Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Food & Drink => Topic started by: slope on 11 September, 2022, 07:40:36 pm
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Got one of THESE (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Perfected-Lloytron-Automatic-Cooker-White/dp/B00VBRO6Z6/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2SMJ9YI1HAS8I&keywords=kitchen+perfected+rice+cooker&qid=1662921068&sprefix=kitchen+perfected+rice+cooker%2Caps%2C51&sr=8-3) which cost £17 a couple of years ago. One imagines there are millions of these in satisfied Asian kitchens?
The water to rice ratio being the only factor (well maybe also whether to pre soak rice?) that determines suitable cookedness. Pretty reliable for white and brown basmati, but a bit more hit and miss with fancy pants Venere nero, Carmargue etc.
Are more spendy cookers any better?
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Got one of THESE (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Perfected-Lloytron-Automatic-Cooker-White/dp/B00VBRO6Z6/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2SMJ9YI1HAS8I&keywords=kitchen+perfected+rice+cooker&qid=1662921068&sprefix=kitchen+perfected+rice+cooker%2Caps%2C51&sr=8-3) which cost £17 a couple of years ago. One imagines there are millions of these in satisfied Asian kitchens?
The water to rice ratio being the only factor (well maybe also whether to pre soak rice?) that determines suitable cookedness. Pretty reliable for white and brown basmati, but a bit more hit and miss with fancy pants Venere nero, Carmargue etc.
Are more spendy cookers any better?
Yes.
I bought a small cheapo one for the work kitchen a few years ago. It's OK and after a bit of trial and error it produces acceptable results. Acceptable, not great. (We now take this one camping as it's only 200-ish W so will run off a portable power station.)
My advice is to splash out and get a Cookoo (Korean) or Zojirushi (Japanese). We have the latter which has provided impeccable service for more than 10 years now.
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I've been making good use of various functions and settings on my YumAsia Panda recently:
* delayed start finish for when I'm doing a bit of lunchtime prep for an evening meal. Extra useful if I'm not sure when the parentals will want to eat, so it can just cook it and sit there keeping things warm until its needed.
* quick cook setting for quinoa.
* slow cook for about 30 mins for green lentils.
(I'm getting into lentil and grain salads for lunch atm!)
I haven't really anything to compare it to in terms of cooking quality, and I'm mostly cooking sushi rice when I'm cooking rice. It does have both long grain and short grain settings, but I haven't long grained very often. It just works. I think I've done brown rice a few times and over that sort of time frame appreciated the set-it-and-forget-it aspect.
The extra features are useful though, so that's one possible metric for 'better'.
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Have had a bunch of rice cookers, including cheap ones and medium-spendy ones. When our Cook Japan finally gave up the ghost and the company had folded, I went with a YumAsia and we're very happy with it. I spent a bit more to get the heavy duty inner pan, as that's the part that seems to limit the lifespan, although Yum Asia also do spares.
Sam
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Thanks folks :thumbsup:
A Panda has been ordered, for its relevant capacity and what will be perhaps once a month use + cost.
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I shall open with a reassurance that I'm not being a snotty ratbag - this is a genuine question, not a disparagement.
What's the point of a rice cooker?
I appreciate that the clue is in the name. That it cooks rice is clear.
What I mean is: what does it do that can't be achieved with a pan?
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Convenience, if you don't use the boil and drain method.
Re price, even a cheap one will cook rice perfectly, what's more important is the rice itself and the amount of water used.
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I shall open with a reassurance that I'm not being a snotty ratbag - this is a genuine question, not a disparagement.
What's the point of a rice cooker?
I appreciate that the clue is in the name. That it cooks rice is clear.
What I mean is: what does it do that can't be achieved with a pan?
You don't need to attend to it, and it keeps the rice warm. So it ceases to be something you need to manage whilst preparing other elements of the meal.
I wouldn't cook rice any other way, and I'm pretty sure neither would any Asians.
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Also out of curiosity, as I don't see myself as a potential convert any time soon, I assume it is for plain boiled/steamed and is useless at a pilau/pilaf etc?
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As I only use Basmati, which I can cook in around 8 minutes in boiling water (or 25 if it's browm) and there are only 2 of us, a rice cooker is not needed. As for Asian cooks - since they'll be having 5-6 ounces of rice per person per meal, every meal of course it makes sense to them. To most of us it's a luxury gadget.
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Also out of curiosity, as I don't see myself as a potential convert any time soon, I assume it is for plain boiled/steamed and is useless at a pilau/pilaf etc?
You can cook pilau in it, but you'd do the spicing and softening of onions in a pan first then transfer to the rice cooker.
