Rice and pasta portion calculator
A side portion is about 60 g of dry rice per person and a main about 75 g; pasta runs to 100 g. Four people need 300 g of dry rice, which takes 450 ml of water and yields about 900 g cooked, or 400 g of pasta, which wants four litres of water and 40 g of salt.
How to portion rice and pasta
The water figure means two completely different things depending on which grain you are cooking, and that is why the two live on separate modes. Rice is cooked by absorption, so the water is an ingredient and the amount has to be right: white long-grain wants about 1.5 times the rice by weight, brown closer to 2.5 and twice the time, basmati 1.5 after a soak. Rinsing matters more than most recipes admit. It carries off the surface starch, and skipping it is the commonest reason rice turns out gluey.
Pasta is cooked in water it never absorbs, so the figure is about room: a litre per hundred grams, enough that the pan does not lose its boil when the pasta goes in and the shapes do not weld to each other. Salt goes in at roughly ten grams a litre and mostly stays behind in the water. It is still the one chance to season the pasta itself, which no amount of sauce afterwards replaces.
Both grains gain weight as they cook, at different rates: rice roughly triples, dry pasta a little over doubles, and fresh pasta barely moves because it already holds its water. Risotto and paella belong to neither method and take far more liquid, added a ladle at a time.
What people use it for
- Cooking rice for a group
- Cooking pasta for a group
- Getting the rice-to-water ratio right
- Sizing the pan and the salt for pasta
- Portioning for meal prep
- Converting dry weight to cooked weight
Questions
About 60 g dry as a side, 75 g as a main. It roughly triples in weight when cooked.
About 100 g dry for a main. The appetite setting scales that by 0.8 and 1.3, so the panel gives 80 g for a starter and 130 g for a hearty portion. Fresh pasta is nearer 125 g and filled pasta 150 g, because both already contain water.
About 1 : 1.5 by weight for white long-grain, 1 : 2.5 for brown. By volume it is often quoted as 1 : 2.
A litre of water and about 10 g of salt per 100 g of pasta. Most of the salt stays in the water.
For long-grain, yes. Until the water runs clear. It removes surface starch and stops the grains clumping.
Around three times in weight. A hundred grams dry gives about 300 g cooked.
Not quite. Dry pasta gains two to two and a half times its weight, so a hundred grams comes to about 240 g cooked, against roughly 300 g for rice.
Usually unrinsed rice, too much water, or stirring during cooking. Leave it alone once the lid is on.
No. It coats the pasta and stops sauce clinging. Stir instead.
No. About 125 g per person against 100 g dry, since fresh pasta already holds water. Filled shapes are nearer 150 g.
Yes, all three are on the Type list with their own weights per person, and each carries the right water ratio.
Use the appetite setting, which scales by 0.8 or 1.3, or choose "Set your own" and give the grams per person outright.