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Why you should know:

Arsenic is a carcinogen and has various other negative health effects; enough to warrant exposure limits in various jurisdictions. A five minute boil-and-discard step before cooking is a simple way to reduce your exposure, especially if you eat a lot of rice.

Details are in the study, linked in the title of this post. Here’s a diagram from the abstract:

  • edric@lemm.ee
    0·
    3 months ago

    I’m asian and grew up in Asia cooking rice without a rice cooker. This is how we do it:

    • 1:2 rice to water ratio
    • Wash rice
    • Put rice and water in a sauce pan(?) or whataver you call that pan with deep sides.
    • Turn on stove to high heat until water boils (This is the initial 5-8 mins)
    • Once boiling, turn down heat to low and simmer for 40 mins (for brown rice. White rice is 20-25, broken rice is 12-15)

    If I was to boil the rice for 5 mins and throw the water out, that means I need to boil water first (5-8 mins), throw in the rice and wait 5 minutes, then throw out the water. Only then will I do the above steps. The fresh water needs to boil again (5-8 mins) before I simmer for 40 mins.

    Good point on heating the new batch of water while doing the initial boil. I can’t say I’ve ever cooked rice by throwing it into already boiling water though, so we’ll see how it turns out.