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As I only use Basmati, which I can cook in around 8 minutes in boiling water (or 25 if it's browm) and there are only 2 of us, a rice cooker is not needed. As for Asian cooks - since they'll be having 5-6 ounces of rice per person per meal, every meal of course it makes sense to them. To most of us it's a luxury gadget.
Yes, but in the same way that an electric kettle is a luxury gadget.
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I'm not being a snotty ratbag
I was going to post about how good the AGA is for cooking rice, but realised I would probably qualify for this....
Edited to add: we don't need an electric kettle either :)
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Also out of curiosity, as I don't see myself as a potential convert any time soon, I assume it is for plain boiled/steamed and is useless at a pilau/pilaf etc?
I did a mèn fàn (焖饭) style one-pot dish last week in mine: rice and water in the pot as per usual, then chopped veg, a couple of large tomatoes, some diced meat etc layered on top. Set it off to do it's thing, come back when it's done, stir it and serve.
Have also used it for hot pot. Lid up, slow cook mode, chuck ingredients into a soup base and fish them out when they're cooked. Bean noodles that time, rather than rice.
I've not done pilau before, but sautéing onions in the Panda's pot before adding the rice and water in would be fair game - just need to adjust your water measuring strategy as the lines on the side of the pot won't be quite right with the extra onions in. [I think others have said in another thread that they keep the rice cooker for plain rice only because they can detect the flavour carrying over into subsequent meals, but I've not had that issue, even after several hours of slowcooking barbecue pork. YMMV.]
I occasionally add stock or bouillon powder into the water for something a bit more than just boiled rice.
My gluten free bread-making experiments in it were a bit of a failure, but there have been some good cakes. I guess the Instant Pot has kind of superseded rice-cooker dorm cooking hacks, but there are still a fair few recipes out there on YouTube etc. The rice cooker is still my go-to for a few things, even though I've got the Ninja Foodi now too.
You don't need to attend to it, and it keeps the rice warm. So it ceases to be something you need to manage whilst preparing other elements of the meal.
I wouldn't cook rice any other way,
Seconded! :thumbsup:
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I shall open with a reassurance that I'm not being a snotty ratbag - this is a genuine question, not a disparagement.
What's the point of a rice cooker?
They do some clever stuff with magnets so they stop cooking at exactly the moment the rice is correctly cooked:
https://youtu.be/RSTNhvDGbYI
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:o
devastatingly simple!
Might get one now.
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What I mean is: what does it do that can't be achieved with a pan?
You don't need to attend to it, and it keeps the rice warm. So it ceases to be something you need to manage whilst preparing other elements of the meal.
I wouldn't cook rice any other way, and I'm pretty sure neither would any Asians.
Absolutely. Rice from a pan is not nice. See Uncle Roger's instructions on how to make rice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aujN2mUqcCM
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A rice cooker just automates how rice is cooked in a pan.
The boil and drain method seems to be Western, it's not used in the far East.
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We used to have a rice cooker and it was excellent.
However, when we went on a serious diet and recalculated our portion sizes, we discovered that it wouldn't cope with that small an amount of rice (150g) so it went. Shame in some ways.
We now use a microwave rice-cooker which is not particularly wonderful, but does take the stress out of the job.
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There are small rice cookers that cooks one large portion for one person or two smaller portions for two.
I've got one!
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There are small rice cookers that cooks one large portion for one person or two smaller portions for two.
I've got one!
I may have to have a look for one of those. Thanks!
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The boil and drain method seems to be Western, it's not used in the far East.
Traditional BRITISH cooking, innit.
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So, my feeling is that this is like a toaster. Ubiquitous to the point of seeming essential to millions, despite the simplicity of putting bread under the grill - but, if that's how you tend to make toast, keeping an eye on the grill just doesn't feel like a chore.
They may be standard equipment across the Far East, but I wonder how common they are in, say, India, Africa and Latin America?
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Barakta makes toast using the grill. We don't usually eat much lot of toast, but it's something she's taken to over the last year because morphine. A toaster would use less energy, but would take up space we don't have.
See also: The general lack of electric kettles in USAnia, which isn't just about the feeble leftpondian anbarism.
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Back to rice cookers:
How was rice cooked in the Far East before they had electric cookers?
Steamed in a bamboo steamer?
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Barakta makes toast using the grill. We don't usually eat much lot of toast, but it's something she's taken to over the last year because morphine. A toaster would use less energy, but would take up space we don't have.
See also: The general lack of electric kettles in USAnia, which isn't just about the feeble leftpondian anbarism.
