rice cookers that arent $100 (or anywhere close)

[murphy55d]

Originally posted by: oogabooga

Originally posted by: randay
i dont understand what you mean by "taste like chinese restaraunt rice" but perhaps it has more with the brand/type of rice as opposed to the method of cooking. unless you mean texture, in which case it would all be determined by how much water you use?

and the style of rice too. I didn't think the cooker made that big of a difference

i dont know what it means either. i dont like chinese food and i dont really like plain white rice.

thats why im asking.

 

[murphy55d]

Originally posted by: sonambulo

Originally posted by: murphy55d
so in theory, if this appliance was used say, 4 hours in advance of eating, so the rice could sit there and stay warm, would it then taste similar?

or is this just a lost cause?

maybe ill just get that little one and see how it works. worse comes to worse i can always return it. target sells them online so i could return to store if need be.

Marinate on that until tonight. When I get back to my place I'll make a batch and let it sit all day (evening?) and post around 10 or 11 pm.

above and beyond. thanks for the help. all this for some rice...i tell ya.

 

[crystal]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Rice cooked in a rice cooker doesn't taste any different than rice cooked on a stovetop assuming it is cooked properly (which isn't hard to do).

lazy > effort

Cooking rice in a rice cooker:

Measure water, pour in cooker
Measure rice, pour in cooker
Turn cooker on and wait until light goes off

Cooking rice on a stovetop:

Measure water, pour in pot and heat until it is just to boiling point
Measure rice, pour in water
Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until done

I don't see much difference in effort quite frankly.

You don't see the difference?
Ricecooker -> add: water, rice & 1 button push. You have a nice cup of rice in 30 min or so while you enjoy that movie or some games.

stovetop:
1. add water
2. check the water 5 min later. (not done yet. let come back later)
3. Ok it is boil. Let put some rice in it.
4. 10 min and you wander back to check. Oh crap, heat a little bit high. Half your rice are burn. And water all over your stove. (lower heat stats)
5. For the next 10 min. you glue to your pot trying to save your dinner.
...
6. Have a cup of dry & under cook rice for your dinner.
7. Come to ATOT and brag - cook rick on stove top are so easy. A monkey can do it. Only a fool wastes money on a ricecooker.
...
8. Profits???

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: xboxist
Silly question perhaps, but do rice cookers handle brown rice well? Do they have separate water/timer settings?

This thread reminds me that I want a rice cooker, but I don't care for plain steamed white rice at all.

It's controlled by how much water you put in. So you may have to look at the manual for adjustment of water quantity.

 

[HammerCurl]

Originally posted by: xboxist
Silly question perhaps, but do rice cookers handle brown rice well? Do they have separate water/timer settings?

This thread reminds me that I want a rice cooker, but I don't care for plain steamed white rice at all.

I use mine for brown rice, it seems to take longer. I don't know if I use more water than normal but it turns out fine. No seperate switches or anything either, I'm thinking once the rice gets past a certain temperature/lack of moisture it senses this and turns off the cook to warm. I always burn my rice on the stove too.

 

[Journer]

i'm not a rice connoisseur but i eat rice almost every other day. my g/f bought me a $30 rice cooker from Sears last year. It works great. I think rice made in a professional rice cooker taste better than made in pot because it is always exact on the time. However, what is more important is that you wash the rice before you cook it (just put rice in bowl, fill up with water, sqeeze around (dont squish it) and repeat until water doesn't become murky). Lots of restaurants make rice different but typical Chinese restaurant rice is made in a cooker. Honestly, i think a 30 dollar cooker will work fine.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: crystal

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Rice cooked in a rice cooker doesn't taste any different than rice cooked on a stovetop assuming it is cooked properly (which isn't hard to do).

lazy > effort

Cooking rice in a rice cooker:

Measure water, pour in cooker
Measure rice, pour in cooker
Turn cooker on and wait until light goes off

Cooking rice on a stovetop:

Measure water, pour in pot and heat until it is just to boiling point
Measure rice, pour in water
Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until done

I don't see much difference in effort quite frankly.

You don't see the difference?
Ricecooker -> add: water, rice & 1 button push. You have a nice cup of rice in 30 min or so while you enjoy that movie or some games.

stovetop:
1. add water
2. check the water 5 min later. (not done yet. let come back later)
3. Ok it is boil. Let put some rice in it.
4. 10 min and you wander back to check. Oh crap, heat a little bit high. Half your rice are burn. And water all over your stove. (lower heat stats)
5. For the next 10 min. you glue to your pot trying to save your dinner.
...
6. Have a cup of dry & under cook rice for your dinner.
7. Come to ATOT and brag - cook rick on stove top are so easy. A monkey can do it. Only a fool wastes money on a ricecooker.
...
8. Profits???

i guess you are right if the person cooking is a fucking idiot...

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: crystal

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Rice cooked in a rice cooker doesn't taste any different than rice cooked on a stovetop assuming it is cooked properly (which isn't hard to do).

lazy > effort

Cooking rice in a rice cooker:

Measure water, pour in cooker
Measure rice, pour in cooker
Turn cooker on and wait until light goes off

Cooking rice on a stovetop:

Measure water, pour in pot and heat until it is just to boiling point
Measure rice, pour in water
Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until done

I don't see much difference in effort quite frankly.

