The package instructions on most rice will tell you to rinse the grains before cooking them, but if you’ve been tempted to skip this step—or if you have skipped this step, only to be left with a bowl of gummy rice—you’re not alone. You might be wondering why people in the know consider it so important to wash rice, or if it’s always necessary. Here, we’ll cover the facets of making perfect rice, including why you should wash your rice, when to wash it, and how. Read on for perfectly textured grains in your fried rice, pilafs, biryanis, and so much more.
Why should you wash rice?
When rice makes the journey from paddy to grocery store to your home, with a few stops along the way, the grains rub against each other, resulting in a layer of starch that coats the outside of each individual grain. When you cook rice without rinsing it beforehand, that excess starch makes the grains stick together, forming into one gluey mass. Rinsing rice also helps remove any grit or tiny broken pieces that might have made their way into the package.
How to wash rice
You’ll need: A bowl that is comfortably larger than the amount of rice you’re cooking and a strainer of some type.
Measure the quantity of rice you’d like to make. Pour it into a large vessel and add enough cold water to completely cover the grains. Agitate the rice with your hands until the water turns murky. Then, pour this starchy water out, using a mesh strainer or small-holed colander to catch the grains of rice. Repeat this step until the water runs clear; the number of rinses will depend on the kind of rice, but usually three or four times is sufficient.
You can also simply place your rice in the strainer and let running water roll over it, but this makes it harder to see when your water goes from starchy and murky to clear.
What types of rice need washing?
Although every kind of white rice will have excess starch around the outside of the grain, the starch content does vary depending on the type of rice. All rice contains two types of starch: amylose and amylopectin. The types of rice that are high in amylopectin and lower in amylose are stickier—think arborio or glutinous rice. In contrast, rices like basmati or jasmine are higher in amylose and lower in amylopectin, so they produce a fluffier, more separated final result.
Every type of white rice should be washed until your water runs clear when you want the end result to have separated, fluffy grains. For dishes where you want the rice to stick together, like risotto or congee, you’ll likely still want to do a light rinse to avoid too much gumminess, but you can skip the thorough washing because, after all, your desired result involves the starchy rice breaking down into a sticky, porridge-like texture.
When you’re making something like these porridge dishes, or sticky rice, don’t be afraid that rinsing will prevent the grains from sticking together. Remember that the rice varieties that you use here contain more amylopectin, a starch that will expand during the cooking process and allow the grains to stick together even without any extra starch on the outside of the grain.
Is brown rice different?
Brown rice is not actually a distinct type of rice different from white rice. The difference is in the milling or processing. Brown rice retains a layer of bran, which gives it its brown color, that gets milled away to create white rice. Because brown rice still has that bran layer, it’s far less susceptible to a layer of starch forming on the outside. That means brown rice is far less likely to have a gluey, undifferentiated texture if you skip the rinsing step—and indeed many people don’t rinse their brown rice, ever.
Some studies indicate that rinsing brown rice reduces arsenic and other heavy metal levels in the grain (these can be present in rice if they’re in the soil), but others have shown that it didn’t have much impact on toxin exposures in the rice. However, if you eat brown rice because it is more nutritious, know that you risk washing away some of the extra nutrients present in the bran layer of brown rice (it can feel hard to know how to win here). Our final stance on this? It’s a good idea to give your brown rice a quick rinse to remove grit and potential starches, but there’s no need to do the thorough process described above. That can be saved for white rice.
What is musen-mai?
Musen-mai is a Japanese white rice that has been through an additional processing step to remove its sticky outside layer. Once the rice has been milled and had its bran layer removed, it gets tumbled in a narrow tube for around seven seconds. During this agitation time, the starchy outside of the grain gets stuck to the outside of the tube, resulting in rice that won’t release as many starches as it rubs against its friends in transport.
This type of rice was a major technological innovation in Japan in the past 30 years, where starchy rice rinsing water waste was a significant source of pollution in the water system. It isn't always straightforward to identify a bag of musen-mai. Nishiki's sushi rice, for example, is, though it isn't easily identified as such on the bag. The brand Botan, however, has the label prominently displayed.
What are the benefits of soaking rice?
Soaking your rice for 30 minutes reduces the time you’ll need to cook it, since it absorbs moisture and the starches swell during the soaking process. But, you may be thinking, rice only takes a total of around 20 minutes to cook on the stovetop and an hour in the rice cooker. Reducing the cooking time isn’t about saving time overall. Instead, it is beneficial because it helps varieties of rice that are prized for their aromatic qualities, like basmati or jasmine, retain more of that scent and flavor. Cooking the grains reduces this aroma, so by soaking in cold water, you reduce the cook time and preserve more of that flavor. Of course, soaking rice also means you’ll discard the starchy water, so it will help with reducing gumminess just like washing will.
Looking for the best rice cooker? Here are our picks:
Now that you’ve learned all about cleaning rice, you should consider a rice cooker if you don't have one yet. We’ve spent years testing rice cookers. Below you’ll find a brief overview of our favorites. For more information about our testing process and more details about what to look for in a rice cooker, read our full review of the best rice cookers.
Zojirushi makes many rice cooker models, but this one is our favorite thanks to its combination of two powerful rice-cooking technologies: micom (short for microcomputerized) technology and induction heating. The micom technology means that the machine adjusts cooking time and temperature based on real-time data that it pulls about how the rice is cooking. So if you don’t quite add the right amount of water, or if the brand of rice you bought happens to cook faster than the typical basmati, the machine will adjust accordingly so that you can still have beautifully cooked grains. The induction heating means that the machine heats evenly across the entire pot. This allows the grains to cook more evenly, in contrast to machines that use a bottom-only heating element. This machine is pricey, but it will give you fluffy, perfectly textured rice every time.
This is the machine to buy if you’re on a budget. In a blind taste test of white rice, this rice cooker produced the grains we liked second best to the Zojirushi. It even cooked brown rice better than the Zojirushi did (we recommend reducing the recommended water slightly when cooking brown rice in the Zojirushi). While many budget rice cookers lack varied cooking settings, this one includes six presets: white rice, quick rice, whole grain, heat/simmer, steam cook, and hot cereals. It also has a delayed start feature and a cook time countdown, features you typically see on more expensive models like the Zojirushi above. It also has a larger capacity than many of the rice cookers we tested at seven cups, with a comparatively small countertop footprint.