Kitchen and everyday life · Easy · about 30 minutes for each one

Cook Three Staples: Rice, Eggs and Pasta

Rice, eggs and pasta are cheap, filling and the start of many meals. Learn these three and you can always make dinner. Each one also shows a bit of kitchen chemistry.

When to teach it: Watch from about 6, help at the stove from about 9, and cook these alone from about 12.

🔬 The chemistry behind it

You'll need

  • 2- to 3-quart saucepan with a tight-fitting lid (rice)
  • Large pot that holds more than 4 quarts of water (pasta)
  • Colander
  • Frying pan, bowl, fork and spatula (eggs)
  • Measuring cups
  • Oven mitts

Before you start

  • Wash your hands before you start.
  • Read the package directions for your rice and pasta. Different kinds need different amounts of water and time.

Step by step

Tick each step as you go if you like; ticks stay on this device.

Chemistry

How it works: Starch soaks up water, and egg proteins unfold and set

Rice and pasta are mostly starch, packed into tiny grains called granules. When starch is heated in water, the granules soak up water and swell. Food scientists call this gelatinization. It's why hard rice turns soft, and why 1 cup of dry rice makes about 3 cups cooked.

Gelatinization only goes one way. Once the granules have swelled, cooked rice can't turn back into hard, raw grains.

Eggs change in a different way. Egg white is full of proteins. Each protein is a long chain folded into a special shape. Heat breaks the weak bonds holding that shape, so the proteins unfold. This is called denaturing. The unfolded proteins take up more room and tangle together, so a clear, runny egg white turns white and firm.

Cooking eggs until both white and yolk are firm also matters for safety. USDA notes that even clean, uncracked eggs can carry Salmonella bacteria.

1 cup dry rice + about 2 cups water → about 3 cups cooked rice

Try it: With an adult, measure ¼ cup of dry rice, cook it, and measure it again when it's done. How many times bigger did it get? The extra volume is water the starch soaked up.

Keep learning: Science

Teaching it to your kids

  • Let your child measure the rice and water. It's good practice with fractions.
  • Have them set a kitchen timer for each step.
  • Stand beside them the first few times they drain pasta, and show how to pour away from their face.
  • Have them crack eggs into a small bowl first, so any bits of shell are easy to scoop out.

Tips

  • Keep the lid on while rice simmers so the steam stays in.
  • Instant rice and flavored rice mixes have their own directions; follow the package.
  • Cook egg casseroles and quiche to 160 °F, checked with a food thermometer.
  • Don't wash eggs before storing them. Keep them in their carton in the fridge, not in the door.

Common mistakes

MistakeInstead
Lifting the lid again and again while rice cooks.Keep it covered for the full time, then check.
Pasta clumps together.Use about 4 quarts of water per pound, and stir right after adding it and again once it starts cooking.
Runny scrambled eggs.Keep cooking until no liquid egg is left and they're firm.
Leaving the pot of rice on the stove all afternoon.Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours in a shallow container.

Safe habits

  • Cook eggs until both the white and yolk are firm.
  • Cook casseroles and other egg dishes to 160 °F.
  • Wash utensils and counters that touched raw egg with hot, soapy water.
  • Drain pasta carefully and keep your face away from the steam.

Sources

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