Rice Cakes?

[JamieL]

Yeah. Made some last wednesday, kept them in the fridge and even after 4 hours in >30C on monday they were fine.

[drchull]

I freeze them after wrapping and then throw them in my pocket frozen. Probably gives you another hour or so of potability in hot weather. Also put them in a plastic bag in my pocket just because gross otherwise. Much better than bars and gels.

[LouisN]

Not sure about you, but rice that's been sitting in your sweaty jersey back pocket in the sun for 4-5 hours just screams 'food poisoning' to me

Rice ? Naaaaahhh. Eggs, mayyyyybe......

You should eat some bacterias anyways, good for the immune system

There are zillions of other ways to get "poisened" at home....

You should eat the thing the first two, three hours anyways. Keep the sweet things for the last 60-90 min. IMO.

Louis

[AFA]

Speaking of poisoning...
Most rice grown in the US is contaminated with arsenic, even organic according to tests done by Natural News recently. The source of the arsenic is chicken litter. The chickens are fed organic arsenic in lieu of antibiotics. Rice farmers use chicken litter as fertilizer.

[Rush]

I freeze them after wrapping and then throw them in my pocket frozen. Probably gives you another hour or so of potability in hot weather. Also put them in a plastic bag in my pocket just because gross otherwise. Much better than bars and gels.

Interesting. Made a big batch a few days ago but because of a change in riding schedule I had too many left over. So I froze a big batch at the time and I'm wondering what the best procedure is. Wife suggests to put some in the fridge now to slowly thaw overnight, but maybe I'll throw a frozen one in my pocket and see how that goes.

[Rush]

After eating some apple turnovers at an Audax ride in the summer, I was inspired to make my own. So I used the scratch labs recipe and made some pastry from scratch (first time in my life).

Yummo. The kids love them and take them to school / kinder for lunch. My wife enjoyed them for desert. Skeptical wife was impressed that I could make pastry first time without a proper blender.

They remain in better condition after spending three hours in your warm back pocket than a rice cake. Much easier to eat as well. The base recipe probably doesn't have as much carbs as a rice cake, so I'm thinking of adding quinoa to the filling.

[G60]

Speaking of poisoning...
Most rice grown in the US is contaminated with arsenic, even organic according to tests done by Natural News recently...

Please cite a legitimate source for this info. Prison Planet doesn't count, either.

[Zakalwe]

I don't know about these arsenic claims, but rice is a common cause of food poisoning.

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/Can-reheati ... goryID=51&

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_cereus

I certainly wouldn't chance a sweaty pocket of rice ball after 5 hours with the sun on my back.

[dvincere]

The incubation time of bacillus cereus is far longer than 5 hours. Most people won't actually get sick from it for periods extending well over 24 hours. The reason it is a common cause for food poisoning is because it tends to grow well in refrigerators, not because it grows quickly. If you have a compromised immune system, sure, be cautious. But if you're an active adult with a normal immune system rice cakes in your jersey pocket all day are definitely not a concern.

Also, AFA is correct on the arsenic problems. Fortunately the dose makes the poison. It'd be nice to reduce consumption of arsenic but really your bag of rice is not where you're getting your biggest dosages of daily toxin intake and it's not even close.

I do enjoy rice cakes occasionally. I use sushi rice, baked teriyaki tofu (pre-made Trader Joe's), lots of Kikomen soy sauce, and often a thin layer of wasabi. Unfortunately I don't think the package will ever be super convenient to open and eat in high-intensity situations but it works well otherwise.

[KWalker]

What I found critical was the amount of liquid added.

Sushi rice says 1:1, Lim adds 1.5 cups to 1 cup of rice. Which I found works much better.

Proper sushi rice is 2:3

Personally these are far too time consuming to make all the time. The feedzone cookbook is decent, but I find that if you are not grain intolerant that there are a lot of more compact bars with oats, seeds, honey, berries, and fruit puree that are much smaller. I personally can't fit 5 of the rice cakes into my jersey along with my phone on a 6 hour ride, but for a 2-3hr ride its obviously manageable.

[RimClencher]

If you can find the flat sheets of "nori" seaweed in an Asian supermarket, they work well at holding rice balls together. Wrap once in a "nori" sheet then in cling film. Like on the right in this picture.

I prefer the non-salted/non-spiced sheets.

[Tinea Pedis]

What I found critical was the amount of liquid added.

Sushi rice says 1:1, Lim adds 1.5 cups to 1 cup of rice. Which I found works much better.

Proper sushi rice is 2:3

Works for me, so...

Also found medium grain works just as well as sushi rice. Is also a heap cheaper.

[jooo]

Many varieties of brown rice will also work for this recipe.

[Zakalwe]

The incubation time of bacillus cereus is far longer than 5 hours. Most people won't actually get sick from it for periods extending well over 24 hours. The reason it is a common cause for food poisoning is because it tends to grow well in refrigerators, not because it grows quickly. If you have a compromised immune system, sure, be cautious. But if you're an active adult with a normal immune system rice cakes in your jersey pocket all day are definitely not a concern.

And when would rice cakes generally be made - minutes before setting out on a 5 hour ride... Or a day or two in advance?

[KWalker]

Any rice that has been cooked with too much water will work. The advantage of sushi rice over just overcooking other rices is that it becomes a little less mushy when wrapped.

If I do make these I like the layered ones a lot. I've kept them for up to 2 weeks with 0 issues and I have some pretty sensitive guts.