Helllllp!Are you a good rice cooker? Options

[PunkinPie]

I have always thought that I am a terrible rice cooker and I need to cook a boatload of rice this Wednesday night at church (to go with a chicken dish I'm making). I found a recipe for how to cook rice for about 50 people but I am so petrified that I will totally mess it up and it will turn out dry as a bone or completely mushy! Any helpful tips will be appreciated!

Do people die of embarrassment? If so....that could be me Wednesday night!

[Calm&Quiet]

Well here's how I do it and it always turns out just right. I use 1 1/2 C. of water per every C. of rice. Cold water. Put rice and water in a pot and give it a quick but not too thorough stir with a fork. Sprinkle in salt and a dollop of oil. Sorry I don't have exact measurements. Turn heat onto high. As soon as it starts boiling, turn the heat down to low, put a lid on the pot and set the timer to 25 minutes. DO NOT open or lift or mess with that lid until the timer goes off. Once it does, take the lid off, take the pot off the heat and you're good to go!

[Dayle Lynn]

I was not a good rice cooker until we bought a rice cooker. My rice was either uncooked or overcooked.
As you can see I was a big help. LOL

Blessings......
Dayle

[Vivian Lee]

I'm with Dayle. I use Uncle Ben's boil in bags for plain, and when I make Spanish Rice, I toss in a jar of salsa, so it's always moist....tasty too!

[PunkinPie]

Thanks, y'all! I almost bought a $30 rice cooker at Costco to do the rice in - except it would've only made about 1/2 the rice that we needed so I would have had to buy 2 cookers that day and it was just too costly. And I didn't have the time to cook rice twice.

The Wed. night dinner was a success though - but man-o-man that RICE was certainly a challenge! I decided to bake it in the oven as I had seen that done once before and thought I'd take my chances with that method - so I put the rice (24 cups!!) and salt in a very large chafing pan and then I went to add in 48 cups of water.....and guess what - not enough pan for all that rice and water!! ACK! So then I had to try to dump that humongous pan of rice and water into a gigantic stewpot. WHOA!! I didn't spill too much so that was good - but it sure looked like something out of a 3 Stooges movie.... then I had no choice but to cook the rice on the top of the stove.....the top half of the rice turned out okay (but got rather sticky) and the bottom half developed the consistency of masonry cement. We scooped out the top half of the rice from the stewpot and put it in our chafing pan and served it up just like it was - and luckily the chicken dish I made to serve over the rice makes a yummy gravy so that took care of the weird sticky rice problem because it "gravied up" the sticky rice. Turned out okay. I served whole kernel corn and I also fixed fresh carrots (with brown sugar and butter), and I whipped up some garlicky-parm-cheese butter to put on the hot rolls - those were really good. Oh and I made a huge salad. I made oatmeal raisin cookies at about 5 AM that morning because I couldn't sleep for worrying about the meal and then in the church kitchen I made chocolate chip cookies (from the tub) and served iced-cold milk with the cookies - that went over like gangbusters!

Honestly, I think I have never received so many compliments on a meal in my whole life. It worked out that I had to do the whole dinner by myself that day so I didn't have kitchen help til it was time to serve at 6PM - so I worked from 9:30 am til about 9:00 pm - so boy that was a lonnnnnng and tiring day. But gee I love it when someone tells me how good something is that I cooked.

All this rambling.....over RICE! Hahahah!

[Dayle Lynn]

Thanks, y'all! I almost bought a $30 rice cooker at Costco to do the rice in - except it would've only made about 1/2 the rice that we needed so I would have had to buy 2 cookers that day and it was just too costly. And I didn't have the time to cook rice twice.

