How to Cook Rice, with Recipes
In the 1800s, rice was grown in the states of South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana. Of course quick-cooking “minute” rice or packaged rice mixes weren’t available yet.
Recipes below include Rice with Cheese, Rice with Cabbage and Cheese, Rice-Water, Rice Croquettes, Rice Soufflé, and Rice Milannaise.
INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS
TO BOIL RICE
Wash half a pound of rice in water and drain it. Put it in a saucepan with one quart of broth taken from the top of the broth-kettle, and before having skimmed off the fat. Set on the fire, boil gently for about fifteen minutes, or till rather underdone, and put on a very slow fire to finish the cooking. Water and butter may be used instead of broth. If the broth is absorbed or boiled away before the rice is cooked, add a little more to keep it moist. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste, and it is ready for use.
Another way—Wash half a pound of rice in cold water and drain it. Put it in a saucepan with two quarts of cold water, salt, and the juice of two lemons. Boil six minutes, and drain. Put it in a saucepan then with about six ounces of melted butter. Mix, cover the pan well, and put it in a slow oven* for about half an hour. Take off and use.
*slow oven – about 200-300 degrees Fahrenheit
RICE WITH CHEESE
Wash some rice, boil it for ten or eleven minutes in some milk, and let it stand till it has soaked up all the milk. The proportion generally is a teacup* of rice to two breakfast cups* of milk. But the rice should be rather moist, so allow a little more milk. Now mix in some grated cheese and a little pepper and salt. Place the mixture in a pie-dish and cover the top with grated cheese. Place the pie-dish in the oven and bake till the top is nicely browned, and then serve. Unless the mixture was fairly moist before it was put into the pie-dish, it will dry up in the oven and become uneatable.
Some cooks add a good spoonful of made-mustard* to the mixture. Some persons prefer it and some don’t. It is therefore best to serve some made-mustard with the rice and cheese at table.
*teacup – 4 ounces
*breakfast cup – 8 ounces
*made-mustard (prepared mustard) – made from mustard seeds and/or powder.
RICE WITH CABBAGE AND CHEESE
Wash some rice and let it soak in some hot water, with a cabbage sliced up, for about an hour. Then strain it off and put the rice and cabbage in a stew-pan with some butter, a little pepper and salt, and about a quarter of a grated nutmeg. Toss these about in the butter for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour over the fire, but do not let them turn color. Then add a small quantity of water or stock, let it stew till it is tender, and then serve it very hot with some grated cheese sprinkled over the top.
RICE-WATER
This being often prescribed by doctors against diarrhea. See that the rice is clean, but do not wash it. Put one pint of rice in a pan with a quart of cold water, and boil gently till the rice is quite soft or a little overdone. If the water boils away, fill up with cold water so as to have the rice always covered by it. When done, mash it through a colander, put back on the fire, and add water to make it thin or thick, according to prescription. As soon as it is warm, sweeten to taste with sugar or honey, and take cold or warm, also according to prescription.
RICE CROQUETTES
Wash four ounces of rice in cold water and set it on the fire with a pint of milk and the rind of half a lemon. When done or nearly so, the milk may be boiled away or absorbed by the rice. Add a little more to keep the rice nearly covered with it. When done, take it off the fire and mix with it two tablespoons of sugar, two ounces butter, two tablespoons milk, three egg yolks, a pinch of salt, and the same of nutmeg, if liked. Put it back on the fire for one minute, stirring the while. Spread the mixture on a dish and let cool. If the croquettes are for breakfast, the above may be done the evening previous.
When cold, stir the mixture, so as to mix the upper part with the rest that is less dry. Put about a tablespoon of the mixture on the paste-board, continuing until you’ve used all of it. Put bread-crumbs on them, then roll each into the shape you wish, either round, like a small sausage, or flat.
Then dip each croquette in beaten egg, roll in bread-crumbs again, and fry in hot fat. When fried and in the colander, dust with sugar, and serve as warm as possible. Croquettes are generally served in a pyramid. A napkin may be spread on the platter, and the croquettes served on it.
RICE SOUFFLÉ
Prepare rice as directed for croquettes, and when ready to be spread on a dish, add a few drops of essence to flavor it. Have five whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and mix them gently with it. Butter a mold well, fill it two-thirds full with the mixture, dust with sugar and set in a warm but not quick oven.* Serve as soon as it is brown and raised — it takes from fifteen to twenty minutes. If the oven is warmer under the cake than on top, it is necessary to place something under the mold so the cake rises better and is lighter. This cake, like every soufflé, must be served promptly and before it falls.
*quick oven – about 400-450 degrees fahrenheit
RICE MILANNAISE
Take a teacup of rice, wash it thoroughly and dry it. Chop up a small onion and put it in the bottom of a small stew-pan and fry the onion to a light-brown color. Now add the dry rice, and stir this up with the onion and butter till the rice also is fried of a nice light-brown color. Now add two breakfast cups of stock or water, and a pinch of powdered saffron. Let the rice boil for ten or eleven minutes, move the saucepan to the side of the fire, and let it stand for twenty minutes or half an hour till it has absorbed all the liquid. Now mix in a couple of tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. Flavor with a little pepper and salt, and serve the whole very hot.
Image from Deposit Photos
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What ways do you cook rice or other grains? Please leave a comment below.
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6 thoughts on “How to Cook Rice, with Recipes”
I always rinse my rice before cooking it. And did you know if you refrigerate rice, it becomes a resistant starch (fiber)? Heating it up again doesn’t undo the effect of the refrigeration. I usually cook my rice the day before I need it so it can be refrigerated overnight.
I always used cold, cooked rice when I make a fried rice dish. The rice kernels don’t stick together when they’re cold.
The rice and cabbage recipe sounds like something I might try someday soon because the cabbages in our garden are almost ready to be picked. These days I cook rice in the Instant Pot. Couldn’t be easier and come out perfect every time. My favorite rice is Basmati.
I use an Instant Pot, too. It’s so convenient and has many functions. I love reading about cooking in days past, but enjoy modern conveniences.
Really interesting to read the different ways to prepare rice. I would never have thought about washing the rice before cooking, except now I have a daughter-in-law who is from South Korea and that is what she does to her rice before putting it in her rice cooker. She prepares rice for every dinner meal in addition to whatever else is served.
I’m curious about the addition of the lemon juice to rice. I’d like to know more about the reason for adding it.
I’m compiling cooking hints to create an ebook on vintage hints and advice. One hint I ran across said, “Rice will be whiter and fluffier if a teaspoon of lemon juice is added to the water while cooking.”
Like you, I was curious about the recipe that said to “add the juice of two lemons.” That seems like a lot of juice, but the recipe says to drain the rice, so I guess you don’t end up tasting it.