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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Lauren Volga BAM

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Speaker 1: and I'm Annie Reese, and uh, today we're talking about rice. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we're talking so much about rice. It's a massive topic.

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Speaker 1: We're not talking enough about rice. Yeah, because it's too massive.

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Speaker 1: It's so big. We really could have broken it down

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Speaker 1: into rice and China, rice in Japan. It's a huge undertaking.

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Speaker 1: And I just got back from a trip and I

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Speaker 1: have to say this was quite the topic to come

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Speaker 1: back to. Yeah, sorry about that. That's that's that's my bad.

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Speaker 1: I was like, we'll do something easy like rice that

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Speaker 1: what what could possibly go wrong? Oh? Nothing. There's so

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Speaker 1: much science words and terms that I had to look up,

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Speaker 1: Like call your BP, that's just calcium year before physics, calendar,

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Speaker 1: year calendar, I say, calcium here, that's what I took

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Speaker 1: from it. Yeah, it's a date term that that means

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Speaker 1: before physics. So therefore the calendar starts in nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: and it goes back you know, by our right. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a little bit more of a science way of

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Speaker 1: putting things, which I appreciate but me too. But it

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Speaker 1: nearly broke my brain trying to get it all in

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Speaker 1: the same time language and makes sense of everything. Um,

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Speaker 1: there's just so much. And in the episode following this one,

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Speaker 1: I found even more information about rice that I didn't

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Speaker 1: find when researching rice. The point being it's a massive topic. Um,

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Speaker 1: who knew, Yeah, not us, Sillias, everyone else knew. So rice, rice?

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Speaker 1: What is it? It's the seed of a type of grass,

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Speaker 1: which means it's classified as a cereal grain like a

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Speaker 1: wheat or outs corn. And some time verse for you

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Speaker 1: right at the top. It's a staple part of the

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Speaker 1: diet for billions of people. More than half the population

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Speaker 1: get or more of their daily calories from rice. For

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Speaker 1: millions of people, rice provides their caloric need, which means

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Speaker 1: we cultivate a lot of it. Seven forty one point

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Speaker 1: five million tons. China and India or by far the

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Speaker 1: largest contributors to that number. Together, the source of of

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Speaker 1: the world's total rice population and over is grown in Asia.

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Speaker 1: Nearly one third of the world's fresh water is used

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Speaker 1: by rice farmers. It's eaten pretty much everywhere and in

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Speaker 1: all kinds of ways, from Italian risotto to the caribbeans

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Speaker 1: coconut rice with beans. It's in soups, it's in castreles.

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Speaker 1: It comes with Indian food and Thai food and all

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Speaker 1: kinds of food. It's good in everything. For desserts, two snacks.

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Speaker 1: You can make it into rice milk. You can make

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Speaker 1: that milk into booze. You can grind rice into flour

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Speaker 1: and make all kinds of dough. You can make rice pudding. Yes,

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Speaker 1: all rice goes everywhere, and sometimes people throw it at

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Speaker 1: weddings sometimes. There are two species of domesticated rice that

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Speaker 1: are grown around the world, Oria sativa and Oriza glaberrima.

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Speaker 1: That confused me, but I believe that is correct. I

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Speaker 1: think so. It might be Oriza, but either way, um.

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Speaker 1: These two species were cultivated independently from each other from

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Speaker 1: two distinct wild ancestors. The differences generally are that the

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Speaker 1: Asian rice types the sativa, have brownish brands, um higher

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Speaker 1: crop yields, and are easier to work with. The African

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Speaker 1: rice tripes the glaberrima, have reddish brands, are sturdier, and

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Speaker 1: mature a little bit more quickly. Asian rice is by

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Speaker 1: far the more prevalent, and has even begun replacing African

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Speaker 1: rice in areas of its native West Africa because of

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Speaker 1: those high crop yields. African rice is mainly grown as

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Speaker 1: a subsistence crop, not as commercial crop, and there are

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Speaker 1: about ten thousand known varieties of African rice than Asian rice.

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Speaker 1: There are two main subspecies, the tropical region region the

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Speaker 1: tropical region loving Indica and the East Asian temperate subtropical

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Speaker 1: climate loving Japonica. Yes, and within those you've got a

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Speaker 1: whole bunch of cultivars advice some forty varieties. You've got

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Speaker 1: shorter and longer grains, fragrant or aromatic rices like jasmine

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Speaker 1: or bassamati, glutinous or sticky rices like those used to

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Speaker 1: make porridges, or flower for dumpling dough. Well, it's of

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Speaker 1: stuff that's been specialized with the millennium. And a note

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Speaker 1: here about wild rice. What we call wild rice the

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Speaker 1: States are domesticated species of an entirely different genus of

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Speaker 1: cereal grains, Zannia. We'll have to do a whole other

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Speaker 1: episode about that stuff. Confusing the matter. Yeah, Uh, there

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Speaker 1: are a bunch of species of Areza rice that are

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Speaker 1: not domesticated and this are also called wild rice. Different thing,

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Speaker 1: still interesting to say. And so we're trying to suss

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Speaker 1: out rice's genetics for like historical and crop improvement purposes.

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Speaker 1: But we'll try in this episode to distinguish between non

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Speaker 1: domesticated rice and wild rice throughout it gets it gets confusing. Yes, uh,

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Speaker 1: if you've never seen rice growing, it looks like grass,

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Speaker 1: Like have you ever let your yard grow? Until the

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Speaker 1: grass sprouts these tall stalks among the leafy blades, and

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Speaker 1: then there's like clusters of seeds at the tip of

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Speaker 1: the stalks. If I had a yard, I probably would.

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Speaker 1: Oh well, rice rice looks like a giant version of

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Speaker 1: that um. It grows about three to six ft tall

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Speaker 1: a k a one to two meters, although that's just

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Speaker 1: like the general norm. In some areas with annual flooding,

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Speaker 1: rice can grow to eighteen feet or six meters in height. Wow.

