Brown rice troubles

[ncage1974]

Ive never had luck trying to cook brown rice. My white rice comes out perfect. Ive tried different ways to make brown rice and its never right. When i cook it in my high end Sanyo Rice cooker its crunchy. Tonight i made rice and it was a soupy mess. This is how i made the rice.
2 cups of brown rice
1 can chicken stock
1 can beef stock
4 tablespoons orange juice concentrate

I let the rice soak in the stock for 4 hours. I turned the pan onto medium and then waited for it to boil. I then put the lid, turned the burner to low, and waited 45-50 minutes. When i lifted the rice was a soupy mess. What in the world am i doing wrong? Per directions on the rice you should put 2.5 cups per 1 cup of rice. I used 4 cups of liquid for 2 cups of brown rice + 4 tablespoons of orange juice concentrate (which should have not added up to that much liquid). What could i be doing wrong? Is brown rice that hard to cook?

thanks,
Ncage

 

[bullseye]

For plain brown rice I just put 2 cups liquid in a heavy sauce pan, bring to a boil, add one cup brown rice, turn burner to low, cover, wait 45 minutes, turn off heat without removing the lid, and wait another 5 minutes. Works for me every time. For two cups of rice I use 3-1/2 cups liquid.

 

[ncage1974]

For plain brown rice I just put 2 cups liquid in a heavy sauce pan, bring to a boil, add one cup brown rice, turn burner to low, cover, wait 45 minutes, turn off heat without removing the lid, and wait another 5 minutes. Works for me every time. For two cups of rice I use 3-1/2 cups liquid.

Do you know what i did wrong? DO you know why it came out as a soupy mess?

 

[ncage1974]

For plain brown rice I just put 2 cups liquid in a heavy sauce pan, bring to a boil, add one cup brown rice, turn burner to low, cover, wait 45 minutes, turn off heat without removing the lid, and wait another 5 minutes. Works for me every time. For two cups of rice I use 3-1/2 cups liquid.

Why do you use less liquid per cup when you up the amount?

 

[Uncle Bob]

I

I let the rice soak in the stock for 4 hours

My best idea would be this...The rice had absorbed a lot of liquid. When you added the normal amount of liquid to cook, it was simply too much. It over cooked.

 

[jpmcgrew]

Ive never heard of rice soaking before cooking I would use the amount of liquid the rice package says and cook as rice cooker says if you want the orange flavor just add orange zest into rice after its done

 

[Michael in FtW]

I really wish I could find the rice website a found 3-4 years ago ...

For some reason - as the volume of rice goes up - the ration of water to rice comes down. It's more of a logarithmic ratio than a linear ratio ... the site had a great table that covered from 1 cup to 5 pounds!

Now, as for brown rice in your "high end Sanyo" cooker not being to your liking ... you might try adding a little more water. Nope - I don't know how much ... I don't know how much you are using now - or how long the cooking cycle is.

As for your current disaster - Uncle Bob was right on the money when he said it was overcooked - and I'm thinking too much liquid, too. When you soak rice - you decrease the cooking time, for example - if you soak long-grain white rice for an hour the cooking time is reduced from 20-25 minutes to 6-8 minutes. If you soaked your rice for 4 hours and then cooked it for the normal amount of time that you would use for rice that was not pre-soaked ... the rice had already absorbed all the liquid it could hold and then with prolonged cooking it simply turned to mush.

 

[ncage1974]

I don't remember where i heard it from but ive always heard you should soak brown rice. I don't know. Anyways i'm bound determined to make brown rice. My white rice is perfect. jpm: about directions on packages. They are not always perfect. Every white rice recipe in the world tells you to use a 2 to 1 ratio. The white rice cooked this way is always to wet in my opinion. I always use 1.5 to 1 ratio with white rice. Anyways the directions on my brown rice package told me i could use +/- 1/4 cup for wetter or dryer rice. I decided to use 1/4 cup less. So right now im trying to 1 to 2-1/4. I went exactly by the directions in that you put the water in the pan and wait for it to come to boil. Then you stir in the brown rice and cover. You then let it simmer for 45 minutes. Right now its simmering so i will let you all know how it comes out.

ncage

 

[ncage1974]

Well after 48 minutes i turned the heat off and even let it set for 10 minutes. The result. The rice was still a little undone and upon inspection there was some fluid left at the bottom of the pan. Maybe i need to use my white rice ratio of 1.5 to 1

 

[bullseye]

Well after 48 minutes i turned the heat off and even let it set for 10 minutes. The result. The rice was still a little undone and upon inspection there was some fluid left at the bottom of the pan. Maybe i need to use my white rice ratio of 1.5 to 1

If the rice was still a little underdone, I would give it more time rather than less liquid. Your stove's low may be lower than mine is, so a tiny increase in temp might work, too.

 

[ncage1974]

thanks everyone

I finally hit gold tonight. I was about to give up and just go with instant brown rice. I actually bought some at walmart just in case everything went bad. I was quite discouraged after last night. So i was fixing Key West Marinated chicken with mango salsa and i was going to give it one more go. This time i used 2 Cups Beef broth plus a little seasonings (oregeno & garlic). I brought it to a boil and threw 1 cup of rice in. I convered and tried to raise the temperature slightly. I then set the time for 55 minutes...yes 55 minutes. When 55 minutes came around i could still see a little bit of steam coming out of the lid (its tight fitting but still a little bit of steam can escape). Steam = some water still left. So i turned it to medium low for about 3 minutes. I then turned off the heat and let it sit for 5-10 minutes and it turned out perfectly . I can say this DANG brown rice is hard to get right but once you got it you got it .

Ncage

 

[ncage1974]

On a side note i sure hope you could find that chart micheal cause i don't want to screw up my rice when i go to larger amounts .

 

[Marin123]

My tried and true way for brown rice is use a pan, bring your liquid to a boil, then put your rice in. Put a little oil or butter in with it to keep it from boiling over. Cover and simmer 45 minutes. Don't ever lift the lid, it makes the rice sticky and you lose heat. I don't soak mine first.
My guess as to what went wrong is that the liquid was not at a full boil and then it did not cook long enough. otherwise your rice would have been cooked in the "soup".

Also, just trying to be helpful, I only saw 2 cups and 4 T of liquid listed, to 2 cups of rice. Just double checking that your ratio was right?