By: Executive Chef Fabrizio Bazzani, Chianti Il Ristorante
There is no doubt that history of rice is as old as the one of civilization. Rice has accompanied mankind with different services from being an object of cult to the widest food supply, from a philosophical topic to a cultural staple.
From the 20 supposed ancient varieties only two now have relevance in the world of cuisine: Oryza sativa (Asiatic origin) and the Oryza glaberrima (African origin).
Oryza sativa includes 3 types:
Japonica of Chinese origin is the most used in Italy. It thrives in temperate climates and has a short grain and low “amiloso” content (glucide).
Indica of Indian origin consists of a long grain and glucide content higher than the Japonica form. This variety; Basmati, is a long grain, soft rice.
Javanica is also known as “tropical Japonica” with intermediate characteristics.
Rice is sowed in spring and reaches maturity in 140 to 170 days. The harvest is completed in the late summer to fall season. In its raw stage, the rice can be stored for long periods of time without spoiling. Rice as we know it, has to be refined in several stages. First, it has to be freed from impurities and then worked through rubber covered rolling pins called “rice hullers” to extract the chaff. In the second stage, all non-ripened grains have to be removed. Subsequently, the bran will be scratched off along with the germ and only whole grains will be selected and packed.
History and Myths
The cradle of rice is Asia, where fossils dating 5,000 years ago contain rice plant in the area of the Yank Tze Valley. Deeper research gave a different result. Traces of worked rice product date back at least 10,000 years. Of course, witness to the long history of rice, is also oral tradition; rich in details but also fantastic stories (not always reliable for scientific research).
Stories consist of legends such as the Vietnamese telling of an old King whose last desire was for his son to find a dish “fit for a king” to put on his tomb as an offering to the souls of the dead fathers. After a long search, the youngest son prepared a rice cake made of two parts; one being round, as the sky and the other being square, as the earth with a layer of meat in between.
This is a typical Vietnamese Banh Chung. Very similar to this, many other legends of ride exist.
Rice in America
At first, cultivation was experimented with in Virginia in 1647 and later in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. By the 1890’s, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and lastly; California began their rice cultivating. All countries in Central and South America have also had recent development in the cultivation of rice. Improperly, the American wild rice, also known as the rice of the American Indians, is considered to be rice but this plant is actually a darnel plant, discovered in 1600 on the banks of the great American lakes.
Rice in Italy
Arabs brought the plant to Sicily where it was cultivated starting in 250 A.C. In the following years, it was brought to other areas of couth Italy and produced in small quantities until 1500, when the Spanish made a more intense effort to use rice to face the demand of rising population.
In Tuscany under the De Medici ruling, there are traces of rice production but the origin of trade is in Milan and the Sforza family; where the business potential was finally fully discovered since its great yield obscures that of wheat.
Rice was cultivated in all areas of Lombardy, where the seeds were imported by Venetian merchants. Strangely enough, rice was not used in Veneto for at least another 100 years, and finally the areas of Mantua, Verona, Vicenza, join in the phenomenon.
At first, the population feared Malaria because of the slow moving waters needed to nurture the rice plants, until systems of irrigation were updated so the waters would be not stagnant and aquacultures were introduced such as crawfish.
In the 1700’s, the race stalled until the 1860’s, when the new unified Italian realm invested considerable effort in irrigation with the construction of Cavour Channel and the production soared; creating an important source of business.
Between the two wars, the rice studies intensify, finally giving birth in 1931 to the Ente Nazionale Risi (National Rice Authority) whose predominant object is to regulate the Italian production of rice. The new techniques of packing and preservation were refined and are predominant in modern markets, with the vacuum sealed and the American Parboiled, where rice is literally par boiled with hulls still on to enhance the character and stretch the preserving time.
After World War II, the varietals Carnaroli Vialone Nano Baldo and S. Andrea are predominant, which points out the choice of concentrating effort on more refined types of rice to meet the requirements of north European markets.
In recent times, new techniques of “dry” cultures are refined to be able to grow rice also in scarce water conditions. In conclusion, a comparison; before potatoes and corn, rice is the produce that on equal cultivated surface, feed the most amount of people.
