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Is Musenmai, Japan’s ‘no-rinse’ rice any good?

By on July 16, 2022

The Japanese swear rinsing rice twice is what gives it the fluffy texture and aroma.

Despite the lengthy journey of rice from rice paddies to store shelves, a starchy dust that coats the rice remains. This is caused by friction from rubbing grains together during milling and polishing.

This is why the rinse-and-repeat process is necessary to loosen up the rice’s starchy coating that might gum up.

That’s not the case for Musenmai (lit. no wash grain) which needs no rinsing. Rice producers remove the sticky bran coating by letting the grains pass through a tube that filters out the starchy dust.

      After removing the bran skin                                       Before

Some people in Japan think musenmai is inferior in taste to the traditional rice so out of curiosity, I gave it a try.

Of course, your ideal rice may be different from mine — a pleasant aroma, not soggy. Musenmai however tastes no different from the ordinary sushi rice except that you need to add about 2-3 tablespoons more water to the usual  1:1 rice-water proportion.

A cooking tip I learned from my husband (in order to add more fluff to the rice), is to let it sit in water for about 30 minutes (about 40 mins in winter) before cooking.

About Tracy Nakayama