I’ve been cooking rice all wrong!
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I’ve been cooking rice all wrong! How to scale a rice recipe without losing quality The water to rice ratios that work well for me for …
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Answers to some common questions that I saw in the comments:
Comment 1: Aren't you using the wrong cup for water?
The reason the dry measuring cups aren't used for liquids is that they need to be filled to the brim with the meniscus of water forming a little bubble above the rim. Unless you are doing it over the sink you will likely spill. I do fill my dry cup to the brim with water and I checked it against my wet measuring cup and it's accurate. My dry cup also has a half line, so when I am measuring the half cup I am not winging it, I measure it to the line.
Comment 2: Rice cookers are magic, and they make perfect rice in any amount.
Have you ever wondered how? They are measuring the water for you because rice to water ratio is not linear. They tell you how much water to use for every possible amount of rice on the side of the pot. If you switch pots, the same measurements might not work. It depends on the pot diameter, the seal, and the heat intensity.
Comment 3: Rice cooking is in my blood because I am from country X
Possibly 😉 But, all I have to do is give you another pot and another stove and your first try might be less than perfect.
Comment 4: Use the pasta method
Yes, that's great for basmati, not great for sushi rice
It's great to have some way that just works for you. But it's also good to know what the variables are. This way if you are dealing with a different pot or a different amount of rice, you'll know how to come up with a reliable recipe after a couple of tries.
I love my rice cooker dearly, it's the smallest & cheapest zojirushi, though I'm noticing my kitchen is starting to overflow with small appliances. Attempting Jasmine rice in a small sauce pot on the stove with a 1:2 ratio definitely wasn't cutting it, way too mushy
I regularly prepare rice for 50 people. Baking is the only way (for me). 2kg of rice, 3.6L of boiling water, some fat (for hot-holding this makes is less likely to stick). About 1/4c salt. Stir.Twenty minutes at 350F. I do this divided into two shallow hotel pans. Larger amounts… more hotel pans. Smaller amounts… yeah, rice cooker.
still going w / knuckle deep.. it's worked for decades, unmeasured rice or water. 🙂
I was told to cook rice 1:2
1 part rice to 2 parts water.
Thanks for the video 🙂
Never had problems cooking rice. And yeah, grew up in Asian household :). And yes, we used the knuckle method too.
Also cooking just 1.5 cups of rice? Never cooked so little before. We usually consider the pot needs minimum of 0.5 cups for itself and anything else is for us, the humans.
If you like fluffy rice rather than sticky rice, try the method I learned while living in Iran; no measuring and no timing; no fancy cookers either. This is for regular white rice, not Persian rice, but it takes advantage of this excellent and easy cooking style.
Fill a big pot with lots of salted water. Bring to a boil and add as much rice as you like, but be sure to have a lot of water, like you would do when cooking pasta. Cook until rice is al-dente, around 7 minutes more or less. Start testing the rice after about six and a half minutes. Drain in a colander with small holes. Do not rinse.
Add a table spoon of oil to bottom of the empty cooking pot, just enough to cover the bottom, and carefully spoon the rice back into the pot, spoon by spoon, letting the rice form a loose, natural pyramid shape. Do not just dump it in. Spoon it in and do not stir it around or pack it. Let just fall naturally. Drizzle the rice with another two table spoons of oil and cover the pot with a folded dish towel between the pot and lid. Put over the lowest possible heat for about 45 minutes or as long as an hour or even two hours.
The rice will steam and if you leave it long enough it will start to form a crispy crust on the bottom. This crust is not actually the traditional Persian tahdig, but it's close. You can either eat it or simply ignore it. The main benefit, as we Americans see it, is that the rice can sit there in perfect condition for a long period of time while you prepare the rest of your meal. You no longer have to time your meal around the rice being ready at exactly the right time. Plus, you completely eliminate any measuring.
I prefer basmati rice and we don't rinse it. But if you want even fluffier rice, you can rinse it several times at the beginning. However, to me that makes the grains a little too separated and the rice starts to lose some of its character.
More or less you're adding 8 oz of water to the first cup of rinsed rice, then 6 fl oz of water to each of the subsequent cups of rinsed rice: 1 cup rice/8 oz H20, 2 cups rice/8+6=14 oz H20, 3 cups rice/8+6+6=20 oz H20, 4 cups rice/8+6+6+6=26 oz H20
Hi Helen, we use 1 to 2 ratio of rice to water on pressure cookers. I don't know the kind of rice but, its normal day to day use rice in South India. I too would reduce little bit extra for extra cups of rice.
Hi, the formula is equal to water needed to soake into the rice plus water for evaporation loss. While the soaking water is always in the same ratio to the rice, the evaporating water loss is always constant at the same pot. This can be checked out by cooking a batch with only water and no rice. The mechered waterloo's is the amount to put on top of every batch.
I'm a recovering geek too, Helen. And excuse the bizarre typos because I'm dictating and if Google screws it up that's not my fault. Math and chemistry undergrad until I turned to the dark side and now I'm a lawyer. I luckily was taught how to cook basmati rice by Persians. And one of my lab teaching assistants who was from the Indian subcontinent said that India grew the best rice and the Persians knew how to cook it best.
I'm glad to see you point out the ratio issues with the knuckle thing cuz that's bothered me from jump. All I could think of was " what's the pot's diameter?"
