Anyone have a rice cooker? Share your recipes! (vanilla, pot, stovetop)

[dens]

Totally agree with last post. Keep it simple. Get a cheap one, use it for rice only. Love that it is automatic so no worrying about it. Even if you only use it once a month, it is worth it.

[Ag77845]

No!

[Chimuelojones]

I have a pot with a lid...makes perfect rice. save the money and buy you some jasmine or Basmati rice to cook.

[Blinx]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Don't buy a rice cooker to make pulled pork in! You'll do much better with the crockpot you already have. That recipe you saw was just for someone who ONLY has a rice cooker.

What makes a rice cooker handy is that it's automatic. You measure your rice and water into the pot, it cooks the rice and then rings a bell and turns itself down to a stay warm setting, or off, depending on the model.

What makes a rice cooker work is that as long as the rice/water mixture has any liquid left to boil the temperature is limited to the boiling temperature of 212 F degrees. Once the liquid disappears the rice is ready (if the proportion of the measurements were correct). As soon as that happens the temperature rises and a thermostatic mechanism flips the switch and rings the bell. It's a very simple mechanism, simpler than a toaster, and they're very inexpensive to buy.

For most people the decision to buy one or not depends mostly on whether you have room to store it.

Thanks for the explanation -- I've thought about getting one myself. I LOVE rice and it's pretty easy to make on the stove top, but I always end up scraping something off of the bottom of the pot. I'm all FOR automatic devices that shut themselves off and don't overcook!

[TabulaRasa]

I love my (really inexpensive) rice cooker, but I use it very often. It just makes better rice than I make on the stovetop, and I don't have to watch it, so I can be making something else while it's going. It's small, too, so it stores well.

[Almrausch]

I don't think it is necessary at all to have a rice cooker. If you know how to cook rice proper than it is easy as 1 2 3 ...For me just a waste of money...but that is my opinion.Get a good quality rice that is important!

[gregm]

The one I have makes rice and also steams the veggies.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I have a rice cooker but haven't used it since I switched from white rice to brown rice. Brown rice takes longer to cook, so the timer on the rice cooker has lost its value to me.

OP, would you eat more rice if it were super convenient to cook it? The rice cooker does its job well.

[Ella Parr]

I don't cook a lot of rice, either. So, I went with a microwave rice cooker. It was really cheap from someplace like Walmart. It is heavy-duty plastic, lightweight, easy to handle, dishwasher safe, stores in the cabinet. I love it.

I, too, cook rice on the stovetop and have for decades. However, you do have to stir it and watch it and it takes up a burner. Sometimes, I like to toss the rice/water/salt into the cooker, shove it in the microwave, and go do something else for 20 minutes. It is also nice if I am using all my stove eyes for something else.

Around here, we eat rice for breakfast with butter and sugar (and sometimes, a little milk). For that, I cook it on the stove because we like it to be more creamy. The rice cooker turns out a drier rice like Mexican rice or non-sticky Asian rice.

Ella

[MRBookworm]

If you have the type of rice cooker that uses a thermostat instead of a timer, brown rice works just as well as white rice does.

The trick to cooking brown rice in a rice cooker is to use more water than usual. Brown rice doesn't cook as quickly as white.

If I am cooking 1 1/2 cups of white rice I use 3 cups of water.
If I am cooking 1 1/2 cups of brown rice I use 3 1/2 cups of water.