Which rice cooker should I buy?

[SomeGuy]

www.yumasia.co.uk/tgq10.html £169
or
www.yumasia.co.uk/zaq10.html £199

The second one costs £30 more and has a setting to cook softer or firmer rice, and a setting for pre-washed and semi-brown rice (partly de-branned brown rice)

The first model looks better because it's stainless steel, and has a function to cook cake (not sure how useful this would be?).

I had a look at the price in Asia and the cheaper one is £110 and the more expensive one £190, which makes it seem like that one is much better. But not sure really.

WWYD?

[wrinklytum]

Blimey,there is such a thing as a special rice cooker????

£100 odd quid!

Are you Gordon Ramsay?

(Wrinkly faints and decides her saucepan is definitely passe!)

[SomeGuy]

Oh yes, £100 and the rest.

There are fancier models in Japan and the US.

I could get this one:

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=320356412917

which uses Induction heating (which apparently means uniform heating throughout the pan), but £300 + p+p + probably customs duty is taking it a little too far.

If you have an induction one they usually have a germinating mode, which heats the rice at 40 degrees for 12 hours before cooking, so that it starts to sprout.

And then there are pressure induction rice cookers, which turn beta starch to alfa starch to make it easier to digest. These cost even more money.

Anyway, the basic 'fuzzy logic' models are supposed to be good enough - they make perfect rice with each grain of rice perfectly cooked and distinct, better quality than you'd get in a typical Chinese restaurant. The more advanced models are good if you like brown rice

[wrinklytum]

Wow! mind boggles!

I guess if you eat loads of rice tis a useful investment.

I hope some fellow rice afficianado comes and gives you some advice as I am afraid I am a bit clueless and didn't realise there was such a gadget

[SomeGuy]

well you can get rice cookers for £10 from Argos. We have one of these tpyes of products.

Beats using a saucepan, but we do eat lots of rice and I'd like to try something that gives better results.

[slng]

I have a small one but I cook better rice on the stove than the bloody thing. Unfortunately I can't remember where I got it from and it hasn't got a label either! It's handy if you want to go out (or bath the kids or do bedtime stories) and want rice when you get back. But it's definitely not £100. Are you really going to use all the functions? There is really nothing to cooking perfect white rice otherwise ...

[SomeGuy]

Well everyone I know who eats rice as a staple has a rice cooker, in preference to saucepan and steamer insert thingy.

[slng]

I do eat rice as a staple and I do have a rice cooker . But I cook it on the stove when I can. That means I need a better rice cooker, I suppose... My friend has an automatic rice cooker that steams rather than boil. I think it's from Taiwan.

[SomeGuy]

Oh well I have ordered the pricier one, it seemed to have slightly better reviews on US Amazon and is made in Japan and is better for brown rice.

Maybe will try if it miraculously makes brown rice taste nice. Not sure if DW will be keen, where she comes from they regard brown rice as cattle feed.

[slng]

Nothing can make brown rice nice. I have decided that I will get my vitamin B or whatever somewhere else. If your new cooker does then let me know.

[expatinscotland]

I had two flatmates, brother and sister, whose parents were from VietNam and they had a rice cooker going nearly all the time. But they bought their rice in huge bags from an Asian food shop and man, it was SO good!

[SomeGuy]

Well lots of the reviews claim that they hated brown rice till they cooked it in this cooker:

www.amazon.com/gp/community-content-search/results/ref=cm_srch_q_rtr/?query=brown&search-alias=commu&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 nity-reviews&idx.asin=B00007J5U7&Go.x=22&Go.y=14

I haven't eaten any since my mum used to cut white rice half-and-half when I was a child.

Nowadays we buy big sacks of Thai jasmine rice from the Chinese supermarkets (about £1/kg).

I'm not even sure what variety of brown rice (basmati, US, Italian, Jasmine) to get.

It's arriving on Monday - will do some comparisons with the cheapo rice cooker I've got now.