Cooking rice with just cold water is the wrong way: Add this ingredient for fragrant, tender, and nutritious rice that lasts without worrying about spoilage.

Vietnamese cannot miss the dish of plain rice because this is a traditional dish, no matter how delicious other dishes are, without white rice everything becomes meaningless. However, during the summer days, plain rice is easily spoiled, so you should add something to make the dish more flavorful and not spoil when left for a long time.

Cooking rice with hot water

Most people usually cook rice with cold water, but according to nutrition experts, cooking rice with hot water is much better than cooking rice with cold water. Because boiling water helps the outer membrane of the rice grain contract immediately, forming a protective layer to keep the rice grains from breaking and preserving the nutrients inside. Meanwhile, cold water will make the rice grains expand and make the nutrients dissolve in the water and easily evaporate during cooking.

How to cook rice without spoiling

To prevent the rice from spoiling, you shouldn’t just use boiled water. You should add one of the following three ingredients to make the rice fragrant and long-lasting.

Vinegar: To make the rice white, fragrant, and not easily spoiled or sour, before cooking the rice, you just need to add a few drops of vinegar (for 1.5kg of rice, use 2-3ml of vinegar). The vinegar will help make the rice white and not easily spoiled or sour. The amount of vinegar you use is very small and will evaporate during cooking, so you don’t need to worry about the smell of vinegar affecting the taste of the rice.

Salt: To make the dish more flavorful and delicious, you can also add a few grains of salt before cooking the rice to enhance the taste and make the rice less likely to spoil. In addition, when you want to reheat cold rice, you can mix the rice with a little diluted saltwater to make the rice more flavorful, making it taste as fresh as newly cooked.

Alcohol: After washing the rice, you can add 1-2 small spoons of alcohol to cook together. This method will make the rice have an attractive aroma and the rice grains will be soft, even when left to cool down, it will still be delicious.

In addition, when cooking rice, you can add a few drops of cooking oil (or coconut oil, olive oil…) to the pot from the beginning to make the rice grains shiny and beautiful.

How to store cold rice

For leftover rice, you should let it cool down completely, then put it in a container and cover it tightly before putting it in the refrigerator. The low temperature in the refrigerator will slow down the process of harmful bacteria growth and help the rice last longer. When you want to use it, you just need to take out the rice and reheat it. You can heat it in the microwave for about 3 minutes.