Using salt when cooking Basmati rice

I hope that my question won't be awarded the dumbest user of the week award !
Anyway I always cook my rice without salt and a friend of mine is telling me that rice should always be cooked with salt. I strongly disagree.
Opinions ?

I always put salt on rice. Basmati or not.

Never yet seen a 'rule' on whether rice has to be salted or not. However, in general, the foods that

go with basmati rice are highly salted, so people don't salt the rice.

But thte botton line is: It's YOUR rice, cook it how YOU want.

Personal choice ain't it but always remember you can add salt but it's difficult to take it out.

We were at the Sitar a few weeks ago and their food was heavily oversalted resulting in one person sending it back but the rest of us also commented upon it.

I never add salt to food (like on the table) but do add it to boiling water when cooking pasta, rice or (theorectically) potatos.

I believe it has something to do with lowering the boiling point rather than affecting the flavour so only add a pinch.

ThePosterWithNoNaCl

I cook a lot of rice and always with salt.

I think salt does not lower the boiling point but raises it, that is what a friend told me anyway and I just checked Wiki and salt water has a boiling point of 108C. I do add salt to pasta too, but for taste. And I often use vegetable stock for rice, gives it a good taste (but I suppose it depends on what you want to eat the rice with).

Surely it just depends on how you like. Put sugar in it if you think it enhances the flavour!

Sorry going to be pedantic here but adding salt actually raises the boiling point of water.
However, a pinch or so makes hardly any difference. So it can be argued that it has more to do with taste...

True, and this can be done to make food that is boiled cook faster because the water is hotter. However with food like pasta and rice which has to absorb the water the salt inhibits the absorbtion so should be left out until the rice is cooked, then added at the last minute.

im asian and we always cook basmati rice WITHOUT salt

I always cook it with salt.

I don't want to start another poll here...
But Rice must be cooked witha bit of salt.
That is the correct way.

I'm not asian, but worked in the kitchen of a place run by an Indian and he made me put salt in the water when cooking basmati rice. I find at home when I cook with my rice cooker adding a bit of salt to the water really improves things. However it is a matter of taste.

And who's this supreme rice-and-salt authority that must be obeyed?

Bulol.

It is a very old "secret knowledge".
You can't rationalize and understand everything.

You mean this one: Bulol rice god?
Doesn't apply to vegetarians, though, did you read the description?

Who says that?

Don't think there is a right or wrong - just do what you prefer. If you wnat to cut down on your salt consumption avoid it, but I find a little bit makes rice taste better. but everyone has a different taste.

yes exactly! I grew up eating a lot od Asian food and we never put salt in the rice. But it seems that a lot of people do it.

I usually cook wholemeal rice, so I don't put the salt in until after it's done.

Salt tasts like salt to everyone! No different tastst ! Duh!

No, NO, A THOUSAND TIMES, NO!!! The amount of salt you have to add to water to appreciably change the boiling temperature would make the fucking food inedible. Salt is added for flavouring.


You're a complete fucking idiot and every time you post you prove this further.

I'm guessing your invisible sky giant dictated that bit of smartness to you as well, dino. You're a fucking idiot. Salt makes a huge difference in food flavours depending on when it's added, but you won't accept this because such knowledge came from actual testing rather than just as an edict issued by pig-avoiding, baby-mutilating, women-hating bronze-age sacrificers of cows and other non-porcine quadrapeds.

Salting rice: after cooking, not before. Unless you personally prefer it otherwise. If you're serving to others, always err on the side of less salt.

woof.

None of the senses are perceived the same way by everyone. You could even argue that no one sees, hears, tastes, smells or feels anything in exactly the same way as the next person. Our sensors are all different, some more sensitive, some less, some just completely different. What tastes salty to me may taste bland to you for many different reasons both physiological and psychological.

Ha ha...
You seem to wag you tail too much today...

Are you going to teach billions of people who cook in India and other parts of asia how to cook rice ?
Stick to dog poo, that is better...

