Rice-Cooking Project
How to cook rice
In China, people began to farm and eat rice about 4000 BC. You probably eat a lot of rice too, but do you know how to cook rice for yourself? Most Americans and Australians cook rice by putting about a cup of rice and 1.5 or 2 cups of water in a saucepan, bringing it to a boil over high heat, and then cooking it over low heat until the rice soaks up all the water. (If you don't turn down the heat when it boils, the rice on the bottom will burn on to the pan.)
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(a project)
But everyone's got their own way to cook rice. In France and Italy, most people just add a lot of water to the pan, as if they were making noodles, and then they drain off the extra when the rice is soft. In China, people often cook rice for a long time so that it turns into a soft porridge called jook. People eat it for breakfast, like oatmeal. Here's a recipe for jook, if you want to try that.
Stone Age China page
Did you understand Stone Age China? Take the quiz and find out!
To find out more about Stone Age China, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Eyewitness: Ancient China, by Arthur Cotterell, Alan Hills, and Geoff Brightling (2000). For kids.
China (History of Nations), by Greenhaven Press (2002). For middle schoolers. The negative review on Amazon is actually for a different book - don't be alarmed!
The Chinese Neolithic: Trajectories to Early States (New Studies in Archaeology), by Li Liu. Edited by Colin Renfrew and others (2004).
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