But only about 20% of the arsenic.

If you want to significantly reduce the arsenic, it is apparently better to cook rice like pasta in a large amount of water, and then drain it (in a sieve / strainer)

Wow, don't tell Uncle Roger about your technique:

https://youtu.be/53me-ICi_f8

I fancy myself a pretty decent cook, but rice has been the bane of my existence. I don't own a rice cooker, and I could never get it right.

Then I learned about the pasta method. It probably closed about 80% of the quality gap in my finished product.

If you can afford it and have space in your kitchen I'd recommend you get a rice cooker, preferably one with 'fuzzy logic' and ceramic bowl. It removes the starch preparation almost entirely from the meal preparation process and allows more focus on the rest of it, and it becomes trivial to turn some leftovers into a decent meal or make 'fast food' by putting some pre-/factory-made dumplings and greens in with the rice. Commonly rice cookers allow setting a start time in the future, so you can prepare dinner or lunch at breakfast and it'll be ready at the appropriate time.

The 'pasta method' is fine however, ignore people that whine about it. It's also rather easy to learn how to make paella and jollof and similar, which is a really nice way to cook with rice.

Thanks, I'll consider going that route!

It feels like giving up on a challenge, but life is short and maybe mastering traditional rice cooking techniques isn't the best use of my time.

This sounds like a great way to end up with rice that's soupy and slimy like watery oatmeal or shredded wheat.

Last week I accidentally halved the amount of rice:water, and it turned out quite disgusting.

Did you use a rice cooker? Rice cookers operate by “sensing“ when all the water is boiled off, by means of a temperature sensor that detects when the temp goes above 100°C. (If you have just the right ratio of water in there, this is what you want.)

Having too much water in a rice cooker is indeed terrible for the end result, but only due to the nature of how a rice cooker operates… I’m sure if you treat it like pasta and take it off the pot after 10 minutes or so ( not waiting for the water to boil away) you’d get much better results.

No, cooked on the stove. I'm not even that picky about rice, but I draw the line at sludge.

It's really not that bad, you drain the extra water in a strainer or something, and the residual water that's left mostly gets absorbed into the rice.

Still not the same texture as traditionally cooked rice and my Asian wife doesn't care for the cooked-like-pasta rice herself, but I personally don't find it objectionable when I've had it.

Yes, but about half the arsenic has been transferred to the cooking water, which you can pour down the drain.

So far the arsenic doesn't seem to have any quantifiable negative effects on me, so I'll continue as I've already been for decades. Your concern is appreciated, however.