«
»

Types of Rice Available

Throughout the world, there are over 40,000 different types of rice.  In America, Rice is divided into Long, Medium, and short grain.

When cooking, here is a chart of how to measure the amount of water used to cook them with.

  • White, long grain – 1 3/4 cups of water per 1 cup of rice
  • White, medium grain – 1 1/2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice
  • White, short grain – 1 1/2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice
  • Brown, long grain – 2 1/4 cups of water per 1 cup of rice
  • Parboiled – 2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice

Still, you can’t really go wrong if you just add two or 2.5 cups of water to each cup of rice; you don’t want your rice too dry.
For Indian style rice like Basmati or Jasmine, less water is needed as drier rice is desired.  Use no more than 1 1/2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice. Use only 1 to 1 if you washed the rice previously. It is ok to add bay leaves or cardamom pods directly to the rice cooker to enhance the flavour.

Long Grain Rice: These are long, lender kernels that are four to five times longer than its width.  When cooked, they separate well and are light and fluffy.

Medium Grain Rice: They are shorter with a wider kernel, two to three times longer than its width.  Cooked medium grain rice is more moist and tender and has the tendency to stick together more than long grain rice.

Short Grain Rice: This type of rice has a short, plump, and almost round kernel.  The cooked grains are soft and cling together.

Sweet or Waxy Rice: Sweet rice is short, plum and has a chalky white kernel.  It loses shape and becomes very sticky when cooked.

Aromatic Rice: The flavour and aroma of this rice is similar to a roasted nut or popcorn.  Aromatic rice has a higher concentration of characteristic aroma and flavour than other rice.

Related Blogs

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 27th, 2010 at 5:11 pm and is filed under Rice Cooker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply