midwestern Great Lakes region of North America, where it grows in shallow lakes and marshes and was gathered in canoes by the Ojibway and other native peoples It’s the only cereal from North America to have become important as a human food Wild rice is unusual among the cereals for containing double the usual amount of moisture at maturity, around 40% of the kernel weight It thus requires more elaborate processing than true rice in order to be stored It’s first matured in moist piles for a week or two, during which immature grains continue to ripen and microbes grow on the grain surfaces, generating flavor and weakening the husks Then it is parched over a fire to dry the grain, flavor it, and make the husk brittle; and finally it’s threshed to remove the husk Texture and Flavor Wild rice has a firm, chewy texture thanks to its intact bran layer and the parching process, which gelates and then anneals the starch much as parboiling does for true rice It takes longer to cook than most grains, sometimes an hour or more, because its starch has been precooked into a hard, glassy mass, and because its bran layers are impregnated with cutins and waxes (p 262) to resist the absorption of water (in nature, the grains fall into the water and lie dormant for months or even years before germinating) The dark pigmentation may also contribute; it is partly green-black chlorophyll derivatives and partly black phenolic complexes generated by browning enzymes Producers often slightly abrade the grains to improve their water absorption and shorten cooking time Cooks can also pre-soak the grains for hours in warm water The flavor of the raw grain has earthy and green, flowery, tea-like notes Curing amplifies the tea notes (from pyridines) but may add an undesirable mustiness; parching generates browning reactions and a toasted, ... hard, glassy mass, and because its bran layers are impregnated with cutins and waxes (p 262) to resist the absorption of water (in nature, the grains fall into the water and lie dormant for months or even... the grains to improve their water absorption and shorten cooking time Cooks can also pre-soak the grains for hours in warm water The flavor of the raw grain has earthy and green, flowery, tea-like notes... The dark pigmentation may also contribute; it is partly green-black chlorophyll derivatives and partly black phenolic complexes generated by browning enzymes Producers often slightly abrade the