White rice. It should be dead easy, right? It is, actually. You can cook white rice over a stove with a pot, some water and patience. I switched over to using a rice cooker, but you have options. If you want good white rice right now, you can do it. It’s super simple.
First, here’s how to make perfect white rice if you’re going the old fashioned way.
Keep your rice and water at a 1:1.5 ratio. We’ll use 1 cup of rice as an example, but you can scale this however you need it.
- Measure 1 cup of rice. Rinse and strain in cold water if you don’t want it sticky. Dump rice in a pot with lid.
- Measure 1 1/2 cups of water, and stir into pot with rice. Cover. Do not remove the lid.
- Bring the rice to a rapid boil over high heat.
- Once boiling, immediately reduce heat to low and keep lid in place.
- Let simmer for 8 minutes.
- Remove lid, fluff with a fork and you’re good to go.
It’s cheap, it’s easy and rice is good.
It got me through college, quite frankly, and I cook with it regularly in my own home. As easy as it is on the stove, I switched over to a rice cooker for two reasons. First of all, the cookers keep rice perfectly warm for hours and hours. Second, it doesn’t occupy one of my stove’s burners when I’m cooking a large meal.
We cover all sorts of tech that’s meant to entertain and make your life easier. Why not the cooking stuff? I’ll go even further, why not a gadget that makes perfect rice every single time? We’ll start cheap and end expensive, but each of these cookers will do the trick.
Aroma 8-Cup Digital Rice Cooker – $29.90
This is the rice cooker I own and use. At less than $30, it’s a steal. It steams food, too, and I’ve made pork buns in this thing.
Measure rice with the included cup, add water to the appropriate line. From there, push a button. Either white or brown rice. The machine weighs its contents and cooks the rice precisely. When it’s done, it switches over to keeping the rice warm. It’s fantastic.
Tiger 5.5-Cup Rice Cooker – $69.95
Once you start really shopping for decent rice cookers, you’ll notice that folks generally regard two brands as the top options. One of those brands is Tiger, and this particular model sells for $70. That’s a solid price for the brand, quite frankly.
If you don’t eat a lot of rice, you probably won’t notice the benefits that come from this model. The Tiger will keep rice tasting perfect even through a lengthy warm mode. That’s where the Aroma starts to let up. The rice taste dips over time. With this one, you can keep your rice warm without losing flavor.
It all depends on your needs, but this is a beautiful mid-tier cooker.
Zojirushi 5.5 Cup Rice Cooker – $140
Pricey? Yes. They get more expensive than this, too. But, you get what you pay for, and Zojirushi is often regarded as the best brand when it comes to rice cookers.
This thing makes perfect rice, but it does a lot more. You can make cake, bread, sushi rice and even porridge in your Zojirushi. Properly, too. It also cleans a bit easier than others, especially when you’re dealing with rice that is coated in a lot of starch.
It’s pricey, but the Zojirushi is solid for the low side of expensive machines. It’s the one I have targeted next for my kitchen.
Rice cookers are a brilliantly simple way to make perfect rice. They’re a staple in countries like Japan and South Korea. You can live without one, of course, but having one is awesome.
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