Until I started going with a Chinese gal, I hardly ever cooked rice. First thing she made me do was go out and get a cheap rice cooker. Worked great for regular white rice, but I could never seem to get the thing “tuned” to make brown rice. A couple of years later, on a wine induced, spendthrift whim, I ordered a Zojirushi induction unit at about 10X the price of my cheap rice cooker. So far, after almost 10 years, probably the most perfect device I have ever owned for the kitchen. It makes rice perfectly, every time. White rice, brown rice, and it makes GABA brown rice that has become one of my go to starches. Did I mention it does it perfectly, every time! It also has a timer that allows you to set the time you want the rice to be done, not when you want it started.
The induction unit also allows you to keep the rice warm for a long time. I can’t tell the difference over the first 6 hours on keep warm. After that it starts to show some drying, but is OK to my taste for 24 hours for white rice, and 48 hours for brown rice. After that it needs to be “helped out” with some sort of addition. GABA brown rice at 60 hours is still “doable” if you add some stir fry to it.
+1. I love just dropping the rice in and forgetting about it. I have a cheap cooker as Charlie describes, I get a bit of sticky browning on the bottom but the rice on top is fine. I try to stir it a few times to avoid this but some on the bottom always seems to brown up. Also, instead of adding butter & salt I usually add some saffron.
This thread reminded me of one of the funniest episodes of I Love Lucy. It’s much better known for Lucy working at the chocolate factory but Ricky’s attempt at making rice is just as funny.
After reading about them, I am asking for a zojirushi for Christmas. The idea of a timer to turn it on automatically is awesome. I hope it does better for long grained brown rice and quinoa too.
Particularly, people in reviews talk about setting the timer for steel cut oatmeal for breakfast. Slow cooked oatmeal ready when you wake up sounds amazing!
Anyone else have experience using the higher end zojirushi for oatmeal with the timer?
I just reviewed the one-star Amazon reviews on the 3 cup Zorirushi: quite harsh…teflon flaking off being the main issue, but also the fact that their definitionn of “3 cup” meaning the enclosed smaller Zori cup, which is smaller than US measurements. These and some other thoughts (rice paddle made of PBA) have steered me away from Zori’s in quest of a stainless steel rice cooker.
Some of those 14 1 star reviews (as opposed to the 501 5 star reviews) sound a bit crazy. “Teflon causes cancer!” “I can’t figure out how to work it”(you put water and rice in the bowl and press the on button). Even the rice spoon being made of PBA doesn’t strike me as an issue as all the studies have been regarding bottles where the liquid is in touch with it for a long period of time as opposed to a few seconds.
The potentially misleading 3 cup size is a legitimate issue if what you want is to end up with 6 cups of cooked rice. I find it perfect for 2 people but if you want more rice you should buy a larger size.
Yeah, I threw out the rice cooker years ago. It’s insanely easy to make perfect rice in a pot once you learn how. For me an all-clad with a lid does the trick. I don’t add salt or butter though.
TIP: if you want to save leftover rice for future use, you can always freeze it in plastic wrap and nuke it when you’re either too lazy to cook a pot or don’t have enough time to cook a pot.
Zojirushi NP-HBC18 10-Cup induction model. The smaller one, at 5.5 cups, didn’t seem to offer smaller minimum quantities than it’s big brother. I only make more than 2 cups of rice about once a year, but they turn out as perfect as 1 cup.
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