re: Is rinsing rice really necessary?

I never rinse but I notice my jambalaya does get pretty sticky, so maybe there is something there? I'll try rinsing next time and see if there's a difference.

My mom did it so I do it. Enough said.

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Asian cooking rinses rice

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They probably grew up with rice filled with insects and other crap. Lol.

Seriously though, I’ve seen people cooking jambalayas doing it because they always were trying to get a leg up in a competition along with every other little trick they thought worked. It makes sense if you are washing starch off but I’ve never found it necessary. If you find it works for you, keep doing it. But I don’t think there’s any reason to start doing it.

Take a look in a rice dryer. You’ll rinse.

Didn't know you were supposed to. Learn something new every day.

I cook basmati almost exclusively and I find that if I give it a quick rinse then each grain of rice is separate when cooked. If I don’t rinse and cook exactly the same way, I have a little more stickiness to the rice and some stick together. I don’t notice a change in flavor. Sometimes stickier rice is preferred depending on what I’m making.

On a stove, I rinse long grain a couple of times in water that just covers the rice and 3 times for sushi rice.

Yeah I was going to say rice is frequently enriched with minerals. If you rinse the rice you rise the minerals off the rice. Not a huge deal either way but some of what you see when you rinse the rice is what was put there on purpose.

Personally I rarely rinse, but sometimes the particular rice or recipe calls for it