The Wed. night dinner was a success though - but man-o-man that RICE was certainly a challenge! I decided to bake it in the oven as I had seen that done once before and thought I'd take my chances with that method - so I put the rice (24 cups!!) and salt in a very large chafing pan and then I went to add in 48 cups of water.....and guess what - not enough pan for all that rice and water!! ACK! So then I had to try to dump that humongous pan of rice and water into a gigantic stewpot. WHOA!! I didn't spill too much so that was good - but it sure looked like something out of a 3 Stooges movie.... then I had no choice but to cook the rice on the top of the stove.....the top half of the rice turned out okay (but got rather sticky) and the bottom half developed the consistency of masonry cement. We scooped out the top half of the rice from the stewpot and put it in our chafing pan and served it up just like it was - and luckily the chicken dish I made to serve over the rice makes a yummy gravy so that took care of the weird sticky rice problem because it "gravied up" the sticky rice. Turned out okay. I served whole kernel corn and I also fixed fresh carrots (with brown sugar and butter), and I whipped up some garlicky-parm-cheese butter to put on the hot rolls - those were really good. Oh and I made a huge salad. I made oatmeal raisin cookies at about 5 AM that morning because I couldn't sleep for worrying about the meal and then in the church kitchen I made chocolate chip cookies (from the tub) and served iced-cold milk with the cookies - that went over like gangbusters!

Honestly, I think I have never received so many compliments on a meal in my whole life. It worked out that I had to do the whole dinner by myself that day so I didn't have kitchen help til it was time to serve at 6PM - so I worked from 9:30 am til about 9:00 pm - so boy that was a lonnnnnng and tiring day. But gee I love it when someone tells me how good something is that I cooked.

All this rambling.....over RICE! Hahahah!

I am glad your meal was a success.

Dayle

[PunkinPie]

Thank you, Dayle! Next Wed. night we're supposed to be doing an Irish dinner but I'm not in charge of that one - thank goodness! Hahah! I don't know how to cook anything Irish - I might be able to come up with a corned beef and cabbage but that's about it.

[Vivian Lee]

Sounds like the dinner was a huge success!!! Good for you.....sometimes we fret for no reason. People are just happy to eat....LOL I've had bad rice even in restaurants, so it's not the easiest dish toi prepare. I have never bought a steamer either, as I don't cook much rice tomake it worth while, and then there's the storage issue.....I have somany other appliances that I do use, I reserve space for them. Anywho.....glad it worked out! The church I went to years ago always had pot lucks at least once a month for our adult Sunday Scool class. There were about 30 of us. I was much younger, and was quite the baker, but not yet quite the seasoned cook, so I was always the one who brought desserts, because I wasn't confident with my cooking yet to feed that many people....especially people I had to see every Sunday.....LOL. My motto back then was "If it weren't for pot luck I'd have no luck at all....." (remember Hee-Haw...."gloom...despair....and agony on me....LOL) to cook for, the happier I am....and I still "squeeze" in dessert....LOL!

[GrandmaSoucie]

It's been a LONG time since I've checked the recipe forum, so I apologize, PunkinPie, because I have the PERFECT RICE recipe!!!

Here it is:

No matter how much rice you're cooking, rinse it first, (I just put it in the pot I'm going to cook it in and add water, then drain), then put it in a pot and cover with water up to your first knuckle on your index finger, no measuring necessary! Bring the water to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, cover and turn it to low for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes fluff with a fork and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving!!!

Trust me, it's perfect EVERY time!!!

In everything, give thanks,
GrandmaSoucie

[PunkinPie]

Thanks so much, GS! I'll give this one a try the next time I make rice!

[PattiAnn]

I agree with Grandma Soucie's method of cooking rice. It does turn out right every time. I used this method for years.

That being said I now use a Sanyo rice cooker and love it. I too thought I didn't need another appliance but when we had the kitchen remodeled (torn down to the studs) I needed some way of cooking rice. Now I wouldn't want to be without it. After cooking the rice it will also keep it warm for up to 6 hours. This works out well for those nights when everyone is eating at a different time. The one I have also cooks brown rice which I always found trickier to make right.

[HollyElise]

I now use a Sanyo rice cooker and love it.

me too!