The best way to cook rice
Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 01:49
A young friend of mine recently wrote a great treatise on rice cooking, which she facetiously was going to title, "Rice Cooking for Blondes." (She's actually quite a good cook, and overly modest. You decide.) Here for your cooking enjoyment:
Rice Cooking: 'Ah So,' or 'Uh Oh'? So Many Variations!
Basic Recipe
There are lots of ways to cook rice. The trouble is, they all depend on a couple of things, all of which can go wrong.
● Heat input. No two stoves are alike. No two pots are alike. No two pot lids are alike. Non-stick versus aluminum versus iron. Ethnic styles of pots.
● Heating rate. Constant, or fast start and then simmer? Finish in the oven? Everyone has her own trick, and I've got several.
● Quantity of rice. A standard amount is good, but what if you need lots, or not much?
● Ratio of water to rice. What kind of rice is it, anyway: instant or parboiled (such as Uncle Ben's), short grain, long grain, brown, wild?
● Desired end state: sticky (for Chinese dishes), sushi-use, separate grains for Indian dishes, porridge-like for Italian risotto...
● Altitude, if above 5,000 feet / 1,500 meters.
Variations
There are an infinite number of variations on rice dishes, all of which can affect cooking.
● Rice with single or multiple added ingredients.
● Ethnic variations such as birhyani, paella...
● Other grains and grain products, such as barley, bulgar wheat, couscous...
The Answer
I may not be very smart, but I have smart friends. One of 'em is a statistician of Chinese descent, who feeds her family a lot of rice. She says, and it makes a lot of sense, that you should try to eliminate variability by dividing rice cooking into its component parts and attacking the ones with the biggest chance of error first. Her recommendation, and an obvious first step: buy a rice cooker.
She took me to a Chinese grocery. They have all sorts and sizes of rice cookers, and they're cheap. Figure out what size you need by how many mouths you have to feed at a time. My two girls, my spouse and I eat the equivalent of one cup of uncooked rice per serving (or about twice that volume, cooked) at most. ...smallest rice cooker. ...a no-brainer, even for us blondes. It comes with a scoop. You measure in the rice, then the water. ...couldn't be easier. ...ten bucks. What you get, by using a rice cooker, is a reproducible rate of heat addition, so you cut out the variability introduced by being unable to ever set the stove burner the same way twice.
And then, she takes me to the rice section. "What kind do you like?" she asks.
I pale. "I dunno. ...rice. Isn't rice just... rice?"
Youngest daughter points from her perch in the grocery cart's seat. "What's that, Mommy?" It's a stack of bags of rice, and they each look like they weigh more than Mommy does. I pale. I imagine myself struggling with a monstrous sack of the stuff. Youngest girl asks, "What's-a-matter, Mommy? ...feel bad?"
Long story, short- - They sell all sorts of sizes, all sorts of types. The larger ethnic groceries cater to multiple nationalities, including a growing number of Hispanic clientele. We bought smaller bags of sushi rice, jasmine rice, and arborio rice. She helped me heft a twenty pound sack of basmati rice into the cart, for Indian cooking.
...and on each package, it gives instructions for how much water to add per pound of rice. That eliminates another source of variability, my friend says, because how much water you put in determines the cooking time.
"Huh...?" I say.
She patiently explains that it takes a certain quantity of heat to evaporate a given amount of water. If you put in heat at a certain rate, the water comes up to boiling temperature and stays there while the water boils, until it boils away. You have just enough water to last for the fifteen to twenty minutes it takes the rice to cook, plus the amount taken up by the rice. When the water is gone, there's none left to take up the heat so the heating element gets hot, its resistance goes down, the current goes up, the circuit breaker pops, and the cooker shuts off.
So, I've had my statistics and my electrical engineering lessons for the morning, and I'm only out the price of the cooker and the rice. ...not bad.
"So," she says, "by using the cooker and adding the right amount of rice and water, we've eliminated the variability in the first list. ..easy, huh?" She kindly leaves off what they usually add, "...so easy that even a blonde can do it."
"Well, yeah," I confess, but I know better. "So, what about it being sticky, huh?"
"...proper water amount," she says. "That, plus proper type. See that one?" She points to a bag labeled 'glutinous rice.' "All you have to do is pick the right type of rice, and add the proper amount of water. If you want it stickier, add a bit more water so it'll cook longer. I wouldn't add less water to go the other way, though. It wouldn't cook long enough to become tender."
"And what about instant or parboiled rice?" I asked.
She shook her head. "All the nutrients have been cooked out and lost. Don't eat that stuff. ...empty calories."
I made a face. Youngest daughter saw it. "Yukky, Mommy?"
The Recipe
So there you have it. Here's a list of approximate water-to-rice ratios for different types of rice. For all recipes, add the designated amount of rice called for by your rice cooker, then a bit of salt and a little oil or butter, then the proper amount of water.
Many ethnic recipes call for rinsing the rice first. This is a good idea, because it washes out the talc (added so it looks whiter) and dust (added to raise the package weight and cheat you) and critters. "Critters...?" you say. "EEEWWWW!"
Well, as one Bangladeshi friend of mine once explained, "If it won't support life, why would you want to eat it?"
Yecchh! Personally, I'd prefer not to eat rice with critters in it, but if a few get through, they'll be killed and sterilized by the cooking, so maybe it's okay.
...just don't tell the family.
