Rice to Water Calculator
The ratio changes with the variety, and that is the whole problem. Pick the rice, enter how much you are cooking, and the water comes out.
How the math works
Water = cups of rice x the ratio for that variety, which runs from 1.25 for short grain to 3 for wild rice. A pressure cooker uses about 20 percent less water since no steam escapes, and a rice cooker about 5 percent less. Rice roughly triples in volume when cooked.
Common questions
- What is the ratio of rice to water?
- It depends on the rice. Long grain white takes 2 cups of water per cup of rice, jasmine and basmati 1.5, brown 2.25, and wild rice 3. The single ratio people remember is right for only one of them.
- Should I rinse rice before cooking?
- For jasmine, basmati and short grain, yes, until the water runs mostly clear. It removes surface starch and stops the grains gluing together. For risotto, never: that starch is the sauce.
- Why is my rice mushy or still hard?
- Mushy usually means too much water or lifting the lid during cooking. Hard means the heat was too high, so the water boiled off before the grains absorbed it. Both are fixed by a tight lid, a low simmer and a 10 minute rest off the heat.