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Speaker 1: The grains of rice themselves are encased by a tough,

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Speaker 1: inetable hull, and inside that you've got a couple of

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Speaker 1: fibrous layers. The brand protecting the endos sperm, which is

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Speaker 1: the starchy food for the rice embryo which and the

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Speaker 1: end of sperm encircles the protein e embryo itself. When

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Speaker 1: you leave the brand on a grain of rice, that's

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Speaker 1: brown rice, and when you remove it that's white rice,

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Speaker 1: though white can be something of a misnomer, as rice

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Speaker 1: also comes in brown and red, and purple and black.

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Speaker 1: Rice can be convinced to grow in all kinds of

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Speaker 1: conditions from the from the wet patties to dear desert conditions. Uh,

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Speaker 1: this is part of why it's become the staple that

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Speaker 1: it has for so many cultures. And the technology to

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Speaker 1: remove the hull and the brand from the grain are

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Speaker 1: a serious industry. How serious, Oh so serious, way too

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Speaker 1: serious to get into right now. Okay, yeah, I'll sorry

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Speaker 1: about it. Very Basically, if you're going to grow rice,

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Speaker 1: you you generally need a level, moist field that can

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Speaker 1: be flooded with water when you want it to be

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Speaker 1: flooded with water, and you know, removed at other times.

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Speaker 1: You plant the seeds in a nursery, then transplant them

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Speaker 1: to the field one or two months later by hand

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Speaker 1: or machine or even by airplane. About three months later,

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Speaker 1: the plants will be fully grown and the grains will ripen.

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Speaker 1: You harvest the stocks again, either by hand or by

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Speaker 1: um manual or animal powered machine, or by an electric machine,

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Speaker 1: and then you thresh the grain from the stock. What

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Speaker 1: you do with the stocks the rice straw is also

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Speaker 1: a serious matter of industry, as the straw can be

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Speaker 1: used to make all manner of useful woven objects. My

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Speaker 1: new favorite example of this, though, is rice straw being

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Speaker 1: used to make giant animal sculptures. Of course, for the

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Speaker 1: past decade or so, there's been a yearly festival in

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Speaker 1: Japan where art students come together to make these incredible

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Speaker 1: twenty foot tall sculptures. And it's called the Water Art Festival. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's beautiful. Look it up. Oh man, I want to

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Speaker 1: We should definitely take a field trip there next year.

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Speaker 1: We have so many field trips you really need to

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Speaker 1: get a budget together. Yes, okay, all right. Anyway, once

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Speaker 1: you've got the grains, you drive them and remove the

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Speaker 1: inedi bowl hull um. And if you're creating brown rice here,

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Speaker 1: you're basically done. If not, you go on to mill

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Speaker 1: the brand off and then polish the grains. If you've

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Speaker 1: ever seen white rice labeled enriched, by the way, that's

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Speaker 1: an extra process. You can either a steep brown rice

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Speaker 1: under pressure to transfer some of the nutrients from the

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Speaker 1: brand into the grain before you mill it, or you

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Speaker 1: can steep milled grains and then a redry them. Rice

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Speaker 1: was one of the very first plants that humans domesticated,

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Speaker 1: and our dependence on it helped us refine a lot

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Speaker 1: of agricultural technologies, especially processes for for moving and controlling

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Speaker 1: water and it it's hard to overstate the cultural importance

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Speaker 1: of rice. It's such a staple that it ties into

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Speaker 1: the myths and rituals and religions of as far as

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Speaker 1: I can tell every people who have grown it, and

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Speaker 1: we can't possibly include all of them in this episode.

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Speaker 1: But but we're gonna try to give you rice's history

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Speaker 1: and a nutshell Yes, but first we're going to give

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Speaker 1: you a quick word from our sponsor and we're back,

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Speaker 1: Thank you sponsor. Okay, so history of rice. There's a

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Speaker 1: lot going on here, but we're gonna try to make

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Speaker 1: our way through it. Let's start with Oriza sativa. I

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Speaker 1: said that with a question mark because the pronunciation risus sativa.

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Speaker 1: Somewhere around ten thousand to fourteen thousand years ago, the

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Speaker 1: wild grass Areza rufi pogan was domesticated to get O sativa,

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Speaker 1: as we will call it from here on out. Or

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Speaker 1: It probably was some argue that the annual species oh

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Speaker 1: novara to O rufy Pogon's perennial species who could be O.

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Speaker 1: Sativa's direct ancestor are possibly both of them are. There's

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Speaker 1: further argument about whether or not the oldest rice grains

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Speaker 1: discovered in China or domes ssticated, are cultivated or straight

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Speaker 1: up wild rices. Like we were talking about before it

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Speaker 1: gets confusing, rice is so old? How old is it? Yes?

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Speaker 1: I was hoping you do that that There are competing

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Speaker 1: theories as to his age and where exactly it can

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Speaker 1: be traced to. There are a lot of competing theories,

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Speaker 1: and there has been a whole bunch of DNA research

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Speaker 1: into rice's history, much of it looking at the grain

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Speaker 1: size and the shattering if you're interested in that sort

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Speaker 1: of thing. Um. Recent research into rice genetics suggests that

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Speaker 1: possibly both aforementioned Indica and Japonica were domesticated in a

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Speaker 1: single event in China's Pearl Valley region as far back

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Speaker 1: as eight thousand, two hundred or thirteen thousand, five hundred

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Speaker 1: years ago. Archaeological evidence in China, including the discovery of

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Speaker 1: eight thousand, possibly older year old rice growing tools and

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Speaker 1: rice remains, points to the Middle Young Sea River and

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Speaker 1: the Upper Hawai River as the earliest sites of the

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Speaker 1: domestication of Osativa, and over the next two thousand years,

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Speaker 1: the practice of rice cultivation followed the path of these rivers,

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Speaker 1: becoming more and more widespread. Okay, so there's that. In

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Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, several US universities came together to produce

