Science: The Secrets of Cooking Rice — The Cause of Recipe Failure is Not What You Might Think

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Despite what many cookbooks suggest, rice-to-water ratios can’t simply be scaled up proportionally.

Cook’s Illustrated member’s recipe for Rice and Pasta Pilaf:

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We have a rice pilaf recipe that works without fail when made using 1 1/2 cups of rice, but many readers have written us to ask why they end up with an inch of mushy rice on the bottom of the pot when they try to double it. The reason is that, despite what many cookbooks suggest, rice-to-water ratios can’t simply be scaled up proportionally. After running a series of tests, we confirmed that rice absorbs water in a 1:1 ratio, no matter the volume. So in our original rice pilaf recipe, which calls for 1 1/2 cups of rice and 2 1/4 cups of water, the rice absorbed 1 1/2 cups of water. The remaining 3/4 cup of water evaporated. But here’s the catch: The amount of water that evaporates doesn’t double when the amount of rice is doubled. In fact, we found that when cooking a double batch of rice using the same conditions—the same large pot and lid and on the same stove burner over low heat—as we’d used for a single batch, the same quantity of water evaporated: 3/4 cup. Hence, simply doubling the recipe—increasing the amount of rice to 3 cups and the water to 4 1/2 cups—leads to mushy rice because there is an excess of water in the pot. The bottom line: To double our rice pilaf recipe, use 3 cups of rice and only 3 3/4 cups of water.

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35 Comments

  9. The lady who taught me to cook rice showed me a trick where you add rice (any amount) and then place your thumb gently on top of the rice, then fill the water to your knuckle. It works perfectly. Also, buy a rice cooker. I cook all sorts of grains in mine, using the same method, and they all turn out great.

  15. I live at elevation 6000 feet, and the boiling point of water is 203, not 212. This has required me to experiment for extensively to get good rice. I gave up on conventional stove top cooking…hard center with mushy outside. I used a rice cooker with a 1:2.5 ratio with fairly good results. I finally settled on an electric pressure cooker. Wash the rice, and cook on the rice setting with the 1:1 ratio. At last, good rice! High altitude cooking is a complex challenge.

  19. Hmmm. I do 2:1 water to rice no mater what the type, but I always cook it in a rice cooker that must manage the evaporation and cooking time very well because it always seems to turn out great. Guess I should pay closer attention to the prescribed ratios anyway.

  21. Old rice and new rice is also makes difference old rice required more water than the new rice That is why we Indians prefer old rice for perfection Aaurved science also teaches us to make perfect rice Iliked your video and a fan of American test cooking shows

  28. For years I thought I was a failed cook because I couldn't get past the basics of making rice. This was a complicated demo but it explains it from the inside out. I plan on starting over with a pressure or rice cooker for uniform results & build my cooking skills from there. There's hope for me yet!

  30. All the Italians I know (including in northern Italy where rice production and eating rice is a big deal) cook rice like pasta. It goes into a big pot of boiling water and it’s timed. once it arrives the right degree of tenderness it goes through a strainer just like pasta. Always yummy.

  33. I came up with a good alternative to rice, because, let's face it, we only have potatoes and rice. So, let's try orzo pasta. I tried it and I liked it. I even tried cooking it like rice, which is ; 2 cups of water to 1 cup of orzo (to cook rice, it's 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice) and that worked great.

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