Best Rice Cookers Review

Buyer’s Guide for Finding the Best Rice Cooker

Rice has been an essential part of humanity's eating habits for the last few thousands of years. The earliest forms of rice cookers were actually made of wooden tools that were difficult to carry around. Today, we can witness a large variety of steamers and cookers, as technology helped us develop incredible devices which have eased up the process of rice steaming and boiling.

Japan is the inventor as well as the leading country in developing sophisticated rice cookers. Presently, there are so many variations that it would be difficult for you to pick the best one for your purposes. There’s more to a rice cooker than what we see in the marketplace. No, the electric variation is not the only one. You don’t need to worry though! We have compiled a comprehensive guide so you know where to buy a rice cooker from.

Types of Rice Cooker

• Electric Rice Cooker. The classic electric invention. It works well when you put water and rice inside - just that. It's not extremely versatile, but it can be used for veggies and pasta, or cook some not-so-tasty and crunchy rice. These electric rice cookers are quite affordable - you can buy a great one for about $40.
• Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker. The computerized rice cooker which is full of features. You can cook other stuff like porridge or stews. This rice cooker cooks fluffy white rice, and you don't need to be a chef for this. The price tag? It is a bit expensive - be prepared to spend more than $100.

Size

Know what you need. What are your home's requirements? How much rice do you cook on a weekly basis? Depending on this, you need to choose the total capacity of the cooker. Sizes usually range from two cups of rice to more than ten cups.

Type of Pan

It will help you decide the ease with which you can clean or wash the device after your lunch or dinner is ready. A non-stick pan with an unsealed lid can be cleaned without much hassle. However, if the device doesn't have a seal, the lid might vibrate when the cooker is filled with contents, which can make rice ooze out from the top. On the other hand, a sealed lid which has a metal top usually comes way cheaper, but it is more difficult to clean.

Steamer Tray

The steamer tray, as the name suggests, is placed above the area where the rice is boiled. It's extremely useful when cooking vegetables (just steaming, of course). The main idea is to keep the vegetables there in order to be cooked, so the steam has to be trapped. Some rice cookers come with the option of steaming vegetables individually. These rice cookers are relatively expensive, but are worth every penny.

Menu Settings

These may carry certain small changes for every brand. The basic options in any menu setting include the quick cook function, the porridge cycle, the keep warm mode, etc. For instance, if you choose the quick cook mode, the device will skip the initial phase of soaking and go stright to the cooking cycle.

The quick cook mode skips the soak time to directly start with the cooking cycle. The keep warm mode keeps the rice warm for a certain period of time after cooking. There's new technology available now that let's you choose texture - it may be soft or regular - just as you like.

Fuzzy Logic Technology

If you're looking for a computerized, feature-packed rice cooker for your kitchen, the fuzzy logic technology should be your first choice. Such a computerized device boasts many features so it is not just a rice cooker. You can cook other products like porridge, oats, or stews. You will be able to cook fluffy rice, even if you are not a chef. In other words, the cooker intrinsically adjusts the temperature and the cooking time, therefore cooking the perfect rice using each setting.

There are also the most sophisticated induction cookers which always give rise to properly cooked rice without having to activate the fuzzy logic. Know that such type of rice cooker does not come cheap; be prepared to spend well over $100 for one of these.

Induction Heating

There are a couple of rice cookers which take precision a step further with a technology called induction heating. In other words, the electrical current goes through some metal coils made of copper. The movement generates a magnetic field, and the rice cooker's pan is inserted there. While most rice cookers simply apply heat underneath the device, the induction heating ones generate heat with AC. There's a magnetic field generated which creates heat. It's called hysteresis - magnetic materials have resistance to changes when it comes to their magnetic level.

Conclusion

We've put together a comprehensive list with some of the best rice cookers out there. This article just gives you a sample of what is available on the marketplace nowadays. All of the above options have received excellent user reviews and are top-rated products.