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Speaker 1: the most convincing evidence to day supporting the idea that

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Speaker 1: domesticated rice has a single origin and that the Young

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Speaker 1: Sea Valley in China was its birthplace. But there are

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Speaker 1: other theories. There are so many other theories. In two

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Speaker 1: thousand three, well, a two thousand three BBC article reported

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Speaker 1: on the discovery of fifteen thousand year old rice green

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Speaker 1: is discovered in Korea, which is that odds with the

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Speaker 1: generally accepted rice comes from China narrative. The assertion was

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Speaker 1: met with skepticism and the scientific community, and then it

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Speaker 1: was sort of dismissed as a nationalistic effort as some

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Speaker 1: news from from North Korea tends to be yes, some

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Speaker 1: of it yeah. In a Scientific Reports article proposed that

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Speaker 1: many of the domesticated at rice varieties grown today originated

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Speaker 1: from an undomesticated strain found in Cape York, Australia. The

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Speaker 1: articles authors believe that the undomesticated version is what much

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Speaker 1: of the rice grown in Asia would have looked like

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Speaker 1: without human invention. Yeah, this Cape York rice is more diverse,

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Speaker 1: and the folks involved in this research hope to breed

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Speaker 1: rice more adaptable to climate change and increase rice production

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Speaker 1: to keep pace with population growth. Okay, so there's that.

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Speaker 1: Rice grains going back to four thousand BC were discovered,

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Speaker 1: and the oldest known rice patty located in the lower

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Speaker 1: Yngsea River Valley, So for sure, for sure whatever else

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Speaker 1: was going on, yes before that, by then rice is

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Speaker 1: being cultivated in that area. The process of turning soil

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Speaker 1: to mud by puddling it in order to prevent too

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Speaker 1: much water from escaping and then moving the ad rice

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Speaker 1: seedlings was most likely figured out in China as well.

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Speaker 1: Somewhere around three thousand to four thousand b C. E

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Speaker 1: rice traveled north to central China's Yellow River basin. About

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Speaker 1: the same time, rice also moved south to Taiwan and Vietnam. Meanwhile, meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: evidence of rice consumption discovered in India's Gang Valley dates

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Speaker 1: back to seven thousand to six thousand b C. But

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Speaker 1: these grains were probably not cultivated so found in the

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Speaker 1: wild and eaten, yes, but not grown on purpose by people.

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Speaker 1: The oldest evidence of that in India goes back to

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Speaker 1: three thousand to two thousand, five hundred BC, in a

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Speaker 1: region once controlled by the Indus Valley civilization. By one

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Speaker 1: thousand b C, it was a significant crop in Sri Lanka. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I hope you can see already why this might have

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Speaker 1: been some confusing research. UM. Some perennial wild rice dating

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Speaker 1: back to fred BC still grows in Assam and Nepal.

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Speaker 1: The spread of rice cultivation through these areas has even

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Speaker 1: been proposed as a way of tracing the development and

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Speaker 1: interaction of South and East Asian languages. UM. The different

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Speaker 1: words that different cultural groups have for for not just rice,

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Speaker 1: but rice at all stages of like planting and harvest

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Speaker 1: and processing show how these peoples may have connected and

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Speaker 1: then settled. But meanwhile, meanwhile, Africa's oh Glover Aima came

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Speaker 1: into the rice scene somewhere around somewhere around between one thousand,

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Speaker 1: eight hundred and eight hundred BC. According to rice grain

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Speaker 1: impressions found in ceramic wear uncovered in Northeast Nigeria and

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Speaker 1: charred rice grains nearby date back to one thowo d BC.

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Speaker 1: It's not clear whether the grains that either of these

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Speaker 1: sites were domesticated and not wild. However, clear cut evidence

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Speaker 1: of domesticated rice doesn't show up until three hundred two

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Speaker 1: d b C and the inland Niger Delta. It's spread

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Speaker 1: through brackish water channels but never made it too far

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Speaker 1: outside of the region. Also, locally, African rice is used

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Speaker 1: to make beer I just want to do add that

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Speaker 1: in there, beer one and and distilled liquors made by

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Speaker 1: everyone who grows rice. Essentially pretty much um jumping ahead

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Speaker 1: of it. When the Portuguese showed up in West Africa

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Speaker 1: in the fourteen hundreds that like like CEU, they were

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Speaker 1: really impressed by the rice cultivation technology that they witnessed. Etymologically,

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Speaker 1: African words for rice appear before words for Asian rice

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Speaker 1: derived from Portuguese, and by the sixteen hundreds, Asian rice

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Speaker 1: had definitely made it to Africa and was being grown

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Speaker 1: alongside African rice or sometimes replacing African rice. Right Alexander

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Speaker 1: the Great might have maybe bought black rice from India

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Speaker 1: to Greece somewhere around three four to three, and it's

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Speaker 1: spread from there to nearby areas. Archaeologists found rice grains

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Speaker 1: from one hundred ish at Roman camps in Germany. Also

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Speaker 1: in that century, oh Sativa was found in a grave

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Speaker 1: in Iran, and writings in China describe it two different

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Speaker 1: rice varieties which we now know today to be Japonica

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Speaker 1: and Indica, and somewhere around two thousand to six thousand

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Speaker 1: years ago. The most commonly sited numbers are closer to

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Speaker 1: two thousand and what is now the Philippines. The Ifoo

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Speaker 1: Ifugao people carved the band now a rice terraces into

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Speaker 1: the side of the Ifugau Mountains. The UNESCO named sections

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Speaker 1: of these terraces as a World Heritage Site. It is

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Speaker 1: sometimes referred to as the eighth Wonder of the world.