While I knew I was right, it is refreshing to have someone else say all of those things right out loud. And I think that yes I rely on my instinct when I'm making rice in the non-Persian way. I make lazy rice which is in a rice cooker and I make what I think of as real rice because of my Persian bias when I want every grain separated. Sort of think of whether I'm serving it with a stew or serving it as a side. In any event, the way the Persians deal with this which removes the question of proportions is that they par cook the rice until it is just barely al dente. When you bite through one grain, you don't have more than a needle's width of white in the center. Seriously, it's like cooking pasta. Now what I think has been accomplished at this point is… Sorry I need to catch up. They soak their rice maybe for hours before they cook it so they have already begun the hydration process. What you were doing in the water and rice, one pot and turn it off technique is trying to hydrate the rice and then cook the rice. The Persians hydrate the rice by soaking then they hydrate it further by boiling. Then they drain it. They rely on the water inside the grains to steam the grains to finish the cooking process.
This I suspect is why you are finding you need to use less and less water to get by. If the rice has simmered in the water, even to the extent that it uses up all of the water, it still has all of that moisture available to it to deliver heat from the heat source into the starch which gelatinizes the starch and cooks the rice. And obviously you are aware of the difference between the heat transfer of boiling water and of steam.
At any rate, I would encourage you to look at the Persian techniques for cooking basmati rice. And the difference between basmati, Jasmine, Carolina, and sushi is the difference between different cuts of meat or different grinds of flour and it needs to be taken into consideration. It's irrational to compare standing rib with shank bone.
But I strongly urge you to look at the Persian way of cooking rice and check out https://youtube.com/c/CookingWithYousef. I don't know whether he's right or wrong. What I do know is that he cooks the same way my Persian Foster brother does. Fascinating and remarkably healthy cuisine. Strong users of pomegranate and of sumac. So I urge you to check out how to Persian your rice.
I just enjoy the heck out of your channel. It has been a life saver during the COVID problem although I watched you before that. And anyway what you do is important and I appreciate it.
My grandmother is Portuguese and I grew up using the finger method. I've taught it to many people. It's never failed.
This makes sense, I have found with cooking bulgur and couscous ( for myself, I'm not that big of an eater ) that I have to add more water than I would if I just used the ratio that is given on the package. Because more of the water evaporates. Though admittedly with rice I mostly pay attention to the time, and after generally 10 min I pour of any remaining water if needed. Or sometimes I deliberately put in too much water so I can use that for the sauce, like you would with pasta. The only times when I had rice overcook was when I forgot about it 😂
My method, which has been working perfectly is as follows. Rice absorbs exactly its equal volume of water to be perfectly cooked. However, in a standard pot (not pressure or rice cooker) some water evaporates during the 15-18 minutes cooking time. So 2 cups of rice uses 2 cups of water plus ¼ -⅓ cups water. Same for 5 cups: 5 cups rice, plus 5 cups water, plus one quarter to one e third cup of water.
Why the variation in time and extra water? White, Jasmine, sushi rice takes less time and only needs a quarter cup for the evaporation during 15 minutes. Brown rice takes longer and needs a third cup extra for the evaporation. Also every pot and lid varies slightly but overall, this approach always works for me.
I learned the (digital) scale method from my grandma and it works perfect. Measure by weight work wonderful. Always wondered why people measure by volume or knuckle method, it pretty inconsistent for all sort of reasons. Rice soaked with water for some time also need less water.
Hey Helen, Big Fan from Brockton. I have found myself bored with regular burgers. I've recently discovered the classic French dish called Biftek Hache. I only found 1 video in English on YouTube and that was a 60 yr old Julia Child recipe. Can you show us your version of a Modern Biftek Hache??
Simple way to cook rice is get an electric Zodirushi or Tiger; zip-zap and done. No need to overthink this rice cooking process. Just let the rice soak for 15 minutes before cooking; more fluffier.
Oh jeez. I guess I’m not very bright. And reading all these comments made me feel like I was in a science class a year beyond my level. What about the type of rice? What about the age of the rice? What about the heaviness of the pot? What about the type of stove?
I can make rice at home when it’s the same amount in the same pot. I do also have a very small rice cooker (for two) which works well. But in my dreams I would be the kind of cook who could make perfect rice anywhere, in any pot, on any kind of stove, or any appliance… any time. I don’t have that gift yet.
"Rice Secrets Chefs Don't Tell You". Maybe click bait works for more views, temporarily, but it's insulting your viewers. There is no conspiracy among chefs to hide rice advice. I've unsubscribed.
A LITTLE OFF TOPIC: rice, especially from southern United States, suffers from high arsenic contamination. this is because the rice fields were originally cotton fields and they used arsenic based pesticides to protect the cotton, but tons of arsenic remained in the soil. rice has a special affinity for arsenic. brown rice has way more arsenic than white rice.
SO
the recommend method for lowering contamination is to cook rice in MUCH MORE water than necessary and then pour off the excess after cooking, sort of like cooking pasta!
This is the most insightful video I've seen about the challenges of cooking rice in varying quantities. Thank you Helen! x
Helen, the amount of water needed depends on how much time you soak your rice and what kind of rice you are using. If you are using koshihikari rice with a thirty minute soak, a one-to-one ratio is appropriate. If you are using a basmati or jasmine rice,, a bit more water is needed. There are over 5,000 varieties of rice, and they all have different qualities.
Helen, my suspicion for why this phenomenon occurs is that when cooking larger batches in the same pot, the ratio of moisture evaporation relative to the total mass of moisture is disproportionately represented when making larger batches. In a smaller batch, you "bleed" off a larger percentage of the moisture as it cooks, which helps things even out by the time it is cooked. When you scale up to a larger batch, the surface area at the top of the rice doesn't change compared to smaller batches (assuming you're using the same pot), so the moisture lost to evaporation likely increases only slightly, if even at all. This means that in your end product, the overall ratio of moisture to rice remains higher than smaller batches, which might be why you find you need less and less water when you scale up.