Medium- and Long-Grain Brown Rice

Most rice cookers are not really engineered with brown rice in mind, although some sophisticated models have a setting for it. Nevertheless, all rice cookers can and will do a wonderful job of cooking it, as long as you keep a few basic points in mind. (If your machine is one of the relatively few models with a Brown Rice cycle, then by all means use it according to the manufacturer's instructions.) Brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice because its protective outer bran layer is intact. It also requires more water. Your brown rice will taste better if you have time to let the rice soak for about an hour before cooking, but this is not necessary. (Some fuzzy logic rice cookers have a soaking cycle built in.) After much testing and deliberation, we came up with a rule of thumb for adapting the basic stovetop recipe for brown rice to the rice cooker. For white rices you adapt by using ¼ cup less water than the package says; for brown rices, start with ¼ cup more water. As with white rice, the long-grain brown cooks up fluffier, with the individual grains more separate, while the medium-grain is a bit stickier and moister. Wash the rice first, if you wish; washing will reduce stickiness by rinsing off some of the surface starch. If you have the time, do soak your brown rice for 30 minutes to an hour before you cook it. This allows the rice to cook more evenly and quickly. If you don't have time or you forget, don't worry. Just push the button and go. Your brown rice will still be fine.

BROWN RICE (MEDIUM-GRAIN OR LONG-GRAIN) Columns: Serves | Rice Cooker Cups | (Equivalent in U.S. Cups) | Water for Small (4-Cup) Rice Cooker | Water for Medium (6-Cup) Rice Cooker | Water for Large (10-Cup) Rice Cooker (all water in U.S. cups)

• Serves 2 | 1 rice cooker cup | ¾ | 1¾ | 1¾ | 2¼
• Serves 4 | 2 | 1½ | 2½ | 2½ | 3⅓
• Serves 6 | 3 | 2¼ | 3⅔ | 3⅔ | 4½
• Serves 8 | 4 | 3 | — | 4⅔ | 5⅓
• Serves 10 | 5 | 3¾ | — | — | 6½
• Serves 12 | 6 | 4½ | — | — | 7½

Use the proportions in the chart above as a guide; you may need to make adjustments for your rice cooker or for a particularly dry or moist bag of rice. Of course, personal taste varies, too. If you like softer rice, add more water; for firmer rice, use less. If the water boils over while you are cooking, try reducing the amount of water slightly (start with 2 tablespoons less water, and continue in 2-tablespoon increments). Note your adjustment on the chart to jog your memory the next time.

Perfect Brown Rice in the Rice Cooker: You will notice that the standard brown rice capacity of rice cookers is lower than their capacity for white rice. This is because brown rice must cook longer to become tender, and therefore you must start off with more water than for white rices. If you overload your rice cooker, you'll face a messy boilover. If your machine has a Brown Rice cycle, use it. But because most rice cookers do not have one, we put together our charts using the Regular cycle. During testing, we learned two surprising things about cooking brown rice. The first is that long- and medium-grain brown rice require the same amount of water. (On the stove, long-grain rice takes more water.) The second thing we discovered almost by accident: It is possible to exceed the brown rice capacities listed in the brown rice cooking chart. In fact, you can cook as much brown rice in your rice cooker as you can white rice; 4 cups in a 4-cup cooker, 6 cups in a 6-cup cooker, 10 cups in a 10-cup cooker. What about those messy boilovers we mentioned above? The trick we discovered is detailed in the chart on [>], Stretching the Brown Rice Capacity of Your Rice Cooker. When the rice has finished steaming, open the cover, fluff the rice, and re-cover the rice to keep it warm. Do not leave brown rice on the Keep Warm cycle for longer than 1 or 2 hours, as it has a tendency to begin fermenting.