Salt addition to rice is done BEFORE and after.
Before cooking it is done be almost every indian in the sub continent.
Before cooking is added as a tradition and can taste it even before you add salt!!!
You only add salt after cooking, BECUAUSE you FORGOT to add it in the first palce ...

The dog barks up against a wrong tree again!!!
You should stick to what you know!

I've only ever salted rice after cooking when it's on my plate, then everyone can salt to their own taste.

I said, salt taste like salt to everyone.
Sure maybe to varying degrees.
But salt will always taste like salt, not sugar. ( Unless man modifies it ).
Duh!

Man, how subjective some people are! There is no objectivity left on thie planet it seems!

You really are dumb as a post aren't you dino?

It is subjective!
I may be really smart to someone else.!

well a shitload of salt will not taste as salty as one grain now will it?

Dino, read up on sensory perception, you will be surprised at how subjective things really are. And yes, it is actually possible for a person to taste sugar when they are eating salt. It's not normal, mind you but it is possible.

Doesn't ' taste ' as we perceive it alter or dissapear if you hold your nose whilst eating?

As we perceive it yes, smell is a major component in how we perceive taste.

Here I know where the problem is.
I am talking about the intrinsic taste of salt. you are talking about the quantity.
So we are OK.


indeed, I always assume we talk about normal people in the normal world. It takes some accident ot sickness etc for someone to taste sugar like salt or vice versa.
If you want to talk about abnormal stuff, then go ahead. I will stick to the normal.

whic relates to the fact that you said salt should always be added before cooking.
I prefer to let myself and my guests decide how much salt they want on their rice once it's cooked.

Loads of BS.

There's some degree of abnormality in all of us. The example I used was an extreme case but "normal" people can also experience differences in taste from eachother and within themselves. If you use exactly the same ingredients for a dish and make it exactly the same way each time does it taste exactly the same every time you eat it? The answer is no, there are several factors outside the amount of salt you are using that influence how you taste it.

Have you ever managed to "If you use exactly the same ingredients for a dish and make it exactly the same way each time" ?
I doubt it. It cannot be done. It is too perfect to be done.
There ends the theory.

Don't forget to debate the different tastes of salt with additions of folic acid, flour or iodine while you're at it.

Traditionally basmati rice is cooked without any salt. But I prefer to use a pinch of it. Does not need to be much. The should definitely not taste 'salty'.

No, it does not. I'll give an example that's a little more simplistic for you.

Count out 30 grains of salt and eat them this evening after dinner.

Count out another 30 grains of the same type of salt and eat them tomorrow before breakfast.

Let me know if it tastes the same.

and you are telling me it will taste different because of salt ?
No. Since you kept it overnight. That changes the taste.

Now, take exactly the same amount ( say 5mg ) of salt tonight before you go to sleep and the same amount tomorrow morning, and tell me that one tasted like salt and the other like sugar.

Duh!

Please read my post again, you have completely misread the experiment I gave you.

I also didn't claim the salt would taste like sugar only that it would taste differently. These concepts are simple and easy to understand, if you can't keep up you might want to find another forum that caters more to your intellectual capabilities.

ER did not say that you should count the 30 grains for breakfast tonight before going to bed. Count both out of the common salt-cellar that stands in your kitchen or on the dining table right before eating. Here endeth the lesson.

I guess I am a normal person, because I always taste salt as salt.
And I do not taste any difference.

How do you know? Have you tried my experiment?

I would challenge you to try it for yourself but I don't suppose you'd report back honestly even if you did try it.

I have tried, yes, again and again. Long before today.
I can only say that I never tasted a difference.
( Now tell me that it is in my mind..)

Well dino, here's a new experiment for you. Count out thirty teaspoons of salt and ingest asap (you may need a drip). That way, we should receive some objective expert findings shortly and can all rest in peace.

The rice may remain identical but the exact chemical composition withinn your mouth and palate is variable, hence a different taste.