from Hacker News

One Knuckle Rice Rule

by indiantinker on 4/15/24, 7:42 AM with 69 comments

• by iainmerrick on 4/16/24, 6:36 AM

  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.

• by sudoaptinstall on 4/16/24, 5:49 AM

  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.

• by hgomersall on 4/16/24, 6:24 AM

  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).

• by happyglands on 4/16/24, 7:21 AM

  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.

• by walthamstow on 4/16/24, 8:13 AM

  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.

• by sshine on 4/16/24, 6:06 AM

  I cook 1 part rice with 2 parts water.

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

• by sparsely on 4/16/24, 7:50 AM

  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!

• by ReptileMan on 4/16/24, 11:05 AM

  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.

• by switch007 on 4/16/24, 8:52 AM

  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

• by a_c on 4/16/24, 9:17 AM

  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

• by pureheartlover on 4/16/24, 10:59 PM

  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!

• by xs83 on 4/17/24, 2:59 AM

  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

• by tshanmu on 4/16/24, 7:51 AM

  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

• by atombender on 4/16/24, 11:12 PM

  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.

• by t-3 on 4/15/24, 8:32 AM

  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.

• by jcmeyrignac on 4/16/24, 9:51 AM

  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.

• by ryanjshaw on 4/16/24, 6:00 AM

  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?

• by anujdeshpande on 4/16/24, 8:05 AM

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

• by iamthejuan on 4/16/24, 5:08 PM

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

• by kwhitefoot on 4/16/24, 7:20 AM

  > Basmati (Indian/Thai)

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