In Cape Verdean cuisine, the burned, scorched, or otherwise crunchy rice at the bottom of the pot is referred to as kokorota.

In modern times, butane-powered stoves and store-bought pots are more commonly used in Cape Verde; however, the three-legged pots are still frequently used in the rural areas and when making food for parties, festivals or any occasion where large quantities of food are required.

This results in the formation of a crust of scorched rice on the bottom of the wok or cooking vessel.

[9] Variations of tahdig include yogurt mixed with saffron, thin bread, toast, potato, pumpkin, tomato, carrots, spinach, lettuce, beetroot, eggplant, and fruits such as sour cherry.

[12] A prominent aspect of Iraqi rice cooking is the hikakeh, a crisp bottom crust.

Because regulating the heat of a wood or charcoal fire is more difficult, a layer of rice at the bottom of the pot would often be slightly burned during cooking; this layer, called okoge, was not discarded, but was eaten with vegetables or moistened with water, soup, or tea.

This yellowed scorched state is described as nureun (눌은) in Korean; nurungji derives from this adjective.

[17] Nurungji in its broad sense also refers to the crisp crust that forms at the bottom of the pots and pans when cooking various rice dishes such as dolsot bibimbap (돌솥 비빔밥) and bokkeumbap.

According to records in the 17th century medical book Dongui Bogam, nurungji was called chwigeonban (취건반; 炊乾飯) and considered as a remedy "when food does not swallow easily, upsets the stomach and induces vomiting".

[19] Mentions of nurungji in folklore are common, the most famous being a folk song recognizing the difficulties of memorizing the Thousand Character Classic.

The lines are changed from the original chant to a clever rhyme that loosely translates into "sky cheon (天), earth ji (地), nurungji in the gamasot (cauldron pot)".

[21] Scorched rice is known as cucayo, pegao, cocolón (Ecuador), concolón, raspa, raspado, graten (Haiti), bunbun (Jamaica) and concón (Dominican Republic) in the Caribbean.

In Puerto Rican cuisine, scorched rice is called pegao (shortened "pegado", "stuck").

Tutong (Tagalog) or dukót (Cebuano, "to stick") is used for a wide variety of dishes in Philippine cuisine, even as flavouring for ice cream.

[25][26] Socarrat (in Catalan language) refers to the crust that forms on the bottom of the pan when cooking paella.

It is typically fried in oil until golden brown, then topped with chà bông (pork floss) or tôm khô (dried shrimp), mỡ hành (chopped scallions cooked by pouring boiling oil over them to release their aroma), and chili paste to produce a popular dish called cơm cháy chà bông or cơm cháy tôm khô (although both the pork and shrimp may be used, in which case the dish is called cơm cháy chà bông tôm khô or cơm cháy tôm khô chà bông).