Why coat the rice in oil before cooking?

You sound like me when I first started cooking. I caught all kinds of grief from my chefs until I figured out it was not a good idea to question the chef. I had to figure it out for myself.

I don't know the answer to this one. Yeah, I know, you got that reply in your email and were all excited right? :D

cause rice is very insecure and needs a safety blanket of oil on it to feel secure enough to cook.:p

McGee says nothing in his book about it, and frankly, I think his info on rice preparation could use some updating.

I have a theory.

In both these cases, coating in oil isn't the goal, merely the process.

You're toasting the grain for some flavor but more importantly, the rice will pop kinda like popcorn. When it does, it changes from translucent to chalky white. It doesn't expand like popcorn because it doesn't have the hard impervious exterior, but it does seem to open up the structure of the rice a bit.

This structure helps the rice absorb liquid more easily, evenly and quickly. Which also helps you impart flavor to the rice.

That's what I think is happening but I'm no food scientist.

A far as i know, you dont just coat the rice, you let it saute in the olive oil. This changes not just the appearance, but the flavour too. when its absorbed some of the flavour from the olive oil and cooked a wee bit, then its ready to add liquid

I know from cooking Thai food, how much the flavour of rice changes if you dry fry it then grind to sprinkle on dishes. You should try it, it's amazing

Preliminary note....my response won't help you, but I share your intrigue with the risotto and oil question.

My Basic Cookery Chef shared a story about risotto. She said that she went to a restaurant where the risotto was served to her oily and pasty--so, she sent it back. After further comments and explanations about the dinner, she left me/us with the pretty strong impression that you should not saute your rice in oil when making risotto since it would prevent the grains from absorbing rice properly, prevent the starches from developing properly, and leave the final dish oily. This was the first time I had ever heard such a comment and I didn't know if I quite agreed since for mexican rice, pilafs, and other rice dishes, you always saute the rice first. (yes, I am aware that risotto can use different grains and pastas and not just rice. but the same general principle applies.)

Ever since then, however, I have looked up and tried out countless risotto recipes using many different grains/pastas, all of which require a preliminary sauteing. The final products have all been just fine and tasty. But because of what our chef said, I began to question myself and whether I correctly understood what true risotto should taste like. Well, the next few times we went to a restaurant where risotto was served, I ordered it to see what risotto is supposed to taste like, and you know what? They tasted the same as mine did, mostly.

So anyway, I have never had a problem with any of my risotti turning out poorly due to the sauteing part of the recipes. And I have yet to find a recipe that specifically DOES NOT call for some sauteing. I may still be misinformed about what true risotto is supposed to taste like, but like you, I have wondered about the sauteing step of the recipe and whether it is appropriate. Since all my recipes and experience with other rice dishes call for the oil, I will continue using it and I hope you can find an answer! :smiles:

oiling the rice

1) prevents it from sticking into one massive glob
2) prevents the rice from disintegrating

if you've ever made chicken soup, . . . .
you put in some rice, it expands, it keeps expanding, it soaks up all moisture within six burners, eventually you wind up with a gloppy exploded rice dish. some chicken added....

for some dishes, an exploded rice gloppy mess may be the desired outcome.

for other dishes one desires to recognize "there's rice on my spoon/fork...."

on the whole, for long cooked high moisture 'schufft' if you want to recognize the rice, oil it. if you want rice porridge, don't.

the 'toasting' thing is an aside. you can't make rice glop with toasted rice.....

Nope, oil coated will still suck it all up given time and liqud, precisely what pilaf and risotto don't give it.

Phil

I'm confused. set pilaf aside - it has way too many definitions.

risotto is a rice dish you heat, add liquid, continue to cook, add more liquid, cooks some more, add more liquid

"until it's done"

I've made my share of puffed rice porridge aka attempted risotto. what am I missing?

This has been my same understanding and experience for sauteing rice in oil before cooking. . .

not all rice is the same.....basmati cooks in 10 minutes, long grain white 20+, jasmine, sticky, arborio, carnoli, bomba, etc....

this is an interesting conversation, would you mention what variety of rice your talking about when you hypothesizing please?

Coating the oil to keep the rice from getting wetter? Oil rises to the top when heated in liquid. It won't still stick to the rice, won't keep the rice drier, when in a hot liquid . . . or am I missing something?

Is it possible that the oil is simply there to saute the shallots and rice. For the same reason you saute anything else ?

The shallots will be slightly caramelized and the rice, although not browned, will have taken in the flavours in the pan, including a good olive oil.

A man was watching his wife prepare a roast for the oven. She put the roast in the pan, then cut a piece off the end and stuck it on top of the roast with a tooth pick. Her husband asked why she always did that. She said because her mother always did. The lady got thinking about it, called her mother and asked why she always cut a piece off the roast and stuck it on top. Her mother said she didn't know, but her mother had always done it. Really curious now, they went to the nursing home to see grandma. They asked why she had always cut the end off the roast and stuck it on top. Grandma said "Because I needed a 5lb. roast to feed the family and the pan wasn't big enough for it, so I'd cut the end off and stick it on top with a tooth pick. I think that's a lot of times the answer for why we do things a certain way.

