Modern Rice Cooker Features That Enhance the Cooking Process
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A rice cooker makes the process of preparing rice so much easier, especially if you’re someone who eats rice daily. Even the most basic rice cooker can deliver a perfect bowl of rice. Thanks to technological advancements, rice cookers these days now come with an assortment of features that level up the kitchen experience.
What Is Special About a Rice Cooker?
A rice cooker can help make anyone’s life in the kitchen easier. Think about it this way, you no longer have to stand over the stove and stir occasionally to ensure that your grains don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Moreover, you won’t have to be worried whether it will cook right or not as a cooker ensures that your rice will come out flawless every time.
What Are the Benefits of a Rice Cooker?
As mentioned, a rice cooker is an appliance that can automate the rice cooking process. All one has to do is put grains in the inner pot, add the right amount of water, and press the button. It will do all the cooking for you. You won’t have to exert any effort or watch over it the entire time.
A rice cooker also allows you to cook large batches of rice. Cookers are available in several capacities, from 3-cup to 20-cup. No matter the size of your household, you’ll find a cooker that can cook you just the right amount of rice that you consume every day. You also don’t have to buy accessories for it as most rice cookers come with a measuring cup, spatula, and steamer basket.
Best of all, despite the name, a rice cooker doesn’t only make rice. You can make bread, yogurt, stews, steamed fish, steamed vegetables, cake, oats, and even baby food with it!
What Can a Rice Cooker Do?
A rice cooker can do many things. It can make rice, steam vegetables, steam fish and meat, cook stews, soups, porridge, oats, and baby food. It can also bake bread and cake too! Most rice cookers ship out with accessories such as a steam basket, measuring cup, and spatula.
What Are the Modern Functions of a Rice Cooker?
Here are some modern rice cooker functions that can transform anyone’s cooking experience into a great one.
Multi-Functionality
Modern rice cookers have other functions besides cooking rice. They can steam, slow cook, make oats, porridge, or yogurt, and even bake! A rice cooker can be your all-in-one kitchen appliance, especially if you live in a dorm or a small house.
Preset Options
White rice is the most common grain that people make with a rice cooker. Modern cookers offer specific presets to cook other grains such as basmati rice, jasmine rice, brown rice, sushi rice, wild rice, black rice, quinoa, and the like. The presets will let the rice cooker know what type of rice it’s working with and it will then automatically adjust its settings to cook the rice perfectly.
Digital Display with Touch Controls
Thanks to improvements in technology, many modern rice cookers have touch controls instead of physical buttons. You won’t have to worry about wearing out the buttons whenever you use your cooker. The digital display will show you what you’re doing, how many minutes remain until the rice is done, or even display instructions if you’re using the rice cooker for other food.
Delay Timer
Cooking rice with a rice cooker is very convenient but if you live a busy lifestyle, it can be exhausting to load up a cooker and make dinner after work. Having a delay timer is a lifesaver as it allows users to set the time when they want the cooker to begin cooking their food. Just load up your rice in the cooker, put the correct amount of liquid using the included measuring cup, set the timer, and the cooker will switch on your specified time.
Quick Clean Function
Cleaning can be a cumbersome task, more so if you’re already tired from work and cooking. The good thing is that most modern cookers these days have a quick clean function. The process may vary from one cooker to another but in general, you just need to fill the inner pot with water, close the lid, and press the button. It can take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes for the steam and water to clean the interior of the cooker.
Voice Navigation
Many devices these days have a voice function, allowing for hands-free operation. Rice cookers can have voice functionality too! A lot of Zojirushi rice cookers offer voice control functionality in various languages, most notably in English and Japanese. Other cookers that come with voice navigation are ones from Cuchen and Cuckoo.
Final Note
A rice cooker is highly convenient to have in a home. It’s the easiest and fastest way of making rice without all the hassle. Compared to older rice cookers, modern cookers have several features that increase anyone’s quality of life. Aside from making rice, they can steam, slow cook, make porridge or oats, and even bake! They can also handle all types of grains such as brown rice, basmati rice, jasmine rice, black rice, sushi rice, and even quinoa.
A lot of modern cookers offer touch functionality and a wide digital display. They also have extra features such as a delay timer, quick clean setting, voice navigation, and more. Rice cookers also come with accessories such as a measuring cup, spatula, and a steamer basket, so you won’t have to go out of your way to get them, making it easy to make rice any time of the day.
