Picking A Rice Cooker For Cooking Perfect Rice
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 rice cookers make perfect rice, but they can also be used for cooking hot cereals, deserts, stews and soups. They can also steam vegetables to perfection, even while cooking rice.
The best rice cookers are made in Japan. There are other models that may be less expensive from other countries, but you will enjoy using the Japanese rice cookers the most.
You will find rice cookers range in size from a three cups to ten cups. Buy the size that is closest to the amount of rice you normally cook. While larger cookers will cook smaller amounts, they work best at full capacity, but not over filled.
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.
Most Japanese households favor the mid-sized rice cookers.
If you want easy clean up from your rice cooker, choose the one with a non-stick pan. This non-stick pan is great for rice. Rice just does not stick to it and slides out leaving a clean pan. A quick rinse and you are ready to cook again.
There are three basic types of rice cookers, the on/off models, the keep warm models and the fuzzy logic models.
Some models are either on or off. The good thing is that they automatically turn off. They may not have an indicator light, but simply turn off when all the water is absorbed into the rice. These cookers are very versatile and can do a good job at cooking rice.
Keep warm models cook the rice and then after it is done maintain the rice so that it is warm when you are ready to use it. Just be sure that you unplug the rice cooker when you are finished with it since there is no off position.
Some of the rice cookers also offer fuzzy logic. This means that they have differing settings for soups or rice texture. Some even have a setting for sushi rice.
The newest and most expensive rice cookers offer induction heating. Rice comes out perfect each time as they can compensate for variations in measurements.
If you want a rice cooker that is also a steamer, be sure to look for the plastic steamer tray. This tray allows you to make perfectly steamed vegetables very quickly.
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.
John McKain owns a Chinese restaurant and have used many best rice cookers in his work as the cook. You can find many rice cooker reviews and recommendations in his rice cooker blog.
