. Some rice almost never seems clear if you stir hard (especially if you’ve soaked), cause then I think you basically erode new starch into the water. I don’t really like rinsing in a strainer, cause I’ve never found it to work well.
I wash because of arsenic. It sorta annoys me that brown rice is more effected by the pesticides but I want all that yummy brown rice goodness. I do the 3-4 times. water in a pot swich around. drain. repeat 3-4x. I hope at that point I got anything nasty out. Like another poster im not sure what the mud ring you are talking about.
Don’t soak as long before washing as it’s gonna get too soft.
What I’ve learned is
- wash mechanically, rinsing thoroughly
- soak 10-15 min
- rinse, swirling gently to keep rice from damage
- cook
I don’t wash it at all, but I do understand what you mean by the mud. I use brown basmati if that makes a difference