Brown rice in the crockpot, anyone actually had luck with this?

[Thomas Martinez]

I saw this in a slow cooker thread so I figured I’d give this a go. 1 cup of rinsed brown rice to 2 cups of water (1:2 ratio) cooked on low for 5-6 hour. Thats it! No sautéing, no broth, no foil.
The method I’m curious about is whether this will work in a crockpot. Brown rice require a 1:2.25 or 1:2.5 ratio when cooked on the stove. This is because some of the water evaporate while cooking. A crockpot will retain more moisture so 1:2 ratio could work. However, 5-6 hours on low for rice seem long. Low on a crockpot is barely simmerming. I’m not sure whether this will work for crockpot specific conditions though. Does anyone has experience with this method? Would the rice probably be gummy on the bottom and crunchy on top like some of those older crockpot models? The size of the crockpot would definitely factor into this, right? 1 cup of rice in a 6 quart crockpot will not come close to the same as 1 cup of rice in an 1.5 quart crockpot. I’d be curious to know if people has attempted using 2 or 3 cups of rice in this model. Has this altered the amount of time needed to cook the rice?

 

[Funny Fowl]

I ran this exact same method in my 6qt crockpot last month and the rice worked but your correct about the spread of the rice in the crockpot. 1 cup of rice in a 6qt crockpot is definitely too thin. I had to use 2 cups of rice with 4 cups of water which gave me the same 5 hour low cooking time.

 

[Breakable Bison]

Brown rice in a crockpot is just a worse rice cooker tbh. Why bother.

 

[Attractive A]

does the rinsing of the brown rice actualy matter? With white rice I understand that the rinse remove some of the starch on the surface of the rice. However, since brown rice has the bran still intact, I would think that rinsing would remove little starch. Does anyone know of any experiments that compared the results of rinsing brown rice vs not rinsing in a slow cooker?

 

[Proud Pollan]

1:2 is wrong for brown rice in a crockpot. 1:2.25 is the minimum ratio and otherwise the bottom layer of rice will burn before the top layers cook. I’ve been cooking rice in crockpots for years and have found this to be true. Anyone that tells you that 1:2 ratio work for rice is either lying or has a crockpot that runs cold. Low on a crockpot is not that low. Mine reaches 200F in the first hour and maintains that temperature throughout. The ratio for brown rice is another factor. I cook short grain brown rice with a 1:2.5 ratio and it cooks for 4.5 hours for the best results. Basmati brown rice use 1:2.5 ratio but only for 4.5 hours max. Crockpot temperatures are not all alike.

 

[Breakable Bison]

Brown rice in a crockpot is just a worse rice cooker tbh. Why bother.

this. People act like the crockpot is some magic device when its literally a heated pot with a lid

 

[Attractive A]

1:2 is wrong for brown rice in a crockpot. 1:2.25 is the minimum ratio and otherwise the bottom layer of rice will burn before the top layers cook. I’ve been cooking rice in crockpots for years and have found this to be true. Anyone that tells you that 1:2 ratio work for rice is …

wait what counts as running cold vs hot vs warm in a crockpot? is there any way to actually test the temperature of the crockpot while in the kitchen to see how hot it get while in the “low” setting? I have an old hamilton beach crockpot and I have no idea what setting it is in.

 

[British Un]

wait what counts as running cold vs hot vs warm in a crockpot? is there any way to actually test the temperature of the crockpot while in the kitchen to see how hot it get while in the “low” setting? I have an old hamilton beach crockpot and I have no idea what setting it is in.

easy test. Fill the crockpot with water, put it on low for 2 hours and insert a thermometer into the water. If the crockpot is set to low it should be between 190-200F after 2 hours. If it’s under 180F then it’s running cold and you’ll have to add time to cook the rice or cook it on high for the first hour. I did this with my crockpot when I noticed my cooked rice was coming out underdone. Mine read 170F after 2 hours with the lid on so I called the manufacturer and replaced the thermostat. It wasnt that bad of a job honestly. The older crockpot models from the 70s and 80s ran much hotter when setting settings to low because of the lawsuits involving women who burned themselves on the crockpot handles when cooking. The newer models run much lower temperatures so it’s not a concern for most people but if you’re getting an older crockpot model from your grandmothers kitchen you may not have an issue at all.