Check price on Amazon. The Cuckoo CR-0631F claimed lightning-fast cooking times on a par with our upgrade pick’s but for a more affordable price. Curious about what a $400 rice cooker could offer that a $200 one could not, we tested the Cuckoo CRP-HZ0683F, which offers a luxuriously overwhelming experience. (The “8-cup” refers to cooked rice; most rice cookers go by dry measurements.) Unlike the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy, the Hamilton Beach does not have a removable lid, so cleaning the cooker after each use is much harder. In our tests, the Neuro Fuzzy was one of the few machines that made sushi rice, brown rice, and long-grain rice all taste great. Our rice stuck to the seasoned clay, and we found the nub of the scalding-hot interior lid to be difficult to grasp. Dale Talde, chef and author of Asian-American: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from the Philippines to Brooklyn, phone interview, March 30, 2018, Tejal Rao, food reporter and columnist for The New York Times, phone interview, March 14, 2018, Tejal Rao, How to Make Rice, The New York Times, Matt Slem, food technician, Lundberg Family Farms, phone interview, January 14, 2020, Kevin L. Cho, sales and marketing associate, Cuckoo Electronics, phone interview, December 4, 2019, Marilyn Matsuba, marketing manager, Zojirushi, phone interview, December 4, 2019, Naomi Duguid, food writer and author, interview, Fuchsia Dunlop, chef and food writer, interview, Harris Salat, restaurateur and author of Japanese Soul Cooking: Ramen, Tonkatsu, Tempura, and More from the Streets and Kitchens of Tokyo and Beyond, interview. It’s also the only one of our top picks that counts down your cooking time from start to finish, so you always know how far you are from a bowl of perfect rice. Stovetop rice may not be the hardest thing to make, but when you’re in a pinch or cooking for many, a rice cooker will save much needed time and free up one of your stove burners. A mid-range rice cooker with more features, one that comes from a well-known brand, or a multi-cooker that can also cook rice, will cost roughly $80 to $120. At a typical price just over $100, the Panasonic is significantly more affordable than our top pick. It comes with a similarly sturdy pot and has an intuitive, easy-to-use digital interface with a keep warm function and preprogramming options. In our tests, the Neuro Fuzzy made brown rice better than most rice cookers we tried, but the process took a bit of experimentation. For our 2018 update, we tested the Panasonic SR-ZG105, a cooker with fuzzy logic, 13 cooking options, and a 12-hour keep-warm setting. For people who eat rice infrequently (and especially people who almost always eat jasmine rice), an inexpensive model under $50 will be just fine. Takahiro Hori and Yuichiro Aramki, both Japanese chefs with years of experience, headed the panel. Even if you’re wary of single-use kitchen tools, finding the best rice cookers is worth it. Handles on the inner pot make it easier to pick up than many others we tested, and the Neuro Fuzzy’s computer chip is particularly good at adjusting cooking parameters to adapt to human error. Ultimately, the best rice cooker won regardless of price, though models like the Hamilton Beach and Cuckoo got points for performing well for their price point. The CR-0631F did make the second-best brown rice of any cooker we tested, beating every Zojirushi model, but the grains looked overly puffed and burst when compared with brown rice from the CRP-G1015F. If that sounds appealing, you might appreciate a great rice cooker, which can turn out perfect, plump grains with almost no effort. Despite the name, the Zest is actually a 4-cup rice cooker. The difference of 10 or 20 minutes between an okay batch of rice and an amazing one isn’t too significant for people who care about great rice, especially if you start your rice at the beginning of cooking dinner or use the timer function. Here’s another best reviewed rice cooker from Zojirushi – the Zojirushi NS-TSC10 5-1/2-Cup (Uncooked) Micom Rice Cooker and Warmer. The best overall rice cooker, Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker may earn the title of the most high-tech rice cookers in the market. by Anna Perling, Christine Cyr Clisset, Camille Chatterjee, and Lesley Stockton. Though not the fastest machine we tested, the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy NS-ZCC10 is by far the most versatile, making the best white rice across the different grains plus respectable brown rice (though if you love brown rice, you might prefer our upgrade pick). But if you want to make one-pot stews or leave your food to cook while you’re at work, you may be better off with another kind of multicooker. Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell, Zojirushi Induction Heating System Rice Cooker and Warmer, Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker and Warmer, Steamed Scallion Ginger Fish Fillets with Bok Choy, Grain Bowls with Grilled Corn, Steak, and Avocado. This is one of the best sellers of Asian rice cookers. But the quality of the rice just wasn’t great. The Hamilton Beach 37548 was the surprisingly strong performer in our many tests, keeping pace with rice cookers that are much more expensive. Best rice cooker for GABA rice: Cuckoo Electric Heating Rice Cooker Prices and links are current as of 10/21/20. All rights reserved. She lives in Brooklyn. “I don’t want the hull to explode, but I want it to break a little,” Talde said. Finally, for an inexpensive starter rice cooker that still performs well, buy the Cuckoo Rice Cooker. The Aroma ARC-914SBD, which we tested in 2013, is a super-affordable rice cooker with a low price, a tiny footprint, and a 4-cup maximum capacity. A few of the rice cookers that we tested included steamer baskets, which in the case of the Hamilton Beach model, doubled as a sieve for cleaning rice. However, you might need to tweak the amount of water in your recipe if you prefer softer brown rice—we thought our batches came out pleasantly chewy, but that isn’t to everyone’s taste. A miso noodle soup cooks up in no time, and a tomato soup with ricotta dumplings is ready in less than 30 minutes. Overall, it isn’t as intuitive to use as more traditional rice cookers like the Zojirushi or Cuckoo. We scoured the websites of Amazon, Macy’s, Sur la Table, Williams Sonoma, and other major retailers for reviews and the latest cookers. Like the Neuro Fuzzy, the rice cooker only gives you the remaining cooking time when the rice is about 10 minutes from finishing. Brown rice took just an hour in the Hamilton Beach (nearly half the time of the Zojirushi), about the same length of time as when you’re cooking it on the stove. Models that are especially … Plus, the Neuro Fuzzy has a more advanced fuzzy-logic chip that can turn an atrociously mismeasured batch of rice into something edible. “God forbid you fuck the rice up,” Talde said. If the lid isn’t detachable, wipe it as clean as possible with a damp towel. The cookers we tested all did well on jasmine rice, but almost all of them struggled to produce good basmati. After testing seven of the best rice cookers, we determined that the Zojirushi Induction Heating System Rice Cooker and Warmer made the best rice, batch after batch. Cooking grains as pilaf, or a vegetarian main course, is a no-brainer once you close the lid and let the rice cooker take over. The Hamilton Beach is also faster than our top pick, capable of churning out a good batch of white rice in around 35 minutes. The best rice generally took the longest to make. Photo: Michael HessionWe love these handles, which make transporting the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy’s hot inner pot from cooker to table easier. The lid opens from left to right, and if you open it with your left hand, it can let out scalding hot steam directly on your arm. Five one-touch smart programs make cooking different recipes easy, while the 20-quart … After cooking many pounds of brisket, rice, and beans in six pressure cookers, we think the Fissler Vitaquick 8.5-Quart Pressure Cooker is the best you can get. Photo: Michael Hession, Unlike every other cooker we tested, the Hamilton Beach’s lid opens from the side, which can let out hot puffs of steam if you open it with your left hand. There are several rice cookers on the market, and it can be rather difficult choosing the right one. This simple model ranks among the fastest non-pressure cookers we tested, making jasmine rice in around 35 minutes. All products featured on Epicurious are independently selected by our editors. Photo: Michael Hession. We’ve tested dozens over the past few years. Rice cookers vary in capability, and some are better at making a style of rice than others. We looked for sturdy machines that were easy to use and easy to clean, and that could handle cooking both large and small quantities of rice. Testing the two models side by side, we noticed only minute differences in taste, texture, and cook time. Steaming fish over the rice in the cooker gives you a healthy, whole meal in the time it takes to cook the rice. Dash DRCM200GBAQ04 Mini Rice Cooker … If left wet and unattended, these little cups will get grungy and moldy (or worse, attract pests). For our 2020 update we tested the Tiger JBX-B10U, a minimally designed cooker priced around $50 less than our winning Zojirushi model. As with all rice cookers, one of the great pleasures of using the Zojirushi Induction Rice Cooker was the ability to set it and forget it—and keep the rice warm for hours with the automatic Keep Warm setting. “But all I had to do was measure properly and hit cook.” Luckily, even if you do get the ratios wrong, the Neuro Fuzzy can compensate for user error to produce an excellent batch of rice. A Note on Cleaning Rice: Anyone who has ever cooked rice will tell you that rinsing the grains is part of the secret to success—washing rice removes excess starch, which keeps the rice from sticking together when it’s cooked. The cooker has settings for white rice (regular, softer, or harder), jasmine white rice, mixed rice, sushi rice, porridge, sweet rice, brown rice, GABA brown rice, and quick-cooking. Long-grain rice cooks up dry and fluffy due to a higher ratio of amylose to amylopectin, the two molecules in starch (PDF), while short-grain rice is mostly amylopectin and medium-grain is somewhere in between. Overall, we found that rice cookers brought out the best in short- and medium-grain rice. Aroma Rice Cooker 2.5 Quart, Professional Version – 4 cups uncooked. Also, the condensation collector does