Rice cooker

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Mar 14, 2003
Messages
890
Location
USA
Who else has a rice cooker? I had an elcheapo one that had a habit of burning the rice, especially small quantities. I got a good deal on a "Made in Japan" Zojirushi brand at the Korean grocery market and this thing cooks all kinds of rice to perfection. In addition, I set the timer on it to cook my steel cut oatmeal in the morning. At first, I thought it was something I didn't need, but I use it just about everyday. I cook everything from rice, lentils, quinoa, and other grains in it. What I like is being able to set the timer and have it keep it warm for hours and hours...I don't have to remove it the instant it is done cooking.
 
We had a cheapy for a while, and now have a Tefal, which, while not much more expensive than the original unit we had, is a thousand times better than the el cheapo.
 
I have an old school but non-stick Hitachi(Japan)rice cooker. >10yrs old and still cooks rice perfectly to this day..

Jasmine/"Milagrosa" rice all the way..
grin.gif
 
We have a few rice cookers around here. My wife would likely freak out if I put anything in them other than rice. We use a lot of the Thailand Jasmine rice or the Riceland long grain that is grown here in Arkansas.
 
Zojirushi is not el cheapo, in fact its a very good brand, standard brand of rice cooker is from National/Panasonic, I have three of them, one at least 22 years old and still running.
 
The zojirushi replaced my cheap brand. From what I understand it is amongst the best out there.
 
Would just like to add, rice cookers work fine on all kinds of rice except Basmati where it does a gross injustice so if using Basmati, use a utensil.
 
I have had both National and Hitachi and both are over 5 years old and going strong.

The Hitachi was a bare bones one and even after being beaten up by my brother it consistently cooks rice really rewll. The National has all the bells and whistles and can steam and cook brown rice.

Be careful with the pots as they are coated so do not put any metal utensils or use very abrasive cleaners or cleaning pads.
 
Rice cooker are very low tech device and usually have literally so few parts that it last forever.

The only ones that died in my family died from misuse, my mom soak the entire thing in water to wash the exterior, it lasted 16 years (Hitachi or National/Panasonic).

When you buy the "high tech" one, you are either buying the anti-spill lid (instead of a pan cover), porridge cooking mode, non-stick coating, or "fuzzy logics" that keep temperature in a specific range at particular interval.

I personally can't tell the rice quality difference between low and high tech, but for cleaning I definitely want the high end ones.
 
Any heavy bottomed deep and wide steel or aluminum utensil would do,with a good lid, remember, for Basmati, overnight soak yields best result.
 
We're going a bit off topic here, but do you have a good recipe on how to properly cook Basmati?

The one I was using didn't recommend soaking it, just washing it a few times.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top