Food & cooking · Meal prep
Cooked rice to dry rice calculator.
Type the cooked weight you need and get the dry weight to measure out, or go the other way. Rice, pasta, quinoa, couscous, bulgur and barley.
Inputs
Dry and cooked weight
Enter your numbers.
How much dry rice makes 500 g of cooked rice?
Cooked rice is mostly water. This tool takes the water content that USDA FoodData Central lists for the dry and the cooked version of each food and assumes the dry solids all stay in the pot. The cooked weight is then the dry weight times (100 minus water in the dry food) divided by (100 minus water in the cooked food). For long-grain white rice that is 88.38 divided by 31.56, or about 2.8 grams cooked per gram dry.
Worked example. To end up with 500 g of cooked long-grain white rice you need about 178.5 g of dry rice. Going the other way, 200 g of dry rice gives about 560 g cooked, which means about 360 g of water absorbed. Pasta is lower: dry enriched pasta is about 2.4 g cooked per gram dry, so 100 g of dry pasta gives about 238 g cooked.
It is an estimate. Some starch leaches into the cooking water, and the water you add, the lid and the cooking time all change the result. Weigh your own pot once, divide cooked by dry, and type that number in the optional ratio box to use it instead of the USDA figure.
Frequently asked questions
How much dry rice do I need for 500 g of cooked rice?
About 178.5 g of dry long-grain white rice, using the USDA water contents (2.8 g cooked per gram dry). Brown rice needs about 168 g.
How much does rice expand when cooked by weight?
Long-grain white rice about 2.8 times, brown rice about 3.0 times and enriched pasta about 2.4 times, as estimated from USDA FoodData Central water contents.
Why does the answer differ from the package?
Package directions are written for a volume of water and a cooking time, and this tool is a weight estimate from lab values. Use the optional ratio box with your own weighed batch for the most accurate number.
Is a cup of dry rice the same as three cups cooked?
This tool works by weight only, because a cup of dry or cooked grain weighs different amounts depending on how it is packed. Weigh the rice for repeatable meal prep.
Do the numbers change with salt or oil in the water?
Not in this estimate. It assumes plain water and no oil, and a little salt would not change the weight much.
Sources
Retrieved
- USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018 CSV download): water content of the dry and cooked entries
- Health Canada: Nutrition labelling, table of reference amounts for food (published 2024-10-18)
Method: cooked weight per gram dry = (100 minus water in dry food) divided by (100 minus water in cooked food), using the SR Legacy entries for each food (FDC ids 168877 and 168878 for long-grain white rice, and the matching ids for each other food listed in the page script). These are estimates from USDA water contents. Real results move with the amount of water you cook with and the pot, so weigh one batch once and type your own ratio to calibrate. Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or stored.
Scope
An estimate for planning portions and shopping, not a measured result for your pot. Always cook meat and poultry to the safe internal temperature on a food thermometer, whatever the weight says. General cooking information, not medical or dietetic advice.