Basmati is a variety of long grain rice, famous for its fragrance and delicate flavour. Its name means "Queen of Fragrance". Basmati rice has been cultivated in the Indian subcontinent for hundreds of years. The grains of basmati rice are much longer than they are wide, and they grow even longer as they cook. They stay firm and separate, not sticky, after cooking. Basmati rice is available both as a white rice and a brown rice. Both of these cook in about 20 minutes. Due to the high amount of starch clinging to the rice grains, many cooks wash this rice before cooking it. Soaking it for half an hour to two hours before cooking makes the grains less likely to break during cooking.