Why the Americans don't use kettles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c
On the design of rice cookers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSTNhvDGbYI&t=1s
J
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AFAIR they are known but not commonly used in India. For one thing, most people cook with bottled gas in urban regions. You'd definitely have to be middle class, upper-middle in fact, to rely on electricity to cook your rice.
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Back to rice cookers:
How was rice cooked in the Far East before they had electric cookers?
Steamed in a bamboo steamer?
Here's a Japanese example: the donabe https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-cook-rice-in-donabe/
I see a few youtube camping types using them nowadays with a little gel fuel burner that apparently lasts for just the right amount of time to cook a portion of rice :thumbsup:
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"Steamed" is a misnomer.
Cooking rice in a pan is doing manually what a rice cooker does.
Add the right amount of water, boil until all the water is absorbed, keep the lid on and turn off the heat for about 15 min.
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I am a dab hand at judging the amount of water correctly (I've never measured it, I do it by eye), so I never. ever have to drain the rice. Always leave it once cooked to steam in the pan for a bit, then fluff it up and serve.
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You shouldn't have to drain rice. Except, I suppose, in styles which do require it, whichever they might be.
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There's no water to drain off in the "absorption" method, if you use a lot of water the rice just ends up softer.
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Back to rice cookers:
How was rice cooked in the Far East before they had electric cookers?
Steamed in a bamboo steamer?
My suspicion is boiled. Like food, in the main, probably has been everywhere since the invention of the thing you can put near fire and put water in.
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I visited India and Japan and found that Indian rice is much more varied, and uses the flavours of others foods (e.g. onion, cumin, mustard seed, turmeric) that have been fried in the pan prior to the rice. The water for cooking the rice dissolves the flavours of that fried food (deglazing the pan) and distributes them through the rice. Hence all the flavour in Indian rice. So a single pan is used to fry and then to boil.
By contrast, Japanese rice is short grain plain sticky rice. It makes clumps which are easier to convey with chopsticks.
The electric rice cooker makes perfect sense for the Japanese style of rice, and no sense for the Indian style (because of the need to fry first then boil in the same pan.)
As an alternative to a rice cooker, a really heavy pan (cast iron with enamel) can provide near-automatic cooking since the pan retains heat so long. Boil the rice, cover, remove from the hob, set aside. Take the lid off half an hour later to reveal cooked rice. This method works for plain rice Japanese style or flavoured rice Indian style. And since I discovered this, my rice cooker has stayed in the bottom cupboard, like everyone else's rice cooker.
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The correct ordinary savoury long-grain rice is Thai fragrant rice. On this enormous heap of rice will I die, in 10kg bags from See Woo oriental supermarket.
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As an alternative to a rice cooker, a really heavy pan (cast iron with enamel) can provide near-automatic cooking since the pan retains heat so long. Boil the rice, cover, remove from the hob, set aside. Take the lid off half an hour later to reveal cooked rice. This method works for plain rice Japanese style or flavoured rice Indian style. And since I discovered this, my rice cooker has stayed in the bottom cupboard, like everyone else's rice cooker.
Your ideas are of interest to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
What ratio of water:rice?
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This is the classic absorption method of cooking rice. You use about twice the weight of water to rice. For two of us, I tend to use 120g of rice and 250g of water (for basmati rice). Bring it the boil, stir, put the lid on and take it off the heat. Come back in 25-30 minutes and fluff with a fork.
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Your ideas are of interest to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
He he.
What ratio of water:rice?
Yeah, 2:1 seems about right. The same amount you'd use in a rice cooker, I guess. I don't measure it, just judge it by eye, cos ICBA. A bit less water for easy-cook rice, a bit more for short-and-fat-grain rice. With short grain or wild rice or any other rice grain with a husk, if it's not quite done at the end, I add a tablespoon of water and bring it to the boil again then it's good to serve. Rice can also be reheated that way.
Here's a simple recipe. For a rice dish to accompany a dahl or any other curry, start by frying a teaspoon of mustard seeds in sunflower oil for a few seconds, in your heaviest pan, until the seeds pop like popcorn, then add half a teaspoon of cumin seeds and fry those for five seconds, then add your normal rice (dry) and stir those grains for 30 seconds, then just add your water, bring to the boil, cover the pan and take it off the hob and keep it covered for 20 or 30 minutes. That should be ready. Optionally chop some fresh coriander and stir it through just before serving.
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This is the classic absorption method of cooking rice. You use about twice the weight of water to rice.
I figured something like that, but as I know that as an on-the-heat technique, there may have been adjustment for the water ordinarily lost to evaporation when using more than just residual heat.
Acksherly, the ratio I've always used for absorption was the one I found in the Good Housekeeping cookbook, forever ago: 1/2lb rice to a pint of water - pretty much 5:2.
