Why do people use rice cookers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When cooking rice is so easy to make on the stovetop? Why an extra appliance? The rice literally cooks itself to perfection in about 10 minutes. I can make enough for one serving in a small saucepan, or enough for a small army in a large pot, and anything in between. Is it simply because people don’t want to watch for the pot to boil? What am I missing?

A brain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am extremely bad at making rice. (And I'm otherwise a really good cook!)

+1

I’m also a good home cook who is terrible at making rice on the stove. Rice cookers knock it out of the park every time!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When cooking rice is so easy to make on the stovetop? Why an extra appliance? The rice literally cooks itself to perfection in about 10 minutes. I can make enough for one serving in a small saucepan, or enough for a small army in a large pot, and anything in between. Is it simply because people don’t want to watch for the pot to boil? What am I missing?

You've never used a rice cooker, have you?

[Anonymous]

You don’t eat enough rice for it to make sense.

[Anonymous]

I’m the earlier PP who is also bad at making rice on the stove. I also have a weird thing for the smell of freshly steamed rice when you first open the rice cooker. I adore it and shove my face over it each time it opens, trying not to get burned by the steam…

[Anonymous]

I hate making rice on the stove top (I boil, turn down to simmer for 18m and let stand for 10m, so nowhere near only 10m total), but I also hate additional appliances.

Rice cookers are great because you can start it in the AM, have some for breakfast, keep it warm for lunch, and its still ready for dinner. It's also always perfect, very predictable, no need to pay attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am extremely bad at making rice. (And I'm otherwise a really good cook!)

+1

I’m also a good home cook who is terrible at making rice on the stove. Rice cookers knock it out of the park every time!

Me too. I love my rice cooker, I’ve used it 3x this week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am extremely bad at making rice. (And I'm otherwise a really good cook!)

+1

I’m also a good home cook who is terrible at making rice on the stove. Rice cookers knock it out of the park every time!

Same, but I also love the timer. Even better than rice is setting it for my steel-cut oats the night before.

Glad you don't need it, OP, but mine is honestly one of my favorite and most-used posessions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asians use rice cookers because there is a standard for perfectly cooked rice that rice cookers consistently meet

Yep. In an Asian household a rice cooker is a staple.

Asian here and I only make rice in a rice cooker unless I’m making something like a Latin American chicken and rice recipe or a risotto.

Same. We recently upgraded to an induction pressure cooker model, and it's great--perfect, fluffy, sticky rice in 25 minutes, and slightly less perfect rice in under 15 minutes.

[Anonymous]

OP, if your rice cooks in 10 minutes, just accept that you won’t understand— because we have different standards, and probably different types of rice.

[Anonymous]

Persian rice does not take 10 minutes to make. And persian rice cookers make the tahdig or crispy rice at the bottom of the pot effortlessly.

[Anonymous]

Because they are too dumb to learn how to make rice properly.

[Anonymous]

I have an Asian parent who cooks rice solely using the rice cooker, and a Caucasian parent who cooks rice solely using a saucepan. Different rice varieties for different recipes.

I use the rice cooker. Never got the hang of the saucepan rice, even though my mother says: "but it's EASY!".

[Anonymous]

OP just wants to feel superior and not have the appliance.

[Anonymous]

It’s set and forget.

There, I answered your question. I don’t understand why you don’t know this.

If you’re cooking other parts of the meal, it’s nice to have a side that you don’t have to monitor at all.