DIY Rice Milk?

January 27, 2009 7:12 PM

The grocery store no longer supplies my regular brand of rice milk. Tips or suggestions for making my own?

I've heard it was easy as just putting cooked rice in a blender or food processor. Well, I tried that with some (cooked) long grain brown rice, and it was milky, but tasted much like... well, watery rice.

Looking at the ingredients on my old brand, there is brown basmati, sunflower oil, sodium bicarbonate and enzymes (amylase, protease).

I'm going to try again with basmati for more flavor. I think the enzymes convert starch to sugar, so I imagine that also helps the flavor. (I'd like to avoid just adding sugar.) Not sure what the oil and baking soda does... maybe the oil thickens and prevents particles of rice from settling?

Anyways, clearly I've much to learn, so if anyone has any tips or techniques to get me started, it'd be much appreciated.

posted by kamelhoecker to food & drink (7 comments total)

This does not answer your question, but it still might be useful. Have you tried talking with the store manager about it? They might not be able to keep it in regular stock, but they might be able to order it for you by the case.
posted by kenneth at 7:32 PM on January 27

Seconding kenneth; unless the rice milk has been discontinued from their supplier, they should be very happy to order you a case (normally 12). Helps them meet their margins/budgets-- especially in this economy.

I think rice milk generally has a 6-8 month shelf life, so you should be just fine stockpiling it.
posted by Static Vagabond at 7:41 PM on January 27

Apparently there were "supplier problems". (I'm also interested in saving money and not generating so much tetrapack waste.)
posted by kamelhoecker at 7:44 PM on January 27

A friend of mine makes her own rice milk for her seven children, so I know it can be done. This recipe is a bit different from just blending cooked rice.

This is 100% snark-free: I found a lot of suggestions by googling "How to Make Rice Milk." My process, if I were in your shoes, would be to read through a few of the recipes. Looks like there are several variations. Enjoy experimenting!
posted by not that girl at 7:47 PM on January 27 [1 favorite]

If you're open to alternatives, soy milk makers work very well for making soy milk.

Fresh soy milk is different from store-bought, but superior imho. Might want to add sweetener, though, if you're used to store-bought.

(I have this one. It can supposedly make rice milk but I tried once and it wasn't very successful. Possibly because I can't read the Chinese instructions. But it has more than paid for itself in soy milk yield.)
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:07 PM on January 27

not that girl: yes, i found that text file on my initial googling. I guess I was hoping that some new tricks were discovered since 1996!

qxnt...: I watched the video for the soy maker in your link. Is the soy milk machine basically just a blender? I thought the metal tubes were going to heat the liquid, but that didn't seem to be the case. Just curious why a dedicated machine is better.

update: tried with a mix of white and brown basmati rice, and it's much more flavourful. Tried adding some stevia, and that helped too. Also tried with some almond butter, and that added a bit of creaminess. Will have to get some beer brewer's enzymes and make a mash where I hit the various temperatures to convert more of the starches.
posted by kamelhoecker at 6:20 AM on January 28

The metal tubes do heat the water.

The process for making the soy milk is:

1. soak ~1/2 cup dry soy beans overnight
2. rinse beans
3. put beans and and water into soy milk maker
4. press button, wait 15 minutes
5. pour the piping hot soy milk through a sieve to filter out sediment, and enjoy!

The machine comes with measuring cup, sieve, etc.

It goes through a few phases of blending / heating. You could probably do all of this yourself with a stove and a blender, but this is much easier.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 2:17 PM on January 28