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Every Asian is laughing at you if you don’t get why you should have a rice cooker.
Good on them. I couldn't give a stuff what anyone else thinks - I can make boiled rice in a pan that tastes exactly the same as boiled rice from a Chinese takeaway and I have saved £50 on a rice maker. Who's laughing now?
Do you ever see Chinese restaurants or take aways using saucepans???? FFS.
if I cooked rice at that frequency or volume then yes but I only have it twice a month so I’ll stick with the pot.
As for Asians laughing at us, are rice cookers as common in India…
I'm questioning the taste of the people who think pouches of microwave rice are a good alternative. Probably costs more than a rice cooker after about 10 meals too.
Been using a basic cookworks rice cooker for some years now,cooks perfect basmati rice and you can add veg too. £12 from asda at the time, around £20 now.
We’ve got a reishunger, on the recommendation of many folks, and it’s great! Handy basket inside for steaming veg over the rice too which makes it even more convenient. Mid-price, about £45 I think, and while I thought Mrs E was buying yet another pointless gadget to clutter the kitchen (see George foreman grill, ice cream maker, popcorn maker etc. for past examples…) I’m a concert.
Rice and accompanying music, fantastic!
Cheapest Tesco one, keep the box and put the receipt in it. When it breaks in less than a year (as it will) take back and exchange for a new one. Same scheme works for their kettles and toasters too #RiceCookerForLife
But it isn’t a faff. In fact, I would wager it would be more faff getting a rice cooker in and out of the cupboard where it would be stored (if you are anything like me and hates clutter on worktops). But I love gadgets – we have a slow cooker, breadmaker, soup maker, panini press, vegetable steamer, smoothie maker, crepe maker, doughnut maker, candyfloss maker (fair enough, the last few are the kids)
You're happy to pull all that shit out of the cupboard but a rice cooker is too much hassle? Do you leave your pan out constantly?
How did they cook rice in olden days before rice cookers!?
Rice was cooked in a pot with low heat, steamed in the wok or cooked/steam in bamboo.
This simple £22.00 Cookworks 1.5L Rice Cooker should be sufficient. Nothing fancy.
Mine is a Taiwanese Tatung Rice Cooker, exactly as shown below, that I have use almost everyday for nearly 20 years. Looks nothing fancy but it can last for many years. I have a spare one too,
The only cooking appliance I need is my Tatung rice cooker
This is the most reliable rice cooker I have ever used. It looks cheap but beat most rice cookers hands down. It does not have moving parts apart from the heat plate contact. The outer part of the rice cooker is just simple steel, the inner part of the rice cooker is aluminium but the container to put rice in is 304 stainless steel, and Not some cheapo aluminium. The usage is also slightly different from the above Argos version, as this version requires to pour a bit of water into the inner aluminium bowl before you put in the rice. It actually half steamed and boil the rice.
The model shown above is the red traditional version but they do have many fancy versions too but expensive. However, if you are going to use it for 30 to 40 or even more years, get one.
Crikey, I just saw the online retail price for Tatung in the UK. But if you happen to visit Thailand for holiday they sell them there too so get one or get three.
Also if you fancy some digital ones just check out all the Japanese rice cookers.
Rice cookers are ace. you only need one thats like that russel hobs. pour in rice, add water, it clicks off and you transfer the pot to the table. perfect rice every time, and so simple you don't think about it.
as previously said, every family from a culture where rice is the staple have one.
Asia uses National rice cookers. National became Panasonic now Asia uses Panasonic rice cookers.
A Zojirushi Rice Cooker here.
It's supposedly for short grain rice as it's primarily designed for sushi rice, but it'll do long grain perfectly well. Plus when you turn it on, it plays Frere Jacques (obviously)
Because It makes rice that's rice, not a white wet mush, that's why.
I can’t recommend the nutribullet every grain rice cooker enough , it’s £80 but does quinoa and porridge too.
