Rice flour

“ Our cattle live on the straw, it being the strongest and most palatable of the straws. My horses will not touch fresh oat straw while there is a wisp of old rice straw to be had; the cows and pigs are fed on the flour, a gray substance that comes from the grain as the chaff is removed in the pounding mill. Mr. Studebake, a great Hereford cattle man, told me that rice flour and pea-vine hay make a perfect ration for cows, one supplying exactly what the other lacks. If rice is given up the cattle and pigs will have to go too. ”

“ The “small” rice is sometimes ground and employed to adulterate wheat flour. Rice, when prepared in the many forms of puddings, cakes, soups, etc., is very easy of digestion, and is specially fitted for the food of invalids. In Japan, where the rice crop is a leading one, an alcoholic drink called sake is made from it. A wine is made in China from this grain, and the Arrack of the East is also a rice beverage. ”

“ Rice that is ground coarse, in a hand-mill, is much better for making flummery than the flour you buy: put three pints of milk to boil, mix with water two tea-cups of ground rice, and stir it in the milk when it boils; while the milk is cold, put in it two dozen peach kernels, blanched, and rolled with a bottle; wet your moulds with cold cream or water; keep stirring the rice till it is thick, when pour it out in the moulds; just before dinner turn them out on dishes, have cream, sugar and nutmeg mixed, to eat with it. ”

“ Enough milk to make the rice into stiff paste. Sweet lard for frying.
Work rice, butter, egg, etc., into an adhesive paste, beating each ingredient thoroughly into the mixture. Flour your hands and make the rice into oval balls. Dip each in beaten egg, then in flour, or cracker-dust, and fry [32] in boiling lard, a few at a time, turning each with great care. When the croquettes are of a fine yellow-brown, take out with a wire spoon and lay within a heated colander to drain off every drop of fat. Serve hot, with sprigs of parsley laid about them, in an uncovered dish. ”

“ It can always be rendered more expensive, and of richer quality, by the addition of lean ham or smoked beef, [35] a larger weight of fresh meat, and catsup or other store-sauces.
34. It will be desirable to prepare six ounces of rice, and to use as much of it as may be required, the reduction of the stock not being always equal, and the same weight of rice therefore not being in all cases sufficient. Rice-flour can be substituted for the whole grain and used as directed for Rice Flour Soup, page 15. ”

“ The rice, when cooked and drained, should fill 3 cups. Prepare a cream sauce of 1 pint of milk, 3 heaping tablespoonfuls of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 egg yolks. Stir in 3 cups of flaky, cooked rice, while rice is still hot. When the mixture has cooled, mold into small cone shapes with the hands, stand aside until perfectly cold. Dip the croquettes into the whites of eggs, then roll them in fine, dried bread crumbs and fry in deep fat. If a cube of bread browns in the fat in a little longer time than a half minute, the fat is the right temperature. ”

“ INGREDIENTS.—To every lb. of rice allow 4 lbs. of wheat flour, nearly 3 tablespoonfuls of yeast, 1/4 oz. of salt. Mode.—Boil the rice in water until it is quite tender; pour off the water, and put the rice, before it is cold, to the flour. Mix these well together with the yeast, salt, and sufficient warm water to make the whole into a smooth dough; let it rise by the side of the fire, then form it into loaves, and bake them from 1-1/2 to 2 hours, according to their size. If the rice is boiled in milk instead of water, it makes very delicious bread or cakes. ”

“ The chemical composition of rice grain is as follows: Water 12.44, ash 0.38, albuminoids 7.44, fiber 0.19, starch, etc. 19.20, fat 0.35. It is seen to contain a less amount of the flesh forming or albuminoid compounds, and a greater per cent. of heat producing or starchy matter, than the other grains. The flour contains so little gluten that it can not be made into light bread. Rice is familiar to all as white, pearly grains, which are employed as the leading ingredient of puddings, etc. ”

