How to pick 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.

Rice cookers can cook rice of course, but they can also cook other hot cereals, steam vegetables, cook deserts and even cook stews and soups. While not all rice cookers can do all of these tasks, many are able to do most of them.

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS

Most habitancy that use rice cookers swear by the ones that are made in Japan. While less high-priced brands are ready from other countries, the Japanese make the best machines by far.

You will find rice cookers range in size from a three cups to ten cups. Buy the size that is closest to the number of rice you usually 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.

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

One feature that you will find very prominent for easy cleanup is the non-stick pan. This is a very high potential non-stick coating and rice unmistakably slides out of the pan. A quick rinse and you are ready to cook the next batch.

There are three basic types of rice cookers, the on/off models, the keep warm models and the fuzzy logic models.

On/off models cook the rice and then turn off automatically. There may not be an indicator light but these cheap models are very versatile and do a great job at cooking rice.

Keep warm models cook the rice and then after it is done vocalize 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 closed with it since there is no off position.

The most high-priced rice cookers offer fuzzy logic. They have dissimilar settings for soup, brown rice, texture of rice and some even offer the setting for sushi rice.

Some of the newest models of rice cookers offer induction heating. They make perfect rice every time and compensate for variations in water or rice measurements and for dissimilar types of rice.

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.

How to pick a Rice Cooker

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS