Why do we wash rice before cooking?

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Ladeside

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I don't mean 'just to get the dirt off'. What I refer to the soaking and rinsing just to get rid of the milky substance that emanates, i.e., starch.
As far as I'm aware, starch is 'good for you'! In as much as that genuinely really hungry, (as opposed to 'peckish'), people benefit from it.
I HAVE followed the recommendations vis-a-vis the guidelines for cooking it 'properly', and I've cooked it as I would if the guides didn't exist, and I can honestly say that I don't care for the difference.
OK, one way it's fluffier, so - BIG DEAL! There's no difference in flavour! It's RICE for goodness sake! It's not supposed to taste fantastic, it can't because it's too simple. What it does do is provide the staples of life AND absorbs the flavours of the other stuff it's cooked with.
So, it really doesn't matter whether it's washed, so why do we?
 
It depends on what type of rice you buy. If you buy the main stream commercial rice like Uncle Ben's or Success you dint need to wash it but if you buy bulk rices that are more ethnic it usually needs to washed because it hasn't been processed like the commercial rices so it is dirty and may contain rocks, dirt, etc,
 
Washing the rice prior to cooking removes any EXCESS starch which would make the rice stick together during cooking and it will likely by rubbery to eat.
I always rinse my rice before & after cooking.

Too much starch takes flaky.
 
Before, there was a need to rinse rice to remove dirt like twigs and stones.



Long-grain white rice is rinsed before cooking to remove excess starch. Removing the starch makes the rice cook more evenly and it makes the cooked rice less sticky.



In the States (Rice that is milled in the states), if you rinse the rice, you are rinsing away vitamins, minerals, and iron. Rice is fortified with vitamins, minerals and iron that is applied on the rice. It's up to you whether you want to wash your rice before cooking it.

Imported rice from India should be washed if you want to remove starch because its not fortified with any nutrients.

Their is no real reason to wash rice before cooking, some do it to remove starch, others do it to make it cook more evenly and other people to make the rice less sticky once cooked, you don't need to wash it though.
 
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