Comments on: help! should we buy a rice cooker?

By: Holly Donaldson

Holly Donaldson — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:34:38 +0000

I can’t believe I’m the 49th person to reply to this but I just could’t stay away! I’ve never used one. Instead, I use Mark Bittman’s brilliant recipe………..
I boil a big pot of water and a little salt and add a cup or two of rice.
As soon as it is cooked, I drain it like pasta. No measuring ever and “perfect rice every time”.
Thanks Mark Bittman!!!

By: shelterrific » Blog Archive » five things we learned last week

shelterrific » Blog Archive » five things we learned last week — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:00:49 +0000

[...] You are huge fans of rice cookers. At this writing, Angela’s question about buying a rice cooker has been answered with 48 comments, 36 of which are emphatically in [...]

By: Annie

Annie — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:31:05 +0000

We use our rice cooker all the time. We have a Zojirushi and I think that as a brand, they are far, far better than anything else around. The quality of the rice is completely different than what you get when you use another rice cooker (I think we used to have an Oster). If you use good sushi rice (like the Koda Farms brown sushi rice which is pretty easy to find out here in CA.) the results are really amazing- we even started eating rice for breakfast after we got this rice cooker. Love it!

By: Emily

Emily — Sun, 11 May 2008 14:26:33 +0000

We go through about 50 lbs of rice a year, for two people. Both of us are perfectly capable of making rice on the stove. Our rice cooker (a super cheap tiny Oster model) died from the use we put it through. It had done about 10 years of hard duty, so it was allowed to die.

Our next appliance purchase will be another, larger rice cooker. Both of us are sick and tired of the saucepans always being dirty because we had rice. We’re tired of having a meal and concluding “no rice, there’s nothing to cook it in”.

If you don’t eat much rice, it’s not a sensible purchase. But if rice is a staple, get a rice cooker. Then you’ll *sometimes* have clean saucepans that get used for something other than rice.

By: Val

Val — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:23:13 +0000

I have the rice cooker in the pic and like it for the most part. I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but if you like to make brown rice, beware…for some reason, the bubbling water likes to seep out of the pot and leak everywhere! This only happens when I cook smaller quantities of brown rice (about 1.5 cups uncooked). Making more seems to help occasionally. However, this rice cooker does white rice perfectly, sans mess.

By: Lesley

Lesley — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:51:42 +0000

Not that you need another comment on this topic, but to address the comments on figuring out how to measure rice to water, the Zojirushi has markings on the inside of the bowl; if you put 1 cup rice, you just fill to the #1 line. You seriously can’t screw it up.

By: chad

chad — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:22:29 +0000

nice. chad and rice cooker WIN !!!!
bring on the rice cooker!!!

By: Courtney

Courtney — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:38:29 +0000

Erm, I have to ask… aren’t we in the middle of an international rice shortage?! I would hold back on that purchase

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:56:47 +0000

I laughed at my boyfriend when he wanted a ricecooker - why on earth spend the $15.00 on another appliance when you can use a pot on the stove? However, tonight I was cooking rice in that very same rice cooker - and the boyfriend? No longer around ;o)

I love being able to come home, throw some rice in the cooker, take the dog on a walk around the neighborhood, and coming back to perfectly cooked rice. I would also say that you do not need an expensive one - like I said, mine cost $15 and it came from the little thai market. I think it’s a panasonic.

By: allyroo

allyroo — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:26:39 +0000

WE have a rice cooker - we use fairly often - we love it - perfect every time…
We also have a slow cooker we love. But it was after we bought the slow cooker that we found out there are slow cookers that double as rice cookers.
But not the other way around. All that said… go for it - ease is what you need when a small child is involved.