![]() “None of these machines were an all-out fail,” Ciufo says. Testers also factored convenience and the control settings into the Overall Score, assessing how easy the machine is to clean, the clarity of the controls, how audible the alerts are, whether it automatically switches off, and how clear the water line markings are on the pot. “But we saw a lot more variation in taste, texture, and cooking time with brown rice,” he says. Larry Ciufo, CR’s lead tester for rice cookers, says all the machines easily made white rice that earned either Very Good or Excellent ratings. Tasters also compared how rice tasted when cooked in a rice cooker vs. The ideal batch of rice was cooked evenly top to bottom-no mushy or crunchy pockets-with soft, fluffy grains. (All the cookers also come with a fluffing paddle.)Ī panel of several trained tasters and a few lucky CR staffers sampled each batch of rice in a blind side-by-side taste test. Plus, in this case, not all rice packages include instructions for how to cook the rice using a rice cooker.) We used the rice measuring cup that comes with each cooker and adhered to the fill lines on the pots to measure the amount of water to use. (We always follow manufacturers’ instructions for the appliances we test. Prices average around $35, but we also brought in a $270 Zojirushi model-which announces that your rice is ready by playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” among other (less whimsical) features-to see how it stacks up.Ĭonsumer Reports testers rinsed and cooked small and large batches of long-grain white rice as well as batches of long-grain brown rice following the rice cooker manufacturers’ directions. All models are in the 3- to 4-cup-capacity range because our research indicated that this was the most popular size. It works great again, but I know it is only a matter of time.We selected six models from five popular brands: Aroma, Black+Decker, Hamilton Beach, Instant, and Zojirushi. To insure the rice gets cooked, I use a chubby wine bottle opener to prop up the plug into the cooker to insure it stays on. I figured out the electrical connection on the side of cooker was loose, but I can't get inside to fit it. Unfortunately, the new rice cooker does not work as well, so, I recently switched back to using my beloved old rice cooker. After a few meals without cooked rice, I switched to using a new cooker gifted to me (same size and looks similar), but a different brand. Well 20 years later, my rice cooker is nearing its end-of-life, I actually stopped using my cooker about a year ago because it would turnoff in the middle of cooking. My co-workers thought we had an antique then, and suggested we buy a new cooker then. Our rice cooker even traveled with us to Taiwan in the mid 1990's, when I was an expat for 3 1/2 years. My cooker only has one light.the button I press to start the cooking lights up, when I press it to start the cooking process. Only has one light and I bought it in San Francisco Chinatown in 1972-73. I have the same rice cooker, but I think mine is older. Overall: 10 1/2 in x 13 in x 10 1/2 in 26.67 cm x 33.02 cm x 26.67 cm ID NumberĮating See more items in Cultural and Community Life: Domestic Life Food FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000 Domestic Furnishings Exhibition Food: Transforming the American Table Exhibition Location National Museum of American History Data Source Later cooking processes were governed by microprocessors. Later cookers like this one incorporated increasingly user-friendly technologies, such as a non-stick inner chamber and a stay-warm function. The early rice cookers operated via a double chamber with a thermostat-controlled cooking temperature that shut off the heat when the rice was done. The rice cookers, which, unlike cooking over a flame or electric coil, guarantee perfectly cooked, non-burnt rice every time. Their manufacture and use spread throughout the rest of Asia where rice was the dietary mainstay, and then to the rest of the world where rice-eating continued to grow over the next years of global contact, trade, and culinary exchange. Increased interest in Asian foods, accompanied by interest in alternative foods and health practice, brought both new cooking tools and methods to American cooks interested in food that went beyond their conventional boundaries.Įlectric rice cookers were developed in Japan after World War I, and by the late 1950’s, such cookers were a standard appliance in Japanese homes. In the United States, such cookers came to be introduced in the mid-1970’s, and were quickly adopted by older rice-centric communities in South Carolina and Louisiana and by newer countercultural Americans who were increasingly interested in alternate cuisines and culinary practices. This rice cooker was used for 35 years by a Smithsonian curator, an avid cook, whose father and his Chinese wife brought the cooker to her from Singapore in the early 1970’s.
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