EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Cooking => Topic started by: IanB on April 28, 2023, 03:33:40 am
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This was a thing that bugged me. I scoured the internet for information about the water-to-rice ratio by weight when cooking rice in a pan by the absorption method. The measurements are always given by volume, in cups, which is not precise, and does not translate well to Europe. So I did some experiments to find out for myself, with the following conclusion.
I tested long grain types, Basmati rice and jasmine rice. For both types, a good ratio seems to be 150% water to rice by weight. So for 100 g of rice, you would want 150 g of water. I find a good portion size is 133 g of rice needing 200 g of water.
Here is a typical cooking method:
1. Weigh the dry rice and calculate the amount of water needed (multiply the weight of rice by 1.5 to get the weight of water)
2. Wash the rice next if that's what you prefer (it helps to remove excess starch, dead insect parts and other stuff you might not want to consume)
3. Put a pan on the scale and tare it to zero
4. Put the washed rice in the pan and add water to top up the weight to 250% of the original dry rice weight (e.g. 100 g rice tops up to 250 g total)
5. Add salt to taste and stir
6. Adding a knob of butter is also good
7. Bring the pan to the boil, put on a close fitting lid, and simmer at the lowest heat for 15 minutes until all the water is absorbed
8. Take off the heat and let sit for 5-10 minutes
9. Fluff up the rice and serve
I find this gives just the right texture of rice, with separate grains, but not too mushy and not too firm.
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I've always used 1:1.5 ratio for white rice to water, and 1:2 for brown/black rice.
To maintain those separate grains and avoid the claggyness, wash thoroughly before cooking.
If you're not sure, err on the side of slightly under-done and leave off the heat with the lid on to carryover cook while you prepare other parts of the meal. It'll happily sit there under its own steam for 20-30 minutes.
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Yes, my proportions above are for white rice. Glad to see confirmation from another source.
I found the washed rice retains a fair amount of water, so I take care to account for that when working out the additional water to add.
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The measurements are always given by volume, in cups, which is not precise
much easier than digging out the scales,and it s easy to scale,not hungry espresso cup,ravenous the big mug.For me its 1 measure rice,2 water,bring to boil,lid on heat off.ignore for 20 minutes or so.
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The measurements are always given by volume, in cups, which is not precise
much easier than digging out the scales,and it s easy to scale,not hungry espresso cup,ravenous the big mug.For me its 1 measure rice,2 water,bring to boil,lid on heat off.ignore for 20 minutes or so.
Ah, so I just did a weight test. For both the Basmati and jasmine rice I have on hand, ½ US cup of rice weighs 100 g exactly, while ½ cup of water weighs 120 g in round numbers (118 g scientifically). So one part rice to two parts water by volume would be 100 g rice to 240 g water, which is much more than the 150 g water that I would use for my taste.
Perhaps you like very soft rice? Or are you cooking brown rice?
Tastes vary of course, but anyone reading this can make a judgement about how they like their rice.
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I came up with this procedure which has served me well for years, with minimum hassle:
1) Measure X volume of rice (100ml, 3.14159 fl oz, your favorite Hello Kitty mug, whatever unit works for you) in a pan.
2) Wash the rice as usual, drain excess water, leave the rice on the bottom of the pan
3) Add just enough water that the surface of the water equals the surface of rice, no less, no more
4) Remember the volume of X? Now add exactly this amount of water.
5) Cook as usual: lid on, maximum heat until it's almost starting to boil, minimal heat for 7-8 minutes which just barely keeps the water boiling, then heat off for 7-8 minutes, do not open the lid after the first few minutes.
Seems to work every time across different pan sizes and different amounts of rice being cooked, unlike some weird rules of thumbs based on the height of water in pan above the rice surface.
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Fill the measuring cup for your rice cooker with rice. Wash it. Put it in the rice cooker. Add water to the "1 cup" line. Press start. Wait for the beep.
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A billion or two Asians have come up with a far simpler method that's been carefully tuned over the course of centuries if not millennia:
- Put rice in pot.
- Add water to depth of first knuckle of finger.
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a far simpler method
is to ring/order online your favourite takeaway,order it and have it delivered
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- Put rice in pot.
- Add water to depth of first knuckle of finger.
I know it might seem obvious, but for someone who needs a bit more detail, is that :
- Put as much rice as you want/need in the pot
- Add water to a level "first knuckle" above the level of the rice?
For me that's about 20mm above the rice level.
