What is the Zojirushi Umami Setting?

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ByHui Yin

Zojirushi is a well-renowned Japanese rice cooker brand that creates high-end products which provide users with different cooking settings and uses in just one machine. If you have Zojirushi’s Umami NS-YAC10/18 Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer, in particular, you’ll find that one of the main unique features of this rice cooker is its “Umami” setting.

Umami loosely translates to “essence of deliciousness” in Japanese and is one of the five basic tastes, often described as being savory, characteristic of cooked meats and broth, and deepening the overall flavor of a dish.

What is the “Umami” Menu Setting in a Zojirushi Rice Cooker?

Zojirushi’s Umami setting soaks and steams rice for a longer period of time to enhance its flavor. This is perfect for good quality rice but it can even make cheaper rice taste amazing.

The Umami setting takes over an hour to cook your rice, so planning your meal accordingly will really help your prep and serving time. while it may take longer than normal rice cooking settings, it’s definitely worth the wait.

As the rice gets to be soaked for longer, more flavor can penetrate each grain of rice. The rice will come out slightly sweeter and savory, and coming out the perfect texture of firm yet still fluffy. This setting is also perfect when using stock instead of water to give the rice even more flavor for dishes like kamameshi and even risotto.

Final Note

If you’re looking to give your rice more flavor or if you want to cook a rice dish that requires seeping ingredients into your rice as it cooks, Zojirushi’s Umami setting may be perfect for you. Despite its longer cook time, we love how worth it the end result is, giving us even more delicious flavor and the perfect texture for every meal.

Hui Yin moved from Hong Kong 🇭🇰 to the USA 🇺🇸 when she was just 8 years old. Now in her late 20's she enjoys writing and taking long walks in the park to burn off the copious amounts of rice she eats for dinner.