Different Types of Rice Cookers, Buying Guide You Shouldn’t Miss!

Moving around the kitchen has been easier with the help of rice cookers. It can actually be used in so many ways than one. In fact, there are different types of rice cookers than what we commonly know. Find out which type suits your needs before making a purchase!

We all know that rice is a staple yet preparing it is very challenging. Many of us love to eat with rice but cooking it is intimidating.

Thank technology that it was able to ease the challenge of cooking especially to people like us who are too busy to spend half a day in the kitchen, well, except for some occasions! 😀

Standard Electric Rice Cooker

The first-ever rice cooker was actually been around since 1956 in Japan.

Toshiba company has projected that rice will become a global product, so cooking this grain will be challenging.

After realizing this need, the company was able to develop and design a standard electric rice cooker.

It simply cooks rice when on a certain temperature and turns off, leaving the steam to fully cook the grain. This basic function made a global impact and created room for innovations.

Features of a Standard Rice Cooker

• Basic On and Off operation
• Main body
• Cooking pot
• Power Cord

The first ever electric rice cooker works so simply that you just fill in the cooking pot with rice and water and let it boil at 100 °C or 212 °F. Once the water has been absorbed, it switches off allowing the remaining heat to cook the rice.

Rice Cooker with Keep Warm and Steamer Function

After the success of the first-ever electric rice cooker, it has been modified to provide an excellent Keep Warm feature.

Until today, this cooking function has helped us maintain a warm, soft, and fluffy rice.

In fact, this feature was never replaced and was actually the key point in adding more incredible functions.

A steamer tray was also added so you can steam your favorite dish while waiting for the rice to cook, plus these:

• Non-stick inner pot coating
• Detachable power cord
• Different capacity

Multipurpose Rice Cooker

I remember the time when I was in my student years where I don’t have any other appliances apart from the rice cooker.

Back then, I had the basic electric type because of time and budget constraints, so I had to innovate in order to cook my meal.

There I learned to use the rice cooker in preparing other dishes such as fried, sauteed, soups, and stews.

Later on, due to the overwhelming consumer response to rice cookers being the best ally of most people like me, many brands and manufacturers came up with multipurpose rice cookers.

Multipurpose rice cooker, as its name implies has more options aside from cooking rice. Here are some notable features of multipurpose rice cookers today:

• Extended Warm function
• Different rice options
• Timer
• Steam
• Slow cook
• And more…

Fuzzy Logic and MiCom Rice Cookers

Note that modern multipurpose rice cookers have also integrated computer technology to provide better cooking experience.

Thus, giving birth to MiCom rice cookers and Neuro-Fuzzy Logic type.

These types of rice cookers mimic the way we think and decide. Microchips installed in the rice cookers can sense if the rice is cooked or not yet and determine if there is a need to extend the cooking time and adjust the heat.

Fuzzy logic and MiCom rice cookers are very much popular especially to those who want to achieve the perfect rice at all times. However, these types may come a little costly than the standard and the regular multipurpose rice cookers.

Induction Heating Rice Cooker

If there is what you can call the finest or cream of the crop in the line of rice cookers, it’s the Induction Heating type.

This kind of rice cooker uses superior technology that can handle temperature change and perform exact adjustments when needed. Suffice to say, there is no more human error when using an IH rice cooker.

Unlike the other rice cooker types, the Induction Heating rice cooker distributes heat into three parts, top, middle, and bottom, to get evenly cooked food.

IH rice cookers also have other excellent features:

• Keep Warm and Extended Warm
• Multiple rice grain option
• Timer
• Digital Controls
• Easy to clean
• Portable and sleek design

However, Induction Heating rice cookers are more expensive compared to the others. But, if you are looking for a rice cooker that can perform on its own, then you can probably consider an IH in the future. 😉

Gas Rice Cooker

Have you ever thought about what kind of rice cookers most restaurants use? Imagine cooking large batches of rice in a day!

There is actually one more rice cooker type that is intended for commercial use. It’s called the gas rice cooker.

Gas rice cookers are being used in restaurants and in large-scale commercial cooking. They also come in different sizes, brands, and models.

This type of rice cooker has significantly larger capacities compared to home rice cookers (about 5-10L). It works simply by connecting the rice cooker directly into the gas source.

Cooking with gas is way faster and efficient than electric-powered because you can manually adjust the temperature to cook the food faster.

Electric rice cookers will be costly when used in commercial cooking plus, it may not be able to fully cook the rice when maximized.

It’s also safe to use since it actually uses a heat-based auto shut-off operation. The gas that flows into the burner shuts off once a specific temperature is reached.

Summary

As you can see, there are different types of rice cookers out there with specific sets of features, strengths, and downsides.

It’s highly important to get to know more about the type of rice cooker you are planning to purchase by listing your needs, comparing and taking your time in reading reviews.

By doing these, you can save time and effort in going around the shop or scrolling online. Better yet, ask your friends about it or you can let us know in the comment section.

We’d love to hear your thoughts!