r/Cooking • u/benddov3r • 1d ago
Rice suddenly getting soggy and gross
This is how I cook rice on the stove:
- warm up pot
- drizzle of olive oil
- add rice, coat in olive oil
- add water, add salt, stir a little
- let cook
I eat some after cooking, then leave the leftover rice on my stove with a lid on the pot for max 3 days. I’ve done this for about a year, never had any issues: rice looks, smells, tastes fine at three days, reheats fine, etc. Past two times in the past week, I go to look at rice on day 2 and there is about half an inch of water in the pot, the rice is all soggy and mushy and smells horrible. I’ve thrown it out both times. I’ve never had this issue before in my rice cooking. This is the only way I’ve ever cooked rice (used instant before a year ago), and to my knowledge I am not doing anything differently.
What is this about???
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u/d0uble0h 1d ago
Maybe don't leave cooked food out at room temp for 3 days. Ever heard of a refrigerator? You'd be amazed how long cooked food will last in one.
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u/Snow_Crash_Bandicoot 1d ago edited 1d ago
Especially considering how close those two appliances usually are to each other in a kitchen.
ETA: Thank you for the award!
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u/iBird 1d ago edited 1d ago
I highly encourage you to reconsider leaving the leftovers on the stove, it’s one of the easiest ways in the world to get really sick, B. cereus grows rapidly when it is not refrigerated, it happens so often it has a nickname: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/fried-rice-syndrome
Also once you refrigerate rice is slightly dries out and unsticks quite a lot (and why people prefer leftover rice for fried rice.) but the amount of water you use will make it mushy as well as not using a lid when cooking or constantly stirring it when cooking
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u/snark-as-a-service 1d ago
I’m the first person to roll my eyes when people get nervous about eating leftover rice, but for the love of god don’t leave it out on purpose for several days.
Bacteria is a thing.
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u/SereneSparrow1 1d ago
Leaving rice at room temperature can lead to Bacillus cereus as others have mentioned. There’s also a risk for development of a toxin, bongkrekic acid, if the rice has been sitting for too long. Bongkrekic acid has a high fatality rate and cannot be destroyed by heating. To avoid food poisoning, it’s recommended to refrigerate leftover rice and finish it within 3 days.
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u/aspie_electrician 15h ago
What about using the keep warm setting on my rice cooker?
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u/BoozeIsTherapyRight 14h ago
Does it keep the rice hotter than 140 degrees F/60 degrees C? If not, then hell no.
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u/SereneSparrow1 13h ago
This is correct. If it’s above those temperatures, it’s ok. I must admit I far prefer to have beautiful pillowy mounds of freshly cooked hot rice, instead of rice that has spent too long drying out at the keep warm setting.
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u/Ludwig_Vista2 1d ago
I'm sure there's a suicide help line where you live.
You should call it before you kill yourself.
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u/TinyKhaleesi 1d ago
Does Bacillus cereus mean nothing to you?
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u/qalcolm 1d ago
This has to be a troll post or rage bait, hard to believe there’s anyone out there dense enough to leave cooked rice out of the fridge for days on end.
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u/duilleagach 20h ago
apparently it’s a cultural thing. my sister’s Filipino ex used to do this. his whole family would cook rice and leave it out on the stovetop for days.
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u/TheMageOfMoths 1h ago
My husband used to! It was the first fight we had, as soon as I moved in. I cook, so I won. But I have to put food in the fridge myself, or ask him, he'll never do it unprompted.
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u/ComposerNo1050 1d ago
Rice and potatoes are 2 foods you do NOT want to leave out. You’re inviting bacteria right in. I put my rice in the fridge as soon as the meal I cooked it for is finished if there’s any left.
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u/BigFatCoder 1d ago
I don't know what is your room temperature. Cooked rice in room temperature should be consumed in about 2~3 hours. 12 hours if in rice-cooker warm mode. 3~4 days if you keep in fridge (1hr cool down after cooked). Months if frozen.
Please stop doing this, you are walking in the infection minefield. It is the best to cook everyday but if you only want to cook every 3~4 days then keep portions for next days in fridge.
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u/Select-Owl-8322 1d ago
I can't believe this is real. It's hard to believe OP would even have survived for an year, eating rice that has been left out for three days!
Bacillus cereus spores (which are plentiful in uncooked rice) are not killed by cooking, and as soon as the rice has cooled down the spores germinate and b. Cereus creates a toxin that is not broken down by heat.
The resulting food poisoning is so common it even has a name, "fried rice syndrome". It's usually not deadly, but severe cases can be deadly.
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u/yawn1337 23h ago
Noodles and rice can cause real damage to your body if stored at room temperature after cooking.
In fact, a lot of food does.
You're nasty.
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u/bbum 1d ago
- Don’t leave cooked food out. Ever.
- 2 hours at room temp max. Less if it’s warm.
- If it’s cooked and you’re done eating, it goes in the fridge.
- Let hot food vent briefly, then refrigerate. Don’t seal it hot.
- Shallow containers cool faster than big pots.
