Reheating rice? Then pay attention to this:
Cooked or steamed rice is typically one of those big batch side dishes where it’s always handy to have leftovers on hand. Even if you get takeout or have food delivered, it’s a good idea not to throw away any rice that remains. But make sure you read these warnings first, because with rice it’s not always immediately clear whether it can still be used!
Because you can’t keep cooked rice for a week, no matter how much you’d like to make another fantastic quick egg fried rice on day six. Or a simple snack of warm steamed rice that actually needs little more than homemade chili oil or a generous sprinkling of furikake. These hints will tell you when it’s really time to throw the last little bit in the bin…
Crunchy grains (when that’s not the intention)
After three to four days, there’s a good chance the rice will have dried out considerably. And although the best nasi goreng is made with rice that isn’t warm, soft and fluffy – genuinely hard pieces aren’t the intention either.
Kept at room temperature for too long
Sometimes people think they got sick from the leftovers of a Chinese takeaway meal the next day, or from the MSG. However, there’s a good chance that the rice that didn’t go straight onto the plate and was left out of the fridge for too long is the culprit, because someone thought rice doesn’t spoil as quickly as, for example, kung pao chicken (homemade is delicious too!). But uncooked rice can contain spores of the Bacillus cereus bacterium. This bacterium can cause food poisoning if you don’t handle cooked rice carefully and leave it on the counter for too long before packing it cold and airtight in the fridge. Don’t be too quick to point the finger at the shrimp or chicken as the culprit in the unfortunate event of food poisoning; sometimes it’s that innocent-looking rice…
Reheating multiple times
Almost all types of food don’t do well when reheated more than once. It’s best to stick to reheating it once and throw away whatever remains afterward. If you know that a stored portion of rice is also too much to eat in one go, freeze part of it instead.
It smells fishy
Throw away rice that smells strange immediately. This is one of the clearest signs that something is past its use-by date and, as we always recommend: when in doubt, smell it, look at it, and taste it—and spit it out if necessary. But hopefully you’ll notice it before reaching that point and can still enjoy perfectly fried rice!
Also read:
- Recipe: how to make real Surinamese BBR (brown beans with rice)
- Would you keep red meat for three weeks?
- You’re storing your ice cream incorrectly: Ben & Jerry’s explains how to do it right
