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You have family or are lazy. Life with $400+ high end rice cooker: Load up big batch of rice when convenient, rice cooks at set schedule. No minding the stove

You have family or are lazy. Life with $400+ high end rice cooker: Load up big batch of rice when convenient, rice cooks at set schedule. No minding the stove. Keep warm option can keep rice 95% tasty for 3-4 days vs storing/reheating rice that gets dry. Rice quality also consistently good. Depending on how much rice you eat, this will save you multiple hours a week. Hundreds of hours over a few years. It's really no brainer investment. It's like asking why do people have toasters when they can fry up or bake bread every time. Except high end toasters have nothing on high end rice cookers. Imagine a toaster that can be loaded with bread and you can open it whenever and have perfectly toasted bread for days. I imagine frequent bread eaters would pay stupid money for that. E: if your clumbsy, never accidentally burn a pot again, which adds up.

koyote 3y ago
I like the toaster comparison! You can definitely toast bread using a pan but you'll find it difficult to get the same consistency and it's also more hassle and cleaning. That being said, is there really much difference between a 100$ vs 400$+ rice cooker? I've been trying to find a reason to upgrade my cheap(ish) Panasonic to something like a Zojirushi but every time I look into it I just can't justify the expense.
- bobthepanda 3y ago
  Zojirushi has very high build quality. I wouldn’t be surprised if mine lasted more than a decade. And also they are pretty good on parts availability; I had to toss a different $100 rice cooker I used to own because I needed a new pot and they didn’t make them anymore.
- woleium 3y ago
  Yes. Price is quickly forgotten but quality endures.
- maxglute 3y ago
  Apart from extended keepwarm because better sensors (?), my experience with higher end rice cookers is they're designed to vent moisture better, less cleanup for frequent activity always good. I think there's also satisfaction knowing you're having the best reasonable quality of (for me white) rice, since a bunch of japanese engineers spent decades making it in a sense, a solved problem. That's just like... nice to think about, or not worry about (even if placebo effect) whenever eating rice, which is always. I'm the least buyitforlife kind of guy, not interested in $200 pants or $400 boots or $800 jackets that last a decade, because I don't like dealing with wear and tear after a few years, but as long as the rice cooker is working, which they seem to for like 10 years, you're getting best rice. It's a nice reoccuring feeling for $40 a year.
- imp0cat 3y ago
  You can also use special programs that will make healthier rice - search for low sugar rice cookers.
a_t48 3y ago
As tempting as it is, according to food safety guidelines you shouldn’t leave rice in the rice cooker for more than 12 hours, even on “keep warm”.
- slily 3y ago
  My model recommends the warming function for up to 40 hours, but I'm sure Japanese people who eat rice every day get poisoned all the time, and we should all follow FDA guidelines that say to throw out all of our food if it is in the fridge for longer than 2 days or out at room temp for 4 hours. No wonder people think that cooking or grocery shopping are intimidating with that mentality...
  - a_t48 3y ago
    No need to be sarcastic :) I just thought 3-4 days was really stretching it
    - slily 3y ago
      I wouldn't leave it for that long, but mostly because of degradation in texture. The sarcasm is how I stop myself from getting too angry over the ridiculous US food safety guidelines that discourage people from cooking and encourage waste. Sadly those are treated as gospel all over the Western Internet. I can imagine the comments on TKG...
- maxglute 3y ago
  Yeah 4 days is stretching it, was more commentary on rice taste/quality vs rice stored in fridge and reheated. As for 12 hours, I know it's the guidelines, but plenty of people I know grew up eating multiday room temperature stored rice. IIRC China released data on bacillus cereus outbreaks a year ago, and they had <10 deaths and a few 1000 hospitalizations over 10 years from a billion rice eaters - cause was primarily poor food handling in cafeterias. Risk:reward wise, 2-3 days works for me, but I also have pretty strong stomach when travelling.
  - 3y ago
YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
I see, thanks for the insight. Well, you're replying to someone who makes her own bread, and her own everything else [1] so I at least understand why I don't have a rice cooker now! I enjoy cooking and I don't think of it as a waste of time, like "hundreds of hours over a few years". Those are hundreds of hours where I get to do something I love and that I find rewarding, physically so. My average time spent on cooking is about an hour, or an hour and a half, depending on the dish, I reckon. But then I'll eat that for a couple of days, so it's an hour for four meals; for two people. My partner also cooks so it's not always me spending that time. Of course for some lunches I'll just make myself a toastie or puff up some noodles and eat them with tuna. Maybe give them a quick fry if I really feel like it. Anyway I guess this thread has helped convince me I don't need a rice cooker in my life. I do have a toaster though :) ______________ [1] Except for beans and chickpeas. Not if I can buy a can of perfectly boiled chickpeas at 0.45 p. The power to cook that on a stove will cost me more and it's probably better for the environment given the people who put the chickpeas in the can boil them in batches of several hundreds of kgs, not 1kg as I'd do.
- maxglute 3y ago
  I like myself a fresh loaf as well. I think there's more joy/ritual in bread making/baking. There's more types of bread to experiment with. It's a hobby. Some bakers I know spend more money on mixers and cast iron baking pans and other contraptions than a fancy rice cooker. No one makes rice for a hobby or bring plain rice to potluck. Your chickpea comparison is apt. Imagine if your normal staple is just chickpeas. It's a chore made for automation. East Asian rice consumption is pretty boring, people stick with their brand rarely even switch up grain types. Other cultures put stuff in their rice, spice it up, cook it with stuff and have more one pot raw rice recipes. But if your rice diet is 95% white rice consumed the same way, splurging on a "unitool" like a rice cooker to save time brings joy.
- adrian_b 3y ago
  Lentils, chickpeas or beans can be boiled in a perfectly reproducible way and with minimum energy consumption in a microwave oven. The boiling time depends on the quantity and on the oven, but it is unlikely to exceed 15 minutes (preferably after soaking them for a half day in acidified water, then rinsing them) (by acidified I mean adding a little lemon or lime juice, or vinegar or citric acid; such acid soaking removes much of the phytic acid from seeds or nuts). I even bake my bread or my cakes in a microwave oven, because it is much faster and more reproducible than in a traditional oven. Thus I have stopped cooking for multiple days, because cooking any dish takes much less than a half hour (the wall clock time may be greater, but it includes times when the food is either in the oven or it must rest, but it is unattended and I can do other activities).

