Can't cook rice anymore...what gives?

[Cooking Goddess]

The romance of that wood burning stove is just that....Getting up in the middle of the night to keep the fire going was never any fun. There was never anything romantic about it. Just ask someone who lives in a log cabin in the far woods of Alaska.

Addie, sometimes romance is far more important than comfort. While I greatly admire and respect historical reenactors who go full-steam-ahead with their love of the challenge living, working and eating like their 18th century counterpart, there is no way you could get me to spend a weekend at a Civil War Encampment on a chilly, damp autumn, interacting with people from our century as if we were the oddity. It takes real stamina and determination to do that short of thing and call it "fun".

Those who work at places like Plimoth Plantation or Williamsburg get to be modern as soon as the clock strikes closing time. Now that's the kind of thing I could do - stir the pot of cider while explaining the process in colonial-speak. That's more like theatre and acting. To me, THAT is fun!

Different strokes for different folks...

 

[GotGarlic]

Addie, sometimes romance is far more important than comfort. While I greatly admire and respect historical reenactors who go full-steam-ahead with their love of the challenge living, working and eating like their 18th century counterpart, there is no way you could get me to spend a weekend at a Civil War Encampment on a chilly, damp autumn, interacting with people from our century as if we were the oddity. It takes real stamina and determination to do that short of thing and call it "fun".

Those who work at places like Plimoth Plantation or Williamsburg get to be modern as soon as the clock strikes closing time. Now that's the kind of thing I could do - stir the pot of cider while explaining the process in colonial-speak. That's more like theatre and acting. To me, THAT is fun!

Different strokes for different folks...

And I guess she missed the part about his fantasy kitchen having people who cut the wood and stoke the fire for him!

CG, come on down to Virginia and put on a lovely Colonial-era dress covering you from shoulders to shoes. Stirring the laundry over a boiling cauldron in the summer looks like great fun I admire them for that dedication, too.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I would LOVE to live near Williamsburg, GG! Not IN it, since I know how restrictive the requirements are for keeping things authentic. Only one thing...you need to figure out how to make the Tidewater region not humid during the summer.

 

[GotGarlic]

I would LOVE to live near Williamsburg, GG! Not IN it, since I know how restrictive the requirements are for keeping things authentic. Only one thing...you need to figure out how to make the Tidewater region not humid during the summer.

If only I could think of a way...

 

[erehweslefox]

I would love a wood stove, and I would cut the wood and stoke it. I actually do know how much work is involved in that. And yeah GG, I have cooked in an reenactor Civil War Camp, did it with a friend, wife bowed out, she is good camping, but to quote her, 'yes I want our tent, our gore-tex, and our modern sleeping bags'. And she was kind of right on that, I do prefer outdoors when tempered with tech.

There are some Civil War reenactor, cooks that don't understand a dutch oven. Looking at you William and Chet....

TBS

 

[GotGarlic]

Fox, I have a feeling you would like the recipe I've posted for Sheep Stew, from a book about the county where my ancestors lived. I'll see if I can find it...

 

[GotGarlic]

Ah, here it is: http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f39/dundas-sheep-stew-84900.html

 

[erehweslefox]

GG, needs more sheep.

It is a medieval approach to a recipe. That is a compliment.

I do love it. I would obviously today use much less sheep. It looks like a festival recipe, which is common in medieval and renaissance cookery. What we have recorded is when someone prepared a serious excess of consumables. It would like to look at our society by looking at MTV's 16 year old parties.

 

[Addie]

Addie, sometimes romance is far more important than comfort. While I greatly admire and respect historical reenactors who go full-steam-ahead with their love of the challenge living, working and eating like their 18th century counterpart, there is no way you could get me to spend a weekend at a Civil War Encampment on a chilly, damp autumn, interacting with people from our century as if we were the oddity. It takes real stamina and determination to do that short of thing and call it "fun".

Those who work at places like Plimoth Plantation or Williamsburg get to be modern as soon as the clock strikes closing time. Now that's the kind of thing I could do - stir the pot of cider while explaining the process in colonial-speak. That's more like theatre and acting. To me, THAT is fun!

Different strokes for different folks...

That 'romance' dies real fast. After a while you find yourself cutting just enough for the immediate need. All the time you are praying someone comes and takes over the chore for you. There is a huge difference between cutting wood for a reenactment meal, and for keeping a family warm through a cold winter night.

Today, if you have a log splitter, it can make the chore go so much faster. In just a couple of hours, you can do enough wood to last a family for the whole winter. A lot of families have wood burning stoves to heat their homes today. Only they don't cut it by themselves. They buy it by the cord. Expensive, but so much less work.

 

[GotGarlic]

GG, needs more sheep.

It is a medieval approach to a recipe. That is a compliment.

I do love it. I would obviously today use much less sheep. It looks like a festival recipe, which is common in medieval and renaissance cookery. What we have recorded is when someone prepared a serious excess of consumables. It would like to look at our society by looking at MTV's 16 year old parties.