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Speaker 1: Um and they're really beautiful and impressive. Yeah, they were

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Speaker 1: built mostly by hand. They are still maintained by the

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Speaker 1: Ifugao to this day and they still use the original

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Speaker 1: irrigation system. However, six years after being designated as a

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Speaker 1: World Heritage Site, the terraces were added to the World

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Speaker 1: Heritage Endangered List due to concerns about neglect as more

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Speaker 1: farmers moved away from the region. Inclement weather and soil

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Speaker 1: erosion and giant earthworms. Yeah, that was listed on their

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Speaker 1: Giant Earthworms. In two thousand twelve, they were removed from

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Speaker 1: the list thanks to servation efforts. Um and rice plays

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Speaker 1: a pretty important role in Ifugau culture with harvest festivals

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Speaker 1: and agricultural rights, but also to the Philippines at large.

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Speaker 1: And here's a myth about the creation of rice in

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Speaker 1: the Philippines at the time known as the Whole. When

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Speaker 1: the land of the Whole was played with famine, the

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Speaker 1: land dry and rife with weeds, the people begged the

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Speaker 1: Goddess of Mercy Stapia for relief. Sapia granted their request

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Speaker 1: using drops of milk from her breast on the weeds.

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Speaker 1: Nothing happened, so she asked the heavens for more milk,

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Speaker 1: but instead blood came out of her breast and onto

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Speaker 1: the weeds. To the plants, she implored them to be

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Speaker 1: fruitful and feed her people. From her viewpoint in heaven,

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Speaker 1: she could see the weeds produced grains, most of which

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Speaker 1: were white, but some were red depending on whether they

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Speaker 1: got the milk or the blood. So the white grains

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00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:52,000
Speaker 1: being Asian rice and the red being African rice. The

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Speaker 1: people were fed, and they took the seeds and planted them,

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Speaker 1: and Sapia rejoiced. Yeah. Asian rice appeared in Europe's Iberian

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Speaker 1: Peninsula in the tenth century courtesy of the Moors, or

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Speaker 1: was it the moops Seinfeld joke for anyone out there.

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Speaker 1: According to records, it was grown in Ovalencia and Majorca,

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Speaker 1: but cultivation at Majorca seems to have stopped after the

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Speaker 1: Christian conquest. Historians aren't quite sure if the two things

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Speaker 1: are related. Long before this, Muslims introduced rice to Sicily,

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Speaker 1: and writings put it at Pisa in fourteen sixty eight

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Speaker 1: and in Lombard Plain and fourteen seventy five, where the

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00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:34,399
Speaker 1: Duke of Milan demonstrated the cultivation of rice on his

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Speaker 1: model farms to encourage people to grow it. Yeah. And

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00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:41,960
Speaker 1: then from Italy or I traveled to France and from

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Speaker 1: there in the fifteenth century. Thanks to exploration and imperialism,

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00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:49,400
Speaker 1: rice arrived in the New World in Mexico and Brazil

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Speaker 1: in the fifteen twenties. Enslaved Africans are a large part

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Speaker 1: of the reason rice cultivation to Colton the New World. West.

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00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:59,040
Speaker 1: Africans brought with them different rice and being dishes from

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Speaker 1: their homeland and on the journey and slaved Africans were

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00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:04,879
Speaker 1: fed rice, among other things. Rice was also one of

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Speaker 1: the earliest crops planted in Australia. With the arrival of

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Speaker 1: British settlers in the us um rice cultivation was first

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Speaker 1: documented in five and Charleston, South Carolina, when Captain John

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Speaker 1: Thurber gave Dr Henry Woodward a bag of rice seeds

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Speaker 1: from Madagascar. Of enslaved people passed through Charleston and West

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Speaker 1: African slaves were sold at higher prices because of their

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Speaker 1: knowledge of rice cultivation, which by the way, was extremely tedious, laborious,

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Speaker 1: and just all around awful. In the colonies at the time.

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Speaker 1: It was particularly unhealthy task um from these slaves, rice

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00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:50,040
Speaker 1: plantation owners learned the technique of rice growing, making dikes

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00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:54,400
Speaker 1: and periodic flooding. Rice production quickly spread, and an act

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Speaker 1: passed in allowed colonists to pay their taxes with certain commodities,

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Speaker 1: including rice. Colonists Peter Garrard secured a patent for a

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Speaker 1: rice hole removing pendulum engine in By the time the

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00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:12,679
Speaker 1: New Century rolled around in seventeen hundred, South Carolina boasted

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00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:17,200
Speaker 1: four hundred thousand pounds of rice exported annually, and by

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00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:21,359
Speaker 1: seventeen ten the colonies produced about one point five million

327
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Speaker 1: pounds of rice, largely through slave labor, and twenty million

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Speaker 1: pounds by seventy Yeah. Rice production in the colonies improved

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00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:34,840
Speaker 1: even further in seventeen fifty when rice growers figured out

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Speaker 1: how to use coastal rivers for flooding, and they did

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Speaker 1: this with a series of gates and levees, and the

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00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:44,280
Speaker 1: technique slid to thousands of new anchors anchors acres for

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00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:50,000
Speaker 1: rice cultivation. Jonathan Lucas realized that this flood water could

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00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:53,800
Speaker 1: um serve as a double function by turning a wheel yeah,

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00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:57,320
Speaker 1: and in seventeen eighty seven his invention the rice mill,

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00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:00,199
Speaker 1: could mill one hundred barrels of rice a day and

337
00:21:00,359 --> 00:21:04,520
Speaker 1: soon was in use throughout the Carolinas, Georgia, and England.

