Risotto recipes always call for adding the stock slowly. Why do we do that?
I've read in a couple of places it may help cooking the rice more evenly, or prevent it going stodgy?
Add stock to risotto slowly
risotto
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Best Answer
All due respect, it's a myth. You don't need to add liquid slowly. Perhaps there used to be a reason (maybe years ago rice was processed differently), but at this point you're pretty much wasting your time constantly stirring.
Many cooking publication/blog has a "no stir" risotto. You can check out Serious Eats - which has a great breakdown of why risotto can be cooked w/out stirring every minute, and Cook's Illustrated - though CI doesn't have any of their usual "science" notes.
Yes, people call the "no stir" a half way risotto, or say that the technique is what makes it risotto. But it's only backed up by tradition and hand-waving, "The starch is on the outside, so the grains need to rub each other." Of course the grains need to rub each other, and you probably still sear your meat to "keep the juices in" too.