Our venerable rice cooker, a hard-working appliance nearly 40 years old, finally had to be retired. The wiring in the plug/connection to the base had gotten faulty.
I remember when my dad brought it home from a trip to Louisiana, where one of his clients had given it to him as a gift. He was excited because he loved rice, and the man had told him that the rice cooker would make cooking perfect rice incredibly easy. The problem was that my father could never quite figure out the right amount of rice to make using the Japanese measuring cup (180 mL, or about 3/4 of a cup), and he gave up.
The appliance sat in their closet for close to two decades, until it got a second life when my husband and I set up house. We used it for over 15 years, often making rice several times a week. It did make consistently good rice, as long as the right proportion of water was used, which varied depending on the type of rice. The only downside was that rice inevitably stuck to the bottom of the pan, which had to be soaked and then scrubbed out, a rather tedious process.
Although I’m not a fan of the single-use appliance, I make an exception to the rice cooker. We eat a lot of rice, and we do a lot of cooking, so having the cooker frees up both a pan and a burner, which at times is pretty key. And while making rice in a pot is not difficult, with the cooker all you have to do is put the ingredients in and press the switch. (I should say, too, that typically rice cookers are not single-use appliances, since they have a steamer insert which can be used for steaming vegetables [for us only an occasional use] or dumplings [perfect for frozen gyoza or shumai] or even warming up cold rice. It’s just that we used it predominantly for rice.)
That’s why we immediately bought a replacement, the Sanyo ECJ-N55F/W. It is remarkably similar, technologically, to our previous model, and was both the top-rated and least expensive cooker in a recent Cook’s Illustrated equipment test. It also has the advantage of a non-stick pot. Usually I avoid non-stick cookware, but with care the surface can be preserved and after 15 years of rice stuck to the bottom of the pot I’m willing to make a concession. We inaugurated it tonight with some rice, and it performs well.
So what’s the relation to local food? Not much, I suppose, but I’m hoping to expand my range a bit this year in the hopes of including rice in our October diet.
5 Comments
just got out our old rice cooker from 20 plus years ago and had great rice last night but don’t remember how much rice and water to use and to cook for how long?? can you help?
If it’s a Japanese style rice cooker there are probably lines on the inside of the pan with corresponding numbers, e.g. 1, 2, 3. For every full rice cup (180 mL, or approximately 3/4 cup) you fill the pan with water to the corresponding number. If you use two full cups you would fill the pan up to line 2 (although with brown rice it’s good to use about 25% more water). If your pan doesn’t have lines on the side, you can experiment with roughly a two-to-one ratio.
In our house, one Japanese cup serves two people generously, or three people who don’t eat much rice. More typically we make 1.5 or two cups which provides plenty for the three of us and gives a bit for leftovers. Simple Japanese rice cookers usually only have an on/off switch so you don’t have to select a cooking time. After the cooking phase is complete, we let it continue to steam for 15 minutes before eating (except for brown rice, which we serve immediately).
It’s possible you may have a different style of rice cooker and these guidelines may not apply. Hope that helps!
We had exactly this model when I was a kid and eventually wore it out with 3x daily use. Five years ago, I was in a thrift store and there it was on a shelf, *brand-new* … I think someone had received it as a long-ago gift and never used it! The price: five dollars. You can bet I bought it. Hearing that chime is no different than pavlov’s bell.
Incidentally, many older asians prefer the rice that sticks to the bottom. My grandfather used to demand it as his share!
Awesome! Wish I could find one too. Actually our new one does a great job, but I really miss the “ding” (the Sanyo is silent). When I tossed the old Hitachi into the trash it made one last happy musical chime. There is a word for the crusty part, right?
Yup! I figure there must be a word for it in all the cultures that regularly eat rice.
Chinese–
Guangzhou: “guo jiao”
Sichuan: “guo ba”
Indonesian/Malaysian: “kerak nasi”
Korean: “noo roong ji”
Spanish: “soccarat”
Tagalog: “tutong”
It’s not the part I like to eat, but I like the way it smells, like popcorn minus the sulfurous odor. Ding!