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00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:08,400
Speaker 1: South Carolina and Georgia reached eighty million pounds of rice

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00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:11,760
Speaker 1: annually about the seventeen eighties, half of which was exported

340
00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:14,920
Speaker 1: while the other half was consumed in the US. Steam

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00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:19,199
Speaker 1: powers invention and the adaptation in wheat roller mills to

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00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:22,600
Speaker 1: make them work with rice in the eighteen hundreds pushed

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00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:26,600
Speaker 1: production even higher, but after the Civil War and the

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00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:31,320
Speaker 1: loss of slave labor, rice plantation profit plummeted, until eventually

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00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:35,240
Speaker 1: most of the plantations shut their doors. The only remaining

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00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:38,440
Speaker 1: rice plantation with the original rice mill is the Mansfield

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00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:42,000
Speaker 1: Plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina, where the African strain of

348
00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:46,760
Speaker 1: rice called Carolina Gold was milled. This strain had vanished,

349
00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,199
Speaker 1: but the U. S d A's Rice Research Institute in

350
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:52,440
Speaker 1: Texas preserved some seeds, and a couple of years ago

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00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 1: Carolina Gold became commercially available again thanks to members of

352
00:21:56,840 --> 00:22:00,040
Speaker 1: the of course it exist, Carolina Gold Rice Foundation and

353
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:04,399
Speaker 1: the founder of Ants and Mills, Glenn Roberts. He was

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00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,640
Speaker 1: inspired by the growing progress made by an optometrist from

355
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:10,920
Speaker 1: Georgia who managed to procure the seeds from the Rice

356
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:14,639
Speaker 1: Research Center and produce at his peak, ten thousand pounds

357
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:18,040
Speaker 1: of Carolina gold. But she donated to the Savanna Association

358
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 1: for the Blind. And this is not to be confused

359
00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:23,720
Speaker 1: with Carolina brand rice, which is what I thought of

360
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:27,160
Speaker 1: at first, but Carolina Gold. Chef's rave about the taste

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00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:30,560
Speaker 1: and texture of it. Yeah. It's also sometimes called red

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00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,160
Speaker 1: bearded rice or hill rice, and it can grow without

363
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:36,040
Speaker 1: needing to be flooded, and for this reason and because

364
00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:40,879
Speaker 1: of the malaria carrying mosquitoes that accompanied flooded rice plantations,

365
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:45,199
Speaker 1: none other than Thomas Jefferson promoted its use. What you

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00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:47,200
Speaker 1: thought we were going to get through a whole episode

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00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,480
Speaker 1: without mentioning him. The whole Carolina Gold story is really

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00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,560
Speaker 1: amazing and it ties into the cuisine and livelihoods of

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00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:56,359
Speaker 1: cultures around the South and the Caribbean. It warrnts a

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00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:59,360
Speaker 1: whole episode unto itself, which we will have to do

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00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:02,360
Speaker 1: so other time the Rice series. Yes, I really want

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00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:05,399
Speaker 1: to try it. Carolina Gold. Yeah, yeah, I've had it

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00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:10,879
Speaker 1: either anyway. Chinese laborers brought rice to California during the

374
00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:14,159
Speaker 1: Gold Rush, and commercial production began in nineteen twelve, and

375
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:16,960
Speaker 1: to this day, California is the second largest producer of

376
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,560
Speaker 1: rice in the US after Arkansas. The rice industry in

377
00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:22,919
Speaker 1: the US is now valued at one point eight billion,

378
00:23:23,119 --> 00:23:26,479
Speaker 1: which is not bad. It's more than I would have guessed.

379
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:30,400
Speaker 1: Rice was around in North America before the Europeans showed

380
00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 1: up the It was the wild rice that Lauren mentioned earlier.

381
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 1: Sonia species. Some Native American tribes in the Upper Great

382
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:40,960
Speaker 1: Lakes area depended on wild rice so much that the

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00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:45,680
Speaker 1: region is called wild Rice Cultural Area by some ethnologists.

384
00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:51,040
Speaker 1: Again more more on that and a whole other episode. Yes,

385
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 1: a study publist in October so very recently put forth

386
00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:59,199
Speaker 1: evidence that rice had been domesticated in the region of

387
00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:04,200
Speaker 1: the Amazon earlier than previously thought, and that wild rice

388
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:07,000
Speaker 1: was already a staple food stuff of the indigenous South

389
00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:13,160
Speaker 1: Americans before the Europeans arrived. The date they proposes, oh boy,

390
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:18,399
Speaker 1: four thousand calendar year before physics, which I think is

391
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:22,160
Speaker 1: around two thousand. You've totally got that right. Yes, yeah,

392
00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:26,880
Speaker 1: I was staring at my computer, like, why is this happening?

393
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 1: I really like, I like before physics. That's great anyway, Um,

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00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:36,879
Speaker 1: that's when rice greens became larger and larger, suggesting that

395
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:41,040
Speaker 1: rice was domesticated and bred for its size. The native

396
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:43,679
Speaker 1: population would knock the rice into their canoes with sticks,

397
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 1: and it was used to make bread and beer, you know,

398
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:50,040
Speaker 1: just for eating. When the Europeans arrived, the decimation in

399
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,600
Speaker 1: population and introduction of Asian rice led to the gradual

400
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: decline and eventual disappearance of native domesticated rice greens. Uh.

401
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,080
Speaker 1: Back in West Africa, a series of droughts starting in

402
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:04,120
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties reduced the number of varieties of rice

403
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:08,080
Speaker 1: grown and increased the dependence on the higher yield, faster

404
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:12,040
Speaker 1: growing Asian rices. There's currently some concern that the cultivars

405
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 1: of the African species might even die out, which would

406
00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:18,120
Speaker 1: suck for for genetic variety and also for cultural reasons.

407
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:21,840
Speaker 1: Lots of traditions link specific varieties to too religious and

408
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:24,720
Speaker 1: ancestral kind of traditions, So so there's a push for

409
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:31,919
Speaker 1: conservation going on right now. Yeah and okay, yeah, that

410
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,200
Speaker 1: was a heck of a nutshell. It was so much

411
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:39,160
Speaker 1: of a nutshell, but it brings us to our science

412
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:43,560
Speaker 1: and health segment first, though, one more quick break for

413
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:56,760
Speaker 1: a word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor. Yes,

414
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 1: uh so. Health rice, as you may have figured out

415
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:05,679
Speaker 1: by yourself already, is almost entirely carbohydrates from the endosperm

416
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: meant to feed the growing seed embryo. White rice is

417
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:13,639
Speaker 1: like starches, with the remaining ten mostly protein and a

418
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:16,040
Speaker 1: little bit of fat. It contains very little fiber, so

419
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,640
Speaker 1: it doesn't really fill you up very well. Brown rice

420
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,440
Speaker 1: contains about four times as much fiber, and it's got

421
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:24,920
Speaker 1: a little less starch and a little more fat. Percentage wise,

422
00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:27,600
Speaker 1: both are a good source of a few vitamins and

423
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:35,359
Speaker 1: minerals like maganese mag mag mag mag manga, mangoes manga

424
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:39,199
Speaker 1: not ma that's a different that's full of fiber though. Uh,

425
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:43,880
Speaker 1: let's just keep this basically, um, rice isn't really great

426
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:46,760
Speaker 1: for you because of all that starch, and you should

427
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:49,159
Speaker 1: eat brown rice instead of white when you can. But

428
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:52,879
Speaker 1: you know, it's also generally cheap and versatile and tasty.

429
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:57,000
Speaker 1: So no, no, no haydn. In nineteen fifty nine, the

430
00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 1: Ford and Rockefeller Foundations established the International Rice Research Institute,

431
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,480
Speaker 1: which formalized the work of cataloging and researching and conserving

432
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: and improving all of the wild and domesticated rice has

433
00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:15,880
Speaker 1: grown around the world. Yes, all of them, No big deal,

434
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:19,679
Speaker 1: no they do. Of course, farmers themselves have also been

435
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:22,440
Speaker 1: working on this, you know, I mean, like like a forever. Um.

436
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: Uh but but b especially with that with the technologies

437
00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:28,720
Speaker 1: that have been coming out over the past few decades

438
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:31,919
Speaker 1: of her From nineteen sixty through nineteen eighty alone, average

439
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:35,359
Speaker 1: rice yields rose by on basically the same acreage of

440
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:38,399
Speaker 1: land due to just the cultivation of better hybrids and

441
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,760
Speaker 1: improvements to farming technologies. Yes, Since since rice is such

442
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 1: an important crop for so many and it's really sensitive

443
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:49,320
Speaker 1: to climate change, scientists are working on breeding healthier ice,

444
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: like higher iron zinc content and climate ready rice are

445
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:57,199
Speaker 1: rice that's resistant to soil toxicities like high salt content,

446
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: cold heat, jab foot things like that. These generally aren't

447
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:05,080
Speaker 1: quite ready for widespread farming yet. One good example is

448
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 1: golden rice, so called for its yellow color from added

449
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,720
Speaker 1: genes that produce a beta caroteen vitamin A in it,

450
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:13,920
Speaker 1: and folks have been working on it for a couple

451
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 1: of decades, but it's been kind of mired in GMO

452
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:20,880
Speaker 1: debates and in various scientific difficulties. M hm, And here's

453
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 1: the question for you. Is there arsenic in my rice?

454
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:28,920
Speaker 1: What is there? I don't know. I've never heard of this,

455
00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:30,440
Speaker 1: but I have a friend who eats a lot of rice,

456
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:32,600
Speaker 1: and um, I overheard or talking about it, and I

457
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:37,760
Speaker 1: like interrupted the conversation and said, wait, what So there

458
00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 1: are two types of arsenic organic inorganic And this is

459
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 1: in the chemistry terms, not in like the food label

460
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:47,960
Speaker 1: right right, Yeah, No, one is farming arsenic without using

461
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:51,360
Speaker 1: without using pet modern pesticides. That's not Yeah, that's not

462
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 1: what's going on here. Yeah, the organic variety is found

463
00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:56,920
Speaker 1: in plant and animal tissues, and it's less toxic than

464
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,160
Speaker 1: it's inorganic counterpart, which you can find and dissolved water

465
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 1: rocks or soil. Both occur naturally in the wild, but

466
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 1: the levels have been going up thanks to pollution and

467
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 1: because of the use of flooding and rice patties. Arsenic

468
00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 1: can seep from the soil into the grain, and rice

469
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,840
Speaker 1: and rice products consistently are found to have higher levels

470
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,400
Speaker 1: of arsenic than other common grocery items, up to ten

471
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 1: to twenty times more than other cereal cross. Yeah, brown

472
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: rice has higher levels than white rice since most of

473
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 1: the arsenic is found in the husk. Consumer reports the

474
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 1: website the Whole entity dot com. Yeah, they have a

475
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 1: pretty good set of guidelines when it comes to this

476
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:42,000
Speaker 1: m arsenic and rice, like mixing grain conception, the recommended

477
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 1: amount you should eat depending on certain factors like whether

478
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 1: or not you're a baby, and a way of cooking

479
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 1: it to mitigate the arsenic level, which is basically you

480
00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: wash their rice before cooking, and this could remove anywhere

481
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 1: from ten the arsenic. Then boil it in more water

482
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 1: than you're probably accustomed to, a six to one ratio

483
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:03,760
Speaker 1: more like your cooking pasta. Um, and this can remove

484
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 1: up to six of the arsenic caveats. Oh this is

485
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 1: only of the water doesn't have arsenic in it, right Otherwise, Yeah,

486
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 1: the arsenic level will go up. So um, as long

487
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 1: as you're not eating boatloads of rice, I wouldn't worry

488
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 1: about it too much, but definitely check out the consumer

489
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:25,920
Speaker 1: report about it if rice is a pretty regular part

490
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:31,720
Speaker 1: of your diet, just to be informed. And also there's

491
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: the rice theory, the rice the rice theories, Yes there is.