I use one because I always seem to burn the rice to the pan but this cooks it perfectly
I guess the equivalent is that conversation we (as MTBers) occasionally have with the public. Invariably the convo will come round to how much your bike cost, and you sigh inwardly and tell them, and they say a variation of something like "I've got a mountain bike, and it only cost me £150, it's just as good as yours, it has suspension and loads of gears" and you nod politely.
This is the same.
A Zojirushi Rice Cooker here
@nickc with the rice cooker flex 😎
I've got a National one, it's got a fetching 70s flower pattern on the side and it must be older than me.
@nickc with the rice cooker flex 😎
It was a wedding gift. I looked up the price of them, and then closed the page quite quickly. It makes great rice, the rendition of Frere Jacques, less so.
Reishunger rice cooker purchased!
But it isn’t a faff. In fact, I would wager it would be more faff getting a rice cooker in and out of the cupboard where it would be stored (if you are anything like me and hates clutter on worktops). But I love gadgets – we have a slow cooker, breadmaker, soup maker, panini press, vegetable steamer, smoothie maker, crepe maker, doughnut maker, candyfloss maker (fair enough, the last few are the kids)
You’re happy to pull all that shit out of the cupboard but a rice cooker is too much hassle? Do you leave your pan out constantly?
I thought the same, why would it be more hassle to take a rice cooker out of the cupboard than a saucepan. (Mine's still boxed on top of a cupboard so IS more hassle to use, but it's out once or twice a week. 😀 )
The arguments that people make for and against gadgets are very weird aren't they. Of that list ^ I would argue that I've never found a bread maker that makes bread anywhere near as nice as made by hand; soup makers are pointless - I can make a fresh soup in a pan in 25 minutes; a veg steamer is a metal perforated pan that sits over another pan. Or a rice steamer!; and who needs a crepe maker - it's so easy in a frying pan that my 12 year old daughter makes crepes (or pancakes) every few days. But gadgets, innit. 😀
Btw to those still using pans, boiled rice from a pan doesn't have the same consistency that properly steamed rice does. Both are nice but boiled rice is not steamed rice.
Reishunger rice cooker purchased!
Seems they do a digital rice cooker. No use to me, I've never even seen digital rice.
I'm not sure that I was aware that rice cookers were even a thing before seeing this thread!
It's some sort of Rule 34 corollary, isn't it. "If it exists, there will be a gadget for it."
Very true!
I’m Chinese and no one cooks rice in a pan
Hmmm, 50% of that is evidently not the case though is it....
Lady at my local Korean restaurant said buy Cuckoo when I asked the question: https://www.cuckoousastore.com
Seen them pop up at local Chinese supermarkets a few times even though they are Korean. Bought one for £60, seems pretty good.
Recently I've been cooking rice in the microwave.
Pop washed rice into a microwavable receptacle, 1 part rice, 2 parts water, cook for 3 mins, stand, cook another 3 mins stand, then another two minutes, stand for 2 mins with the lid on. It seems to turn out well.
Rince rice thoroughly....
Rice cooker:
Rinse, add, water switch on. No need to remember to switch off, no need to worry about boiling over. You can use a saucepan to make tea but a kettle is more convenient.
Edit: wife is Chinese so we eat a lot of rice (too much rice 🙄
Same here. It’s just too convenient not to use. Put rice in put water in close lid press button. Don’t have to think about it anymore, don’t need extra pan on in the stove , don’t need to check it to see if it’s done, don’t need to drain it.
I know you can do all those things in a pan. Rice cooker just means I don’t need to and I still get perfect rice everytime
The porridge setting isn't for oat porridge, it's for congee
Thanks to this thread I bought the cheap and small Argos cooker. Its excellent.
Tonight's meal is jerk pork loins with rice and beans, onions and herbs.
At minimum quantity it makes enough rice to have enough for stirfry the following day.
Nice one.
Fun tip (though my stepmum would kill me for it) - get some miso paste and stir it in with the rice & water before cooking. Yum!