The written word in Mandarin is "cooking porridge", Wu dialect calls it "shao porridge" or "du porridge", Guangdong people call it "bao porridge", Hebei people call it "cooking porridge", and many places in the Northeast call it steamed porridge.
Some people are afraid of sticking to the bottom of the pot when cooking porridge, so they keep stirring with a spoon or shovel, which makes it very difficult.
In fact, when cooking porridge with rice, you don’t need to stir it. Put the rice and water in, bring to a boil over high heat, then change to low heat and simmer slowly.
Never stir after boiling. Stirring again after boiling will cause the pot to burn. If you don't stir and simmer over low heat, the pot won't burn.
Nowadays, it is very convenient to use rice cookers and electric pressure cookers, especially electric pressure cookers, which are the most convenient. Just put the rice and water in, and when they are set, just turn on the switch and don't worry about it at all.
Why is it that porridge doesn’t boil easily if you don’t stir it, but it boils easily if you stir it?
We need to look at why it gets burned first. When we cook something in a pot, the water at the bottom of the pot is heated, causing the food in the water to rise, while the cooler water falls. The water body circulates in the pot roughly as follows.
The so-called simmered pot means that part of the food always sinks to the bottom of the pot and does not participate in the above cycle. As the temperature of the bottom of the pot continues to rise, the food is overheated and deteriorates and sticks to the bottom of the pot or even chars.
If there is a lot of water and little food, the water can generally drive the food to circulate, so there will be no burnt pot. This is roughly the case when the porridge just starts to boil.
When the heat source is small, that is, when a small fire is used, of course, there may not be a large cycle as shown in the picture, but there will be a small cycle, and the food will only vibrate in a small range. It’s also not easy to cook.
Generally, the food used to cook porridge is various kinds of rice. The main component of all kinds of rice, whether it is rice, millet, corn mash or other rice, is starch. The starch molecules are tightly "hug" together to form starch granules. These starch granules are within the starch cells of the endosperm of these plant seeds.
During the process of cooking porridge, water gradually enters the starch cells and penetrates into the starch granules, causing the binding between starch molecules to gradually relax, that is, the starch granules swell, and finally the starch cells rupture. Starch molecules gradually enter the water to form a sticky paste, which is porridge.
Normally, when we cook porridge, the water temperature rises very quickly, while the process of water entering the endosperm and causing the starch granules to swell is much slower. When the water has been boiled, only a small amount of water has entered the starch cells.
At this time, we change the heat to low and let the water with higher temperature gradually enter the starch cells. This process, of course, proceeds gradually from the outside in. The rice grains also gradually expand, the starch granules gradually relax and swell, and the starch cells are burst, causing some starch molecules to enter the water and combine with a large amount of water to form sticky porridge. .
In this process, in most cases, the rice grains are still intact, there are fewer starch molecules spilling out of the rice grains, and the "porridge" in the entire pot is less viscous. These rice grains can still be circulated until many Starch molecules spill out, forming sticky porridge. At this time, the porridge is ready. This is what happens when we turn the heat to low after boiling the pot without stirring.
The situation is different if we start stirring soon after the pot is boiled. Since water enters the rice grains gradually from the outside to the inside, the outer starch granules may have been completely relaxed, while the inner rice grains are still very hard. At this time, if we start stirring, due to the stirring force, we will destroy some of the starch cells outside the rice grains, causing some of the starch molecules outside the rice grains to leave the rice grains first and enter the water body.
These starch molecules sinking to the bottom of the water quickly combine with water at the bottom of the pot to form a sticky paste. This increases the viscosity of the water bottom and makes it difficult for natural circulation. If there is no stirring, there will be More starch molecules sink to the bottom of the water, and over time, it may become burnt. At this time, the center of the rice grains is still hard, and the porridge is not yet cooked, so it must be heated continuously. In order to avoid burning the pot, the only choice is to continue stirring. Cooking porridge like this is very hard, and the porridge may not be cooked well.
So, as long as you can control the degree of heating, after boiling the pot, change to a low heat, stir, and cook the porridge yourself without human intervention. This is how we cook porridge in a pressure cooker. Stirring is not required or possible. The same is true if you use a rice cooker or an ordinary pot to cook porridge on a gas stove or other stove without stirring.
If you feel uneasy because you have no experience. If you are afraid of sticking to the bottom of the pot, if you stir it after boiling, it will be troublesome, and it will be easy to stick to the bottom of the pot.
Of course, what we are talking about above is cooking porridge with rice. If you use noodles to make porridge, that's another matter.
When rice is ground into flour, the very fine surface makes it easy for water to come into contact with starch, and starch molecules easily combine with higher-temperature water to form a viscous porridge. The viscosity of the porridge in the pot is too high and difficult to flow. It is impossible for it to undergo the natural circulation mentioned above. If it is not stirred, the pot will burn quickly