18 Division Street, Saratoga Springs, NY, 12866 • phone 518.580.0025 • fax 518.580.1081 • contact@chiantiristorante.com
Rice, The Catalyst Between History and Civilization
By: Executive Chef Fabrizio Bazzani, Chianti Il Ristorante
There is no doubt that history of rice is as old as the one of civilization. Rice has accompanied mankind with different services from being an object of cult to the widest food supply, from a philosophical topic to a cultural staple.
From the 20 supposed ancient varieties only two now have relevance in the world of cuisine: Oryza sativa (Asiatic origin) and the Oryza glaberrima (African origin).
Oryza sativa includes 3 types:
Japonica of Chinese origin is the most used in Italy. It thrives in temperate climates and has a short grain and low “amiloso” content (glucide).
Indica of Indian origin consists of a long grain and glucide content higher than the Japonica form. This variety; Basmati, is a long grain, soft rice.
Javanica is also known as “tropical Japonica” with intermediate characteristics.
Rice is sowed in spring and reaches maturity in 140 to 170 days. The harvest is completed in the late summer to fall season. In its raw stage, the rice can be stored for long periods of time without spoiling. Rice as we know it, has to be refined in several stages. First, it has to be freed from impurities and then worked through rubber covered rolling pins called “rice hullers” to extract the chaff. In the second stage, all non-ripened grains have to be removed. Subsequently, the bran will be scratched off along with the germ and only whole grains will be selected and packed.
History and Myths
The cradle of rice is Asia, where fossils dating 5,000 years ago contain rice plant in the area of the Yank Tze Valley. Deeper research gave a different result. Traces of worked rice product date back at least 10,000 years. Of course, witness to the long history of rice, is also oral tradition; rich in details but also fantastic stories (not always reliable for scientific research).
Stories consist of legends such as the Vietnamese telling of an old King whose last desire was for his son to find a dish “fit for a king” to put on his tomb as an offering to the souls of the dead fathers. After a long search, the youngest son prepared a rice cake made of two parts; one being round, as the sky and the other being square, as the earth with a layer of meat in between.
This is a typical Vietnamese Banh Chung. Very similar to this, many other legends of ride exist.
Rice in America
At first, cultivation was experimented with in Virginia in 1647 and later in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. By the 1890’s, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and lastly; California began their rice cultivating. All countries in Central and South America have also had recent development in the cultivation of rice. Improperly, the American wild rice, also known as the rice of the American Indians, is considered to be rice but this plant is actually a darnel plant, discovered in 1600 on the banks of the great American lakes.
Rice in Italy
Arabs brought the plant to Sicily where it was cultivated starting in 250 A.C. In the following years, it was brought to other areas of couth Italy and produced in small quantities until 1500, when the Spanish made a more intense effort to use rice to face the demand of rising population.
In Tuscany under the De Medici ruling, there are traces of rice production but the origin of trade is in Milan and the Sforza family; where the business potential was finally fully discovered since its great yield obscures that of wheat.
Rice was cultivated in all areas of Lombardy, where the seeds were imported by Venetian merchants. Strangely enough, rice was not used in Veneto for at least another 100 years, and finally the areas of Mantua, Verona, Vicenza, join in the phenomenon.
At first, the population feared Malaria because of the slow moving waters needed to nurture the rice plants, until systems of irrigation were updated so the waters would be not stagnant and aquacultures were introduced such as crawfish.
In the 1700’s, the race stalled until the 1860’s, when the new unified Italian realm invested considerable effort in irrigation with the construction of Cavour Channel and the production soared; creating an important source of business.
Between the two wars, the rice studies intensify, finally giving birth in 1931 to the Ente Nazionale Risi (National Rice Authority) whose predominant object is to regulate the Italian production of rice. The new techniques of packing and preservation were refined and are predominant in modern markets, with the vacuum sealed and the American Parboiled, where rice is literally par boiled with hulls still on to enhance the character and stretch the preserving time.
After World War II, the varietals Carnaroli Vialone Nano Baldo and S. Andrea are predominant, which points out the choice of concentrating effort on more refined types of rice to meet the requirements of north European markets.
In recent times, new techniques of “dry” cultures are refined to be able to grow rice also in scarce water conditions. In conclusion, a comparison; before potatoes and corn, rice is the produce that on equal cultivated surface, feed the most amount of people.