Why fry rice before boiling? Ordinarily when I make fried rice, the general process is:


Boil the rice until done.
Fry the cooked rice in oil.


However, I recently made a different rice recipe which flipped the order:


Lightly fry the dry rice in a pan.
Then boil the rice until done.


This struck me as being really strange.  Why would I lightly fry the rice before cooking it? I usually associate frying rice with textural change, but after boiling it the texture wasn't notably different than if I hadn't fried it at all.

In both cases I was using a medium-grain white rice.
This is sometimes called "pilaf style", though technically actual pilafs do not require the sauteeing step. It is, however, very common in pilaf and related dishes.

The main function of this is to change the composition of the starch on the surface of the rice. This reduces the starches that cross-link and make rice sticky. It helps your rice to cook up into separate grains.

While you're at it, it also adds some flavor to the rice, by caramelizing some of the starches. Plus, it adds oil, which can carry flavors of its own and help distribute fat-soluble flavors in the other ingredients.

The effect is very different from "fried rice", where the starches have already been cooked and gelatinized before frying. The goals are somewhat the same, adding browned flavors and distributing fat-soluble ingredients, but the chemical changes to the surface of the rice itself will be different.