Don't Serve Rice Right After Cooking — Here's Why

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Making good rice has long been seen as one of the trickiest bits of basic cooking out there, because even small missteps end with big problems. Compared to boiling pasta or roasting potatoes, cooking rice requires precision in both measurements and execution. Cooked too long? Gummy. Used too little water? You'll find crunchy undercooked rice. In fact, when we spoke to cookbook writer Mariam Daud, the author of "I Sleep In My Kitchen," she told us one of the biggest mistakes you can make with rice actually happens after the cooking is done. According to Daud, you need to let your rice rest for long enough before ever touching it.

"Even just a few minutes makes a difference," Daud explains. "Resting lets the excess steam escape and gives the starches time to settle, so the rice ends up fluffy instead of wet or clumpy." Daud adds that the go-to time is 10 minutes for a standard amount of rice, but larger batches can require a longer rest. "If I'm making a bigger batch for a dinner party," she says. "I usually give the rice around 30 minutes to rest." However, when making certain "cultural dishes" like maklouba, Daud notes that she will "let it rest up to an hour or even a bit more before serving."

When resting rice, it's totally fine to just take it off heat and let the rice rest covered in whatever it was cooked in. However, there's one other trick you can use to aid the process: putting a towel on top. The point of resting rice is to prevent it from getting gummy, and using a dish towel can help absorb excess moisture.

When the rice is done cooking, quickly lift off the lid of the pot and place a folded dish towel to cover the top, then put the lid back so it weighs down the towel and creates a tight seal. After that, Daud suggests you "let it rest for 10 minutes, then fluff it with a fork." It's a small thing, but a fork will let you gently separate the rice grains.

Using a wooden spoon or other flat mixing utensil makes it too easy to accidentally mush the rice as you fluff it, undoing all the work you did to keep it from getting gummy. Rice can certainly be frustrating to work with, but if you know the basic rules, your favorite rice recipes should turn out perfectly fluffy every time.