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a far simpler method
is to ring/order online your favourite takeaway,order it and have it delivered
Which is fine for someone living in a country where you can call the local corner shop and get a nice curry delivered. For some of us at times the "local" might be a drive equivalent to Birmingham to Manchester.
Bit hard to call Menulog when you don't even have 3G coverage ;)
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a far simpler method
is to ring/order online your favourite takeaway,order it and have it delivered
A yes, the "come over for dinner and I'll make my famous... call to the Chinese place" approach to food prep :-).
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I know it might seem obvious, but for someone who needs a bit more detail, is that :
- Put as much rice as you want/need in the pot
- Add water to a level "first knuckle" above the level of the rice?
For me that's about 20mm above the rice level.
Yup, that's about it. Rice is incredibly forgiving, nine times out of ten you can get away with "throw in as much rice as you feel like, pour in an amount of water that seems about right, cook", it's really not an exact science. The only slight adjustment you might need to make is a bit more water and cooking time for brown rice but for most people "rice" = "white rice" so just go with the defaults.
One thing I would recommend if you do this frequently is getting a rice cooker because that just makes it set-and-forget, there are some neat Youtube videos on how these "know" how long to cook any amount of rice you put in there. if you really want to get serious about it, get a Zojirushi cooker.
And while you're waiting for it to cook, watch Uncle Roger's thoughts on how to do it Uncle Roger (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53me-ICi_f8). He actually mentions the finger method somewhere in there. Haiyaa!
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I know it might seem obvious, but for someone who needs a bit more detail, is that :
- Put as much rice as you want/need in the pot
- Add water to a level "first knuckle" above the level of the rice?
For me that's about 20mm above the rice level.
Yup, that's about it. Rice is incredibly forgiving, nine times out of ten you can get away with "throw in as much rice as you feel like, pour in an amount of water that seems about right, cook", it's really not an exact science. The only slight adjustment you might need to make is a bit more water and cooking time for brown rice but for most people "rice" = "white rice" so just go with the defaults.
I tested what 20 mm above the rice level would be when I cooked rice at the weekend, and that would have been way, way too much water. I would have ended up with soft, mushy rice. My water quantity of 1.5 times the weight of rice came to just a little above the rice level, not even to the depth of a whole fingernail, let alone the knuckle.
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Born and grew up at where rice as a daily staple, there is no one size fits all measurement.
Its all "depends" on the rice type and own preference, and how to cook.
Heck, to get more complicated, a fresh rice vs long shelved rice will have different results.
The only way to get the best result is thru trial and error, too much water ? too less ? and etc, and on a "consistent or same" type of rice.
Of course for those who eat rice probably once every 6 months, this will be a challenge, as you don't have the luxury to go thru trial and error, but its not a big deal for those who eats it daily as basically knows what type and how to cook on each types that suits our preference, like grainy type ? mushy paste type ? wet congee (porridge) style and etc.
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My water quantity of 1.5 times the weight of rice came to just a little above the rice level, not even to the depth of a whole fingernail, let alone the knuckle.
That seems like an awfully low amount of water, it'd lead to pretty... firm rice. I suspect we may have different concepts of what the final product should be like. Not saying anyone is right or wrong, just different.
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Fill the measuring cup for your rice cooker with rice. Wash it. Put it in the rice cooker. Add water to the "1 cup" line. Press start. Wait for the beep.
As a half asian, currently living in South East Asia, this is how I believe most people do it these days (except not many people will only be cooking one cup of rice). That said, my mother uses the first joint of the thumb measurement.
When I lived in Japan, they were very serious about their rice. The procedure, when I was over there, was:
- Visit your local rice shop.
- Peruse the resumes of the local and not so local farmers supplying said rice shop (they will be attached to the bins holding the rice)
- Choose rice. Be told by shop owner that this rice has only just been harvested and needs to rest a while. Choose another rice.
- Let the rice shop owner know how you like your rice to be milled. I.e. how much bran/germ you want remaining on the milled rice. Beware that leaving any rice germ means that the rice will not keep very long. This wont matter as you are only buying enough for a couple of weeks use anyway.
- Shop owner taps in the settings on the rice mill, lets it churn and then fills a beatifully engineered brown paper bag with your custom order.
- When you get home and are ready to cook the rice, then you must first wash it. This may involve some gadgettery if you live in a trendy household, or simply be a kneeding swishing motion in the rice pot. Apparently ladies will be judged on their rice washing skills by parents-in-law. Once the rice is spotlessly clean (no more cloudiness in the washing water), the drained uncooked rice should then be left to air for a few hours.