I believe it originated as a harvest-time shared meal in a close farming community in south-central Virginia. When my mom was growing up there in the '40s and '50s, town people made it every fall and sold pints to the public as a fundraiser for the local fire department.

 

[erehweslefox]

I believe it originated as a harvest-time shared meal in a close farming community in south-central Virginia. When my mom was growing up there in the '40s and '50s, town people made it every fall and sold pints to the public as a fundraiser for the local fire department.

Can I get that in whole, written down? as best you can, might turn into a book. I'm kind of looking at church book recipes, and particular event recipes, that were oral shared, because they were done every year. Anyway, do you know someone who made this that I can interview?

I don't want to put you on the spot here, but the idea of selling pints for the local fire company is fading, I am interested in getting some of these written down.

Most of these kinds of recipes are only existing in church cookbooks, and potluck dinners.

TBS

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Wild rice is not really rice. It is the seed of an aquatic grass. Now y'all have made me hungry for Progresso chicken and wild rice soup.

 

[Foxontherun]

My method is from Robert Irvine and I've NEVER had a fail. If I'm making rice for both of us, I'll wash the rice then drain in a colander to get rid of the extra starch and water. Just for me, I don't mind the extra starch so I skip that step. If I've washed, I'll heat about a quarter cup LESS liquid than that particular rice calls for to boiling, add the rice, stir, bring it back to boil, cover, turn burner off and let the pan set until I'm done with rest of meal, at minimum 20 minutes, and it's ALWAYS perfectly done.

Perhaps it would be a good idea when deciding on washing raw rice or not, to distinguishing different kinds of rice--specifically calrose. If you don't thoroughly wash it, you will end up with a brick of rice you can not fluff up or use. I speak from grim experience.

 

[dragnlaw]

Hi Foxontherun, Welcome to DC.

Good point on the calrose. But one should also understand that is a feature of calrose that is meant to be used for sushi, etc. The stickiness of holding together. Am I wrong? - at least that was always my understanding. I never bought it before - for that reason, I stuck to jasmine and basmati.

 

[Foxontherun]

Hi Foxontherun, Welcome to DC.

Good point on the calrose. But one should also understand that is a feature of calrose that is meant to be used for sushi, etc. The stickiness of holding together. Am I wrong? - at least that was always my understanding. I never bought it before - for that reason, I stuck to jasmine and basmati.

Hi dragonlaw, You are a bit misled about calrose rice. I cooked Japanese food a lot, so I have had to deal with calrose a lot. Calrose it a stickier rice in general. It can be used for sushi (I did), but some cooks use an even shorter grain just for sushi. Personally, I never saw a difference. Japanese use calrose-type rice for everyday rice. That is why they can use chop sticks (hashi) for eating it--the rice sticks together even when it is wetted by a sauce so you can pick it up. With long grain rice, rice is very difficult to pick up with chop sticks, especially when wet. I have lived and worked in 'rice countries' like Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. In those countries people use a spoon for eating rice. (I have never been in the PRC, so I don't know if a spoon is used for eating rice in any parts of that country. I should add here that I personally use calrose for everyday rice, but long grain rice for such dishes as stir fried rice. Also, I urge everyone who is into rice, to buy a Korean rice spoon--long handle, rounded bowl. They are fantastic--I use it for everything, not just rice.

 

[medtran49]

Perhaps it would be a good idea when deciding on washing raw rice or not, to distinguishing different kinds of rice--specifically calrose. If you don't thoroughly wash it, you will end up with a brick of rice you can not fluff up or use. I speak from grim experience.

And the original post FROM 2016, was about plain white rice, not sushi rice, so what's your point?

 

[Foxontherun]

Well, my first point is that calrose rice is for a lot of people, me included, 'plain white rice', second, many people are not regular rice eaters and thus might not distinguish between types of rice so I hoped my comments could be read as helpful information, third, why the attitude?

 

[CharlieD]

We had Indian neighbors, from India that is. She was, well she probably still is, but somewhere else. She made awesome basmati rice. I asked her to teach me how to do it. After few attempts simply fallowing her directions and fail I asked her to come over and work with me. We cook side by side on the same stove, similar pots. Her came out great mine looked like a porridge of a sort. I gave up trying. Rice and I, we just don't see eye to eye.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Two words: Rice Cooker. If you can read and follow directions you get perfect rice every time, and you don't have to babysit it.

 

[dragnlaw]

I knew that a sticky rice was used with chop sticks. I assumed that as rice became more popular in North America, the non-sticky type was preferred - especially when Instant Rice became a fad. Non-sticky continues to be preferred to the best of my knowledge.
I myself have liked stickier rice for many years now.
Now, just recently, cooking rice, for me, has been taken over by a rice cooker. Works just fine for me! LOL and I also have a wooden paddle and a plastic one that came with the cooker. I use both for various tasks.