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There are small rice cookers that cooks one large portion for one person or two smaller portions for two.
I've got one!
I may have to have a look for one of those. Thanks!
I mentioned this to MrsC, who promptly ordered one from Lakeland. We have now used it a couple of times and it has been a success. The only issue is how long it takes (compared to the microwave) but it's much less hassle to use or clean and the rice is better.
Thanks, hubner!
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Before rice cookers, in southern China rice was steamed in a clay pot, in Japan a heavy iron pot.
Japan invented the electric rice cooker in the 1950s. In the 1960s, Panasonic, then National started importing the rice cooker to Hong Kong. The agent in Hong Kong then requested some modifications to the rice cooker (a window in the lid, congee function etc) and the rice cooker then went from Hong Kong to all the overseas Chinese communities, then to China, and then global.
Japanese rice whether cooked in a electric rice cooker or traditional iron pot tastes the same. With Chinese cooking,plain rice cooked in a clay pot tastes better than plain rice cooked in a rice cooker. So the agent in Hong Kong starts doing cooking demos, and to make the rice taste better, just before the rice finished cooking, they'd open the lid and put a chinese sausage, or some salted fish on top of the rice to make it taste better. To know when to put the sausage or fish in, you have to see whether or not the water is nearly all gone, hence the requirement for the window in the lid. In the 70s you could tell what market the rice cooker was for by if it had a window in the lid or not.
The super expensive rice cookers are for the Japanese market, it's all about iron pots, induction heating, and high pressure. They only cook rice. The top ones are around £2k. The top ones for the Hong Kong/Singapore market are around £1k, they are induction, but are also multi function, they can do congees and cakes etc. Most people in HK would spend around £100 for a rice cooker. Rice cookers are now a source of national pride. China's Xiaomi company went all out to build a rice cooker better than the Japanese. They did this by poaching Toshiba's rice cooker designer. So the Xiaomi rice cooker is well rated, and quite cheap compared to the Japanese models. It works with a smart phone app, and by scanning the barcode, it can adjust the cooking time for the rice, well in China anyway.
I grew up with a National/Panasonic rice cookers, but recently the wife switched us to a Zojirushi. They're ok, they play mozart when the rice is cooked.
I don't think many people can tell the difference between rice cooked in a £20 rice cooker and a £2000 rice cooker. Think of them like watches, the cheap ones are Casios, and the expensive ones are Rolexs. They do the same job, but some people do like to spend money.
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We had a National/Panasonic one purchased on HK circa 1972 but I think it’s just been thrown out in the Great Garage Clearance of 2023, until rock’n’roll's Martin Turner has pinched it to flog on ebay.
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Shades of the great MZ - Suzuki defection story there!
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Thread resurrection.
As I mentioned a few posts up, we did get a mini rice cooker.
Mostly, it's great, but the rice does to end up being somewhat sticky. What am I doing wrong.
150g rice with 350g water.
Thanks
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First post of call is that when it finishes cooking and beeps at you, fluff the rice up with a fork. After that you can leave it in there until you want to eat.
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Thread resurrection.
As I mentioned a few posts up, we did get a mini rice cooker.
Mostly, it's great, but the rice does to end up being somewhat sticky. What am I doing wrong.
150g rice with 350g water.
Thanks
I would try less water. But rice should be sticky without being too soft, it depends on the type rice as well.
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We acquired one recently that was going to be thrown out.
Chinese (or Australian I 'spose) power cable, Chinese labels and buttons.
I found it a British power cable and got Google lens to translate all the buttons, but to be honest I only use one and it is a different colour.
So it's been free and works well enough at cooking rice. When not in use it sits on top of the cupboard, to stop it getting ideas.
I saw the same Technology Connections youtube vid linked above so wanted to have a go.
One of the buttons was translated as "yoghurt", I have not had the bravery to press it.
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Thread resurrection.
As I mentioned a few posts up, we did get a mini rice cooker.
Mostly, it's great, but the rice does to end up being somewhat sticky. What am I doing wrong.
150g rice with 350g water.
Thanks
I don't use a rice cooker but my magic ratio is 2.2 which means 330g water for 150g rice. That might make the difference.
(We did use industrial size rice cookers on LEL but we were cooking batches of 60+ riders at a go. That's more than we'd fit in house + garden at home.)
I would try less water. But rice should be sticky without being too soft, it depends on the type rice as well.
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Anyone used the porridge function on theirs?
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Anyone used the porridge function on theirs?
Mine does not state such a function (It's got 3 modes, boil, warm and off), but I am intrugied.
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Anyone used the porridge function on theirs?