“ A Black Man's Recipe to Dress Rice
Wash him well, much wash in cold water, the rice flour make him stick. Water boil all ready very fast. Throw him in, rice can't burn, water shake him too much. Boil quarter of an hour or little more; rub one rice in thumb and finger, if all rub away him quite done. Put rice in cullender, hot water run away; pour cup of cold water on him, put back rice in saucepan, keep him covered near the fire, then rice all ready. Eat him up!
1293. Yellow Rice
Take one pound of rice, wash it clean, and put it into a saucepan which will hold three quarts ”

“ Wash and pick 1⁄4 lb. of rice, tie it in a cloth, leaving room to swell, boil it two hours. Turn it out in a dish, pour melted butter and sifted sugar over.—Or: apples sliced may be mixed with the rice when it is put into the pudding cloth.—Or: boil 1⁄2 lb. of rice in 11⁄2 pint of milk till tender, then mix with it 1⁄2 lb. suet, and the same of currants and raisins chopped, 3 eggs, 1 table-spoonful of sugar, the same of brandy, a little nutmeg and lemon peel; beat well, put 2 table-spoonsful of flour to bind it, and boil in a mould or bason three hours. ”

“ We are told that the Burmese and Japanese and other nations who use rice as their principal food-stuff, use the entire grain. As compared to undressed rice, the ordinary, or polished rice is deficient 3 per cent. of protein; 6 per cent. of fat; 5 per cent. of mineral matter. 'Once milled' rice can be procured in this country, but has to be specially asked for. Rice is not nearly so nitrogenous as wheat, but is equal to it in fuel value, this being due to the large amount of starch it contains. It is an excellent food, being easily digested and easily prepared. ”

“ Do not stir often while boiling. When the rice is tender turn on to a sieve and drain; then put in a dish and place in the oven, to dry off, with oven door open, when the grains should be whole, flaky, white and tempting, not the soggy, unappetizing mass one often sees. Serve rice with cream and sugar. Some prefer brown sugar and others like crushed maple sugar with it. Or rice may be eaten as a vegetable with salt and butter. Rice is inexpensive, nutritious and one of the most easily digested cereals, and if rightly cooked, an appetizing looking food. ”

“ The yield from seed varies from 40 to 100 grains of crop to one seed, 50 grains being a good average. A family of five persons will consume about 250 pounds of rice per month. It is used in almost every native dish, and takes the place of bread. The paddy, or unhulled rice, is to feed horses, cattle, and fowls. ”

“ They boil their rice in an earthen pot, made in form of a sugar loaf, being full of holes, as our pots which we water our gardens withal, and it is open at the great end, wherein they get their rice dry, without any moisture. In the mean time they have ready another great earthen pot, as set fast in a furnace, boiling full of water, whereinto they put their pot with rice, by such measure, that they swelling become soft at the first, and by their swelling stopping the holes of the pot, admit no more water to enter, but the more they are boiled, the harder and more firm substance they become. ”

“ Four months more are needed for the ripening of the grain, during which the fields are kept clear of weeds, the natives wading back and forth through the mud in their task. After cutting and heaping, the paddy is made into stacks. In six weeks more the grain is separated from the straw by treading or by the use of the flail, or by causing ponies to trot over it. It may be said that there is nothing in nature more beautiful than a valley of green ripening rice in the midst of verdant hills. In the flood of rich color beneath my eyes, I have gazed upon such a scene with inexpressible delight. ”

“ Rice is one of the most important food cereals. It furnishes a large part of the food of the inhabitants of China and Japan. It is a food rich in starch and poor in protein, and furnishes, therefore, heat and energy, and is well adapted for the nourishment of those engaged in hard labor or who undergo extreme physical exertion. The cultivation of rice is rapidly extending in the United States, especially in Louisiana and Texas. The statistical data relating to the rice crop for 1906 are as follows:
The adulteration of rice is confined to coating it with talc, paraffin, and glucose. ”

“ It is the most fitted of all food to be of use in relieving general distress in a bad season [2] , because it comes from a part of the world where provisions are cheap and abundant; it is light, easy of carriage, keeps well for a long time, and contains a great deal of wholesome food within a small compass. Indeed, it has been ascertained that one 34part of rice contains as much food and useful nourishment as six of wheat. ”

