Kinds of Rice: the Cook’s Choice

All the above refers to rice as though it were a single ingredient. There are, however, many kinds of rice and, of all the major plant foods, rice seems to be the most perplexing in its classification and nomenclature. The problem arises from the fact that different systems of classification are adopted for different purposes. The main ones are as follows:

• By botanical variety or (more often) group of varieties such as Basmati, the famous aromatic rice of Pakistan and northern India which is prized for its long, slender grains and its flavour, sometimes described as ‘nutty’. Arborio and Carnaroli are Italian varieties (both falling into the Italian category superfino—see below).

• By country or region of origin—not as often as one might suppose, since what used to be geographical terms have tended to be transferred out of their original environment, e.g. Carolina. But Camargue rice is still rice from the Camargue, and Dehra Dun is still from Dehra Dun Valley in India.

• By size/shape of the grains—the Basmati group are long grained, while the kinds of rice favoured in Japan, Italy, and Spain are short or round grained, such as the Spanish variety marketed as Bomba. The terms patna, rose, and pearl are still sometimes used to indicate long, medium, and short grained. In Italy the terms comune, semifino, fino, and superfino are used; comune being the shortest, superfino the longest.

• By degree of ‘stickiness’, indicated by terms like ‘glutinous’ rice and ‘sticky’. This depends on the proportion of the two types of starch, amylose and amylopectin. The latter always makes up at least 70 per cent of the starch, even in the unstickiest Basmati, but a really sticky rice may contain as much as 83 per cent amylopectin. (‘Glutinous’ is a misleading adjective, as no rice contains any gluten.)

• By a combination of the two preceding items, e.g. ‘Indica’ for long-grained, non-sticky types, ‘Japonica’ for short grained, relatively sticky, and ‘Javanica’ for long grained and again somewhat sticky.

• By colour, e.g. the purple rice of the Philippines (pirurutong) and the black rice of some other SE Asian countries (probably the same thing, unmilled rice with a very dark husk from which the colour leaches into the white grain when cooked). Red rice in Asia may be ordinary rice dyed red (as happens in China) or may just be unpolished rice (called ‘red’ to distinguish it from white, polished rice). Red rice of the Camargue in France is brownish-red.

• By some other characteristic, e.g. aroma, as in ‘Thai fragrant (or jasmine) rice’.

• By the extent of processing, e.g. polished, enriched, parboiled.

• By culinary use, e.g. ‘pudding rice’.

• By trade names, including Uncle Ben in the USA and Tilda.