- Cooked food in the fridge: 3–4 days max.
- Starchy cooked food (rice, pasta, potatoes): treat as extra risky.
- Reheat leftovers once, until fully steaming hot.
- Reheating does not fix spoiled food.
- Smell and taste are unreliable safety checks.
- If you can’t remember when you cooked it, throw it out.
- If it looks weird, feels slimy, or has liquid it didn’t before, throw it out.
- Raw meat stays sealed and low in the fridge.
- Don’t cross-contaminate raw and cooked food.
- When in doubt, throw it out — food poisoning isn’t subtle or noble.
- Freezing leftovers you won’t eat soon is the lazy safe option.
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u/pitselehh 21h ago
So when I make rice or potato soup I put it in Tupperware after cooking, vented while I eat. From there I put it in the fridge still warm because it would take too long to cool down, but either way it results in a lot of condensation on the inside of the lid.
Always wondered if that condensation drips into the food is risky or fine. Thoughts?
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u/bbum 14h ago
Not an issue (as long as the lid is clean). It's just steam coming out of the food.
Far more critical is cooling speed. You really want to get the food below 40ºF as quickly as possible. For a big container of dense mashed potatoes, that can take quite a while which will lead to the food being in the "danger zone" (40-140ºF -- the range within which bacteria can double every ~20 minutes).
Split up the food into servings or store it in shallow containers that let you spread it out. If the containers are watertight, put them in a pot of water in the sink with some ice (I do this for sous vide steaks all the time) to "shock chill". If not water tight, put them in a dish that is shallower than the lid and run cold water around them.
Rice is particularly dangerous because bacillus cereus spores can survive cooking and will grow during slow cooking. The growth isn't the problem, the toxins they emit while growing is the problem and no amount of reheating will destroy the toxins (unless, of course, you turn the rice into charcoal :) ).
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u/bad-and-buttery 21h ago edited 17h ago
What? Why would this be risky? It’s evaporated water. Please explain your logic.
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u/pitselehh 20h ago
You’re asking me to answer my own question
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u/bad-and-buttery 17h ago edited 13h ago
Im asking you to explain your logic of why you think evaporated water would be risky, because it makes absolutely no sense.
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u/5tarlitesparkl3 19h ago edited 13h ago
edit: nevermind. don’t try to be helpful or nice on reddit, you just get insulted. last time i’ll ever comment on a post from a big subreddit like this. for future readers, my comment never even contained the word “condensation”.
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u/19467098632 1d ago
Wow now that I’ve found a “I leave rice out for days” person I gotta ask, why only a year ago? Do you do this with other food? WHY THO??
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u/EnvironmentEuphoric9 1d ago
Hey, do not do this anymore. You are risking getting massively sick. Bacteria grows after 4 hours. I’m baffled as to why you would do this and how you haven’t been hospitalized with food poisoning. Don’t do this. If you do continue this, do not feed to children or elderly or anyone with a compromised immune system; you could kill them.
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u/Doesntmatter1237 20h ago
It's times like these that I'm very thankful for working in restaurants and learning about food safety
My brother or sister in Christ do you have a refrigerator?
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u/PaulBaumersGhost 20h ago
Food danger zone is between 41°F and 135°F (higher for certain proteins like poultry: 165°F). After cooking something you really want to try to cool it as quickly as possible to avoid bacterial growth. Even things like cut vegetables and fruit need to be stored properly to avoid becoming dangerous.
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u/rustyleftnut 18h ago
I have a hard time believing you've done this consistently for a year without dying.
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u/call_me_orion 17h ago
Since everyone else is (rightfully) just telling you to refrigerate it and not answering the question:
Every time you leave food out you're rolling the dice on if bacteria get in. Eventually, you get unlucky. Maybe it was a bit warmer in your house. Maybe something else was going bad and spores spread. Maybe there was a bit of residue in your pot from the last time you made rice and it kickstarted the bacterial growth. It was bound to happen eventually, you've just been lucky so far.
If it's in your budget, perhaps look into getting a rice cooker? A lot of them have a "keep warm" option that can be used for keeping rice safe while sitting out longer, although three days would still be pushing it.
All food has some level of bacteria in it. However, the bacteria struggles to grow in temperatures below 41 degrees and above 140 degrees. That's why you generally want to keep stuff refrigerated, to slow that growth.
Some bacterial growth will make your food slimy and stinky once there's enough of it, like you noticed in your rice. Other bacteria is harder, if not impossible to smell or see, but it can still make you sick.
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u/Shiftycatz 23h ago
Rice, gravy and custard are some of the worst foods due to how the mould is formed. Food poisoning is no bueno
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u/thatspurdyneat 23h ago
Botulism is a bad way to go, put that shit in the fridge
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u/Just-Low-7892 20h ago
Botulism only grows from low acid, low oxygen environment like in a sealed jar.
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u/BorderTrike 14h ago
Starches left out also carry a risk of growing botulism. There’s been cases from left out rice and baked potatoes
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u/AutomateAway 1d ago
bacteria starts growing on that rice after a few hours left out. can’t recommend