Rice Cookers - How to Choose The Best Rice Cooker For Your Kitchen

Rice cookers are best for preparing steamed rice and keeping them warm even after cooking. They have an insulated case with a removable cooking pot and a heating element that controlled by a thermostat is located between the two containers. The cooking pot is calibrated to ensure proper proportions of water and rice.
How rice is cooked
Water and rice are poured in at the start of the cooking, and the water is heated to boiling point so the rice can absorb it to expand. After the preset time, the remaining water is boiled away and the machine switches to "keep warm" mode or shuts down. Here are some models and the ways on how they cook your rice:

Basic cookers
Also called as on/off rice cookers, they automatically shut off after the rice cooks but they have no indicator lights and their pans are regular aluminum, not non-stick. They are cheaper but have fewer featuers.

Panasonic Rice Cookers - A Foodie's Best Friend

Have you ever heard of Panasonic and National? Actually, these are the same Japanese manufacturer. Recently they decided to unify both brands under the Panasonic umbrella, which is more known internationally. I live in Japan and I own an older National fridge, and recently I bought a Panasonic rice cooker.

Having a rice cooker at home is a blast! I had a doubt on whether or not I should buy a Panasonic or a Zojirushi. Well, both work like any other model available on the market. Wash and soak the rice, add water, press start and you are done.

Other than cooking rice, these cookers also have menus to warm rice and to steam vegetables. The warming mode will warm any foods stored for up to 12 hours. The inside pot and inside lid will both come out, which is very helpful to clean it up. Two fundamental accessories that came along were the vegetable stand, to steam cook vegetables, and a plastic spatula to grab rice, which amazingly will not get rice stuck on.

The Best Rice Cooker - What to Look For Before You Buy

Is rice one of your favorite dishes but you don't enjoy cooking it because it either burns or sticks or you end up with under or overcooked rice? That can be enough to make anyone swear off making rice at home. But if you enjoy rice and want a better way to make it, rice cookers are available with multiple options in cooking functions and sizes. You can find them from inexpensive with just a few features to boast of or you can find expensive ones with all the bells and whistles.

How do you know which one you should get especially if you've never used a rice cooker before? The first step is to decide the size of the rice cooker based on the job you plan for it to do. Obviously, if your purpose is to feed on person, you can select a smaller model. But if it's to feed a family or large crowds such as for a party or other social event, you're going to want to choose the larger size. Decide if the cooker is for personal or business use-there are great cookers for sale that can be used commercially.

The Best Rice Cookers Are Not Cheap

If rice is a big part of your diet then owning an expensive rice cooker may well be worth it. As with many things in life, with these kitchen appliances we often get what we pay for, unless of course we get ripped off. That is why it is important when making a purchase like this that we do our research thoroughly so that we know what we are getting into. There are both cheap and expensive machines available. On the whole, the more you pay, the better tasting and textured rice you will be able to produce. Also, more expensive models typically have more options. For example you may be able to cook GABA rice if you get one of the best rice cookers.


There are many different companies that make these types of kitchen devices. Most of them are Japanese firms. This is for a couple of reasons.