What do I do with 20 lbs of rice?
May 2, 2018 7:45 PM
Long story short, I bought 20 pounds of jasmine rice, and there are only 3 of us. Sure, I could return it, or freeze it and use it slowly, but is there anything I could do in one fell swoop, something that would use all (or most) of it in one go?
We don't even eat much rice but I go through 5lb bags for two people in a few months, four people in maybe six weeks. I have a whole 5lb bag I use to weigh down a TV that has a tippy stand, as well.
But! If you need a microwaveable heating pad, jasmine gives off the best scent when heated.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:24 PM on May 2, 2018
But! If you need a microwaveable heating pad, jasmine gives off the best scent when heated.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:24 PM on May 2, 2018
Seconding just storing it and using it as needed. As long as you have a dry place to keep it (like a pantry), it's going to be just fine.
posted by Aleyn at 8:50 PM on May 2, 2018
posted by Aleyn at 8:50 PM on May 2, 2018
FWIW, 20 lbs of rice will cook up into about 13 gallons/200 servings of rice. If you store it dry and make rice 1 or 2 times a week it will last about a year. However, if you cook most of it in one go--unless you throw a gigantic Rice-a-Rama party it will go bad in the 21 days it would take 3 people to eat it all eating rice 3 meals a day. That's not even tackling the issue of how to refrigerate 13 gallons of cooked rice to begin with.
posted by drlith at 9:16 PM on May 2, 2018
posted by drlith at 9:16 PM on May 2, 2018
We regularly buy this quantity of rice. We store it in a plastic, lidded tub that we got at Smart & Final (but any restaurant supply store will have a large enough storage tub.)
If you don't have one already, do yourself a favor and get a ride cooker. We usually make 3-4 (uncooked) cups of rice at a time. Once it's cooked it stores well in the fridge.
If you really wanted to cook a serious quantity of rice you'd need a restaurant sized rice cooker. And an event to donate your cooked rice to.
posted by vignettist at 9:36 PM on May 2, 2018
If you don't have one already, do yourself a favor and get a ride cooker. We usually make 3-4 (uncooked) cups of rice at a time. Once it's cooked it stores well in the fridge.
If you really wanted to cook a serious quantity of rice you'd need a restaurant sized rice cooker. And an event to donate your cooked rice to.
posted by vignettist at 9:36 PM on May 2, 2018
If you have a young child in your life, you can dye uncooked rice using food colouring and vinegar (or liquid kool-aid, which is fun for the smell) and make a sensory bin. Hide little toys in it, drive toy trucks in it... super fun.
posted by bighappyhairydog at 10:02 PM on May 2, 2018
posted by bighappyhairydog at 10:02 PM on May 2, 2018
Dry out a bunch of waterlogged phones?
posted by TheAdamist at 2:36 AM on May 3, 2018
posted by TheAdamist at 2:36 AM on May 3, 2018
The short answer is no. That's a lot of rice.
If you're looking to incorporate it into meals regularly I would make a lot of fried rice, paella, stir fries, add it to soups, and make it your regular side dish with everything.
One meal I always keep around is burritos, which I make with rice, beans, and cheese. You could make a ton of these and freeze them. That would be a semi-nutritious meal you can have on hand for a long time that's super cheap.
I could be wrong but I don't think rice on its own is particularly nutritious. It's kind of like bread. Could you live on bread alone for a week? On the other hand, you can add it to almost anything.
posted by xammerboy at 3:26 AM on May 3, 2018
If you're looking to incorporate it into meals regularly I would make a lot of fried rice, paella, stir fries, add it to soups, and make it your regular side dish with everything.
One meal I always keep around is burritos, which I make with rice, beans, and cheese. You could make a ton of these and freeze them. That would be a semi-nutritious meal you can have on hand for a long time that's super cheap.
I could be wrong but I don't think rice on its own is particularly nutritious. It's kind of like bread. Could you live on bread alone for a week? On the other hand, you can add it to almost anything.
posted by xammerboy at 3:26 AM on May 3, 2018
To add variety to ways to use up rice, you can try congee (rice porridge, mostly savoury). It's great comfort food.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 5:33 AM on May 3, 2018
posted by I claim sanctuary at 5:33 AM on May 3, 2018
Kheer is delicious and easy to make...
It's traditionally made with basmatti rice, but jasmine would compliment the flavor nicely.
posted by OnefortheLast at 7:47 AM on May 3, 2018
It's traditionally made with basmatti rice, but jasmine would compliment the flavor nicely.
posted by OnefortheLast at 7:47 AM on May 3, 2018
as everyone has said, storing it dry is the most efficient way. It won't go bad. Just use it as needed.
Do you ever get styes? Best way to treat a stye is, you put uncooked rice in a clean sock, knot it, microwave it. Hold hot rice-stuffed sock on eye. Holds heat. Is miracle cure.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:58 AM on May 3, 2018
Do you ever get styes? Best way to treat a stye is, you put uncooked rice in a clean sock, knot it, microwave it. Hold hot rice-stuffed sock on eye. Holds heat. Is miracle cure.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:58 AM on May 3, 2018
Also: that project linked above looks lovely but fussy. You could just dump rice into a pillowcase and (firmly) sew it shut and it would be a perfectly usable heating pad.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:59 AM on May 3, 2018
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:59 AM on May 3, 2018
Assuming this is just normal uncooked rice and you've got space in a pantry or cabinet, it's not going to go bad.
