Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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135 of 136 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and makes tasty rice, September 25, 2007
Summary: Brown rice cooks reasonably quickly and turns out fluffier and tastier in this machine than in an on-off machine, polenta cooks smoothly, and everything is less messy. The rice cooker is also very attractive. The only disadvantages are that its timer will only cook 13 hours in advance, it will only keep rice warm for 12 hours before shutting off, and it could be a bit easier to clean.
Review:
I am allergic to wheat, so I eat rice every day at almost every meal and I use a rice cooker more often than any appliance in my kitchen. This rice cooker is the first computerized one that I've owned. I've owned three on-off rice cookers before: a cheap little Salton (which was actually quite nice), a 10 c Panasonic on-off with hinged lid, and an 8 c Aroma on-off from Target with hinged lid. The features that I'm noting are probably common to all computerized rice cookers versus on-off machines, but in this price range the on-off machines are probably the competition.
1. Rice tastes better: I had expected the rice would taste about the same and the only difference would be in the extra features, but in fact the rice that I've made in the rice cooker is much tastier and fluffier than the rice from my on-off cooker. I make brown rice almost exclusively, so use the brown rice setting. I think that the rice may be fluffier because the pot simmers the rice instead of coming to a furious boil, since I've noticed that the cooking is relatively gentle and quiet. Unlike my previous rice cooker, I can't hear it cooking.
2. The cooking is relatively quick in spite of the simmer. My mother's computerized rice cooker is a Sanyo, and it has by default a soaking cycle, and that makes it take perhaps an hour if you don't explicitly turn off that function.
3. Besides brown rice, I've made lentils, polenta, and apple sauce. The polenta used the soup/porridge function and turned out smooth and just thick enough, and the gentle cooking meant that there were no spatters to clean, unlike the on-off rice cooker. I made pretty decent applesauce on the slow cook function, but like all slow cooker applesauce it was pretty watery. I haven't tried to make a cake yet, but am really intrigued by that feature. I wish that the instruction book gave some of the Asian recipes for computerized rice cookers like rice porridge --- it took me awhile to figure out that the soup cycle (as opposed to slow cooker) is what's called the porridge cycle on rice cookers for the Asian market.
4. The timer function is handy, allowing you to start cooking 13 hours in advance of when you want the rice. I wish that it could be timed 18 or more hours or more in advance, so you could set it up in the evening for lunch the next day. An on-off rice cooker can be put on a timer which will activate it at a specific time; since this rice cooker is computerized, you can't do that and you're limited to the 13 hour timer.
5. Cleaning is pretty good, but could be easier: When you use any appliance daily over the course of years, cleaning becomes important. This rice cooker is somewhat easier to clean than my previous on-off Panasonic. When you open the lid of a domed rice cooker, there's usually a deep ridge around the entire edge that rice or starchy water would get caught in, creating a brownish scum after awhile --- here, there's hardly any ridge, so it's easy to get rice out if it happens to fall in, and it's easy to clean.
When rice cooks, extra starch or a brown/grey scum separates from the rice, especially if it's brown rice. All of the rice residue which comes up from the cooking gets directed to a round 2" diameter insert on the lid, rather than being splashed all over the top of the lid, as happened with the previous model. The previous model was not too difficult to clean because you would just remove an insert which covered the entire lid. This rice cooker is handy since all the residue just goes into this little insert, but the insert itself is difficult to clean: it comes apart into three pieces, and one of the pieces has little ridges which collect the goo. If you run it under water right after the rice cooks, most of the goo falls off of it. Otherwise you may need to resort to a toothpick. There seems to be much less of the scum than with my previous rice cooker, perhaps because it modulates the temperature and doesn't boil as furiously. For instance, lentils usually produce a lot of brown speckles, but here there was hardly any residue.
Update: I've made several cakes in the rice cooker on the "Cake" setting and they turned out fantastic, including gluten-free brownies from the Trader Joe's mix. Last week my oven broke (it would only broil), so I poured the 9" x 5" pan of wheat-free Gingerbread batter (1975 Joy of Cooking) into the rice cooker and held my breath. The gingerbread rose up really high and I was afraid it wasn't going to be cooked in the middle, but it did, and it held together and sliced beautifully and was moist without being too moist. I've also made rice pudding and oatmeal in the soup setting, following the recipes in the rice cooker cookbook.
Finally: when I was moving house, I decided to bring my rice cooker with me on the airplane. I carried it on as one of my carryons, holding onto the handle, and it passed through security without a problem. All four of the TSA people and two guys behind me in the security line were curious and asked me questions about it. Apparently people carry rice cookers onto planes as carry-on luggage all the time. Who knew?