- Finally you can put the rice in the rice cooker. Older households will have a big old gas powered pot, but most folks will have a computer controlled rice cooker which, much like their domestic washing machines, will require you to go through 3 menus of japanese writing before it consents to do its job. Along the way you will be choosing things like type of rice, style of rice, when you want to eat it and so on.
- After the rice is cooked then you fluff it up, however it's still not at its best. The lid should be closed and the rice left to improve for at least further 30 minutes.
- At this stage, if you haven't yet given up and gone for a Makudonarudo, you are now able to eat your rice - which to be fair, is pretty damn good (if you like rice). Why not do as the japanese do, and slather it in stinking fermented beans and raw egg? (Admission, I have actually developed quite a liking for nattou gohan)
- 2 weeks later, the rice shop calls you up to discuss the latest rice currently in stock.
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For point 7 there, the really fancy ones will actually speak to you as they're cooking the rice, for example they'll apologise for the noise they're about to make when they vent steam.
Just make sure you have witnesses for this before you tell random strangers that your rice cooker talked to you.
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Indeed, we also had a pressurised rice cooker - it had that solenoid relief valve which cut in and out at certain stages of the cooking process. Supposedly better than plain old atmospheric cooking :-//. As a result, the appliance was built like a... a lexus?, so I guess quietly satisfying to use?
Veering slightly further off topic, unless you consider it the final process in rice consumption, our japanese toilet would talk and opened the lid when you came near it, and turned on a seat based extractor fan when you sat down. It even had a wireless remote control to lift the rim, operate the flush and aim the bidet (and to access the various toilet cleaning modes). The seat was heated of course - that's pretty common in Japan. I missed that last function back home in the UK wintertime (the 20 button remote control, not so much). The little sink commonly built into flush cisterns was pretty well thought out too.
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That seems like an awfully low amount of water, it'd lead to pretty... firm rice. I suspect we may have different concepts of what the final product should be like. Not saying anyone is right or wrong, just different.
I'm not sure how to explain this. The depth of water will depend on the size of the pan of course--a wider pan will be shallower than a narrower pan. Also the required depth of water will depend on how many rice servings are being cooked. Four servings will require far more water than one serving. If four servings is a whole knuckle, then one serving would be a quarter of a knuckle.
The 1.5 ratio also applies to the commonly available Basmati or jasmine rice that I use. I can assure you it ends up properly cooked with each grain cooked through and tender.
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Indeed, we also had a pressurised rice cooker - it had that solenoid relief valve which cut in and out at certain stages of the cooking process. Supposedly better than plain old atmospheric cooking :-//. As a result, the appliance was built like a... a lexus?, so I guess quietly satisfying to use?
We have a pressure cooking Zojirushi rice cooker. Zojirushi make great rice cookers, but paying extra for the pressure cooking ones turns out to be a waste of money. They don't speed things up, in fact ours takes a full hour to cook rice. Pressure is used to force more moisture into the heart of the grains. That's only really useful when you have nasty old dried out rice. So, you pay a lot more for the cooker, to be able to use cheap rice? Might as well save the money and buy better rice. I wouldn't buy one again.
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rice:water ratio depends on the cooking method. in a sealed pressure cooker you will use less water than in a pot with a vent hole.
there is no perfect ratio to use for all cooking methods / amounts of rice
fyi: if rice turns out a bit soggy - stir well and leave partly covered for a bit.
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A billion or two Asians have come up with a far simpler method that's been carefully tuned over the course of centuries if not millennia:
- Put rice in pot.
- Add water to depth of first knuckle of finger.
This is exactly what I was taught and it's total bullshit. It simply does not work; I think it's a Western legend more than true Asian practice (or we are missing context and oversimplifying it). It assumes a certain ratio between the pan diameter and amount of rice being cooked. If your habits happen to fit withing these parameters, then it of course always works. Until you try to make a significantly different amount in the same pan. Or same amount in a significantly different pan.
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Let the water surface be 5-7 mm higher than that of rice, depending on your hope that it is hard or soft. I have decades of experience in cooking rice.
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Isn't 5-7mm a bit precise? Surely, the equivalent of a knuckle would be something like "a bit over 5mm".
I mean, it's fine to be precise but if you're doing that you'd have to note the diameter of your pan, the amount of rice, etc, since a change in either would make a bigger difference than 2mm of water.
