Rice Cookers
If you eat a lot of whole grains, a rice cooker 
is an great convenience and time-saver. Instead of constantly monitoring the rice while it cooks on the stove, you can fill up the rice cooker, press the button, and ignore it unti you're ready to eat. Rice cookers can also be used to prepare a number of other grains and legumes and can even make some simple rice-based dishes. Say goodbye to scrubbing burnt pots and chucking burnt rice in the bin and hello to perfect, fluffy rice every time.
Many rice cookers can also double as steamers or warmers for vegetables and other foods.
Important Features
 |
- Capacity
- A 1-litre model is adequate for two or three people, or a small family.
- Opt for more capacity (2.5-3 litres) if you have a big family or tend to cook large quantities at once.
- Keep in mind that price will rise or fall according to size.
- Size will also make a difference in storage. Do you have room to store a the size rice cooker you want?
- When reading product specs, make sure you know whether they mean '1.8 litres' or '1.8 litres cooked' -- there is a big difference!
- Extra functions
- Some people want a warmer or warming function to keep the rice warm after cooking, and a steamer is necessary if you want your rice cooker to be multi-functional.
- Ease of cleaning
- Most are non-stick, which makes for easy clean up.
- Some may need some soaking.
- Programmability
- Timers and autostop functions are good if you need to leave the cooker unattended or if you just happen to forget that you are cooking something.
- The most advanced rice cookers come with features like delayed start, extended keep warm, and different settings for different types and textures of rice (long grain vs. sushi rice, hard vs. soft).
- Accessories
- Steaming baskets might be useful if you plan to use the steamer for other foods.
- Some cookers come with a rice spatula and a slot to store it in.
Quick Recommendations
- Most rice cookers do a good to excellent job at their primary function -- cooking rice. Differences between models mainly have to do with: how well they do other things, like cooking oatmeal, porridge, steamed vegetables; the accessories included with the cooker; and how complicated and large the cooker is.
- Most reviews indicate that steaming vegetables in any rice cooker does not produce results as good as what you would get with a dedicated steamer or simply over boiling water with a steamer insert for your pot.
Major Manufacturers
Related Products
International Resources
For this resource in your home country, please see:
NL: Rijstkokers Shopgids
