Dehydrating Brown Rice

[Anonymous]

I tried dehydrating cooked brown rice to make my own “instant” rice, but it did not rehydrate well. I dehydrated the rice at 125 for 4 hours. To rehydrate I added boiling water to the rice and allowed it to sit for 15 minutes. Anyone have a suggestion on how to dehydrate brown rice properly?

[Rob Mcrae]

I have tried this too- i think the solution is to mash the rice first before dehydrating.. this allows the cooking time at camp to be much more effective with just boiling water. If you try this, post your experience! I am trying this with quinoa too. I’ll let you know.

[Hajime Kawasaki]

We call kinda dehydrated brown rice “Oshi Genmai” in Japan.
It is available in Japanese food shop.for example
http://www.earth-design.jp/~wahaha-beji/product_info.php?products_id=29&osCsid=a17ce502c5ec52f907e4d8b3e8881c06
The company says the way how to make this is after dehydrating boiled brown rice, pressing it (mashed ?).

Anyway, please report trying all methods.

[Duane Hall]

I’m afraid I don’t understand the difficulty people seem to be having with dehydrated brown rice, as it works well for me. I cook the rice as per directions: 30 to 40 minutes. Those who are unfamiliar with brown rice rice should note that it does have a different, nuttier, chewier texture than white rice.
I then dry it at about 120 F for a couple of hours – it dehydrates very quickly. I have found that this stuff comes back to life nicely in 15 minutes in an insulated container. That is: old Gaterade jar with a quilt cozy. The same technique has worked well for whole wheat pasta; I have yet to try quinoa.

[David Lewis]

Duane… the key in what you describle is probably the cozy. Anti-gravity gear sells a lot of pot specific cozys… or you could make your own with foil bubble wrap (not sure where you get that… is it pipe insulation or something???) and some aluminum tape.

[Jason Shaffer]

Antigravity gear makes their pot cozies out of a material called Reflectix — basically a foil-coated bubblewrap. Check Lowes, Home Depot, etc, w/the insulation products. (Also used in cars, propped up inside the windshield on sunny days.) Has lots of uses: three layers of it & some duct tape even makes a decent SUL sleep pad.

[Jim Ells]

I have made my own cozies from reflectix. It can be purchased by the foot in 16″ and 24″ widths, and works great. I used foil tape to close seams. I have also used the foil tape and hardware cloth to make a stand with integral windscreen for my little alcohol stove. Easy to do and cheap.

[Author]

Posts