Nitpick: if this is normal uncooked white rice, it's not going to go bad; brown rice will go stale after 6 months or so. Jasmine brown rice is not terribly common, but it does exist .
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:52 AM on May 3, 2018
Nitpick: if this is normal uncooked white rice, it's not going to go bad; brown rice will go stale after 6 months or so. Jasmine brown rice is not terribly common, but it does exist .
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:52 AM on May 3, 2018
My family buys multiple types of rice in bags that size. We eat a lot of rice, and it makes great leftovers. We alternate between jasmine, which is my favorite, and basmati, which my husband insists is better for some meals. (I continue to tell him he's wrong and that jasmine is always better. He continues to cook basmati for some meals.) We occasionally also get brown rice, but in much smaller amounts; brown rice is pricey.
We have a rice cooker: 3-4 cups rice, water up to the fill line, push button; rice in an hour. (Our family is 5 adults; if we only had 3, we'd get a smaller cooker and do 2-3 cups.) We often cook 3 cups of white rice and 1 cup of brown rice together.
Jasmine rice is the one kind I will happily eat plain - no salt, no butter, no soy, no sugar-and-cinnamon, no meat-with-sauce.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:06 AM on May 3, 2018
We have a rice cooker: 3-4 cups rice, water up to the fill line, push button; rice in an hour. (Our family is 5 adults; if we only had 3, we'd get a smaller cooker and do 2-3 cups.) We often cook 3 cups of white rice and 1 cup of brown rice together.
Jasmine rice is the one kind I will happily eat plain - no salt, no butter, no soy, no sugar-and-cinnamon, no meat-with-sauce.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:06 AM on May 3, 2018
drlith is right, that is a quantity of rice that I would expect an Indian family to buy and use over a period of time. It's the largest size sold at the South Asian groceries in my area. So if you don't want to store it over the year or so it would take to consume it piecemeal, I would give it, dry, to someone who wants it. I was discussing rice with my co-worker from southern India and he said that basmati was a rice for special occasions, and "too heavy" for daily consumption. I thought this was really interesting since basmati is one of the fluffiest rices I know. For everyday consumption, he recommended "sona masoori" (which translates as "golden ivy"). I have used basmati to substitute for the typical rices one would serve with Chinese, Mexican, etc., and I think it's quite versatile, even though it's distinctive. But if it's brown, don't let it go rancid.
posted by wnissen at 10:45 AM on May 3, 2018
posted by wnissen at 10:45 AM on May 3, 2018
With a 20 lb bag of rice, you've got the perfect excuse to make Thai or Vietnamese or Cambodian or Laotian (these countries being the ones that grow and use specifically jasmine rice the most, whose recipes will taste best with jasmine rice) food once a week and serve it over your jasmine rice. (You can do other countries' foods as well, but the taste, texture, flavor profile will differ and may not provide the results you expect.) As everyone else has said, store it uncooked in an airtight container and it'll last forever.
My husband and I eat rice regularly; we generally make 2-cup pots and eat it over the next day or two, and do this 1-2x/week. A 10-lb bag of rice lasts us about 2 months with this eating pattern. Like everyone else has said, rice doesn't go bad; just keep it sealed in an airtight container (NOT the original bag by itself!) so you don't attract moths or bugs or other critters, and plain uncooked jasmine rice is absolutely fine at room temperature indefinitely. You'll probably need to buy a largeish tupperware for this.
For reference, our Oxo Pop Big Square holds 5.5 quarts, and a 10 lb bag of rice just *barely* squeezes in after settling. You'll probably want an 11-12 quart container to hold your 20 lbs based on that.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 10:54 AM on May 3, 2018
My husband and I eat rice regularly; we generally make 2-cup pots and eat it over the next day or two, and do this 1-2x/week. A 10-lb bag of rice lasts us about 2 months with this eating pattern. Like everyone else has said, rice doesn't go bad; just keep it sealed in an airtight container (NOT the original bag by itself!) so you don't attract moths or bugs or other critters, and plain uncooked jasmine rice is absolutely fine at room temperature indefinitely. You'll probably need to buy a largeish tupperware for this.
For reference, our Oxo Pop Big Square holds 5.5 quarts, and a 10 lb bag of rice just *barely* squeezes in after settling. You'll probably want an 11-12 quart container to hold your 20 lbs based on that.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 10:54 AM on May 3, 2018
I'm still cracking up over the idea of somebody with a bigass sack of rice stored in their freezer.
I can't think of anything practical to go with 20 pounds of rice. Maybe buy a big metal barrel, start a little fire and try and make the biggest old oil drum's worth of rice that you can?
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:09 PM on May 3, 2018
I can't think of anything practical to go with 20 pounds of rice. Maybe buy a big metal barrel, start a little fire and try and make the biggest old oil drum's worth of rice that you can?
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:09 PM on May 3, 2018
I know you are thinking of using it yourself in some way, but I'll mention that there may be charities that could use it. I immediately thought of a homeless women's shelter near me.
posted by SemiSalt at 3:35 PM on May 3, 2018
posted by SemiSalt at 3:35 PM on May 3, 2018
If you have rock climber friends, they'll likely take a kilo or two to work on hand strength.
posted by quadrilaterals at 12:55 AM on May 4, 2018
posted by quadrilaterals at 12:55 AM on May 4, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by asperity at 7:53 PM on May 2, 2018