Cracked Rice: Fast and tasty!

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

I have been experimenting with Cracke Rice.  Cracked Rice is a hyper fast way to make a rice soup: congee.  The process is simple, wash and rinse your rinse, drain it and put it in the freezer overnight.  The freezing process creates microfractures in the rice allowing it to cook faster.  For congee, you really want the rice broken down into pretty fine pieces.

My experiment was to see if this would work backpacking.  I took ½ cup of cracked rice and added 1 cup of water.  Brought it to a boil and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.  I put the lid on and let it rest for 10 minutes.  After that time, is soaked up all the water and the grains remained fairly whole.  I am a big fan of regular rice over dehydrated or minute rice so for me, this was a big win.  It tastes great and is pretty darn fast.  Enjoy.

[Dustin V]

Do you think this would work with the ‘grainier’ types of rice? Or the kinds that have a mixture of different varieties?

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

I think that it would work with other types of rice.  Of course, you would have to test that out.  My 2 cents.

[AK Granola]

What type of camping pot do you use for this? And do you add any oil to keep it from sticking? I’ll have to try it; I’ll eat the instant stuff but it’s not wonderful.

[Jerry Adams]

do you take rice that’s rinsed, drained, frozen, and cracked, and then remove it from the freezer and take it with you camping?  It would thaw out pretty quickly and then be wet.  Not ordinarily what you’d take backpacking.

[Jerry Adams]

I’ve taken pasta before.  Fully cooked with sauce and stuff, then dried.  I just put it into boiling water and let it sit for 15 minutes the same as other dehydrated food.  That worked pretty good.  I could do that with rice.

[d k]

I’ve cooked rice, then dehydrated it.  It rehydrates pretty well on the trail.

[Axel J]

I cook brown rice, dehydrate in my oven then rehydrate on the trail. I have read that eating cooked rice as a leftover is not a good idea because of a certain pathogen that is inherently in all rice that can make you sick. I eat leftover rice all the time with no issues however. For me, Minute Rice  is comparable to weak perked coffee, consumable but no joy or satisfaction in eating it.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

To answer some of your questions about Cracked Rice, skip ahead to about the 3:15 mark.  The rice is washed, rinsed, drained, frozen, thawed and left to dry so it is packable.

To anser your questions about cookware, I used a TOAKS 550 pot with BRS 3000t and an Ocelot Mini Windscreen.

 

[Jeff McWilliams]

Jerry – same.  For example, Chef Corso has an Asian Pasta Salad that I’ve modified to be cold soak friendly.  I pre-cook and then dehydrate orzo pasta.  I don’t often have the thinly sliced carrots, so I just run a raw carrot over a coarse grater and dehydrate that.

Cold soaking the carrot and pasta in a 1Q freezer-bag zip-loc starting an hour before lunch works well.  At lunch time, I drain any excess water if there is any, and then stir in the other ingredients and eat.

It’s a great recipe, because the sesame sticks and the wasabi pees have a crunch and a bite, and the little bit of vinegar gives it a “fresh” taste that’s really welcome on the trail.  The one thing I learned though is that it’s a BIG portion and honestly, sometimes I can’t finish it all, and may be better off reducing the big ingredients by about 1/4.

This would probably work for other small pasta types as well. I’d like to try it with the multi-colored spiral pasta.

[Jon Hearn]

I’m a big fan of buckwheat groats, I often have them for breakfast or lunch. I mix them with raisins, nuts and sometimes a sliced banana, pour on  boiling water and leave them to soak for 10 minutes or more, depending on how soft you want them. I’ve tried them with savory combinations and they’re ok but I think they work best with sweet things.
I’ve yet to find a grain that keeps me feeling full for longer.

[Matthew / BPL]

oooooh I hadn’t thought of groats as a backpacking food. Thats a great idea. I like them savory.

Kashi used to make a buckwheat pilaf with sesame seeds and maybe some nuts that was delightful. I don’t think they make it any more.

[Tom K]

Cous cous and cracked wheat, also known as bulgur, also works very well with the boiling water and 10 minute soak method, either sweet or savory.  They can also be soaked for several hours and eaten without using heated water.  This saves fuel and also provides a backup if you run out of fuel or want to hike stove-less.  I used both extensively before I went completely stove-less.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

I make “rice couscous” by breaking up instant rice. It actually works well. https://trailcooking.com/2019/10/11/how-to-make-rice-couscous/

[Author]

Posts