Cookaholics Bulletin Board

That rice cooker is adorable! I'm with you Amy on the size. I only cook 1/2 cup of rice at a time. It swells enough to make 2 nice servings on our plates. That's just perfect for us.

Maybe someone can explain rice cookers to me. Forgive my ignorance, but I've always just put rice & water in a pot. Cover & steam & it's done. What does a specialized cooker do that my saucepan can't? I've never had rice from a cooker, so maybe there's a textural difference? I can't imagine there would be a flavor difference - but then..????????

From a pure usability point of view, a rice cooker can be a large boon, depending on your lifestyle. You put the stuff in it and turn it on; you can forget it, you can ignore it. You never get burned rice, you never have a problem. Many have timers. All will go into a keep warm mode when the rice is done, and most can hold rice well for many hours. For me, I really love this; it means one part of the meal is off my hands totally. Past that big advantage, some cookers have various modes for different things like brown rice, porridge, sushi rice, washed rice, etc. Fuzzy logic cookers offer fixed finish time and are often regarded as doing a better job. I eat quite a bit of rice (and would eat even more if my wife was on board for more); once you eat it enough, you start to taste/feel the subtle differences between methods, etc. If you don't eat a lot of rice and/or automation is not a large part of it for you, a rice cooker may not be such a big deal. I don't think a Japanese household would be caught dead without one. OTOH, apparently most (many?) have fish cookers as well, so maybe they just like appliances. OTOH, I kinda want a fish cooker.

From a sushi rice perspective, I simply cannot achieve the same quality of rice on the stove. A rice cooker just makes all the difference. We do a ton of sushi at the restaurant, and I know my home stove rice just isn't anywhere near the consistency/stickiness of what we get at work with a rice cooker. I'm tired of being frustrated by that, hence the cooker.

Amy

I was with you at one time, Sage - why bother with a rice cooker if I can make it OK on the stove? Then I got one for some friends as a gift, since his new wife was Japanese, and this is a guy I had been making Thai food with for years, so they needed one. Then, while over at his house cooking, I found out how easy it was to have one when making those multi-course Asian dinners; as Paul stated, just put the rice in, turn it on, and ignore it! One less thing to be timing, and making sure is turned off (though burned on rice is actually good!). So, I had to break down and buy one, and would not be without it! Now, I always go and set the rice to cook, then start whatever other prep. work I have to do, then watch the timer, to see if I have to hold up on the cooking, if the rice isn't quite done. It's nice having the timer to tell me how many minutes are left 'til it's done!

Now you've really gotten me curious. Can farro be cooked in a rice cooker? Other grains?
I really don't need another one trick pony in my appliance cupboard
fitzie

Fitzie,

If you get a more sophisticated rice cooker which has different timing settings (such as brown rice and wild rice settings) then presumably you could do farro and other grains. You'd have to experiment a bit to figure out the water/grain ratio, though.

I have yet to read any but there are cookbooks dedicated to making all sorts of rice & grains not to mention meals in your rice cooker.

I often cook barley, wild rice, and brown rice, and have occasionally cooked other grains in my cooker, and there are no special settings. Just have to put the proper amount of liquid in with it, close it up, and forget about it (so to speak).

Thanks all.
fitzie

Got my rice cooker yesterday. It's adorable, and I think the perfect size. Can't wait to try it out!

Amy