Rice Cooking Calculator
Calculate water needed, cook time, and cooked yield for white, brown, basmati, or jasmine rice.
White
Result
Water Needed
4.00 cups
Estimated Cook Time
18 min
Approx. Cooked Yield
6.0 cups
How to Use the Rice Cooking Calculator
Select your rice type and enter how much dry rice you want to cook (in cups). Different rice varieties absorb different amounts of water and take different amounts of time — brown rice, for instance, has a bran layer that slows water absorption, requiring both more water and a longer cook time than white rice.
Water Needed = Dry Rice (cups) × Water:Rice Ratio
Example
2 cups of white rice at a 2:1 water ratio needs 4 cups of water and cooks in about 18 minutes, yielding roughly 6 cups of cooked rice. The same 2 cups of brown rice needs 5 cups of water (2.5:1 ratio) and about 45 minutes to cook.
Common Use Cases
- Getting the right water-to-rice ratio when trying a new rice variety.
- Planning cook time so rice finishes at the same time as the rest of a meal.
- Estimating cooked rice yield to know how many servings a batch will make.
FAQs
- Are these water ratios and times exact for every stove or rice cooker? They're standard published starting points for stovetop cooking. Rice cookers, altitude, pot type, and even the age of the rice can shift the ideal ratio and time slightly, so adjust based on your own results over a few batches.
- Why does rice roughly triple in volume when cooked? Rice grains absorb water during cooking and swell significantly — white, basmati, and jasmine rice typically expand to about 3 times their dry volume, while brown rice expands somewhat less due to its intact bran layer.
- Should I rinse rice before cooking? Rinsing removes surface starch and is commonly recommended for basmati and jasmine rice to keep grains separate and fluffy; it's optional for white and brown rice, though rinsing generally doesn't hurt.