The boiled rice is the main staple food of our people. Our people like the boiled rice most among the several kinds of dishes and regard the eating of boiled rice as having meal. So our ancestors regarded the boiling of rice as the most important processing and tried to cook the rice deliciously. In this course they understood the rice cooking technologies such as the setting of water amount and control of fire according to the kinds of grain and firewood. In general, to cook the rice well, it’s necessary to control the strength of fire at the several stages. That is, at first apply the strong fire and next, apply the weak fire and finally put out the five and then,  give a purse for a while.
There is the following record in the old book “Hong Hui magazine”: “Wash the rice cleanly, discard the water, put the rice into the pot, pour the fresh water until the level of water is the thickness of hand above the upper surface of rice and the make a fire.
To make the rice soft, just before the rice has been cooked completely, put out the fire and after a while, make a fire again.
To make the rice hard, continue to make a fire to the end without putting out it.”
To make a strong fire at first in cooking the rice aims to enhance the temperature of the inside of rice grain evenly quickly, make the hot water penetrate into the inside of rice grain and make the starch flow out of the grain, resulting in the colloidal solution.
Then, the rice water gets thick. But if continuing to apply the strong fire, the only surface of grain is cooked and the inside is not cooked or the rice of lower layer directly contacted with the pot burns and one of middle layer gets hardboiled and one of upper layer gets uncooked. In contrast, if applying the weak fire from the first, the cooking time gets longer, the rice gets soft, the stickiness disappears and then, the rice gets flavorless. Therefore, apply the strong fire from the first and maintain the strong fire for 8~12 minutes after the rice begins to boil. Next, to apply the weak fire arms to transform the starch of grain into the gruel, to degenerate the protein and at the same time to make the rice water penetrate into the inside of grain.
In this case, the holes form at the top layer of rice and the drops of steam often form and break. The proper boiling time over the weak fire is about 5 minutes but it’s good to apply the strong fire for 20~30 seconds before putting out the fire. Then, the remaining moisture in the pot nearly evaporates.
To put out the fire and give a purse aims to make the rice grain quite soft and make its volume expand by enforcing the moisture on the surface of grain to penetrate into the cells of grain by reducing the strength of fire gradually. So after putting out the fire, close the cover tightly in order that the boiled rice should be steamed due to the heat of heated cooker and the high temperature in the cooker. Put out the fire when the rice is scorched at the bottom of a pot and when the water evaporates whenever wiping the bottom of pot with the wet floorcloth.
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