I’ve been cooking rice all wrong!

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.

Dear Helen, I’m an old Vietnamese man and I cook rice every day in my whole life by our traditional way. As you already know that Vietnam is one of the world’s largest rice producer, we consume large amount of rice daily so cooking rice is a simple routine for all of us. We never measure the amount of rice or water, just rinse the rice twice in a pot, add large amount of water, say 3-4 inches of water above the top of the rice, bring to a boil without a cover for a while (3-4 minutes so your fan will understand) then pour off the water, using the pot cover as a stopper to let the water out and keep the rice in the pot. Put the pot back to the burner, cover, turn the heat to low then forget it for a while. (Not everyone have a watch so I would say 20 minutes is enough), turn off the heat, fluff rice a few times and it’s ready to serve. With this method, you can control the texture of the rice, for a firm rice, pour off most of the cooking liquid, for a softer rice, leave a small amount of the liquid in the pot, it’s simple. You also get 2 valuable byproducts, the cooked rice liquid is full of carbohydrate and some protein, just add a little sugar then it become a substitute for milk to feed an infant of a poor family, I grew up with this “milk”. The second one is a layer of rice, crispy brown and sticking on the bottom of the pots, you simply drizzle some onion oil on it, put the pot in low heat for a while then easily take it out in one piece, add any filling then you will have a special treat, now a day, it is a delicacy at many high price restaurant in Vietnam with all kind of seafood fillings. Please forgive my broken English in this writing, I’m one of your fan and I learn a lot of tips from your video series.

My wife's late mother was from Japan, she taught my wife, wife taught me - nearly 45 years ago! Rice, water just over 1/2 inch, bring to a boil, cover at low heat for about 15 minutes. Let sit with no heat for another 10 minutes. This is for medium grain. Basmati, Jasmine, and some other long grain rices take a bit more water. Also how dry (older) the rice is can make a difference.

This is, frankly, why rice cookers are such wonderful devices. My rice comes out perfect every time, no matter how much I make, and it frees up crucial space on the stovetop. You can plug a rice cooker into any outlet in your home, which makes them essential kit for small kitchens and dormitories Also, I find the benefit of washing rice doesn't come from rinsing away excess starch, but from soaking the rice before cooking. Like when cooking beans or other dried, starchy foods, rice has a tendency to break up and take on an inconsistent texture when cooked from totally dry. All it takes is 20 or 30 minutes of pre-soaking to make a noticeable difference (don't go too much longer than 12h, or you can start to have some undesirable flavors, due to fermentation). You don't need to change the water, either. Just mix the rice and water (and salt, if desired), let sit, then cook

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.

I cook rice with the traditional Chinese method using a rice cooker specially made in China.

Every night after my wife falls asleep, I start cooking with Helen. In the morning everybody is happy.

Thank you so much for this video! I’ve been cooking for over 40 years and recently started cooking a large batch of long grain rice that I use over the course of 2-3 days rather than a small batch each meal. All of the sudden my rice had turned mushy and now I understand why! I’m going through more of your videos now to see what other jewels of wisdom you have to share. 🌷

Helen, you're such a good teacher, I love your videos!

So my parents taught me the knuckle method and my rice always came out mushy. It took a while for me to figure out that my fingers are longer than theirs lol. But there is also a proportionality to the finger method as well, the more rice there is, you go slightly less of your first knuckle. ideally it's 1:1 water to rice, anything else is excess. The knuckle depth of water is to make up for excess evaporation. One way you can get really good well defined non-mushy grains is to soak the rice after washing for about 20min. You'll hear it faintly snap crackle pop while it's soaking up the cold water, and then it will cook like normal.

Im filipino and we dont really measure anymore once you are used to it. We just use our index finger to measure how deep the water is on top of the rice. Its usually 3/4 inches but it depends on how you want it :) so regardless of how much rice you want to cook, just use that method, try it. Jokoy even taught that in his netflix series :)

My grandmother whom is Burmese taught us, 1 cup of rice with 1.5 cups of water and then 1 to 1 for every cup after that. Ie 2 cups of rice 2.5 cups of water, 3 cups 3.5 cups of water. Please Try this method.

This is the most insightful video I've seen about the challenges of cooking rice in varying quantities. Thank you Helen! x

Hi Helen! Your ideal ratios almost perfectly fit the formula: water = 0.65 * rice + 0.525 Thank you for the fantastic video as ever!

Helen, for really small batches of rice (1-1.5 cups) I recommend using a "pot in pot" method. Put the rice and water in a small steel food storage container or other such vessel, put 1-2 cups of water in the IP liner pot to act as a double boiler, and put the inner pot in to cook that way. Basically, you'd be pressure-steaming the rice. I cook this way for rice no matter what amount I make because I like my rice a bit on the drier side, and without the double-boiler method, my IP gives me a "BURN" error if I don't do this. With this method, I can stick to a consistent ratio of 1:1 water to rinsed and drained rice.

Dan Souza of Cook’s Illustrated has a good video here as part of his What’s Eating Dan series that illustrates the water level issue. Being Latina I’ve always joked I can cook rice in my sleep, and for us we grow up seeing rice cooked in large amounts without a thought given to it— it’s just always perfect. I’ve explained to people that the size and shape of the pot they cook the rice in is a major aspect of it turning out. Recently someone said they weren’t able to cook rice properly in large quantities for an event. I was the only one who asked about the dimensions of the pot. It turned out they were using a stockpot. Tall and narrow! No good if you’re trying to cook such large amounts, even if in theory it fits. The rice needs room to expand and it can’t cook evenly in so narrow a pot. The pot has a big effect on water level.

Personally I cook rice like pasta until almost done then drain water and let it sit in it’s steam till done .

I was taught by my Asian friend, 1 part water to 1 part rice no matter the quantity....then add 1/4 cup extra water, also no matter the quantity to allow for steam escaping. Works everytime, just be sure to let the rice sit and steam, lid on, for 20 minutes or so .

Thank you, Helen! I love your content!

To get the same depth of water at the top each time (assuming you already have 1.5c rice and water in pot) you just need to add X cups of water for each additional cup of rice. Assuming 1.5c rice with 1.5c water is perfect and 3c rice with 2.5c water is perfect, we see we must add 1/3 cup water for each additional 0.5c of rice ( therefore X = 2/3 ) Therefore the formula for the amount of water is: Water = 2/3 * Rice + K where K is the amount of water needed to fill your pot of choice with by a finger’s width. In your case K = 0.5