their color. Wild rice is shiny, glistening, burnished black that very few natural foods can match

in beauty. The color is not uniform because of the different degrees of maturity among the seeds.

Farmers use a four to ten-day period of curing, sometimes called fermentation period, that allows

the less mature grains to catch up. In the Great Lakes region growers do this outdoors, while they

periodically sprinkle the grains with water. California growers use the indoors under more

controlled conditions. During curing an enzyme in the grains degrades whatever chlorophyll still

remains and changes the green pigments to black. Microflora that exist in the curing process start

flavor development which is the reason they use the term fermentation for the process. The

flavor further develops during the later roasting stage.

While the hulls still cover the grains, processors may soak the rice in hot water for 3

hours. They call this parboiling, although in a strict culinary sense it is not—it is simply soaking.

The hot water gelatinizes the starch granules in the rice grains, giving the rice a glossy,

translucent look. Parboiling serves several purposes: it improves the appearance, it allows a

shorter cooking time in the kitchen and it limits breakage of grains in the final processing steps.

Its drawback is the it adds to the cost. Large commercial wild rice users specify if they are

willing to pay for this extra step with its added extra cost before they contract with the wild rice

farmer.

The next step, roasting, is also at the discretion of the food processors. Again, it adds to

the cost, but roasting intensifies the characteristic nutty flavor and reduces moisture content to

about 7 percent from the original 35 to 50 percent. The roaster places the rice in huge rotary

drum dryers and roasts at 275°F (135°C) for 2 hours.

Next they remove the hulls. They pass the rice through closely-spaced rollers covered by

rubber-like material. Processors once more have two choices for this step. If they use smooth

rollers, the results are shiny, black attractive grains that require longer cooking time. If they use

rougher rollers, the rollers break or partly remove the outer bran layer of each grain, producing

duller-looking grains that take less time to cook. When cooking this type of rice the hot water has

readier access to the grains—the reason for the shorter cooking time which is cut by about half.

These scarified grains, as processors call them, also have fewer nutrients because part of the

nutrient-rich bran layer is gone.

Food processors use most wild rice in various rice blends, soups and stuffing mixes.

Scarifying the wild rice to reduce cooking time makes sense as the wild rice should cook in

about the same length of time as the ingredients it is blended with. You sacrifice the beauty of

the shiny black grains and some of the nutrients. Pretty grains are unimportant—their good looks

get lost in the mixture.

Retail packages don't indicate whether the wild rice you buy was parboiled or roasted, but

the price will. Each process is an extra step and adds to the cost. Designated cooking time may

also tell you this. If the package instructs you to cook for 20 to 25 minutes, you have parboiled

rice. If it says 40 to 50 minutes, the grains are raw. When you buy pure unblended wild rice, it is

never scarified—each individual grain must be shiny, black and unbroken. Generally only food

processors use scarified wild rice.

How to cook wild rice

Use the same technique for cooking wild rice as you would for brown or white rice but

add more water. About 1½ cups of water and ½ teaspoon salt to every cup of wild rice is the

recommended amount for most, and use 1¼ cups of water for each additional cup of wild rice.

Serious Kitchen Play