Savor Rice — The Seed Oil Free Rice Cookbook for Fried Rice, Pilaf, Risotto and Global Rice Dishes

By Savannah Ryan — The Foodie Kitchen

Rice is the most consumed grain on earth — and the fat it is cooked in determines more of its final flavour than almost any other variable. Fried rice cooked in canola oil is flat and one-dimensional. Fried rice cooked in lard — the traditional Chinese cooking fat for wok dishes — has a depth and richness that the same dish cooked in any seed oil cannot approach. Risotto finished with a generous knob of cold butter achieves a creaminess and complexity that no other finishing fat produces. Jollof rice cooked in palm oil carries a smokiness and colour that define the dish. Nigerian grandmother's rice in chicken fat. Spanish arroz con pollo in lard. Indian biryani base in ghee. Savor Rice by Savannah Ryan builds 20 rice recipes on the ancestral fats that each tradition was designed around.

Find more in the asian recipes collection and the MAHA recipes collection.

The Fat Makes the Rice

The role of fat in rice cookery is underappreciated in most Western recipes. In traditional Chinese cooking, lard is the mandatory fat for fried rice — the wok hei flavour that defines great Chinese fried rice is produced by the interaction of high heat, lard and the Maillard reaction across the rice grains. In Italian risotto, butter is not optional finishing — it is the emulsification agent that creates the characteristic wave-like flow of properly made risotto. In Indian biryani, the rice is cooked in ghee-enriched stock that infuses every grain with flavour from the inside out. In West African jollof rice, palm oil or chicken fat carries the tomato and spice base into the rice as it cooks. According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, ancestral cooking fats enhance the bioavailability of fat-soluble nutrients in vegetables cooked alongside rice. Research on PubMed confirms that cooking in stable saturated fats produces significantly lower levels of harmful oxidation byproducts than cooking in polyunsaturated seed oils.

What Is Inside Savor Rice

Savor Rice covers 20 seed oil free rice recipes across the world's great rice cooking traditions. Classic Chinese fried rice in lard with egg and spring onion. West African jollof rice with chicken fat and smoked tomato base. Italian risotto finished with cold grass-fed butter. Indian ghee rice with whole spices. Japanese onigiri with sesame and butter. Korean dolsot bibimbap in sesame oil and butter. Hawaiian saimin-style rice in pork fat. Mexican arroz rojo in lard. Lebanese rice with vermicelli in butter. Thai coconut rice in full-fat coconut milk. Every recipe is built on the fat that each tradition was originally cooked in — and zero canola or vegetable oil appears in any of them.

The MAHA Rice Kitchen

The difference between seed-oil-based rice and ancestral-fat rice is not subtle. It is the difference between a dish that sustains you and one that leaves you hungry an hour later. It is the difference between a one-dimensional base and a flavour-carrying medium that makes every ingredient on top of it taste better. Savor Rice proves that principle 20 times across 20 traditions. For the complete seed oil free rice cookbook — Savor Rice is available on Amazon now.

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