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Cooking rice is more of an art than science. For one, more rice you cook, ratio of rice:water goes down. For two, kind and age of rice affects the ratio changes. Two of my rice cookers require different amount of water, too.
OT: My girlfriend has a 1/2 cup (HALF CUP) rice cooker. I never seen such thing existed!
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Cooking rice is more of an art than science. For one, more rice you cook, ratio of rice:water goes down. For two, kind and age of rice affects the ratio changes. Two of my rice cookers require different amount of water, too.
OT: My girlfriend has a 1/2 cup (HALF CUP) rice cooker. I never seen such thing existed!
If it were art, then a human would be able to beat an inexpensive fuzzy logic rice cooker. Those things give great results every time with varying types and ages of rice and people being sloppy about adding the exact amounts of water and rice. Humans don't come close.
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If it were art, then a human would be able to beat an inexpensive fuzzy logic rice cooker. Those things give great results every time with varying types and ages of rice and people being sloppy about adding the exact amounts of water and rice. Humans don't come close.
I can easily cook pretty good rice using simple ordinary pot and standard American electric stove. I use rice cooker because I am lazy and I don't want to keep watch over it. Yes, they do pretty good job every time. What I was talking about was, rice and water is not a simple ratio. When cooking double the amount of rice; for example, you don't double amount of water. Instead, use little less water than double. I don't know why this happens. It just works for me.
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What I was talking about was, rice and water is not a simple ratio. When cooking double the amount of rice; for example, you don't double amount of water. Instead, use little less water than double. I don't know why this happens. It just works for me.
There is no reason in chemistry why this should be, so perhaps the reason might be in physics? For example, some water may be lost as steam from the pot by evaporation, and that amount may not be proportional to the amount of rice in the pot?
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There is no reason in chemistry why this should be, so perhaps the reason might be in physics? For example, some water maybe lost as steam from the pot by evaporation, and that amount may not be proportional to the amount of rice in the pot?
Indeed the most simple type of rice cooker uses evaporation and accompanying temperature rise as a timer. When all water evaporates away temperature rises above the boiling point, then it will shut itself off. The proportion thing is the same when cooking by regular pots though. I just don't know why it works this way.
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There is no reason in chemistry why this should be, so perhaps the reason might be in physics? For example, some water maybe lost as steam from the pot by evaporation, and that amount may not be proportional to the amount of rice in the pot?
The chemistry of rice cooking must be quite interesting. If you let a good fuzzy logic rice cooker run its normal program with good quality rice you get very tasty result. If you run the fast program most cookers have, you get rice in about 1/2 to 2/3 of the time, but it can be pretty tasteless. The texture is usually fine, but its tasteless. I don't know what they do to speed up cooking, or why this gives a tasteless result, but I do wonder.
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Indeed the most simple type of rice cooker uses evaporation and accompanying temperature rise as a timer.
Perhaps related, I have an egg cooker where you load it up with eggs, spill some water into the tray and leave it to do the biz. The amount of water determines whether the eggs are soft or hard boiled. Seems pretty simple, but you put less water in for more eggs where I'd expect to put more water in. It's non-intuitive to me, and perhaps the business with double the rice with less than double the water is similar.
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It would be interesting if we could put thermocouples and take some measurements. After all, this IS electronics forum....
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Let the water surface be 5-7 mm higher than that of rice, depending on your hope that it is hard or soft. I have decades of experience in cooking rice.
Does that work when there's 1cm of rice in the pan and when there's 5cm of rice in the pan?
Nope. Basic math says it has to be proportional.
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I didn't even know what normal rice is for decades, nearly all supermarket rice here is 8 min ready rice (not parboiled, the process is way more involved). It only absorbs a limited amount of water through the preprocessing so just drowning it doesn't really matter.
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I do 2:1 by volume water to well-rinsed rice with a pinch of salt, bring to a boil, stir, then cover and place on lowest simmer for 18 minutes (don't uncover). After that, the burner is turned off and let sit to steam for another 5 minutes before removing lid. For fried rice, a little less water is better. But what completely transformed my rice game was learning that the higher quality Chinese restaurants use a 2:1 ratio of long grain white to jasmine. I cannot imagine cooking rice with anything else now.
