The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 928

Risotto should never clump up like this you’ve got problems Listen: I could give this discussion of risotto the typical sensationalist opening and craft some story about how everybody knows that to make great risotto, you’ve got to stir it gently and constantly, adding the hot broth to the rice one cup at a time and waiting until it’s absorbed before you add the next I could that, but it’d be disingenuous I mean, by this late stage in the game, is there anyone in the world beside hard-line Italians who doesn’t know that you can make a bowl of luscious, al dente, perfectly mantecato (loose and creamy) risotto without preheating your broth or stirring constantly? People have been saying and writing about it for years now I’m strongly convinced that the myth only exists because of Italian grandmothers who used risotto as an excuse to keep an unnecessary kitchen helper occupied for half an hour or to escape from the rest of the family for a while That said, I still had a ton of risotto questions left unanswered, so I decided to test just about every aspect of risotto I could think of to separate fact from fiction Which type of rice is best? How often do you really need to stir? Is toasting the rice necessary? And what about finishing the risotto with cream? So many questions, so many grains of rice, so little time Let’s get right to it, shall we? Rice Advice ... convinced that the myth only exists because of Italian grandmothers who used risotto as an excuse to keep an unnecessary kitchen helper occupied for half an hour or to escape from the rest of the family... Which type of rice is best? How often do you really need to stir? Is toasting the rice necessary? And what about finishing the risotto with cream? So many questions, so many grains of rice, so little time