The grain is so largely grown and used by the Chinese that “fan,” their word for rice, has come to enter into many compound words.  A beggar is called a “tou-fan-tee,” that is, “the rice-seeking one.”  The ordinary salutation, “Che-fan,” which answers to our “How do you do?” means, “Have you eaten your rice?”

Rice requires a wet soil, and the fields in which the grain is raised, sometimes called “paddy” fields, are periodically irrigated.  Before ripening, the water is drained off, and the crop is then cut with a sickle, made into shocks, stacked, threshed, and cleaned, much like wheat.  The rice kernel is inclosed within two coverings, a course outer husk, which is easily removed, and an inner, reddish, siliceous coating.

“Paddy” is the name given in India to the rice grain when inclosed in its husk.  The same is termed “rough rice” in this country.  The outer husk of the rice is usually removed in the process of threshing, but the inner red skin, or hull, adheres very closely, and is removed by rubbing and pounding.  The rough rice is first ground between large stones, and then conveyed into mortars, and pounded with iron-shod pestles.  Thence, by fanning and screening, the husk is fully removed, and the grain divided into three different grades, whole, middlings, and small whole grains, and polished ready for market.  The middlings consist of the larger broken pieces of the grain; the small rice, of the small fragments mixed with the chit of the grain.  The broken rice, well dried, is sometimes ground into flour of different degrees of fineness.  The small rice is much sweeter and somewhat superior in point of nutritive value to the large or head rice usually met with in commerce.

Rice is characterized by a large percentage of starch, and is so deficient in other food elements that if used alone, unless consumed in very large quantities, it will not furnish the requisite amount of nitrogenous material necessary for a perfect health food.  For this reason, it is necessary to supplement its use with some other food containing an excess of nitrogenous elements, as peas, beans, milk, etc.  Associated with other articles rich in albuminous elements, rice is exceedingly valuable, and one of the most easily digested foods.  Boiled or steamed rice requires but a little over one hour for digestion.

PREPARATION AND COOKING.—­Rice needs to be thoroughly washed to remove the earthy taste it is so apt to have.  A good way to do this is to put it into a colander, in a deep pan of water.  Rub the rice well with the hands, lifting the colander in and out the water, and changing the water until it is clear; then drain.  In this way the grit is deposited in the water, and the rice left thoroughly clean.

The best method of cooking rice is by steaming it.  If boiled in much water, it loses a portion of its already small percentage of nitrogenous elements.  It requires much less time for cooking than any of the other grains.  Like all the dried grains and seeds, rice swells in cooking to several times its original bulk.  When cooked, each grain of rice should be separate and distinct, yet perfectly tender.