Is It Worth Buying a Rice Cooker?

I hear many a time from various people that they are unsure whether or not a rice cooker is worth the money and effort. Therefore this article is to help people understand rice cookers and what they are capable of and have to offer you.

Main Reason behind Rice Cookers

When it comes to cooking rice there are certain problems that appear over and over again, for instance how many times have you heard from someone that they have difficulty cooking rice or they don’t cook rice because it ends up sticking to the pan and causing them more time cleaning up? There are several reasons why people don’t bother cooking rice as it just causes more trouble for them then what its worth. This is where rice cookers take their place.

Rice cookers were invented to reduce problems associated with cooking rice. Really, the main advantage of this is that they are focused on cooking rice, therefore over time they have become experts in producing perfect rice no matter the type of rice. As well as that they have now exceeded expertise in rice and moving on to other foods, which is why rice cookers are now able to produce perfect porridge or stewed vegetables.

Here is a short video on some of the different rice settings that some rice cooker models have to offer:

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So Are Rice Cookers Worth It?

Before you can say whether they are worth it or not you have to ask yourself a few questions:

1) Do you frequently cook rice?
2) Do you struggle cooking rice if so what problems do you run into?
3) Do you require the rice to be kept warm after cooking?

These are a few important questions because, for instance if you do not really cook rice often but do struggle cooking rice you certainly do not want to invest in a pricey rice cooker for the odd use. The main factor to think about is the problems YOU have and/or any features YOU have thought about that would enhance your perception of cooking rice from the traditional way on a stove top. There are no doubt people who think they do not require the use of a rice cooker as they have never had any problems cooking rice, however do they know what advantages they could be missing out on… Here are a few items you may want from cooking rice with a rice cooker:

Speed – We sometimes just don’t have the time to cook but really crave for rice at the time.

Ease of cooking/Simplicity – We certainly do want to continuously monitor the rice when we don’t have time. Certainly emits the problem of forgetting the stove is on!

Perfect cooked rice – Burnt rice?!? No thank you.

Minimized effort to cook the rice – Measure rice to water, switch on, leave it, come back to perfectly cooked warm rice.

Safe to be left cooking unsupervised – we don’t want to have to worry about the rice cooking while not there.

Ability to cook any type of rice – Brown, white, red, black whatever type of rice we want to eat where going to want it to be as perfect as can be.

Keep warm setting – Leaving rice to cool down to room temperatures holds its own dangers because food poisoning is common from eating rice left out at dangerous temperatures for too long.

Conclusion

Rice cookers are focused on cooking rice, their primary goal is to cook perfect rice for your satisfaction. This alone makes rice cookers worth it really as they aim to get the final result you want without you having to do it. Rice cookers are there to get rid of the common problems with cooking rice such as burnt rice, rice sticking to the pan, cooking times of different types of rice.

Here are a few reasons why rice cookers can be worth it for you:

Simplicity – All you have to do is measure out the rice and water and switch it on…cant get easier than that.

No more burnt rice – Rice cookers are aimed to cook perfect rice and with Micom technology they will monitor temperatures of the rice throughout the cooking.

Easy to clean – You want to make sure the rice cooker is non stick in order to prevent any rice sticking to the pan. You should also note leaving rice on keep warm for too long MAY cause rice to stick to the pan. But in general more of the latest rice cookers will not finish with rice stuck to the pan.

No matter the rice type – Rice cookers have many settings and you will notice many have different options, for instance brown rice, white rice, GABA rice, mixed rice etc. All of these settings are aimed to perfect different types of rice.

Speed – Although it usually takes time to cook rice perfectly there are also added setting such as turbo which aims to reduce the time. Pressure rice cookers are the fastest at cooking rice however but also the most expensive. You can even get rice cooked in about 15 minutes with a pressure cooker.

Keeping Rice Warm – Don’t worry about forgetting about the rice cooker when its done it will automatically switch to keep warm to prevent the rice cooling down and causing bacteria to grow. Now you can cook rice through they ay will at work and come home to perfectly cooked warm rice.

The real question tends to be about the cost, how much should you spend for the rice cooker to be worth your purchase. Like stated earlier you do not want to be buying a high end model if it’s going to be used the odd time, but if you cook rice a lot and love it high end models are going to be more perfected to cooking the best rice. Just work out what you need from the rice cooker.