Rice-to-Water Ratios
ratio type
1:1.25 Japanese (Kome) rice
1:1.5 Basmati rice
1:2 Glutinous rice
1:2 Short grain rice
1:2.5 Brown rice
1:2.5 Wild rice
Rice Cooking: 'Ah So,' or 'Uh Oh'? So Many Variations!
Basic Recipe
There are lots of ways to cook rice. The trouble is, they all depend on a couple of things, all of which can go wrong.
● Heat input. No two stoves are alike. No two pots are alike. No two pot lids are alike. Non-stick versus aluminum versus iron. Ethnic styles of pots.
● Heating rate. Constant, or fast start and then simmer? Finish in the oven? Everyone has her own trick, and I've got several.
● Quantity of rice. A standard amount is good, but what if you need lots, or not much?
● Ratio of water to rice. What kind of rice is it, anyway: instant or parboiled (such as Uncle Ben's), short grain, long grain, brown, wild?
● Desired end state: sticky (for Chinese dishes), sushi-use, separate grains for Indian dishes, porridge-like for Italian risotto...
● Altitude, if above 5,000 feet / 1,500 meters.
Variations
There are an infinite number of variations on rice dishes, all of which can affect cooking.
● Rice with single or multiple added ingredients.
● Ethnic variations such as birhyani, paella...
● Other grains and grain products, such as barley, bulgar wheat, couscous...
The Answer
I may not be very smart, but I have smart friends. One of 'em is a statistician of Chinese descent, who feeds her family a lot of rice. She says, and it makes a lot of sense, that you should try to eliminate variability by dividing rice cooking into its component parts and attacking the ones with the biggest chance of error first. Her recommendation, and an obvious first step: buy a rice cooker.
She took me to a Chinese grocery. They have all sorts and sizes of rice cookers, and they're cheap. Figure out what size you need by how many mouths you have to feed at a time. My two girls, my spouse and I eat the equivalent of one cup of uncooked rice per serving (or about twice that volume, cooked) at most. ...smallest rice cooker. ...a no-brainer, even for us blondes. It comes with a scoop. You measure in the rice, then the water. ...couldn't be easier. ...ten bucks. What you get, by using a rice cooker, is a reproducible rate of heat addition, so you cut out the variability introduced by being unable to ever set the stove burner the same way twice.
And then, she takes me to the rice section. "What kind do you like?" she asks.
I pale. "I dunno. ...rice. Isn't rice just... rice?"
Youngest daughter points from her perch in the grocery cart's seat. "What's that, Mommy?" It's a stack of bags of rice, and they each look like they weigh more than Mommy does. I pale. I imagine myself struggling with a monstrous sack of the stuff. Youngest girl asks, "What's-a-matter, Mommy? ...feel bad?"
Long story, short- - They sell all sorts of sizes, all sorts of types. The larger ethnic groceries cater to multiple nationalities, including a growing number of Hispanic clientele. We bought smaller bags of sushi rice, jasmine rice, and arborio rice. She helped me heft a twenty pound sack of basmati rice into the cart, for Indian cooking.
...and on each package, it gives instructions for how much water to add per pound of rice. That eliminates another source of variability, my friend says, because how much water you put in determines the cooking time.
"Huh...?" I say.
She patiently explains that it takes a certain quantity of heat to evaporate a given amount of water. If you put in heat at a certain rate, the water comes up to boiling temperature and stays there while the water boils, until it boils away. You have just enough water to last for the fifteen to twenty minutes it takes the rice to cook, plus the amount taken up by the rice. When the water is gone, there's none left to take up the heat so the heating element gets hot, its resistance goes down, the current goes up, the circuit breaker pops, and the cooker shuts off.
So, I've had my statistics and my electrical engineering lessons for the morning, and I'm only out the price of the cooker and the rice. ...not bad.
"So," she says, "by using the cooker and adding the right amount of rice and water, we've eliminated the variability in the first list. ..easy, huh?" She kindly leaves off what they usually add, "...so easy that even a blonde can do it."
"Well, yeah," I confess, but I know better. "So, what about it being sticky, huh?"
"...proper water amount," she says. "That, plus proper type. See that one?" She points to a bag labeled 'glutinous rice.' "All you have to do is pick the right type of rice, and add the proper amount of water. If you want it stickier, add a bit more water so it'll cook longer. I wouldn't add less water to go the other way, though. It wouldn't cook long enough to become tender."
"And what about instant or parboiled rice?" I asked.
She shook her head. "All the nutrients have been cooked out and lost. Don't eat that stuff. ...empty calories."
I made a face. Youngest daughter saw it. "Yukky, Mommy?"
The Recipe
So there you have it. Here's a list of approximate water-to-rice ratios for different types of rice. For all recipes, add the designated amount of rice called for by your rice cooker, then a bit of salt and a little oil or butter, then the proper amount of water.
Many ethnic recipes call for rinsing the rice first. This is a good idea, because it washes out the talc (added so it looks whiter) and dust (added to raise the package weight and cheat you) and critters. "Critters...?" you say. "EEEWWWW!"
Well, as one Bangladeshi friend of mine once explained, "If it won't support life, why would you want to eat it?"
Yecchh! Personally, I'd prefer not to eat rice with critters in it, but if a few get through, they'll be killed and sterilized by the cooking, so maybe it's okay.
...just don't tell the family.
Rice-to-Water Ratios
ratio type
1:1.25 Japanese (Kome) rice
1:1.5 Basmati rice
1:2 Glutinous rice
1:2 Short grain rice
1:2.5 Brown rice
1:2.5 Wild rice