Rice Water Ratio Calculator: Cups and Grams

Order No. 01Stovetop (lid on)

Jasmine rice

Thai fragrant, soft and a little sticky. 2 cups dry (370 g).

Water: 600 ml2½ cups · 600 g
Rice: 370 g2 cups (240 ml cup)
Ratio: 1 : 1¼rice : water by volume
Simmer: 15–18 minthen rest 10 min

Method

Rinse the rice in a bowl of cold water, swirling and pouring off the cloudy water two or three times, then drain well.
Put the rice and 600 ml of water (2½ cups) in a heavy pan with a tight lid. Bring to the boil uncovered.
Stir once, put the lid on, turn the heat to the lowest setting and simmer for 15–18 min. Don't lift the lid.
Take the pan off the heat and leave it covered for 10 min, then fluff with a fork.

Cooked yield about 6 cups (roughly 950 g)

Check the packet. This is a starting point for rinsed rice in a lidded pan; the pack's own directions and your pan come first. Jasmine is naturally a little sticky; a gentle fluff with a fork after the rest separates the grains.

Cooked rice: keep it safe

Uncooked rice can carry spores of Bacillus cereus, a bacterium whose spores survive cooking. The longer cooked rice sits at room temperature, the more likely the bacteria or their toxins make it unsafe to eat.
Serve rice soon after cooking. For leftovers, cool them as quickly as possible, ideally within one hour (spread the rice out on a wide tray), then put them in the fridge.
Keep cooked rice in the fridge for no more than one day, whether you reheat it or eat it cold.
Reheat rice only once, until it is steaming hot all the way through.

From the UK Food Standards Agency's Home food fact checker, where the NHS's rice advice now points.

How to use it

Pick your rice, how you will cook it and how much dry rice you have, in US cups, rice-cooker cups or grams. The ticket shows the water to add, the simmer and rest times, the ratio and roughly how much cooked rice you will end up with.

Our starting points assume you rinse the rice and use a pan with a tight lid. Rinsing washes off loose surface starch, so the grains need a little less water. That is why several of our numbers are lower than the USA Rice chart in the table below, which is written for American rice that is not rinsed.

Rice-cooker cups hold 180 ml, not 240 ml. If the bowl has water lines, they are made for that cup and beat any calculator. Boil and drain cooks rice like pasta in plenty of water: forgiving, especially for brown rice, but no good for sticky rice.

Starting points by rice

Starting points per cup of rice (rice : water by volume). Check the packet first.
Rice	Our start (rinsed)	USA Rice chart (unrinsed)	Simmer	Rest	Boil and drain	1 cup dry
Jasmine	1 : 1¼	1 : 2	15–18 min	10 min	10–12 min	185 g
Basmati	1 : 1½	1 : 2	15–18 min	10 min	10–12 min	185 g
Long-grain white	1 : 1¾	1 : 2	15–18 min	5–10 min	12–14 min	185 g
Medium or short grain	1 : 1¼	1 : 1½	15–18 min	10 min	not advised	195 g
Sushi rice	1 : 1.1	1 : 1¼	15–18 min	10–15 min	not advised	200 g
Brown rice	1 : 2¼	1 : 2¼	40–45 min	10 min	25–30 min	185 g

Cooked yield: USA Rice's rule of thumb is about three cups of cooked rice from each cup of dry rice. The gram figures use USDA FoodData Central cup weights for dry and cooked rice.

Sources

Food Standards Agency, Home food fact checker (rice): Bacillus cereus spores, cooling ideally within one hour, no more than one day in the fridge, reheating once until steaming hot.
USA Rice, How to Cook Rice: the rice cooking chart for unrinsed U.S. rice (liquid per part rice and simmer times), the yield of about 3 cups cooked per cup of dry rice, and the note that rinsing or cooking in excess water washes away some enrichment.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central (SR Legacy) cup weights: Rice, white, long-grain, regular, raw, enriched (FDC 168877), 1 cup = 185 g; cooked (FDC 168878), 1 cup = 158 g. Rice, white, medium-grain, raw, enriched (FDC 168879), 1 cup = 195 g; cooked (FDC 168880), 1 cup = 186 g. Rice, white, short-grain, raw (FDC 168931), 1 cup = 200 g; cooked (FDC 168882), 1 cup = 186 g. Rice, brown, long-grain, raw (FDC 169703), 1 cup = 185 g; cooked (FDC 169704), 1 cup = 202 g. Jasmine and basmati use the long-grain weights.

Questions

Why is my rice mushy, or crunchy?

Mushy rice had too much water or was stirred while it cooked. Crunchy rice had too little water, or lost its steam when the lid came off. Next time, change the water by a tablespoon or two per cup of rice, and keep the lid on through the rest.

Do I need to rinse rice?

Our ratios assume you do: rinsed jasmine, basmati and sushi rice cook up less gluey. USA Rice says American-grown rice does not need rinsing. If you skip it, use a little more water, closer to the packet.

How much cooked rice will I get?

About three times the volume of dry rice: USA Rice's rule of thumb is 3 cups cooked from each cup of dry rice. By weight it is a bit more than double, because a cup of cooked rice weighs less than a cup of dry grains.

Can I use leftover rice for fried rice?

Yes, and it fries up less sticky than fresh rice. Cool it quickly, ideally within an hour, keep it in the fridge for no more than a day, and fry it until it is steaming hot all the way through. Reheat it only that once.