Why do Puerto Rican cooks rinse their rice before cooking?
Lots of other cooks do the same thing. When the rice is milled to remove the seed coat there can be a tendency for the now polished grain to have a dusting of rice flour which is essentially starch. Washing the rice in cold water removes this starch and thus helps the rice to cook into nicely separated grains rather than it clumping together into a pudding/congee- like mess.
