What Is Rice and How Can I Use It?

Brown rice  (or "hulled rice") is unmilled or partly milled rice, a kind of whole, natural grain. It has a mild nutty flavor, is chewier and more nutritious than white rice, and becomes rancid much more quickly. Any rice, including long-grain, short-grain, or sticky rice, may be eaten as brown rice.

Brown rice and white rice have similar amounts of calories, carbohydrates, and protein. The main differences between the two forms of rice lie in processing and nutritional content. When only the outermost layer of a grain of rice (the husk) is removed, brown rice is produced.

To produce white rice, the next layers underneath the husk (the bran layer and the germ) are removed, leaving mostly the starchy endosperm.

Several vitamins and dietary minerals are lost in this removal and the subsequent polishing process.

A part of these missing nutrients, such as vitamin B₁, vitamin B₃, and iron are sometimes added back into the white rice making it "enriched".

Brown rice can remain in storage for months under normal conditions, but hermetic storage and freezing can significantly extend its lifetime.

Freezing, even periodically, can also help control infestations of Indian meal moths.

Long grain rice is rice whose kernels are three to four times longer than they are wide. That slender shape is the reason it cooks up dry and fluffy, with grains that stay separate, where shorter rice turns soft and clingy.

The difference comes down to starch. Long grain rice is high in amylose, a starch that stays firm and keeps the grains from sticking.

Short and medium grain rice carry more amylopectin, the sticky starch that makes risotto creamy and sushi rice cling. Common long grain types include plain American long grain plus the fragrant cousins, basmati and jasmine.

This is the everyday rice for a pilaf, a stir-fry, or any plate that wants distinct grains rather than a sticky mound.

Cooked rice is exactly what it sounds like: rice that has already been boiled or steamed, called for as a ready ingredient rather than a raw grain you start from scratch.

Recipes list it this way when the rice is folded into something else, like a casserole or a stuffed pepper.

It is most often leftover rice, and that is a feature. Knowing how to cool and revive already-cooked rice safely is the whole skill here.

Wild rice is the dark, glossy, almost black grain you see flecked through pilafs and holiday stuffings. Despite the name it is not true rice at all.

It is the seed of an aquatic grass native to the lakes and rivers of North America, and it cooks and tastes nothing like the white rice it sits next to on the shelf.

What you get is a long, slender grain with real chew and a deep, nutty, almost smoky flavor.

It is a cousin to the everyday rice in our broader rice family, but it brings far more texture and a richness that holds its own against bold ingredients.

Basmati is the long, slender, aromatic rice at the heart of Indian and Persian cooking. The name means "fragrant" in Hindi, and that perfume, often described as popcorn or pandan-like, is the giveaway the moment the pot comes off the heat.

Grown mainly in the foothills of the Himalayas, it is one branch of the larger rice family. Its calling card is how it cooks: dry, fluffy, and perfectly separate.

Two things explain that. The grains are unusually long and thin, and they nearly double in length as they cook rather than swelling sideways. Good basmati is also aged for a year or more, which dries the grain further so it stays firm and distinct instead of clumping.

Arborio is the plump, pearly short-grain rice that makes risotto creamy. Named for a town in Italy's Po Valley, it sits at the high-starch end of the rice family, the opposite of dry, fluffy long grain.

Its job is to release starch, not to stay separate. That single trait shapes everything you do with it.

Each grain is short and round with a chalky white core. As it cooks and you stir, the outer layer slowly gives up amylopectin starch into the liquid.

That thickens it into the loose, glossy sauce risotto is known for, while the core keeps a firm bite the Italians call al dente.

Minute rice is precooked instant rice: regular white rice that has been fully cooked, then dried, so all you do at home is rehydrate it. That is why it is ready in about five minutes instead of twenty.

Minute is a long-standing brand name, but cooks use it loosely for any quick-cooking instant rice on the shelf.

The trade-off is real. Because the grain is cooked and dried at the factory, it rehydrates into a softer, lighter, more uniform texture and carries less of the flavor and chew you get from rice cooked from scratch.

What you buy with instant rice is speed, and you pay for it in body.