Why does my rice burn on the bottom of the pan?

While there is liquid water in a pan, nothing in it can go above 100°C. The moment the water at the base has gone, that protection disappears at the base and only at the base — which is why rice scorches there and nowhere else.

Step by step

1. Save what you can right now.Take the pan off the heat immediately and do not stir. Stirring drags the burnt layer through the good rice and the bitter flavour spreads instantly. Spoon the unaffected rice out from the top into a clean pan or bowl, leaving the bottom centimetre behind entirely.
2. Use a heavy-based pan.A thin pan has hot spots directly over the burner and recovers heat in seconds. A thick base spreads the heat and buffers it. This is the single biggest equipment factor and it also fixes rice that catches in one patch rather than all over.
3. Drop the heat as soon as it boils, and drop it further than you think.Bring to the boil on a high heat, then straight to the lowest setting. If your lowest gas setting is still fierce, use a heat diffuser, or move to the smallest ring, or finish the pan off the heat.
4. Stop stirring once it is on the low heat.Stirring releases starch, the starch settles at the base, and starch paste on hot metal is what actually burns and welds. Stir once at the start to submerge everything, then leave it entirely alone.
5. Take it off early and let it finish in its own steam.Off the heat with the lid on for ten minutes, and the residual heat and steam finish the job with no metal contact at all. Cooking it until the pan is visibly bone dry on the hob is how most people burn it.
6. Get the water right.Too little water means the base runs dry long before the top is done. If your rice regularly catches while the top is still hard, add more water rather than more time.
7. Consider the oven or a rice cooker if it keeps happening.A covered dish in the oven at 180°C surrounds the rice with even heat and has no hot base at all. A rice cooker switches itself off by detecting exactly the moment the free water has gone. Both remove the problem rather than managing it.

Tips

• In several cuisines the caught layer is the prize, not the fault — Persian tahdig, Spanish socarrat, Korean nurungji. That is a deliberate crisp golden layer made with fat in the pan, not a black one.
• To clean a burnt rice pan, cover the base with water and a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda, simmer for ten minutes and it lifts off. Scraping cold burnt starch just scratches the pan.
• A scorched smell in the rice cannot be rescued by adding anything. Take the good rice off the top before the smell has had time to migrate; that is the only recovery.

If it doesn't work

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