Soaking (Steeping)
Soaking allows rice to absorb the desired amount of water that is crucial to
establishing the rice consistency. For sake produced “en masse,” simply dumping
into a vat overnight for as long as 14 h is a usual case (47). However, high polished
rice may be soaked within minutes. In such a case an error of a minute might prove
to have dire consequences for the end product (43).