492
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 1: This is the name used to describe the observed cultural

493
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,160
Speaker 1: difference that a lot of us have probably heard about,

494
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:48,680
Speaker 1: wherein Americans or other Western countries are more likely to

495
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 1: label themselves with words like friendly or energetic, whereas Asian countries,

496
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:59,480
Speaker 1: particularly um people from rice provinces will more often call

497
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:04,400
Speaker 1: themselves dependent on others are considerate And the idea proposed

498
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 1: here is that this difference might be more because of

499
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:11,480
Speaker 1: the differences of wheat farming and rice farming. Oh wow, yeah,

500
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 1: rice farming pre technology is more difficult and requires more

501
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 1: people working together. And depending on each other than wheat

502
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 1: farming does. And there there's a lot of interesting studies here. Um,

503
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:26,440
Speaker 1: there's lower divorce rates and less likely to turn in

504
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 1: cheating peers and rice provinces. Yeah. When asked to draw

505
00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 1: themselves and their social networks, Americans typically draw themselves slightly

506
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:41,239
Speaker 1: larger than their friends slightly, whereas the Japanese will draw

507
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 1: themselves slightly smaller, and and China. The same difference showed

508
00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 1: up in Chinese students. But um, Chinese students from wheat

509
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 1: growing areas drew themselves slightly larger than those from rice

510
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 1: growing areas, who drew themselves slightly smaller. So it was

511
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 1: it was a fascinating study. There's a well, there's multiple

512
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 1: studies if if you'd like to check it out. And

513
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:08,520
Speaker 1: they proposed that I guess weird is the it's an

514
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:14,320
Speaker 1: acronym for Western educated, industrialized, rich, democratic, and they were

515
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: saying that the W should actually stand for wheat instead

516
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 1: of Western. Yeah, so that's that's a pretty bold and

517
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 1: interesting claim. Yeah, all right, So what about cooking rice? Yeah,

518
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:30,479
Speaker 1: how do you cook it? Get a rice cooker? Greece

519
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:32,960
Speaker 1: so much to be I mean, it's it's yeah, it

520
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:36,080
Speaker 1: changed my life. I don't have one, but I should

521
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:38,720
Speaker 1: get one because I have a terrible look with rice.

522
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 1: Just I don't know. I think I have too many

523
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 1: things going on and you forget about it and then

524
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:47,320
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's burnt. It's burnt. Yeah. Also,

525
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 1: we have a house stuff Works article about how rice

526
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 1: cookers work that involves something called fuzzy logic. Super cool,

527
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:56,200
Speaker 1: look it up. Yeah, we'll have to do a whole

528
00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:58,840
Speaker 1: episode about not fuzzy logic. But but I thought about

529
00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:01,400
Speaker 1: rice cookers. Yes, if you don't have a rice cooker,

530
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: read the instructions on the package and be vigilant, constant

531
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:09,480
Speaker 1: vigilance like mad Eye Moody. Be mad eim moody with

532
00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:11,719
Speaker 1: that rice and that's that's really it. And you can

533
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:14,920
Speaker 1: add things in there like garlic or bailies or Yeah,

534
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 1: your Internet people, you can go and you can figure

535
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 1: it out. We believe in you. We totally do. Yes. Uh,

536
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 1: speaking of being Internet people. So scenario, you've done something

537
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 1: very silly and dropped your phone, You're much loved and

538
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:37,880
Speaker 1: super expensive smartphone in the water. If you take it

539
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 1: out and you put it in rice, does that actually work?

540
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: M hmm. No, probably not. Have you ever done this?

541
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 1: Have you tried this? I think I've recommended that other

542
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 1: people try it, and now I feel bad. No, I mean,

543
00:33:55,600 --> 00:34:01,840
Speaker 1: it's not gonna hurt it. Um and study via cell

544
00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:05,080
Speaker 1: Phone Buyback Company. They performed a series of tests on

545
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:10,520
Speaker 1: various drying agents, and they used uncooked white rice as

546
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:14,000
Speaker 1: one of their drying agents, and it placed last effectiveness

547
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:18,680
Speaker 1: compared to things like kitty litter, goose goose, and instant rice. Ok. Yeah,

548
00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 1: silica gel worked to the best. That makes perfect sense,

549
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 1: except perhaps, um, possibly leaving it out in open air,

550
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:28,480
Speaker 1: like taking it apart and leaving it out in open air,

551
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,960
Speaker 1: that might be even better than silica gel. But the

552
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 1: results weren't air tight. But this is just a little

553
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:40,239
Speaker 1: tip in case this ever happens to you. I hope

554
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 1: that it doesn't, but you know, yeah, are all of

555
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 1: our fingers are crossed? Yeah? Side note, rice and salt

556
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:50,399
Speaker 1: shakers keep salt from clumping, It doesn't keep it dry.

557
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:52,360
Speaker 1: Because I think a lot of people that's one of

558
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: the reasons they think that maybe it will help try

559
00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:58,200
Speaker 1: out your phone anyway. Oh sure, yeah, yeah yeah, um

560
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,200
Speaker 1: speaking of rice Smith's Yeah, growing rice at weddings won't

561
00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:04,480
Speaker 1: kill birds they eat rice, but it still might not

562
00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:06,719
Speaker 1: be the best idea. A lot of things I read

563
00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:08,960
Speaker 1: said just don't do it. It's not going to kill

564
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:12,520
Speaker 1: the birds, but but throw rose lettles or whatever. I

565
00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:15,960
Speaker 1: don't know, uh, And I suppose it's something like a

566
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:20,120
Speaker 1: myth that rice is all cheap, but some varieties and

567
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 1: brands can be very very expensive, particularly in countries like

568
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,839
Speaker 1: Japan and Singapore as often. According to the Guinness Book

569
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:29,880
Speaker 1: of Records, the world's most famous rice was selling for

570
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,440
Speaker 1: a hundred and nine dollars per kilo. That's about two

571
00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 1: forty bucks a pound. And so what you may ask,

572
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:39,719
Speaker 1: is the difference between this and you're like a dollar

573
00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:43,120
Speaker 1: a pound grocery store brand. Um. The company claims it

574
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:46,120
Speaker 1: has a superior flavoring texture based on a few factors.