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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most Effective Multi-Purpose Cooker, March 13, 2007
This is one of the best(less expensive) fuzzy logic cookers available in the market.
Pros:
(i) Possible to make the rice ready at any desired time(you can set timings up to 13hrs using slow cook option)
For instance if you want the rice to be hot and ready when you come from Office, this one will accomplish the task for you. You can set the timer for 8hrs and when you come back, hot rice will be awaiting for you. This a great feature.
(ii) Possible to cook both White rice, Brown rice. Brown rice doesn't get cooked well with regular rice cookers.
(iii) You can steam food at the same time of cooking rice. Remember in case of steaming food during cooking rice at bottom, maximum cooking capacity should be 3 cups.
(iv) It makes delicious soups for you.
(v) One nice additional lineament is, we can bake yummy cakes in less than an hour.
(vi) As said in the manual, time to cook white rice will be 30-40 minutes, which is slower than the regular rice cookers, but it overcomes with the variety of other options.
(vii) It has a nice scoop holder.
(viii) Rice will never stick to the pan, Panasonic comes with a great quality aluminum pan.
(ix) Retractable power cord which befits for both short and long distances.
But every product has other side too:
(i) The LCD Background is not colored one, barely you can see the timings.
(ii) You can change the cooking timing only in the Ascending order(1hr, 1.30hr, 2hr) not the other way around, similarly the menu option you can navigate in only one way.
(iii) Requires more maintenance than the ordinary cookers, since it's microprocessor based even a small dust will have an impact on performance.
(iv) Only offers 5.5 capacity doesn't suit for a big family
Tips:
(i) Always clean the Steam cup and Dew collector(water will get collected in it) after every use.
(ii) Never use a dish washing detergent to clean.
(iii) If a tiny object or rice stick to the sensor, polish it off using
sand paper and wipe with a damp cloth.
(iv) Don't place the cooker next to the faucet as many of us do.
Zojirushi also has the same type of Fuzzy logic cooker, but its expensive and doesn't have many options like the Panasonic!
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42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Little Rice Cooker, May 30, 2007
I bought this rice cooker for myself since I live in an apartment. I find the handiest feature to be the timer. The timer allows me to set the unit to cook rice at a later time and keep it warm so that it will be ready to eat when I get home from work. I also use the steamer tray simultaneously to cook fresh vegetables such as brussel sprouts, asparagus, broccolini, and red and yellow peppers.
Unfortunately after the vegetables are steamed they often look colorless and lifeless. They feel very soft and taste sweet though, so the rice cooker is doing it's job. Any colors from the vegetables will become ingrained into the plastic steamer basket so beware. My steamer basket is red now because I always put red bell peppers inside it.
Unit is easy to clean, although I wish it were simpler. It is necessary to remove the steamer cap and take it apart and wash it inside and out. It is also necessary to wipe the inside lid of the unit and drain the moisture catch.
I appreciate the way the unit tells you how much time is left before the rice is done. I just wish it could tell me how much time is left from the start of cooking (it only tells you when it is under 8 minutes until it's done).
This is my 1st and only rice cooker. I eat brown rice so I can't say this unit cooks brown rice better than others. I can say that the brown rice tends to stick to the bottom and that on occasion the rice feels like it gets a little burnt. Some of the rice grains near the bottom taste hard and crunchy after the unit is done cooking and they aren't supposed to have that kind of texture.
Easy to use, easy to program, although I haven't tried adjusting the cooking timer yet. I bought my unit from 99 Ranch for a few dollars less than the price Amazon is currently selling it for. I feel like I got a very good deal, especially when I see the ridiculous prices for other models. Cooking rice and veggies is so easy and convenient with this unit. If I have some leftover meat from the previous day, I'll place the meat inside the cooker after it is done and leave it in there for a few minutes to warm it up.
This rice cooker has a small footprint which is great because I have only a small space to work with. It is attractive and cute looking with it's small round balanced appearance.
**Update**
I have now owned this product for nearly 1 1/2 years. My steamer basket has not collected the colors of the vegetables to my delight. For some reason the colors stuck initially but after a year of use or so they came out. The unit is still working well and steams everything I throw into it.
The rice does not stick to the top filter (3 pieces) as the review above does. Not sure whether this is because I use brown rice or maybe it's the unit. No piece of food has gotten stuck to any of the inside parts as far as I can see. Everything is easy to clean up afterwards, just rinse it off and dry it.
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by Beth Hensperger
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