Rice cooker, is it worth it?

[ponyo]

This thread is full of people who know things but actually know not so much. As any wise person knows the minute you spend money of something useless it becomes the most valuable thing in the world. If you have a rice cooker and use it you will think yourself the most intelligent person in the world. If you cook with a pot you will think yourself an economic genius for the money you save. The one who said he was a lazy bastard was slightly more honest, because when you use a pot you have to turn it off when it's done which for some must clearly be exhausting.

Also, almost all of the rice cookers you can buy and many a pot people cook rice in is non-stick lined which means for a whole class of other fanatics an early grave.

I would go with an honest self examination. Do you have a lot of room for a rice cooker and are a slug by nature. Get one. If you like to cook, already have a good pot with a lid and can pay a slight bit of attention, save the money and counter space. You can pat your egos on the back for being in the right camp here on the forum, but you won't earn any gold stars in the spiritually development department one way or the other.

The prized feature of expensive rice cooker is not the cooking function. It's the warming function. Warming is what you can't do with stove top rice. Warming is something cheap rice cookers can't do well either. It's why cheap rice cookers are worthless and why expensive rice cookers are worth its weight in gold.

 

[sdifox]

This thread is full of people who know things but actually know not so much. As any wise person knows the minute you spend money of something useless it becomes the most valuable thing in the world. If you have a rice cooker and use it you will think yourself the most intelligent person in the world. If you cook with a pot you will think yourself an economic genius for the money you save. The one who said he was a lazy bastard was slightly more honest, because when you use a pot you have to turn it off when it's done which for some must clearly be exhausting.

Also, almost all of the rice cookers you can buy and many a pot people cook rice in is non-stick lined which means for a whole class of other fanatics an early grave.

I would go with an honest self examination. Do you have a lot of room for a rice cooker and are a slug by nature. Get one. If you like to cook, already have a good pot with a lid and can pay a slight bit of attention, save the money and counter space. You can pat your egos on the back for being in the right camp here on the forum, but you won't earn any gold stars in the spiritually development department one way or the other.

I can't recall a single day in my 47 year life where there isn't at least one rice cooker in the kitchen.

I have two rice cookers and an IP on my countertop.

Also, the you are crazy comment was about butter and rice.

 

[whm1974]

I can't recall a single day in my 47 year life where there isn't at least one rice cooker in the kitchen.

I have two rice cookers and an IP on my countertop.

Also, the you are crazy comment was about butter and rice.

If you are a heavy user of those devices then that are not a waste.

 

[sdifox]

If you are a heavy user of those devices then that are not a waste.

Make rice in rice cooker, beef brisket curry in IP, serve piping hot

I do have 24.5' of countertop :awe:

 

[eng2d2]

i agree with Zeze's general statement. You only need it if you need it, rice can be made in a pot if it's a once-a-year deal, but if you make sushi at home or are otherwise a rice freak, a good cooker is a great investment. I bought a zojirushi-clone for about $250 and i'm super-happy, the rice is consistently excellent (otherwise, rice in a pot will suck one out of four times) and it's really zero effort to make enough for a few days. Yes, i said days. I close the lid on the cooker and the rice stays moist and usable for 4+ days.

Yes, i said days. I close the lid on the cooker and the rice stays moist and usable for 4+ days.[/QUOTE]

Is this true? 4 days of moist rice becomes moldy.

 

[Moonbeam]

I can't recall a single day in my 47 year life where there isn't at least one rice cooker in the kitchen.

I have two rice cookers and an IP on my countertop.

Also, the you are crazy comment was about butter and rice.

I left it to you to cornsider that your rice and butter comment was just another form of “if you use butter, butter is the best thing that ever happened to rice, but if grow up on plane rice it sounds disgusting”. You are just another kind of fanatic who thinks that whatever is normal for you is the best. Just so you don't try to type me as belonging to this camp or the other, when I cook Asian I eat my rice clean, but when I fix a steak and rice, say, I cover it in butter. I love rice in thousands of ways and bet I would like it in millions of ways i’ve Never had the good fortune to try.

 

[whm1974]

Butter makes almost everything better, including coffee and hot dark cocoa drinks.

 

[BoomerD]

Butter makes almost everything better, including coffee and hot dark cocoa drinks.

I like a small bit of butter in my oatmeal in the morning...not a fan of it in coffee or hot chocolate.

 

[JujuFish]

Moonbeam, you are so full of yourself that it is well and truly mind-boggling.

 

[DigDog]

Is this true? 4 days of moist rice becomes moldy.

absolutely. keep in mind that sushi rice has vinegar added to it, which prolongs its life. normal rice will last at most 3 days. vinegared rice (which is not nasty or "vinegary") will last ... long. way longer that i care to admit. i don't need to refrigerate it either, just take it out of the cooker (which is not on, or anything of the sort) and use it, either as it is for sushi wraps, or as a side for a warm dish.

 

[Chaotic42]

I bought some Minnesota Wild Rice because of this thread.

 

[Mai72]

Had one when I lived in South Korea.

Get it only if you ear rice often.

 

[lxskllr]

absolutely. keep in mind that sushi rice has vinegar added to it, which prolongs its life. normal rice will last at most 3 days. vinegared rice (which is not nasty or "vinegary") will last ... long. way longer that i care to admit. i don't need to refrigerate it either, just take it out of the cooker (which is not on, or anything of the sort) and use it, either as it is for sushi wraps, or as a side for a warm dish.

I looked up rice on wikipedia, and found this...

