White rice
Oryza sativa · Grain
Top 10 pairings
White rice is the milled, polished form of the rice grain, in which the bran layers and germ have been ground away to leave only the starchy white endosperm. Cooked, it swells into soft, fluffy, faintly sweet grains with a clean, neutral taste that carries other flavours willingly. Compared with brown rice it is quicker to cook, longer-keeping and much milder, but milling strips out most of the fibre, fat, B vitamins and minerals that the bran and germ contain. Per 100 g cooked it supplies about 130 kcal — mostly starch, with little fat, almost no sodium and only a trace of fibre.
Picking a good onedrag
Sound dry grain, fragrant or cleanly neutralRancid crayon, or holed and webbed
Pantry standardEveryday bestRice takes up arsenic you can't see. Rinse it, cook it in plenty of water, then drain.
Smell at the open bagAlmost nothing, as white rice is
White or brown, whole or milledBrown, red or black: buy small
The grains themselvesA few chalky grains, broken tips
A handful through your fingersA little starchy powder, normal
These cues are Rice's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.