RECIPES / BASICS
Long Grain White Rice
One cup of rice, two cups of water, 18 minutes covered and 5 minutes resting. We mill this rice ourselves, so this is the method we test it against.
BY MERYL KENNEDY
CEO AND FOUNDER AT 4SISTERS / AUGUST 17, 2026
ON THIS PAGE
The Ratio
Ingredients
Before the Heat
Cooking
Serving
FAQ
PREP
2 min
COOK
23 min
SERVES
4
RICE
Long grain
The Ratio That Actually Works
Long grain white rice wants one cup of rice to two cups of water, 18 minutes covered on low, and 5 minutes off the heat before you touch it. Everything else people argue about is a rounding error next to those three numbers.
We are a rice milling family, so we cook a lot of test batches. Our father Elton started growing rice in northeast Louisiana in the 1960s, and today we grow, dry, mill, and package every grain we sell. When a variety comes off our line we cook it before it ships, and this is the method we hold it to.
What makes long grain behave the way it does is starch. Long grain varieties are higher in amylose, the starch that stays firm and keeps grains from clinging. Short and medium grain rice carries more amylopectin, which is why sushi rice sticks and risotto turns creamy. Neither is better. They are built for different jobs.
The single most common mistake is lifting the lid. Rice does not cook in water so much as it cooks in trapped steam, and every peek costs you heat and moisture you cannot put back.
• 1 cup 4Sisters Organic White Rice
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt, optional
• 1 tbsp butter or olive oil, optional
• Heavy saucepan with a tight-fitting lid
• A fork for fluffing
Before the Heat
1. Decide whether to rinse
For our Organic White and other plain milled white rice, a quick rinse in a sieve until the water runs mostly clear gives you slightly more separate grains. Thirty seconds is enough.
Do not rinse enriched or parboiled rice. The enrichment sits on the surface of the grain as a coating of thiamin, niacin, folic acid, and iron, and rinsing washes it straight down the drain. Our Parboiled White Rice falls in this group.
2. Measure properly
Use the same cup for the rice and the water so the ratio holds. Level the rice off rather than heaping it. If you are scaling up, keep the 1 to 2 ratio and add a minute or two of cook time for anything over three cups of dry rice.
Cooking
3. Bring it to a boil
Combine the rice, water, and salt in the saucepan and bring it to a full rolling boil uncovered over medium-high heat. Stir once, right here, and then not again.
4. Cover and drop the heat
Put the lid on, turn the heat to the lowest setting your burner will hold, and set a timer for 18 minutes. You want the barest simmer, not a rattling lid. If steam is escaping hard, the heat is too high and you will run out of water before the grains are done.
5. Rest, then fluff
Take the pan off the heat and leave the lid on for 5 more minutes. Then lift the lid, drop in the butter if you are using it, and fluff from the outside in with a fork.
Finished rice should stand in separate grains that fall apart when you lift a forkful. If the bottom is a little firm, you had the heat slightly too low, and another two covered minutes fixes it. If it is wet, leave the lid off for two minutes and the excess steams away.
TIP FROM THE FARM
Altitude changes the math. Above about 3,000 feet water boils cooler, so add 2 tablespoons of water per cup of rice and give it 3 to 5 extra minutes. We get calls about this from customers in Colorado every so often and it is almost always the answer.
How We Serve It
This is the base for most of what we cook. It goes under gravy, beside greens, into a bowl with whatever protein is on hand, and it is the starting point for fried rice the next day once it has dried out in the refrigerator.
Long grain white rice is also the most-grown class of rice in the United States, which is part of why it is the default in American kitchens.
Brown rice does not follow these numbers. The bran is still on the grain, so it needs closer to 2 cups of water per cup of rice and roughly 40 minutes.
Questions We Get
What is the water to rice ratio for long grain white rice?
Two cups of water to one cup of dry long grain white rice, cooked covered for 18 minutes and rested 5. That yields about 3 cups cooked, enough for 4 side portions. The ratio holds as you scale, so 2 cups of rice takes 4 cups of water. Rice cookers usually want slightly less water, so follow the lines inside the pot rather than this ratio.
Should I rinse long grain white rice?
Rinse plain milled white rice for 30 seconds if you want maximum grain separation. Do not rinse enriched or parboiled rice, because the added thiamin, niacin, folic acid, and iron sit on the outside of the grain and rinsing removes them. The bag will say enriched if it applies.
Why is my rice mushy on top and hard on the bottom?
The heat was too high, so the water boiled off at the bottom before the steam finished working through the top. Drop to the lowest setting once the lid goes on, and use a heavy pan rather than a thin one. Uneven pans are the other culprit, since hot spots cook the grains sitting directly above them faster than the rest.
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