today I want to talk about fear no not
the 1996 psychological drama starring
Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon set
to the musical stylings of not one but
two Bush songs no today I want to talk
about two things that strike fear into
the hearts of many math in cooking rice
we beginning with math in the kitchen a
ratio implies something universal and
scalable for instance you can make a
nice vinaigrette with three parts oil to
one part vinegar that means that a
vinaigrette made with three tablespoons
of oil and one tablespoon of vinegar
will taste the same as a triple batch
made with nine tablespoons of oil and
three tablespoons of vinegar that's a
good ratio rice ratios they're not good
ratios I'll explain it let's say my
normal rice ratio is one cup of rice and
one 1/2 cups of water now when I make a
batch of rice like that it comes out
perfectly but now I've got friends
coming over and I need a triple batch so
my ratio is one to one and a half I
tripled both sides of the ratio and I
get three cups of rice and four and a
half cups of water and here's what I get
here's my original recipe perfect intact
grains everyone is tender there's not a
mushy one in sight and here is my triple
batch
it's pasty and porridge like all the
rice is overcooked
what gives I went to culinary school I
learned these ratios from a book and
I've cooked professionally for years
what am I doing wrong well the truth is
I've been lied to about rice ratios we
all have but I'm here to tell you it's
not your fault that you're not good at
making rice in my research I talked to
rice producers and I learned that in the
industry it's understood that rice
absorbs water in a one-to-one ratio that
means that regardless of the type of
rice one cup of water is enough to fully
hydrate one cup so what's the point of
that excess water in every rice ratio
well it's there so that it can go away
water in excess of the one to one ratio
is included for evaporation during
cooking to put this theory to the test I
got my hands on 17 different kinds of
rice short grain medium grain long grain
white rice brown rice red rice black
rice arborio rice jasmine basmati you
name it after rinsing all of the Rice's
to remove excess surface starch I
combined
one cup of each with one cup of water in
a vacuum bag I sealed the bags so no
water would be getting in and no water
would be getting out I then drop the
bags into a 200 degree water bath and
cooked until the grains were tender I
then emptied each bag into a bowl and
noted first whether there was any water
left in the bag and second whether any
of the grains of rice Behrman bushi are
still hard I was pretty blown away when
I found that every single grain of rice
and every single batch was perfectly
cooked
okay so if we know that in the absence
of evaporation a one-to-one ratio works
for all types of rice can we explain why
doubling a traditional rice ratio and so
badly yes we can with a little bit more
math let's look at our previous ratio
for rice so we have one cup of rice and
one and a half cups of water that means
we have one cup of water to cook the
rice and half a cup for evaporation if
we make a triple batch the ratio tells
us it's three cups of rice and four and
a half cups of water so three cups of
that water is for cooking the rice and
one-and-a-half cups is left over for
evaporation but here's the thing that's
a hundred and fifty percent more water
for evaporation and that is not how
evaporation works over a similar cook
time the one cup batch and the three cup
batch will evaporate basically the same
amount of water so we don't need four
and a half cups of water we need three
and a half three to cook the rice and a
half a cup for evaporation so our new
ratio three cups of rice to three and a
half cups of water now understandably
not a lot of people love to do math at
dinner time so most folks reach for an
electric rice cooker one of the reasons
that rice cookers work so well is their
designers know exactly how much water
they're going to evaporate based on the
size of the vents and the cooking
program so if you follow the
measurements on the cooking insert I'm
good to go
rice cookers also have an advantage
because they know exactly when to stop
cooking in most rice cooker models
there's a thermometer at the bottom of
the cooking insert and as long as the
temperature does not go over 212 degrees
which is the boiling point of water the
rice cooker keeps cooking once the
temperature notches above 212 degrees
the rice cooker knows that all the water
has either been absorbed or evaporated
and so it switches over to a keep warm
setting it's an elegant bit of design
and it's something that we can actually
steal and use for our own rice cooking
purposes I'll show you that in a minute
but there's another way around the math
and it is called the first knuckle trick
so here's how it works you pour your
rinse rice into the pot
then you add water until it comes up to
the first knuckle on your index finger
and you cook your rice and it comes out
perfectly
that might sound crazy but it actually
works for a lot of people so let's take
a look at how that's possible so let's
say we put 1 cup of rinsed rice in a
small pot then we add 1 cup of water
that Nets us our one-to-one ratio so we
know we need 1/2 cup of water for
evaporation but instead of measuring
that out and adding it I'm going to use
my knuckle tests so I'm going to add
water until it hits that first knuckle
on my index finger now if I strain this
off and we measure the water it actually
comes out to about one and a half cups
pretty cool right but it's not
infallible so obviously people have
different sized fingers and that could
affect things a bit but the bigger issue
is if you change pot size dramatically
so let's do this experiment again using
a Dutch oven which is arguably a little
bit silly I add my rice I had a cup of
water and then I add water until it hits
that first knuckle and I end up with
four cups of water which we know is way
too much the first knuckle trick works
great for cooks that establish a ratio
that works for them in a pot that works
for them and then they repeat that over
and over okay I think it's time to head
into the kitchen and put this all
together for most folks a good rice
ratio is one cup of rice either one and
a quarter or one and a half cups of
water so pick a pot that will be your
rice pot if you wanted to have a nice
tight fitting lid then make a batch of
rice with each ratio and pick your
favorite now you have two ways to put
this information to use when you want to
make a double triple or quadruple batch
of rice one add your rice to the pot
with one cup of water for every cup of
rice then add your half a cup of
evaporation water or a quarter cup if
that was your preferred ratio but if you
don't want to do any measuring at all
you can establish your own first knuckle
trick start with your winning ratio I've
got one cup of rice and one and a
quarter cups of water in this pot and it
comes up to here on my knuckle that's
why I've got this in mind permanently
tattooed on my left index finger I'm
kidding but don't think I haven't
considered it once you have your own
first knuckle trick established you can
simply pour rice into the pot and then
water until it comes up to the level of
the rice then gently shake the pot to
level out the rice and add water until
it hits that line no measuring required
no matter how many people you are
serving oh and remember when I said that
we could steal from rice cooker'
technology well this
what I'm talking about after you bring
your rice and water to a boil and lower
the heat between gentle simmer cover
tightly with foil you can even add
binder clips like this to seal it in
place then at a probe thermometer you
want it to go down into the pot until it
touches the bottom then pull it up ever
so slightly so it's not touching the
bottom set the alarm for 214 degrees
when the alarm sounds your rice is done
no guessing or timing required then you
simply remove the binder clips and the
foil place a folded dish towel over the
top to catch any steam that would
otherwise condense and drip back down
onto the rice put the lid on let it sit
for about 10 to 15 minutes to firm up
slightly and then we just scoop our
perfect every time rice into a small
bowl I like to shake on a little for
Akaka which is a Japanese rice seasoning
mix and this is how to eat rice do you
love rice as much as me are you
contemplating.