“The Ultimate Guide to Cooking Perfect Rice: Hot or Cold Water?”

Cooking rice with hot water does not necessarily retain more nutrients than cooking with cold water. Our ancestors have been cooking rice with cold water for generations. In this method, the rice is cooked from cold water until the water boils, evaporates, and the rice is dry.

“Recently, I’ve noticed that many housewives share the tip of cooking rice with hot water. This method will help the rice grains cook faster, shortening the cooking process. However, with this method, the rice will not absorb enough water to expand evenly and will definitely not taste as good as rice cooked from cold water,” said PGS Nguyen Duy Thinh.

According to the expert, during the process of cooking rice with cold water, the heat increases gradually until it boils. At this point, the rice will gradually absorb the water and cook. When the rice absorbs enough water, it becomes sticky, soft, and tastier.

The food technology expert added: “In theory, when cooking rice with cold water, the rice will expand, and the water will be absorbed from the outside to the inside. The substances from the outside of the rice grain will be absorbed into the inside, following the movement of the water flow.

Usually, the outer layer of the rice grain contains a lot of vitamin B1. This type of vitamin dissolves in water, so it will move along with the water flow into the inside of the rice grain. Even if the water boils and evaporates, there will be no loss of vitamins. If we explain it based on the principle of heat diffusion, cooking rice with cold water will reduce the loss of vitamin B1 in rice compared to hot water.”

However, these explanations are just theoretical. In reality, there is no experimental evidence to prove how much vitamin B1 remains when cooking with hot water and when cooking with cold water.