Brown Rice, Dry

One US cup of brown rice, dry weighs 184.5 grams. Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.54 cups.

Also called dry brown rice, uncooked brown rice, long-grain brown rice, whole grain brown rice, raw brown rice.

Dry brown rice packs at about 185 g per US cup. USDA and producer labels agree within 10 percent, and brown rice ends up roughly the same density as white rice because the bran layer that distinguishes them adds very little mass to each kernel.

Brown rice is unhulled rice with the outer husk removed but the bran layer and germ intact. It is the same rice kernel as white rice — Oryza sativa — but processed one step less: white rice has been additionally milled to remove the bran and germ, leaving only the starchy endosperm. Brown rice has more fiber, more B vitamins, and a nuttier flavor, and takes about twice as long to cook because the bran layer slows water absorption. In US retail, long-grain brown rice is the default and this entry covers it; short-grain and medium-grain brown rice are less common in mainstream US markets and tend to pack slightly denser because their kernels are more spherical and nest more efficiently.

Sources converge closely around 185 g per US cup. USDA FoodData Central's Rice, brown, long-grain, raw (FDC ID 169703, part of the USDA Food Distribution Program record) gives 195 g per metric cup, which works out to 185 g per US cup at a density of 0.780 g/mL. This is the anchor for the entry. SE Grocers Brown Rice, Natural, Long Grain labels a 1/4 cup dry serving as 45 g, extrapolating to 180 g per US cup (density 0.761 g/mL, within 2.5 percent of USDA). USDA Branded Foods Long Grain Brown Rice (UPC 071524005505) reports 178 g per metric cup (168 g per US cup, density 0.712 g/mL, 9.5 percent below the USDA SR figure and just inside the 10 percent milled tolerance). Aggregator conversion sites cluster at 190 to 195 g per cup, all slightly above the USDA SR anchor and consistent with the direction of the observed spread.

Brown rice and white rice end up at essentially the same cup density even though brown rice retains an extra bran layer. This is because the bran is a thin fibrous coating on the outside of each kernel — only about 8 percent of total kernel mass — and its presence does not significantly increase per-kernel weight or change how kernels pack in a cup. The kernels are similar shapes and sizes and settle in a measuring cup at roughly the same density. What differs is cooking behavior and nutrition profile, not raw dry density.

King Arthur's Ingredient Weight Chart does not list uncooked brown rice. It publishes only cooked brown rice at 1 cup = 6 oz (170 g), which is a different food — the grains have swollen with water during cooking and the cup weight cannot be read back into a dry measure. KA also publishes uncooked white long-grain rice at 1/2 cup = 3 1/2 oz (99 g), which doubled would extrapolate to 198 g per cup, 7 percent above the USDA reference for uncooked white rice, likely reflecting how a half-cup measure fills differently from a full cup.

For recipes calling for brown rice by cup, the difference between the lightest and heaviest published dry figures is about 17 g per cup — enough to change the water ratio needed for absorption cooking but not enough to change the final texture significantly. Brown rice cooks by absorption at a 1:2 to 1:2.25 water ratio for 40 to 45 minutes; the standard yield is about 3 cups cooked per cup dry (from 185 g dry to roughly 550 g cooked). For meal-prep quantities where portion control matters, weight-based measurement is more consistent than volume.