Mine does not state such a function (It's got 3 modes, boil, warm and off), but I am intrugied.
I did a bit more research and it appears the porridge function is only for use with water, as you'll make a boiled over foamy mess if you use milk, at which point I lost interest.
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I shall open with a reassurance that I'm not being a snotty ratbag - this is a genuine question, not a disparagement.
What's the point of a rice cooker?
They do some clever stuff with magnets so they stop cooking at exactly the moment the rice is correctly cooked:
https://youtu.be/RSTNhvDGbYI
Good vid. We have a basic Russell Hobbs version.
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With a previous rice cooker I put a layer of bubble wrap under the bowl for moving house once, then forgot it was still there at next use.... :facepalm:
Some friends use to make a great Persian dish in their rice cooker, where a golden ricey crust (Tahdig) around the pan develops; accompanied with minty yoghurt etc.
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Ooh, smelly plastic stickiness!
I did porridge in ours once. It made a mess ::-).
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Not really sure the benefit of doing porridge in a rice cooker, it's five minutes on the hob (don't be a bad'un and use the microwave, it needs to simmer for a few minutes to thicken properly).
I can see the value of a rice cooker if you live off rice and have the preference for sticky Asian rice types, not convinced for westerners.
Tahdig is awesome, though I will say my attempts and never come close to the real deal. I think they use all the butter and more fire than I dare.
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I can see the value of a rice cooker if you live off rice and have the preference for sticky Asian rice types, not convinced for westerners.
This. For a family who each have 120g of rice at each of three meals a day, yes, they make sense, but for the odd curry, even for a large number, meh.
A multi-cooker that also does rice makes more sense.
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Of course you can make rice porridge (congee)
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The main advantage I'm seeing with the basic rice cooker over a pan on gas is I don't have to watch it.
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The main advantage I'm seeing with the basic rice cooker over a pan on gas is I don't have to watch it.
If you use roughly the right amount of liquid, boil it for a few minutes, turn off the heat, put the lid on and come back 20ish minutes later.
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The main advantage I'm seeing with the basic rice cooker over a pan on gas is I don't have to watch it.
If you use roughly the right amount of liquid, boil it for a few minutes, turn off the heat, put the lid on and come back 20ish minutes later.
I tried that. I just ended up with cold, half cooked rice.
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The main advantage I'm seeing with the basic rice cooker over a pan on gas is I don't have to watch it.
If you use roughly the right amount of liquid, boil it for a few minutes, turn off the heat, put the lid on and come back 20ish minutes later.
You have to watch it because you have to turn off the heat at the right moment, which is when all the water has been absorbed.
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5-6 mins for basmati, I find. 10-12 for long grain. Yes, most of the liquid should be gone. Give a quick warm at the end if it’s cooled.
It seems my superpower is cooking rice perfectly with minimal thought. I’m also good at guessing the correct time. I’m a very mundane superhero.
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The main advantage I'm seeing with the basic rice cooker over a pan on gas is I don't have to watch it.
And with a less basic one you can put the rice and water in, set the timer and go for a walk or bike ride comforted by the knowledge that perfectly-cooked rice will be ready when you return :smug:.
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I think the other advantage of that is you can also set a timer on the stuff that's going with the rice so it finishes nicely too, assuming of course it's either oven or microwave based.
Sent from my IV2201 using Tapatalk
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The main advantage I'm seeing with the basic rice cooker over a pan on gas is I don't have to watch it.
If you use roughly the right amount of liquid, boil it for a few minutes, turn off the heat, put the lid on and come back 20ish minutes later.
You have to watch it because you have to turn off the heat at the right moment, which is when all the water has been absorbed.
Listen to the pan. When it goes quiet (no water actively boiling), you can turn it off.
This depends on having a pan lid that seals well. We have several cast iron pans that do a very good job.
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Whether you prefer sight or sound, both require being in the kitchen.
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I experimented today microwaving white basmati rice - a technique advocated by Rukmini Iyer.
Instead of 200g of rice, I used 217g so as to empty the storage jar. In a suitable sized Pyrex bowl the rice was gently swilled in clean cold water 4 times, then drained before covering with a smidge under 400ml of boiling water. The bowl having no lid was covered in cling film, pierced 3 times. The appliance, set @800W was timed for 11 minutes and subsequently left to stand for 10 minutes. It produced perfect plain rice after sufficient fork fluffing.
Easy :thumbsup:
ETA I never did buy a posh rice cooker after starting this thread. The cheapo one packed up and I eventually bought another last week, but it was immediately faulty on the first try, so returned. But am now happy with microwaving and tight lidded saucepan stove topping methods with success. (I never cook more than 250g rice at any one go)