One Knuckle Rice Rule | Hacker News Reader

One Knuckle Rice Rule

indiantinker.bearblog.dev

55 pointsindiantinker69 comments

How can this give consistent results? The ratio of water to rice will be different depending on the pot size and the quantity of rice. If it’s assuming “the right size of pot” you need to specify how deep the rice is as well.

2 cups water to 1 cup rice seems a lot easier and more flexible. To cook a bit more rice, use a bigger cup.

The answer is the subjective judgement of rice is very broad and most people cooking it are inconsistent anyway.

I think most people using this rule are using a standard rice cooker and they are all roughly the same size. The measurement is from where the rice is, not the bottom of the pot. In terms of the ratio, we use equal parts water and rice, plus one additional cup of water.

In terms of the ratio, we use equal parts water and rice, plus one additional cup of water.

If you're cooking about a cup of rice (which is a nice big amount with a standard measuring cup -- hard to imagine needing more unless you're cooking for 5+ people) that comes out the same as my 2:1 ratio.

Does that work if you're making a smaller amount, like a quarter or half cup of rice? Seems like it would be too much water.

A cup of rice in Japan, China is a standard size, and result in approximately one bowl of cooked rice. One or two cups per person would be normal.

https://greedy-panda.com/2020/06/the-rice-measuring-cup-expl...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ge_(unit)

The fixed ratio doesn't scale all that well, because some of the water is absorbed by the rice and some just evaporates. Even with a lid on water still evaporates. The evaporation portion depends on the type of pot, how long you cook and how much heat you put in.

So, if you only vary amount of rice, you really need some_factor * amount_of_rice + constant_amount and the knuckle rule has that characteristic.

Huh, OK!

I'm surprised that there would be significant evaporation loss in a pot with a close-fitting lid for 20 minutes on low heat. If you heated the water on its own I wouldn't expect a large amount to boil off... Although now I say that, I'm not so sure, maybe I should run that experiment.

I would have guessed the imprecision of 'knuckle depth' being uncalibrated with the volume of rice and the size of the pot would be greater than the imprecision of a pure volume ratio due to evaporation, but I can see that the knuckle depth thing might make sense if you're always cooking roughly the same amount of rice in roughly the same size of pot.

I've had good success cooking rice by the 2:1 ratio in both large and small amounts in various pots, so I'm still happy to vouch for that method.

Another aspect is that there is a large span in the amount of water you can let the rice absorb. A 1:1 ratio of water to rice (not accounting for evaporation) is all you need to cook rice no matter if it's short grain or long grain, but a lot of rice will also happily absorb more, like 2x its weight, if you give it enough water and time. It sounds like you are using long grain rice given the large cooking time and high water ratio.

i have cooked all different kinds of rice with this method, except for risotto rice all have measured up to this ratio

I have also had great success with this method ever since first being told about it. Didn't believe it could be that easy until I was shown for the first time, and sure'nuff it seems to work pretty nearly perfect every single time.

After thinking about this quite a bit, I've realized that the extra water is just to take care of evaporation, and most rice will cook at a 1:1 ratio with water. Basmati rice doesn't. But Indian people don't use basmati rice for daily cooking.

It depends on the rice. 2 cups of water is good for 1 cup of rice for 1 or 2 cups of rice. If you use 4 or more cups, you'll get something soggy. Probably the correct ratio is 1.5 when using 4 cups.

Yep, ratio of water to rice should be 2:1. Pretty simple.

That is a much higher ratio than I am used to - 1.2:1 for sushi rice, 1.25:1 for jasmine, 1.5:1 for basmati. What kind of rice are you cooking?

On the other hand, sometimes I get lazy and cook rice like pasta, which works fine. Arbitrary amount of salted water - 5:1 or whatever - then just boil it, 'til it feels like it has the right texture, and strain it.

Basmati. But my technique is probably heathen. I use 2:1 and then cook it uncovered in a microwave (1.5 cups of rice, 20 minutes). I love the resulting texture but it might not be for everyone. I like my rice drier and more “al dente”.