“ Rice is so well known as a food grain that little need be said of it further than that a wild kind is found growing in many of the swamps of America; the grain from this is beaten off with sticks into canoes which are propelled through the shallow water in which the rice stalks grow. Some skill is required in cooking rice, in order that each grain may be separate. Our native Indian cook used to proceed as follows: The rice was first thoroughly washed in a large jar of clean cold water, two washings being generally required to remove all stain. ”

“ Into the harvest-field is often brought a large wooden tub about four feet in diameter by three feet high, and the reaper, having cut an armful of rice, takes it by the straw end and threshes the ears five or six times with great force over the side, so that the grain falls into the tub, which, when thus filled, is replaced by an empty one and taken to the threshing-floor, where the contents are thrown up by shovels-full into the air, the breeze blowing the chaff to one side and the winnowed rice falling in a heap by itself. ”

“ In a scarcity of other grain, rice may be used with considerable advantage as an ingredient in bread. Indeed, on account of its excellence and its cheapness, it claims attention as a general article of sustenance for the poorer classes of society; as it is well known that a quarter of a pound of rice, slowly boiled, will yield more than a pound of solid and nutritive food. For the fattening of poultry, boiled rice has been adopted with success, and it would be more generally adopted than it is, were it not for an unfounded and very extraordinary notion that it tends to make them blind. ”

“ Should the milk evaporate, restore the amount lost. When the rice is perfectly soft, press it through a coarse soup-strainer or colander into a saucepan, return it to the fire, and while it is heating beat the eggs, sugar, and salt together until very light. When the rice boils, pour the egg in rather slowly, stirring lightly with a spoon for three or four minutes, or until it coagulates and the whole is like a thick, soft pudding; then remove from the fire, and pour it into a pretty dish. By omitting the yolks and using the whites of the eggs only, a delicate white cream is obtained. ”

“ Let the croquettes rest a while, then fry them in hot lard, to a golden colour. Serve on a napkin with plenty of fried parsley.
Croustades.—Boil a quantity of rice in salted water till done. Strain off the water, put the rice in a saucepan, and keep moistening with as much milk or stock as it will absorb; add a handful of Parmesan cheese and a little pepper. When the rice is thoroughly done, or rather overdone, spread it out evenly to the thickness of about 2 in. on a slab or dish. When quite cold, cut with a 2 in. patty cutter as many “rounds” as the layer of rice will admit. ”

“ The reader will hardly be prepared to believe that it takes nearly twice as long to mature a rice crop under a tropical sun, as it does to grow a field of oats in the northern latitudes, especially in America. The rice is sown in the nursery in May or June, and the ripened grain is not harvested before the last of December or in January. It is all cut with a sickle. I have never seen any one harvesting with any other instrument in Southern Asia. The grain is always threshed under the feet of cattle, and winnowed by hand. ”

“ Wild rice swells more than cultivated rice in cooking. It [405] is often moistened with six times its bulk in water. The kernels are about six times as long as thick and in cooking the ends curl backward to meet in the center, thus differing from Oryza sativa, the white man’s rice. The proper way to cook it Indian fashion is with deer broth and season with maple sugar. Wild rice cooked with wild fowl takes away the muddy or wild taste and is highly prized by those whites who know its qualities. ”

“ This, in its value to the world as an article of food, is next to Indian corn. It is the main article of diet for one third of the human race. It is produced only in certain parts of the world, and its cultivation is so simple and easy, and so much a department of agriculture by itself, that we omit directions for growing it. The ravages of the rice-weevil, so destructive to rice lying in bulk, are prevented by the application of common salt, at the rate of half a pound to the bushel. ”

“ Boil very gently eight ounces of rice in a quart of water for about an hour in a saucepan covered with its lid, and placed on the side of the hob; the rice must be so thoroughly done as to present the appearance of the grains being entirely dissolved; a bit of orange-peel or cinnamon should be boiled with the rice, and when quite soft, the gruel is to be sweetened with loaf sugar, and a table-spoonful of brandy added. ”