Difference between Birayani and Pulao

I have always wondered what is the difference between pulao and biryani and here's what I found .Before biryanis became Mughlai food, they were part of Persian culture in the royal courts of Delhi during the medieval period. The word biryani comes from the Persian "birian", which means "fried" or "roasted". The Persians had a major rice dish in their pulao.There is a subtle difference between the biryani and the pulao.In a biryani, the parboiled rice is layered twice or more between the spices and the meat, and they are all cooked together. In a pulao, the stock of meat forms the base and the rice is cooked with the spices so that it absorbs the flavor of the spices. A pulao is like an assembly of cooked rice and meat.Some of the other differences would be:Pulao is made by the absorption method of cooking rice. Biryani is made by the draining method of cooking rice.In pulao the base ingredient is mixed with the rice, while in biryani the main ingredient is at the base of the vessel. In biryani lot of aromatic masala is used. Pulaos are relatively less spiced (www.uppercrustindia.com)

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What is the basic difference between pulao, biryani and fried rice?
PULAO IS made by the absorption method of cooking rice. Biryani is made by the draining method of cooking rice. Fried Rice is a Chinese preparation which is made in a wok using Chinese spices and pre-cooked rice. In pulao the base ingredient is mixed with the rice, while in biryani the main ingredient is at the base of the vessel. In biryani lot of aromatic masala is used. Pulaos are relatively less spiced.

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There is a subtle difference between the biryani and the pulao.
In a biryani, the parboiled rice is layered twice or more between the spices and the meat, and they are all cooked together.In a pulao, the stock of meat forms the base and the rice is cooked with the spices so that it absorbs the flavor of the spices. A pulao is like an assembly of cooked rice and meat.
Pulao is made by the absorption method of cooking rice.Biryani is made by the draining method of cooking rice.
In pulao the base ingredient is mixed with the rice, while in biryani the main ingredient is at the base of the vessel.
In biryani lot of aromatic masala is used.Pulaos are relatively less spiced.
The other basic difference is that the Pulao has quite a bit of gravy in it whereas the biryani tends to be dry.

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I am certainly no expert, but biriyani is quite different from pulao: * a "pulao" is made by first lightly frying the rice in ghee so that each individual rice kernel is coated, and then steaming the rice with other ingredients, usually things like nuts or raisins. It can have a slightly sweet taste, not very spicy at all.* A "biriyani", on the other hand, does not involve frying the rice first. Also crucial to the biriyani is the fact that meat and rice are "layered" on top of each other. A biriyani is usually made with meat, typically goat meat, although there are so called "vegetable" biriyanis as well. Also, in Hyderabad in India, the biriyani is made by cooking the whole thing (meat and rice) in a tightly sealed pan, sealed with dough -- its a form of the so called "dum" method. A biriyani is also usually quite spicy.In some ways, fried-rice is more similar to pulao than biriyani is to pulao.

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One major difference is that a Pulao is a self contained nourishing Rice delicacy, enriched with just about meat and or nuts and spices, but nearly always never hot. Specifically a Pulao is cooked in a Yakhni/Stock.A Biryani on the other hand has its own ritualistic ways of dealing with the rice and meats either separately or together. The emphasis in a Biryani is to preserve the grain testure of Rice, and umistakenly imparting all fanciful spiced flavors to the meat. Except for a few strands of saffron and a few whole spices, Rice is not heavily pampered. Again in a Biryani, many prefer to half cook rice with whole spices and use this with the meat mix in alternate layers finishing off in the Dum. Some prefer to cook rice in absorbtion method too.A Kutchi or Hyderabadi Biryani, uses blanched rice (forget the specific term used), with the marinated meat cooked together on Dum