For many years I tried fiddling with the magic amount of water to rice. A few years back I said screw it.

I now cook my rice like one would cook pasta. I pour however much I want in a pot of salted, boiling water. When it's done I pour it into a colander, set it on top of the pot, melt in some butter and fluff it with a fork.

Nothing ever sticks to the bottom of the pan, it's pretty indistinguishable from rice cooked he "normal" way and it's way less hassle.

Additionally this is the best way to cook whole-grain rice. Unfortunately contaminants collect in the husk and cooking in large amounts of water dilutes it more.

It's also the best way to cook any rice to reduce the amount of arsenic in it.

That's interesting, I've never come across this fact in all my years of cooking. I'll have to check it out.

The college student version is to buy rice-in-a-bag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu2WeH0XCz4

The bag serves as an interesting timer, when it's completely bloated in boiling water, the rice should be done.

A $20 rice cooker will pay itself off in a few weeks, and can cook dorm room meals too.

I love my WFH rice cooker lunch. A couple of frozen dumplings and some vegetables in the basket, add soy sauce to serve and you've got yourself a hands-free lunch that will sit on keep-warm until you're ready to eat it.

This makes "OK" rice, and I always use this technique for long grain rice.

But for "better" kinds of rice, like basmati or jasmine, I always use the absorption method - the rice is so, so much better! The delicate flavours are better preserved and the grains are drier and more separated.

Also when you're cooking stuff with the rice, such as risotto or biryani, the absorption method is a must for me - a risotto or biryani cooked otherwise is honestly not worth eating; but with absorption, the result is absolutely heavenly!

I try to stick to the same brands of rice, as the amount of liquid, and cooking time, can vary from brand to brand.

Pro tip, you don't even need to let it boil before adding the pasta.

Yeah but then it sticks

The equation changes when you wish to optimise for removal of arsenic from the rice. Essentially to do that you want to pre-soak the rice and then boil it in excessive water, throwing it all away. It's tricky to get the rice cooked perfectly but it is possible.

Different areas of growing have different arsenic levels, but it's very tricky to work out whether a batch of rice is likely to be high arsenic or not (we do both - try to source from a low arsenic region and cook the arsenic out).

Not sure why this is downvoted. Rice bioaccumulates arsenic, and arsenic is a IARC Group 1 carcinogen with no known safe dose. Increased cancer risk has been observed even at very low doses:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3732405/

Arsenic is found in rice in potentially risky quantities, e.g.:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014765132...

It's possible to substantially reduce arsenic levels in rice using the correct cooking technique. This study found good results with a technique involving par-boiling in excess water, which is then discarded and the remainder of the cooking done using the standard absorption technique:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972...

I personally follow this technique. I find the flavor is not noticeably different compared to pure absorption technique, and the texture is actually superior.

I'm struggling with this right now and it's kinda driving me mad... My asian parents gave me a rice cooker and I'm starting to suspect there's some kind of magic involved. They use no measurement cups whatsoever, just follow this knuckle rule, which to me, as an engineer, makes no sense... Their rice cooker pot is a different size than mine, they cook different quantities than me and don't even bother to spread the rice on the pot so as to measure this precisely. Whenever I cook rice, I end up with a pool of water that bubbled out of the pot, rice stuck to the bottom and not fluffy at all.

I even started a "diary" of rice cooking with the measurements (coincidentally in Bear also), but all my entries so far are marked as "FAIL". My parents were here the other day and I asked them to cook rice and use my measurement cup to find out what that knuckle rule translates to. Apparently, it's 1 rice to 1.6 of water. Did that the next day, FAIL... I've tried to wash the rice, even change the plug I use, the area of the house... It's annoying to say the least.

I even tried their rice cooker for some days, same results. I guess there's some magic asian touch to it.

It's not a "ratio" as you have to account for evaporation, which is more or less constant across different amount of rice.

Rice cookers are super lenient with water quantities. Sometimes they "beep" for being done a little early, I've found that leaving the rice for like 10 minutes in the cooker after it's officially done to help a lot with consistency.