575
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:49,480
Speaker 1: You've got breeding, They select award winning grains from around Japan.

576
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:51,879
Speaker 1: Those grains are aged for a bit, and then there's

577
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:55,560
Speaker 1: the milling and polishing technologies that they use. Uh. Like

578
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:56,920
Speaker 1: I said at the top of the show, it is

579
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:00,400
Speaker 1: a whole industry, and people get very particular about the

580
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:02,560
Speaker 1: types of rice they use for different dishes and in

581
00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:07,680
Speaker 1: different social circumstances. Premium rice is absolutely a status signifier.

582
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:11,719
Speaker 1: It sounds like there's rice smallease out there. Just Oh,

583
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 1: I bet that there are. I bet there are so

584
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:21,279
Speaker 1: so yeah, that's that's a whirlwind tour of rice. Yeah,

585
00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:23,680
Speaker 1: it was a lot. I can imagine that maybe you're

586
00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:28,960
Speaker 1: feeling a little overwhelmed just listening to um. And like

587
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:31,680
Speaker 1: I said in the episode following this, there will be

588
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 1: even more rice facts. So if he didn't get enough,

589
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:37,359
Speaker 1: there's always more rice facts, always more, and we will

590
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:39,600
Speaker 1: do follow up episodes. Yeah. I think we just gave

591
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,759
Speaker 1: ourselves like so much homework. We really did. Okay, but

592
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:46,719
Speaker 1: now this brings us to listen or male listener males. Yes,

593
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:53,359
Speaker 1: Kim wrote in response to our cinnamon episode. Back when

594
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: we were in college and just dating, my husband, who

595
00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:58,960
Speaker 1: does not cook, decided that his signature dish would be

596
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:02,319
Speaker 1: blackened him in chicken, which I was all for, being

597
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:06,200
Speaker 1: quite fond of cinnamon understatement. For a couple of years,

598
00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:09,520
Speaker 1: this was his I'm going to make dinner dish until

599
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,800
Speaker 1: one evening it all went wrong. Oh no, At this

600
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:15,799
Speaker 1: point we were married and invited another married couple over

601
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:20,360
Speaker 1: for Sam's signature dish. When the chicken was already cooking

602
00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:23,520
Speaker 1: in the pan, he decided that he underdid it on

603
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 1: the seasonings and tried to add some. When the raw

604
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:30,120
Speaker 1: cinnamon hit the hot pan, it created what could only

605
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:35,120
Speaker 1: be described as a stinging gas cloud. We had to

606
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 1: evacuate into the yard while letting the house air out completely. Sadly,

607
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:43,759
Speaker 1: he has been hesitant to give it another go, but

608
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,759
Speaker 1: we joke about it from time to time. Oh no,

609
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:49,280
Speaker 1: I have to say that if there was a stinging

610
00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:53,880
Speaker 1: gas cloud of cinnamon created by my signatured dish, I

611
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:56,880
Speaker 1: might back off of it. I might be hesitant to

612
00:37:56,960 --> 00:38:00,560
Speaker 1: return as well. I might retire that one. Yeah too bad? Yeah,

613
00:38:00,680 --> 00:38:05,439
Speaker 1: oh it sounds delicious, Rebecca wrote in um My mom

614
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,440
Speaker 1: was taught the venerable art of butter sculpting by her

615
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:12,239
Speaker 1: great ants, and she has taught her own progeny. We're

616
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:14,719
Speaker 1: not sure if it's actually a Polish tradition or just

617
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 1: by family being strange, but Poles often make cakes in

618
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:19,680
Speaker 1: the shape of a lamb or or little lambs made

619
00:38:19,719 --> 00:38:22,520
Speaker 1: of sugar to eat, so there is some precedents there.

620
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 1: We sculpt the butter lamb on Good Friday and on

621
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:28,919
Speaker 1: Holy Saturday, we, along with other Polish families in our town,

622
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:31,759
Speaker 1: go to church and have an entire basket of Easter

623
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:35,040
Speaker 1: food blessed for the next day's meal, a Polish sausage,

624
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:39,120
Speaker 1: decorated eggs, salt, bread, and of course our lamb. We

625
00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:41,759
Speaker 1: sculpt the lamb by taking a cold but not too

626
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:44,560
Speaker 1: cold block of butter and cutting a series of slices

627
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:47,040
Speaker 1: off of it. When we have the desired shape, we

628
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:50,200
Speaker 1: pushed the slices through a sieve and then reapply the

629
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 1: now fluffy wool back onto the lamb. Every year, the

630
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:56,680
Speaker 1: lamb gets a name, which usually reflects how it looks.

631
00:38:57,160 --> 00:38:58,920
Speaker 1: There was the year that the tail was off, so

632
00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:01,400
Speaker 1: we named him stuffs, or the year that he had

633
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 1: his hip jutting out a little bit more so we

634
00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:09,719
Speaker 1: named him by yance. Oh uh. And yes, butter or

635
00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:14,200
Speaker 1: lamb related puns often feature in the names. That makes

636
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:17,759
Speaker 1: us so happy. That is so just completely like both

637
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:22,919
Speaker 1: of us are gritting. Yeah, and she sent pictures and amazing. Yes, yes,

638
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:28,520
Speaker 1: that's great, so great. Thanks to both of them for

639
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:30,160
Speaker 1: writing in. If you would like to write us, you

640
00:39:30,239 --> 00:39:32,920
Speaker 1: can do so. Our email is food Stuff at how

641
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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. We are also on social media.

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Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook and Twitter at food Stuff.

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Speaker 1: Hs W stands for how Stuff Works. We're also on

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Speaker 1: Instagram at food Stuff. Big shout out to our new

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Speaker 1: shiny producer. He's not too shiny, he's like, he's more

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Speaker 1: more like a regular regular regular sheen. Yeah, Dylan Fagin

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Speaker 1: and uh, we hope to hear from you guys, and

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Speaker 1: we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.

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Speaker 1: It's the time, m