I’ve heard so many people say they can’t cook rice. That it never turns out. That they just don’t know how to cook perfect brown rice. That it’s sticky and lumpy, and on and on.

So they resort to a rice cooker. Well, if you don’t have a rice cooker and you don’t want to go out and buy one, read on.

I have always had great success cooking rice. It was just as easy as following the package directions. Anyone could do it.

That was then. Many years ago. Suddenly one day, my rice was not cooking as it used to. It was sticky, clumpy and bound together. It never cooked evenly. I was having more trouble, and I just couldn’t figure it out.

Hmmmmm! This was strange. After years of cooking perfect brown rice, now no more? What was I doing wrong? Finally one day, I discovered the simple problem.

Seems my pans had seen better days. They were old and the lids were bent from my dropping them more than once.

One day I bought a new pan with a glass lid. After I used that pan, voila! My rice was perfect again.

Now hear this:

The secret to cooking perfect brown rice is to have a very tight fitting lid. If your lid doesn’t fit tightly, steam will escape, your water will evaporate and you could have burned rice and a mess in the bottom of your pan. Yes, this is from experience.

If your lid is tight fitting, no more clumpy, stuck together rice. If you do not have a pan with a tight fitting lid, place foil over your pot, then put the lid on. This works well too. And if you don’t want the steam from the foil dripping onto your rice, cover the pan with parchment paper.