Also are you sure you aren't using parboiled rice, which needs slightly different measurements?

Yes, I'm using regular rice. My main issue is not even the end result (although the rice ends up pretty dry/sticky depending on the amount of water) but rather the fact that I end up with a puddle of starchy water on my kitchen top.

Put the rice cooker near your sink and aim the steam vent towards the sink.

Sounds like you might not be washing your rice, and/or cooking too much rice for your rice cooker.

Leaving the rice also to rest for a while after it was cooked will also help prevent the rice from sticking on the rice cooker. No need for high end rice cooker.

The missing part of course is cooking your rice for entire life.

Washing rice helps make it more sticky for sushi rice but would give different results depending on the method; how much you washed it and if you let it soak before cooking. Washing and soaking is NOT necessary if you just want quick, easy rice.

But for sushi rice, I rinse rice out in a large bowl at least 8-10 times until the water starts running clear, then let it sit in water for 15 minutes before draining, adding it to the pot, add the water to one knuckle. I don’t use a cooker, just a regular pot with nonstick spray.

So many people misusing the word Asian in this thread. It's a big place and it has a lot of different rice-eating cultures.

I cook 1 part rice with 2 parts water.

Bring to a boil, leave on lowest heat for 20 minutes.

I do this with my rice cooker Easy peasy no magic Asian touch required

My mother tried to teach me the knuckle method as a child and it just bothered me. I need that precise ratio.

I've been using this foolproof method to make medium or shortgrained white rice for years. Quantities for two people:

* One Nutella glass[1] worth of rice (don't overfill, the "peak" of the rice should be in line with the rim

* Wash the rice in the rice cooker bowl several times, drain by tipping the water out without letting the rice flow out. You'll be left with a small amount of water in the bowl

* One full Nutella glass worth of water.

Put the rice cooker on! You can also add salt/coconut milk/etc to taste without adjusting the above.

[1] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/74/ac/35/74ac3541abbba4f63b99... Eat the Nutella first if required!

Those little Nutella glasses are great, very handy in the kitchen.

No lip and non-airtight lid means they're excellent for keeping things like sourdough starter. The lid won't pop off, and it's easy to scoop the starter out cleanly.

It's funny that the larger glasses are comparatively useless (except for holding huge quantities of Nutella) with their massive shoulder and lip.

1 part rice to 1.05 - 1.2 parts water by weight. You are welcome.

Best way is to put the water and rice in a cup in a steaming vessel - pressure cooker with no pressure works really nice. If you use a pot - a dash or two more water for evaporation.

I don't understand this type of advice. Is it 1.05 or 1.2? How much more for evaporation? This isn't even close to fool proof.

The pot and lid influence the ratio:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DJFU7ezipbg

Depends on the rice and application if you use 1.05 or a bit more. Sushi rice - you want lower end. Basmati - depends on the texture desirable.

This is why I said the best way is to steam the water and rice cup - then you use precise ratio. If you use pot and lid - it is more of a trial and error to dial it in.

I recently experimented with frying the dry rice with lard, garlic and onion for a few minutes before boiling. The lard gives such a great taste. I'd usually use olive oil but currently it's 8x the price

If you are to cook with a rice cooker, take the starting ratio of rice to water 10:11 by volume, adjust base on other factors. The one knuckle rule works because in most families, the environment of cooking the rice, the tool, the people to serve, the type of rice, is more stable. The heuristics of one knuckle fail instantly if you want to cook for one person (too much water), or cook in open fire where water evaporates

What kinda rice cookers you guys got?

Mine has a toggle which has cook on one setting and warm on the other. It gets turned on at the powerpoint.

I was in a Japanese department store and saw some rice cookers which gave me the same feeling as when I saw their toilets - inadequacy!

I find extra long grain basmati rice doesnt do well in a rice cooker, much prefer the soak and huge pan of water method so I can get consistent results for inch long rice grains!

