How To Choose A Rice Cooker

One of the most useful small appliances that you will ever buy is a rice cooker. A rice cooker can do much more than cook rice and is useful in both the kitchen and the dorm room.

Of course you can use a rice cooker to make excellent rice every time, but they also can be used to cook other hot cereals, soups, stews, steamed vegetables and even deserts. Be sure that you choose a rice cooker that has the features that you will use.

The top rice cookers come from the country where they originated, Japan. You will find several less expensive rice cookers from other places, but the Japanese make the best rice cookers by far.

Rice cookers come in several sizes, some cooking over fourteen cups of rice at one time. You should choose the cooker that corresponds to the amount of rice you normally would cook. Large cookers can be used to cook smaller amounts, but they work best when three quarters to all the way full. Be careful not to overfill a rice cooker.

Additionally, you need to know that a Japanese cup is six ounces as compared to the American cup size of eight ounces. Be sure that you adjust recipes by remembering that the cups from the rice cooker are only three quarters of an American cup.

In Japan, the favorite size of rice cooker is the five-cup one.

A non-stick cooking pan in the rice cooker makes cleanup very easy. Rice cooker manufacturers use a high quality non-stick surface that works perfectly with rice. Be sure that you only use the plastic rice paddle to remove food from the pot.

When shopping for rice cookers, you will find that there are four basic choices in the type of cooker you choose.

The least expensive models of rice cookers simply turn off when the water has been absorbed into the rice. These cookers are still very versatile and do a great job when cooking rice.

The next step up in rice cookers will keep the rice warm when cooking is finished. They do not have a true off position, so be sure that you unplug the cooker when finished. You will need to buy at this level or above to get a rice cooker with a non-stick pan.

The most expensive rice cookers offer fuzzy logic. They have different settings for soup, brown rice, texture of rice and some even offer the setting for sushi rice.

The most expensive (over two hundred dollars) rice cookers offer induction heating. These rice cookers make perfect rice every time. They can compensate for variations in measurements in rice or water.

If you enjoy steamed vegetables with your rice, be sure that the rice cooker you choose has a steamer basket. You can steam vegetables as the rice cooks. For extra flavor in your rice add a couple of bullion cubes to the cooking water.

If you have a college student who will be living in a dorm room a small (three to four cup) rice cooker is the perfect gift. It allows the student to have rice, steam vegetables and warm soups. It is a great way for the student to have healthy meals and avoid eating only fast food.