You don't see the difference?
Ricecooker -> add: water, rice & 1 button push. You have a nice cup of rice in 30 min or so while you enjoy that movie or some games.

stovetop:
1. add water
2. check the water 5 min later. (not done yet. let come back later)
3. Ok it is boil. Let put some rice in it.
4. 10 min and you wander back to check. Oh crap, heat a little bit high. Half your rice are burn. And water all over your stove. (lower heat stats)
5. For the next 10 min. you glue to your pot trying to save your dinner.
...
6. Have a cup of dry & under cook rice for your dinner.
7. Come to ATOT and brag - cook rick on stove top are so easy. A monkey can do it. Only a fool wastes money on a ricecooker.
...
8. Profits???

i guess you are right if the person cooking is a fucking idiot...

:thumbsup::laugh:MAO

 

[pray4mojo]

no one washes their rice before cooking????

 

[JS80]

Korean rice cooker > *

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Its not about the rice cooker. Its the brand/type of rice. Here's a hint, they don't use uncle bens.

 

[evetstech]

it's not the rice cooker, it's more the type of rice....

 

[mjh]

As someone who has used both cheap rice cookers and nicer rice cookers, I would strongly recommend you pony up the extra cash for something at least like the models other people have recommend in this thread.

Good quality rice + rice cooker = awesomeness!

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: purbeast0
rice cookers suck.

rice made in pots is 1000x better than rice made in rice cookers.

Speak for yourself! I use my rice cooker 3 - 4 times a week and it makes rice MUCH better than a pot...it cooks the entire bowl consistently. Then again maybe I should stir my rice on the stove more :Q

QFT.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: pray4mojo
no one washes their rice before cooking????

of course you wash the rice. I wash it 3 times.

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: murphy55d
My wife wanted to get a rice cooker, but decided against it because she wasnt sure if it would make rice taste like "chinese restaurant rice". Thats the only way she really likes plain white rice.
tia.

Your wife has very good taste. I also LOVE restaurant rice, but it's probably more to do with the water/rice ratio than the cooker. You can approximate the texture by using less water. However, I think they may be using actual pots to cook rice in restaurants... that or the mass production effect works well.

 

[Excelsior]

The stove-top only people can have it.

We got a $30 rice cooker a while back and use it often. It beats using a pot because after measuring the rice/water and stirring once, you set it and leave it. It switches to warm mode after its done and you can eat it when you're ready. You can't do that the stove top way because if you aren't attentive, you'll burn the bottom of the rice in the pot.

So, rice cooker wins, sorry.

And I recommend Jasmine rice. Soooo good. I think Costco sells 25lb bags of it for $10.

 

[Viper GTS]

Jules is the rice cooking nazi, do a search for zojirushi & you'll see him pushing his stove-top method in every one of them.

I'm about ready to buy one of these

That should make his head explode.



Viper GTS

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

The quality of the rice matters a LOT. Go to an Asian supermarket and get good quality rice. I prefer sticky Japanese rice. The freshness of the rice matters a lot too. It tastes amazing right off the rice cooker, but will lose a LOT of this initial taste if it's more than a half day old or stored in the fridge.

 

[Ika]

Pressure cookers FTW!

Anyway... as for rice cookers, my mom got a $40 one at some store or somewhere. The quality of the rice cooked depends on how much water you add and what kind of rice you use, but it tastes fine - I don't notice anything special or better about the rice at actual chinese restaurants. Whenever I go out now, rice at chinese restaurants just tastes like the rice we have at home.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
Jules is the rice cooking nazi, do a search for zojirushi & you'll see him pushing his stove-top method in every one of them.

I'm about ready to buy one of these

That should make his head explode.



Viper GTS

It really is THAT good. I didn't buy the Induction line when it came out and I bought the older 10 cup cooker that still cost me a good $140. Is it great? Yeah. I have a $20 rice cooker. It's actually a steamer type by Tatung and you have to put water on the outside of the pot also, you know the old fashioned rice cookers... Doesn't even compare.

I got treated to a $60 Zojirushi cooker during my 2nd year in college and that was bliss. Moving back to my $20 Tatung cooker during my 3rd year made me cry. Then my roommate brought out her $30 ELECTRIC rice cooker that was newer than mine. Still sucked. I finally bought the $140 Zojirushi this year.

Does it make a difference? Hell yes.

The Japanese care about their rice. There's intricacies to cooking these things that you may never understand. To all the NON ASIANS shouting about cooking on the stove top, please, stop. I'd tell you about how my mom loves using the toaster oven to heat up Korean BBQ instead of actually grilling it, and I'm sure all you grilling elitists would scream in horror. Well the same goes when I read people talking about using their stoves for rice.

Also, best rice: sushi rice - Nishiki or Kohuko Rose, Jasmine - 3 ladies brand or the butterfly brand. Some of the Korean ones are OK too but Nishiki and Kohuko Rose are typically better. If you eat anything else, then you're totally not Asian.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: pray4mojo
no one washes their rice before cooking????

I do when I buy that type of rice. I really like Jasmine rice, and that needs to be washed prior to cooking.

 

[ChaoZ]

Rice cookers don't make the rice, the rice does; and the amount of water you use.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
Jules is the rice cooking nazi, do a search for zojirushi & you'll see him pushing his stove-top method in every one of them.

I'm about ready to buy one of these

That should make his head explode.



Viper GTS

BOOM!!! :shocked:

 

[ZetaEpyon]

Gotta agree with some of the previous posts.

If it's the taste that you're looking for, I'd say look more at the type of rice than the mechanism of cooking. I like Nishiki Jasmine a lot, seems to be pretty close to what a lot of restaurants serve.

For what it's worth, I've noticed that more than a few restaurants use very large, commercial Zojirushi cookers.

 

[sonambulo]

OK, this batch has been steaming for two hours and it's not a far cry from restaurant rice. You're going to have to experiment to rival the rice you're getting in a restaurant (for example I like mine much plumper and stickier) so I'd try some different brands in a pot. They must be asian brands for this to work.