I measure for all other rices in my rice cooker depending on the rice

The traditional Indian style of cooking involves cooking till about 80% on heat with however much you want and then drain the water (like pasta). I remember reading somewhere[1] that it reduces the amount of the arsenic leftover in rice by draining the water.

[1] https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-find-new-way-of-cooking-...

Edit: added source

For basmati rice, the pasta method works the best:

- Soak the rice for 10-40 minutes (more tends to be better; skip for parboiled sella rice)

- In a pot, cover the rice in plenty of water (no need to measure with knuckles) and bring to a boil.

- After about 4 minutes (depends on brand; sella takes longer; should be al dente but not crispy when you bite into it), drain and put back in pot.

- Let rest on very low heat for five-ten minutes with a towel on top to absorb steam.

This gives perfectly fluffy basmati every time.

That's a pretty strange rule of thumb. Using twice as much water as rice (by volume) is much easier, not to mention infinitely more hygienic. Don't forget the salt.

Fighting words. I suspect a substantial fraction of the world cooks rice by this knuckle method.

As for unhygienic, you do wash your rice, right? Your hands should already be in there.

Edit: Jo Koy explains how to cook rice with this method https://youtu.be/wMNLicO2cHw?t=107

We never wash rice before cooking it in our household. It's never a problem.

You do you, but there can be arsenic in rice, which is proven to cause cancer, so in other areas of the world, washing the rice is important.

Unfortunately washing rice doesn’t remove the arsenic[0], cooking it with a lot of water like pasta does that. You might still want to wash the rice to remove other contaminants, depending on the rice you use.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3CHsbNkr3c&pp=ygUEUmljZQ%3D...

What is strange to you and me is common for hundreds of millions of people. It's strange to me that you're paranoid about touching rice which is going to be boiled for half an hour. You don't wash your hands before cooking? Not all rice needs salt either.

The rice eating Asians I know have rice cookers and use measuring cups; 1 scoop of rice and 2 of water. As well, leaving it in the cooker means only having to cook 1x per day, usually.

With a rice cooker, you're supposed to use the measuring cups for the rice, not the water. You add water based on the markings on the bowl.

IIRC, rice cookers essentially use the extra water to implement a timer. They have a thermostat that trips based on the temperature rise that happens when the free water is absorbed or boiled off, and the levels are setup so that happens when the rice is done cooking.

> With a rice cooker, [...] You add water based on the markings on the bowl.

I think you mean "some" there instead of generalising because my rice cooker (Reishunger Mini Digital) manual explicitly gives water ratios using the provided cup.

See, e.g., page 30 of https://cdn.reishunger.com/Mini%20DRK_Bedienungsanleitung_Bo... (and page 25 if you want to verify that they only supply one measuring cup for use with both rice and water.)

Boiling covers a multitude of hygienic sins, the worst of which happened to the rice long before it entered your kitchen. Birds, insects, and rodents have all pooped in and around it. Agriculture is filthy and there’s no way around it.

In the US, the primary reason raw cookie dough shouldn’t be eaten is not because of the raw eggs which these days are remarkably safe (but still not 100%), but more because of the latent ecoli/salmonella in the raw flour.

I read somewhere that the correct proportion is around 1.7 of water for 1 glass of rice. The rice is rinsed at least 5 times, to remove the starch.

Is this an issue when buying bulk rice in unlabelled bags? I don't eat a lot of rice, so when I do it's in small bags that have labels telling you exactly how much water to use?

Feature request - how to make sticky rice to go with Asian curries?

Sticky rice is tricky as if you need good texture, you must steam it. Here is a good guide : https://thewoksoflife.com/how-to-make-sticky-rice/

The key is the depth of rice should be the depth of water from the water surface to the surface of the rice.

> Basmati (Indian/Thai)

What? Sure most Thai rice is Jasmine rice. Quite different from Basmati.

Huh. I always assumed Jasmine rice was flavoured with Jasmine, didn't realise it was a different species.

Probably not a different species but definitely a very different variety.

Thanks for the correction. It has been reflected on the article. I meant, Basmati (Indian)/ Jasmine (Thai)

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