not collect moisture well and lets a considerable amount of hot water run down from the lid and onto the exterior of your pot and counter. The Cuckoo CRP-G1015F makes the best sushi rice of all the cookers we tested—chewy, distinctive grains that hold together perfectly. How long do Rice Cookers Take? For jasmine rice, this was the fastest cooker of all our picks; just 34 to 37 minutes stand between you and nicely cooked rice. The downfall of all the Zojirushi cookers we tested is their slowness, and the Neuro Fuzzy is no exception. Chef Dale Talde told us he thought there were too many variables involved in stovetop rice. It has a removable lid that allows you to wash from every crevice the starchy film that accumulates during cooking. Wirecutter is reader-supported. (You can see how this Cuckoo compares with both the Instant Pot and other rice-specific pressure cookers in the Competition section.) The Neuro Fuzzy also has a smaller footprint than most other 6-cup cookers we tested.We love these handles, which make transporting the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy’s hot inner pot from cooker to table easier. But the rice you get from the Neuro Fuzzy is worth the wait. This time we first tested each with batches of Thai jasmine rice and medium-grain sushi rice—likely the most critical and the most used skill for a rice cooker. Rice is one of the world’s most versatile foods: You could eat a different rice dish every day for weeks without getting bored. Keep reading to learn more, and when you’re ready to buy, check our recommendations for the best Aroma rice cookers … Likewise colour stains on the bowl from a slow-cooked stew might permeate your rice. According to a company representative, Cuckoo has plans to team up with other retailers for exclusive appliances, and we wanted to see how this machine stacked up against Cuckoo’s flagship offerings. It cooked rice quickly, with times consistently around 10 minutes shorter than the Zojirushi’s for white rice and almost 30 minutes less for brown rice. It has a one-switch control, a see-through glass lid, stay cool knob, and durable non-stick inner pot — all you really need for simple, stress-free cooking. In our tests, it excelled at jasmine and brown rice, while sushi rice came out a little soft and basmati didn’t work at all. The Cuckoo also produced rice that was close in quality to the Zojirushi Induction Rice Cooker. Verified . And the Neuro Fuzzy was the slowest for brown rice by a landslide, taking 1 hour 38 minutes, almost twice as long as the Hamilton Beach and the Cuckoo. The Cuckoo CRP-G1015F offers real-time updates on your rice, playing different audio alerts when your rice has moved from the cooking, settling, or warming stage and then playing a jingle when it’s finished cooking (the cooker also offers optional voice navigation in Korean). This rice cooker made the best-tasting rice, no matter what type we cooked. Parboiled rice takes around 20 minutes for 1 cup, and whole-grain rice takes 45 minutes. The answer depends on what you cook and when you want it ready. Overall, we believe that great rice is worth waiting for. The Hamilton Beach Rice and Hot Cereal Cooker makes good white rice very quickly—it’s a marvel considering its low cost. The footprint of the machines varied—most of the models we tested clocked in at under a foot diameter. “Not every pot sits on the stove the same way, the lid doesn’t fit on the stove the same way,” he said. The lid is not removable and also lacks a functional drain hole, so puddles of condensation collect and spill into your rice when you open the lid. This will help you a lot in making your decision about the rice cooker which you have been looking for. Best for a Range of Rice (Including Japanese, Sushi, Korean Rice, and Porridge): Cuckoo CRP-P0609S 6 cup Electric Heating Pressure Rice Cooker & Warmer. If you want a little rice cooker for making rice for small family & one people, then you should use the best mini rice cooker. The thing that really sets this machine apart is its use of induction heating, which provides a precise, even heat source that heats the whole pot, rather than just the bottom, as in conventional rice cookers. The 10 best rice cookers to buy in the UK. The quality of the rice itself was good, with firm and separated grains, but not as plump as rice that came from a Zojirushi. This is a great looking rice cooker that compliments a modern kitchen … A rice cooker should make cooking rice nearly effortless with little human intervention. After more than 150 hours of research and testing, during which we’ve cooked approximately 275 pounds of rice, we recommend the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy NS-ZCC10. In addition, we noticed starchy water bubbling up through the steam vent during recent tests, and we have heard similar reports from our long-term testers who used this appliance at home. This rice cooker wins praise for its quality construction and its ability to consistently produce soft and delicious rice … We also tested the Cuckoo CR-1020FW, a Williams Sonoma exclusive. If you regularly cook brown rice, however, you might prefer our upgrade pick, the Cuckoo CRP-G1015F. Advanced units let you cook meat or vegetables simultaneously. 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