A set of 129 rice cultivars of long, medium and short grain were used to evaluate the rice germplasm for milling and cooking properties. The seeds of rice cultivars were collected from Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) Germplasm Bank and were grown in BRRI farm. Milling outturn, head rice recovery, hull content, amylose content, cooking time, elongation ratio, and volume expansion ratio were determined. Milling outturn was highly significant (r = -0.633, -0.760 and -0.496, p < 0.01) and negatively correlated with hull content for long, medium and short grain rice cultivars. Kharmao of long grain rice cultivars had the lowest milling yield (63%) but the highest hull content (27%). Cooking time varied from (15-23) minutes in long grain and (13-23) minutes in both medium and short grain cultivars. Cooking time was highly significant and positively correlated (r = 0.459 and 0.591, p < 0.01) with elongation ratio and volume expansion ratio in long grain cultivars but negatively correlated with elongation ratio(r= -0.02 and -0.309) and volume expansion ratio(r=-0.128 and -0.360) in medium and short grain cultivars. In the case of long grain rice cultivars, amylose content was highly significant (r = 0.466 and 0.640, p < 0.01) and positively correlated with cooking time and volume expansion ratio. This Study identified some cultivars with superior cooking and milling qualities which can be used for further grain quality improvement.
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