Cooked rice can contain Bacillus cereus spores, which produce an emetic toxin when left at 4–60 °C (39–140 °F). When storing cooked rice for use the next day, rapid cooling is advised to reduce the risk of toxin production.[26] One of the enterotoxins produced by Bacillus cereus is heat-resistant; reheating contaminated rice kills the bacteria, but does not destroy the toxin already present.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice

 

[DigDog]

i'm having a hard time believing that something in a sealed container that has been heated to boiling temperature for half an hour can contain ANYTHING living.

and, after doing a bit of reading, the bacillus does not exist *within* the rice, but rather can contaminate foods left exposed to open air. it is liked to fried rice because it is likely to thrive in a food preparation business, the same way that you are more likely to find MRSA in an hospital and not in my house.

Bacillus cereus ... have been known to colonize distilled liquors and alcohol-soaked swabs and pads in numbers sufficient to cause infection.

you better get rid of all them whisky bottles you have lying around.

the rice cooker lid seals hermetically. if you open it, add vinegar, then close it, and your food gets infected with bacteria, you need to clean your kitchen.


obviously, your mileage may vary. it depends on where you live, what your average daytime temperature is, and .. how clean is your kitchen. i just speak from experience, i have never refrigerated pickles, mustard, bread, eggs, ketchup, heck, i knew a guy who didn't refrigerate his mayonnaise. my parents didn't refrigerate these, the people i know in my country don't refrigerate these, and we never get sick.

i mean, don't get me wrong, you *can* get sick from old food. but 2% of reported cases are due to this, and my guess is that the majority of these come from a dirty chinese shop where they are infested with bugs .. which i would know something about, having worked in the catering business.

 

[sdifox]

I left it to you to cornsider that your rice and butter comment was just another form of “if you use butter, butter is the best thing that ever happened to rice, but if grow up on plane rice it sounds disgusting”. You are just another kind of fanatic who thinks that whatever is normal for you is the best. Just so you don't try to type me as belonging to this camp or the other, when I cook Asian I eat my rice clean, but when I fix a steak and rice, say, I cover it in butter. I love rice in thousands of ways and bet I would like it in millions of ways i’ve Never had the good fortune to try.

For rice lard is the right fat

 

[Chaotic42]

For rice lard is the right fat

I miss that old coffee can full of bacon grease we had on the stove growing up.

 

[renz20003]

Ahh nothing better than a good rice cooker thread

 

[eng2d2]

absolutely. keep in mind that sushi rice has vinegar added to it, which prolongs its life. normal rice will last at most 3 days. vinegared rice (which is not nasty or "vinegary") will last ... long. way longer that i care to admit. i don't need to refrigerate it either, just take it out of the cooker (which is not on, or anything of the sort) and use it, either as it is for sushi wraps, or as a side for a warm dish.

This is new to me and might sway me to get a rice cooker but when I googled it says to refrigerate left overs. I don’t doubt what you say or experienced.

Butter and rice is yummy

 

[JulesMaximus]

Posting in a rice cooker thread. A useless device that I will never own.

 

[sdifox]

Posting in a rice cooker thread. A useless device that I will never own.

You already own a useless pecker, what is one more :awe:

 

[Ns1]

I assume anti-rice cooker folk also make ice using manual ice trays because they believe in artisan hand crafted ice cubes.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I made one yesterday that turned out to be delicious, but the next one I make will be even better. Even with 8 fresh organic tomatoes and a cup of Pasata and some tomato paste, it needed more tomatoes. I put some fennel seeds in the sauce I made and served roasted fennel bulbs as a side dish. Fennel seed taste is lasagna in my opinion.

Interesting... Never tried that.
I did not went for lasagna today after all.
I had some good creamy tomato soup with lots of herbs and with two sliced up boiled eggs added. And some short cooked sliced up broccoli added.
Tastes good. Sometimes i even add some grated Old Amsterdam cheese to top it off.

 

[Moonbeam]

Interesting... Never tried that.
I did not went for lasagna today after all.
I had some good creamy tomato soup with lots of herbs and with two sliced up boiled eggs added. And some short cooked sliced up broccoli added.
Tastes good. Sometimes i even add some grated Old Amsterdam cheese to top it off.

It's actually pretty easy to do if you have a food processor, a lasagna pan, and an oven.

The internet has youtubes of it being made in various configurations. The common elements are:
Mozzarella, Ricotta, Parmesan, ground beef, tomato sauce and paste, onions, chopped parsley, garlic, and extras would include Italian sausage, hot or mild, red or white wine, beef stock, fennel seeds celery, white mushrooms, carrots or sugar. You prepare a meat sauce first and layer the sauce the lasagna cheeses maybe three times. A full sized pan makes a ton so a 8 x 8 would give a single person leftovers.

 

[Moonbeam]

The prized feature of expensive rice cooker is not the cooking function. It's the warming function. Warming is what you can't do with stove top rice. Warming is something cheap rice cookers can't do well either. It's why cheap rice cookers are worthless and why expensive rice cookers are worth its weight in gold.

I can warm rice just fine in the original pot. I can also put the whole pot in the frig so my rice doesn't spoil and heat the left overs in it by adding a bit of water to the bottom or scooping out what I want on a plate and microwaving it. Very convenient and easy and I don't need to pay the electric bill for keeping it warm. You just have your own habits but people have been successfully cooking rice in a pot for thousands of years. I am a keeper of tradition, not you and not for any other reason than I don't have room for a rice cooker. Any room I can make will go to an espresso machine.

 

[Ns1]

Any room I can make will go to an espresso machine.

You mean a stove top espresso maker right? Since you are one for tradition.