The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-04-23
The Art Of Cooking Rice.

SIR: WIN your PERMISSION, Will
answer the question addressed to Of"
about cooking rice. AS rice planter,
am greatly interested in everybody's
knowing how to cook rice. Wheat and
rice are the only two grains consumed
exclusively by man, or nearly so. or
corn, oats, barley, rye, ETC., the great
bulk (even of that turned into liquor. a
sarcastic temperance advocate might
say) is consumed by beasts. The coun-
try produces nearly ten bushels, or
three hundred quarts, Of wheat per
capita, and scarcely one quart of rice;
yet, in spite of considerable tariff on
rice, the prices per bushel Of wheat and
rough rice are not far apart usually.
In rice-growing country everybody
eats rice, and prefers it to bread. II
stranger comes among us mot too old)
in twelvemonth it is likely he will
show this preference, and children in
variably acquire it. Yet out of rice
country nobody can eat II, except in
puddings, and the better he loves 1t the
less the born and bred rice-eater will
have TO do with it there. A "So'th
Car'linian" from Georgetown or Beau
fort, who eats rice always once, and
sometimes twice and thrice day at
home, will hardly call for it q second
time at the best hotels of New York or
Long Branch. This is strange, but it
is still stranger that, even in the in
terror Of South Carolina and Georgia,
rice is not eaten largely, while in the
upper portions of those States, except
by low-county families, it is no more
regular article of diet than tbs in Ohio
or Illinois. Why is thisP
The explanation is to be found in the
cooking and in that alone. Is it then
SO hard to cookP BY no means. On
the contrary, the cooking is Of the very
simplest and easiest, SO much so that
every negro girl of twelve or upward in
the rice country can cook il TO perfec-
ton, though possibly she can cook
nothing else. In fact, the plantation
rice hands cook 1t very much better than
YOU will find it cooked at the best hotels
In Charleston or Savannah. Now,
will tell you how 10 cook it, so there
can be, think, no mistake. ] am fond
of camp hunting in the winter fire.
quently staying out on the river for a
week or ten days, and l always carry
rice because IL is so easy to keep and
difficult to injure, under the ordinary
conditions of camp life, when a sudden
shower or leaky boat may ruin your
flour at short notice Also, always
carry Ned, black man, who knows
how TO cook rice. Many and many a
time have / watched him at II by the
camp fire; but last winter, there having
been some discussion Of 1t in the papers,
! took occasion one day to observe Ned
with his rice, very closely, watch In
hand. Here is Just what he did. how
he did it, and the actual time, except
Of the last operation, which Is not i'm
portant, so you give time enough-no'
less than half an hour, and better, al
hour.
First, he poured q pint Of rice into {
tin pan and picked it over carefully
throwing out any foreign substances
Then he poured into the pan some colC
water, washed the rice, poured th'
water OF, and picked the rice again
A second time IL was washed and tn,
yater poured off Then Ned put tn
rice into an ordinary two-quart sauce
pan, covered It to the depth Of hal
inch with cold water, stirred in the salt
fitted on the top carefully, and put tn
saucepan on q quick fire of Goals, ant
went TO his other work. In just twent
minutes Ned returned TO his rice an
removed the lid. 1t was done, but no
vet ready for the table. There was
little water left, which was CAREFUL
poured off; the rice was thorough
stirred from the bottom, not the toT
but tin plate was laid lightly on th
saucepan, and the saucepan set one sid
In the hot ashes. where II RENAME
very siowly stean,ing one hour, or may
hap two, when the rice was SO dry this
YOU might eat it with your fingers, an
at the same time thoroughly done, an
soft through and through. Nobod
can like raw rice, neither can any on
like It sogged with water by nm hour
boiling and no steaming.--N y Eue'
rng Iost.