We Tested a Centuries-Old Rice Technique—Here’s Why It Still Makes the Fluffiest Grains by Sweta Shivakumar

 Few kitchen habits inspire more confident, contradictory opinions than washing rice. In the Indian household I grew up in, the idea of not rinsing rice bordered on unthinkable—of course you washed it, what kind of question is that? But then I moved to the US, where plenty of cooks skip the step entirely, and where supermarket bags of enriched rice even warn you that rinsing will wash away added nutrients. And to make matters more confusing, some iconic dishes across the world—risotto, paella, congee—depend on the surface starch washing removes.

So which is it? Is washing rice a non-negotiable technique, an outdated habit, or something that only matters for certain rice varieties? And what actually happens in the pot when you wash—or don't wash—your rice?

In this article, I break down the science of rinsing and test washed vs. unwashed rice across several varieties to determine whether and when washing improves or harms the results.

Why We Used to Wash Rice

Before modern milling made rice the tidy, uniform product we buy today, rinsing served a very pragmatic purpose: It was basic housekeeping. Rice traveled long distances in burlap sacks, picked up dust along the way, and often contained bits of bran, husk, and field debris. Washing wasn't a technique so much as a necessary cleanup step—like rinsing produce before eating it. In many parts of the world, especially in Asia, that habit became so ingrained that "wash the rice" wasn't a recipe instruction so much as cultural muscle memory.

Today, though, the landscape looks very different. Industrial milling and polishing remove the bran far more efficiently than old stone mills ever did, and high-speed optical sorters scan individual grains for defects with almost absurd precision. By the time a bag of rice reaches you, it's already cleaner than anything your great-grandparents could have imagined.

So if modern rice is clean, why do so many cooks—myself included—still rinse it? Because now we're not washing the dirt off. We're washing off surface starch, the fine, powdery layer formed during milling and transport when grains rub against each other. That starch dissolves into the cooking water, and many of us are told it can make rice clump, stick, or turn unexpectedly gummy. Rinsing removes the loose starch and, for many varieties, it's believed it helps grains cook more evenly by preventing patchy hydration.

Putting Washing to the Test

So at this point, we know why people wash rice, but the lingering, main question is whether rinsing makes a meaningful difference in your final pot of rice?

The only way to answer that was to test it. I cooked washed and unwashed rice side by side across with aged basmati and American enriched long-grain and medium-grain rice—controlling every variable except the rinse. I expected some subtle shifts; what I didn't expect were the clear, sometimes dramatic differences in texture, hydration, and even color. Here's what I found.

Basmati Rice

I started with my beloved aged basmati—the kind that comes in a 20-pound bag and takes up half your pantry. I cooked two batches: one washed "until clear," and one completely unwashed (a choice that would make my mother gasp audibly).

Before even cooking, the basmati bag surprised me by explicitly instructing me to rinse. I've made rice since I was fourteen and never looked at the bag. But there it was—manufacturer-approved affirmation of what countless cooks already do by instinct. 

Interestingly, the washed batch didn't show dramatically less surface starch after fluffing. Modern milling—and the nature of aged basmati—means both batches stayed relatively separate. The difference was primarily about hydration, not gluey starchiness.

American Long-Grain and Medium-Grain Enriched Rice

Next up was regular American grocery-store medium- and long-grain enriched rice. The package instructions couldn't have been more explicit: Add the rice directly to boiling water without washing. Enriched rice has vitamins sprayed onto the surface, B vitamins and iron meant to replace what's lost during milling; so rinsing it actually removes the very nutrients manufacturers add back.

After following the package's cooking instructions (except for washing one batch despite their insistence not to wash), I found that washing the rice didn't just wash away the enrichment; it also made the cooked rice noticeably mushier. This surprised me. However, the washed rice was consistently whiter than the unwashed rice. 

Because the directions assume you're starting with completely dry grains, rinsing jump-starts hydration. The rice begins absorbing water before it even hits the pot, plumping up for a few extra minutes. That extra hydration pushed my rice past the ideal point, resulting in softer, clumpier grains and more surface starch than intended. 

Adjusting the water ratio and cooking time will probably yield good results with washing enriched rice as well, but you will have to babysit the grains and not rely solely on the package instructions. Besides, why un-enrich the enriched rice? The unwashed grains were the clear winner here.

How Much Washing Do You Actually Need?

Once you understand that the promise of rinsing is really about managing surface starch, not dirt, the next obvious question is how much rinsing is enough? In her book To Boldly Grow, Tamar Haspel jokes that the advice to rinse rice "until the water runs clear" is basically impossible—the water never turns truly clear, just progressively less cloudy until you give up. I laughed when I read that. Washing rice shouldn't feel like a Sisyphean exercise. (By the way, this is the same woman who leached tannins from acorns using her toilet flush tank, so the bar for "too much effort" is pretty high.)

In most Asian households—including the one I grew up in—the standard is three to four quick rinses with just enough agitation to lift the milky, powdery starch off the grains and send it swirling down the drain.

During the first rinse, you'll see that your hand comes out coated in a thin white slurry—that's the loose starch layer. 

If you're determined to reach that "water runs clear" stage without wasting half the municipal supply, here's a great tip I picked up from the folks at Zojirushi: After the first two rinses, drain the water completely. Then, using your finger pads, quickly stir the wet rice about 30 times in a circular motion without water. That little burst of friction dislodges the starch hiding between the grains far better than endless rinsing ever could. When you add water again, you'll usually get a much clearer rinse in just one or two passes.

And yes, we use the rinse water in our household—plants love it! Plus, it's great for a quick pre-rinse of dirty dishes.                                                           Note that brown rice behaves differently. Because the bran layer stays intact, very little starch escapes into the water. The bowl stays almost crystal clear from the first rinse, and there's no need for the swish-and-stir technique.                                                                                             So… Should You Wash Your Rice?                                                                                      If the  package for enriched medium- and long-grain rice says not to wash the rice, then don't. The cooking times are calibrated for unrinsed, dry grains, and rinsing can alter the texture, not to mention washing away nutrients in enriched varieties.                                                                                                     If you're cooking Asian rice varieties—basmati, jasmine, short-grain Japanese—keep rinsing. It removes loose starch, improves hydration, and produces more consistent results. It’s why rinsing sushi rice is a key step in preparing it. It helps standardize results across grains and reduces variance.                                                                                                                      But if you forget to wash your rice, it's not the end of the world. Most people won't taste a dramatic difference if they fail to rinse, but the textureI wash my rice because I like the texture and consistency, and because I don't want to hear the dramatic sigh my mother would let out if she saw me skip it. But if you don't wash, or forget to? You're absolutely okay.                    

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