Parboiling of brown rice: effect of variety and parboiling conditions.

Suitability of dry-heat (roasting) parboiling process for brown (dehusked) rice of two fine and two coarse varieties \nwas studied. While the fine grain varieties got parboiled to a mild degree, by roasting in hot sand (1:4) at 180ºC to \n200ºC for 1.75 to 2.75 min, the coarse varieties, having white-belly, could not be fully parboiled. The parboiled rice \nproduced by this treatment required less time to cook than normal steam-parboiled rice. Steaming of brown rice for \n30 to 40 min under mild (0.5 kg/cm2) pressure after soaking for 1 h and tempering for about 5 h (room temperature) \nproduced fully parboiled rice from both fine and coarse varieties. Cooking properties of this mildly pressure-parboiled \nbrown rice were very close to those exhibited by normal steam-parboiled rice.