Very few persons know how to boil rice properly. It is usually so boiled as to become a heavy dough, so tenacious and solid as to be almost impenetrable to the digestive fluids secreted by the mouth and the stomach, which are necessary to dissolve it, and to effect its digestion and distribution, as innocent nourishing food. It should be so cooked that the grains shall remain separate and distinct, but not hard, and the whole be in some degree loose and porous. The Southern method is as follows:

Pick over the rice carefully, rinse it well in cold water till it is faithfully cleansed; drain off the water, then put it in a pot of boiling water, with a little salt. Allow as much as a quart of water to a teacup of rice, as it absorbs the water very much while boiling. Boil it seventeen minutes; then turn the water off very close; set the pot over a few coals, and let it steam fifteen minutes with the lid of the pot off. The beauty of the rice boiled in this way, is, that each kernel stands out by itself, while it is quite tender.

Rice Croquettes.