Do Rice Cookers Use Less Water? (Why And For Which Rice?)

There are a few things that everyone needs to know before using a rice cooker. One of those things is the quantity of water that rice cookers need. Almost everyone thinks that rice cookers don’t need a lot of water. So, is it true? Do rice cookers use less water?

Yes, rice cookers usually use less water compared to the other kinds of cookers. They don’t need much water because they can limit the amount of water vapor that escapes during the cooking process. However, the amount of water that a rice cooker needs depends on the type of rice you want to cook.

Kindly read on to see the exact quantity of water you need to prepare various types of rice and also to know what will happen if you use the wrong amount of water.

Table Of Contents

How Much Water Do Rice Cookers Use?
What Happens If You Don’t Put Enough Water In The Rice Cooker?
Does Short-Grain Rice Need More Water?
Does Jasmine Rice Need More Water?
Does Wild Rice Need More Water?
What Happens If You Put Too Much Water In The Rice Cooker?
How Do Rice Cookers know When The Rice Dries Out?
How Much Water Do I Need To Cook Parboiled Rice In A Rice Cooker?
Will A Rice Cooker Boil Over If You Add Too Much Water to It?
Why Should You Buy A Rice Cooker When You Have A Stove?

How Much Water Do Rice Cookers Use?

The type of rice you are cooking will determine the quantity of water you need to add to the rice cooker.

Generally, 1 cup of water is enough to cook a cup of rice in a rice cooker.

However, some types of rice, like brown rice, require as much as 214 cups of water to cook a cup of rice.

What Happens If You Don’t Put Enough Water In The Rice Cooker?

If you don’t put enough water in the rice cooker, the rice you are cooking will be undone.

Rice cookers use water to boil and steam the rice you are cooking.

So, if the water in the rice cooker isn’t enough to complete the boiling and steaming process, the rice cooker will shut off before the rice gets done.

Does Short-Grain Rice Need More Water?

Short-grain rice doesn’t require much water when you are cooking it.

The short-grain rice requires less water compared to some other types of rice.

One cup of water is enough to cook one cup of short-grain rice.

Does Jasmine Rice Need More Water?

Jasmine rice is soft, so it doesn’t require much water to cook.

You can cook jasmine rice with the same quantity of water that short-grain rice needs.

Just a cup of water is enough to cook a cup of jasmine rice.

Does Wild Rice Need More Water?

The seeds of wild rice are tougher than all the types of rice that you can think of.

Wild rice needs to absorb a lot of water before it becomes soft.

If you want to cook wild rice using a rice cooker, you need to add 212 cups of water for every cup of rice.

Related Further Reading:

What Happens If You Put Too Much Water In The Rice Cooker?

A rice cooker won’t shut off until all the water inside it dries completely.

So, if you add too much water to the rice cooker, it will keep cooking the rice inside it even after the food is done.

The rice might end up appearing like a porridge.

You can prevent this from happening by learning the right water-to-rice ratio for the various types of rice.

How Do Rice Cookers know When The Rice Dries Out?

Rice cookers rely on temperature to know when the water inside it evaporates completely.

One of the properties of water is that it maintains a temperature of 212°F (100°C) when enough heat is supplied to it.

As soon as the water evaporates from the rice cooker, the temperature inside the cooker will rise above 212°F.

When this happens, the rice cooker will detect that there is no water left.

Then, the rice cooker will automatically shut off.

How Much Water Do I Need To Cook Parboiled Rice In A Rice Cooker?

Surprisingly, parboiled rice requires more water than jasmine rice and small-grain rice.

If you want to cook parboiled rice in a rice cooker, you need to add 2 cups of water for every cup of rice.

Related Further Reading:

Will A Rice Cooker Boil Over If You Add Too Much Water to It?

Adding too much water to a rice cooker can make the cooker boil over.

However, you should note that the quantity of water in the cooker isn’t the major factor that causes a cooker to boil over.

Instead, the type of rice in the rice cooker is the major factor that can cause a cooker to boil over.

If you suspect that the type of rice you want to cook has too much starch, you can rinse the rice before cooking it.

Rinsing will help you to remove the excess starch and hence prevent the rice cooker from boiling over.

Why Should You Buy A Rice Cooker When You Have A Stove?

There are several reasons why many people prefer using rice cookers instead of a stove.

Given below are some of these reasons.

1. You don’t need much effort to use a rice cooker.

Rice cookers are designed to work without needing much attention.

As long as you add the right quantity of water for the rice you are cooking, your food will get done perfectly even if you don’t monitor it.

The ability of rice cookers to shut off automatically is a major advantage that they have over stoves.

2. You don’t need much water to use a rice cooker.

Rice cookers can reduce the quantity of water that you use in your home to some extent.

Rice cookers reduce the quantity of water needed for cooking by limiting the way steams escape while cooking.

3. Rice cookers prepare food faster.

If you don’t have much time to spend in the kitchen, you should use a rice cooker for your rice instead of a stove.

Rice cookers save time by utilizing the heat they generate to cook food judiciously.

It takes an average of 15 minutes to cook most types of rice with a rice cooker.

Interesting Further Reading:

4. Rice cookers cook food uniformly.

Stoves sometimes make some parts of food softer than other parts because they rely only on boiling to cook food.

However, a rice cooker uses both steaming and boiling method to cook food, making it possible to prepare food with a uniform degree of softness.