I have a good panda chicken recipe if anyone wants it, but you will need a wok, toasted sesame oil, light soy sauce, cooking wine, oyster sauce, ginger, garlic, better than bouillon, light brown sugar, fresh mushrooms, zucchini, corn starch and baking soda. But rather than detailing that here right now, I will instead share the top secret rarely written about way to make chicken tender and juicy. Rinse the chicken with water and add a little baking soda in the marinade. It keeps the meat from shrinking during the cooking process by interfering with the proteins bonding together and that keeps the moisture in.
For those chasing down the perfect Chinese recipe (nothing against Japanese), one thing I didn't realize until recently was that kikkoman is japanese. Switching to lachoy made a huge difference.
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I use lots of water and throw it in a strainer when the rice is cooked. :)
Works with all types of rice.
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I use lots of water and throw it in a strainer when the rice is cooked. :)
Works with all types of rice.
I used to cook rice that way. The downside is that you lose all of the nutrients (and flavor) dissolved in the cooking water when you put the rice in the strainer.
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1 mug rice, 1.25 mug water, hard boil 4 minutes, soft boil 4 minutes, let stand 12 minutes.
Those were the exact instructions on a small piece of paper I found in a bag of rice I got 30 years ago from the local chinese supermarket. I've used them ever since with great success.
Of course, if you want fancy rice, wash your rice very well, until the water is completely clear then let stand in the water for 10 minutes. Drain well. Get a cinnamon stick broken in half, 6 whole cloves, and 2 tablespoons ghee. Fry the spices in the ghee for a minute or two. Add the rice to the ghee spice mix, stir well until the rice is coated. Use vegetable stock instead of plain water. Cook using the above instructions. Fluff with a fork once done.
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A billion or two Asians have come up with a far simpler method that's been carefully tuned over the course of centuries if not millennia:
- Put rice in pot.
- Add water to depth of first knuckle of finger.
This. You may need to vary the depth of the water slightly if you are using "new crop" vs. older rice.
(New rice needs less water)
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I’ve always gone 1:2 (rice to water) up to the first cup of rice, then every additional cup of rice is 1:1.
So you want 1/2 a cup of rice, 1 cup of water.
1 cup of rice, 2 cups of water.
But…
2 cups of rice, add 3 cups of water.
3 cups of rice, 4 cups of water :)
Has always worked for me so far and means all the water has boiled off (but not dry) by the time the rice is ready :)
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A measuring jug is also essential when cooking rice, as it is always measured by volume rather than weight. https://jardindescitations.com/citations/P1rx4CfzuyO (https://jardindescitations.com/citations/P1rx4CfzuyO)
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The amount of water varies by two factors: the exact variety of rice, and how dry or damp you want the finished product. The most common rice around here is long grain white coming from Puerto Rico. The manufacturer says 2-cups of water to 1-cup of rice. That works for me. The other variable is the container you cook the rice in. I'm using a glass Visions 3-qt pot, and a wooden spoon to stir it (because metal tools would scratch the glass surface).
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My go-to rice varieties are Basmati rice from India, and Jasmine rice from Thailand. Both of those work fine with my ratio at the top of the thread. The rice is nice and fluffy, with no residual moisture, but still with a firm texture (neither soggy nor squishy).
I'm using a glass Visions 3-qt pot, and a wooden spoon to stir it (because metal tools would scratch the glass surface).
Stir it? I put rice and water in the pot with salt to taste, add a knob of butter, bring to the boil, and simmer for 15 minutes at lowest heat with the lid on. I don't touch the rice until the time is up.
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A while back we got an "Instant Pot" automatic pressure cooker. I don't do much of anything with it except make rice and hard boiled eggs.
It excels at both those tasks.
For rice, the recipe is:
- equal parts (by volume) of rice and water
- rinse the rice thoroughly
- put the wet rinsed rice in the cooker then the water
- close the cooker up and press the "rice" button
It turns out that when I weighed the rice and water I generally cook (2 cups each), the rice and the water weigh pretty close to the same (460g rice, 450g water). So I'd think equal parts by weight should work well too.
The Instant Pot cost less than the rice cookers I was looking at to replace my ancient, crappy rice cooker that I lived with (but hated) for probably 20 years. So I'm pretty happy with the Instant Pot even though I don't use it for any of the supposedly magnificent meals it's supposed to be able to make.
In case anyone cares, for hard boiled eggs:
- put 1/2 cup water in the cooker
- put the wire rack in place set up to 6 eggs on the rack
- close the cooker up and turn on the pressure cook mode for 6 or 7 minutes depending on how done you want the eggs
They turn out perfect every time - the shells practically fall off after cracking.