You also brown the rice for Spanish rice. If Rice Pilaf wan't browned in oil it would be more starchy. I would want a more seperated rice to see the vegetables and a nicer plate presentation......................Bill

greyeagle....rotfl.....ain't that the truth!

We should narrow the conversation and stick with Risotto. Rice Pilaf is a catchall name for any number of things you can do with rice.

so, arborio or carnoli rice?

Hah! Good one! I don't remember but there are a few different kinds of rices that are used for risotto. Arborio is most common of course but they're all in the same family and have very similiar properties.

Edit: I had to look in the pantry. The three rices I have are Arborio, Carnaroli, and Vialone Nano. Arborio is longest and widest, Vialone Nano is short and fat, and with Carnaroli is in between.

See, I thought this was why you tossed the rice in oil before adding stock in risotto. I could swear I just recently heard this from some Italian hotshot chef, but now I can't figure out where. The point was that there is starch on the outside of the rice, but if you wash the rice it will start absorbing water immediately. So instead you "wash" the rice in hot oil, and only then add stock. This means that the grains fluff individually, and you only get the starch coming out late in the process when you get all that creamy stuff, instead of gluey, sticky rice right from the beginning (which you'd have if you didn't do the bit with the oil).

I have no evidence that this is correct, of course, but I thought that was sort of the classic claim.

May I dare to answer this very interesting conversation?
First: As Kuan mentionned wisely... I will stick to risotto.

I think I can combine various snippet of answers here together to make a coherent answer:
If one was making risotto just by adding small amounts of water at a time all the rice would stick together and to the pan. No good. Rice grains swell from the outside in when cooked with water. the cooked starch will stick to each other and break apart because of the stirring action and stick together.

Oil traps heat without evaporating like water so by adding oil first all the rice will heat up to a high temperature before seeing water. result: some flavour development (caramelization) and also steam will escape the dry rice (because it still has around 10% water trapped inside).
The steam will dry cook part of the rice (like popcorn) and leave holes behind in the grain like styrofoam. This can be observe when the rice goes from translucent to opaque white. Similar to what oil does to potatoes when deep frying i.e the bubbles is steam escaping the potatoe leaving holes behind (light and fluffy potato) (wink to French Fries on that example)
When water is added slowly to this type of rice (that is very hot as well) it will soak the water through the pores towards the middle of the grain of rice which will cook it from the inside out bursting the grain open.

Frying starch (like potatoes, popcorn, batter, etc..) change the nature of the starch so that it does not soak up water the same way or as much. Actually what happens is the starch swells but does not gel as much because of cross linking with high oil heat. (example of this is rice crispies as basically dry puffed rice. If you add water it does not get very gel like. Gelled starch can swell with water to almost infinity (like in rice in soup or rice flour noodles)

Although I do not like risotto that much, I would guess that the trick is to add barely enough oil to coat each grain of rice but not too much more so that the oil does not end up floating on top of the dish. Also low heat for an extended period of time would help <dry cooking> the rice evenly before adding the water (broth). It should change from translucent to opaque. Toasted too much may end up tatsting like rice crispies.. hehehe.

That was my shot at this one. Hope it makes sense?
Luc H.

Oil traps heat without evaporating like water so by adding oil first all the rice will heat up to a high temperature before seeing water. result: some flavour development (caramelization) and also steam will escape the dry rice (because it still has around 10% water trapped inside).
The steam will dry cook part of the rice (like popcorn) and leave holes behind in the grain like styrofoam. This can be observe when the rice goes from translucent to opaque white. Similar to what oil does to potatoes when deep frying i.e the bubbles is steam escaping the potatoe leaving holes behind (light and fluffy potato) (wink to French Fries on that example)
When water is added slowly to this type of rice (that is very hot as well) it will soak the water through the pores towards the middle of the grain of rice which will cook it from the inside out bursting the grain open.
LUC H

Makes a lot of sense to me.

Thanks Ed!
your nod means a lot.
Luc H.

I was looking into my material on this, and here is what I found: Marcella Hazan's "Marcella Cucina" pg 212-220. This is my go-to book.

When you are cooking your onion in the olive oil or butter, it is called "siffritto". Basically you are extraxting the flavor from those items. Then you turn up the heat to "tostatura" the rice, or "toast" it. You add the warmed stock slowly, to extract some starch, stirring to evenly cook. This is the point where the risotto gets creamy. In the end, you "mantecatura" it, which means to "finish" with butter and parmesan.

As for the varieties of rice:

Aborio: This is the base rice used in most risotto preparations. It is the rice most people use, but you must have care to cook it from the amount of starches.

Vialone Nano: This one has a lot of bite, and risists softening. It is usually used with vegetables dishes.

Carnaroli: This is a more expensive rice, only developed just recently. (1945). The qualities of this rice lend to a firmer texture when cooked.

For my 2-cents-worth: Yes, you are adding a little flavour from sweating your soffrito (shallots, etc) although most of the flavour is added through your stock. The main reason is to prevent the rice becoming gluggy. I wrote a short article about it recently - Risotto Kiwisizzler’s Blog

At the end of the day, a good-textured risotto should have separated grains bound by a light sauce. Many good chefs say that if it is stiff enough to hold its own weight on a plate, it is not wet enough.

Anyway, have a read and hopefully it helps.

I was taught you want the color change to opaque