koyote 3y ago

I like the toaster comparison! You can definitely toast bread using a pan but you'll find it difficult to get the same consistency and it's also more hassle and cleaning. That being said, is there really much difference between a 100$ vs 400$+ rice cooker? I've been trying to find a reason to upgrade my cheap(ish) Panasonic to something like a Zojirushi but every time I look into it I just can't justify the expense.

bobthepanda 3y ago
Zojirushi has very high build quality. I wouldn’t be surprised if mine lasted more than a decade. And also they are pretty good on parts availability; I had to toss a different $100 rice cooker I used to own because I needed a new pot and they didn’t make them anymore.
woleium 3y ago
Yes. Price is quickly forgotten but quality endures.
maxglute 3y ago
Apart from extended keepwarm because better sensors (?), my experience with higher end rice cookers is they're designed to vent moisture better, less cleanup for frequent activity always good. I think there's also satisfaction knowing you're having the best reasonable quality of (for me white) rice, since a bunch of japanese engineers spent decades making it in a sense, a solved problem. That's just like... nice to think about, or not worry about (even if placebo effect) whenever eating rice, which is always. I'm the least buyitforlife kind of guy, not interested in $200 pants or $400 boots or $800 jackets that last a decade, because I don't like dealing with wear and tear after a few years, but as long as the rice cooker is working, which they seem to for like 10 years, you're getting best rice. It's a nice reoccuring feeling for $40 a year.
imp0cat 3y ago
You can also use special programs that will make healthier rice - search for low sugar rice cookers.

a_t48 3y ago

As tempting as it is, according to food safety guidelines you shouldn’t leave rice in the rice cooker for more than 12 hours, even on “keep warm”.

slily 3y ago
My model recommends the warming function for up to 40 hours, but I'm sure Japanese people who eat rice every day get poisoned all the time, and we should all follow FDA guidelines that say to throw out all of our food if it is in the fridge for longer than 2 days or out at room temp for 4 hours. No wonder people think that cooking or grocery shopping are intimidating with that mentality...
- a_t48 3y ago
  No need to be sarcastic :) I just thought 3-4 days was really stretching it
  - slily 3y ago
    I wouldn't leave it for that long, but mostly because of degradation in texture. The sarcasm is how I stop myself from getting too angry over the ridiculous US food safety guidelines that discourage people from cooking and encourage waste. Sadly those are treated as gospel all over the Western Internet. I can imagine the comments on TKG...
maxglute 3y ago
Yeah 4 days is stretching it, was more commentary on rice taste/quality vs rice stored in fridge and reheated. As for 12 hours, I know it's the guidelines, but plenty of people I know grew up eating multiday room temperature stored rice. IIRC China released data on bacillus cereus outbreaks a year ago, and they had <10 deaths and a few 1000 hospitalizations over 10 years from a billion rice eaters - cause was primarily poor food handling in cafeterias. Risk:reward wise, 2-3 days works for me, but I also have pretty strong stomach when travelling.
- 3y ago

YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago

I see, thanks for the insight. Well, you're replying to someone who makes her own bread, and her own everything else [1] so I at least understand why I don't have a rice cooker now! I enjoy cooking and I don't think of it as a waste of time, like "hundreds of hours over a few years". Those are hundreds of hours where I get to do something I love and that I find rewarding, physically so. My average time spent on cooking is about an hour, or an hour and a half, depending on the dish, I reckon. But then I'll eat that for a couple of days, so it's an hour for four meals; for two people. My partner also cooks so it's not always me spending that time. Of course for some lunches I'll just make myself a toastie or puff up some noodles and eat them with tuna. Maybe give them a quick fry if I really feel like it. Anyway I guess this thread has helped convince me I don't need a rice cooker in my life. I do have a toaster though :) ______________ [1] Except for beans and chickpeas. Not if I can buy a can of perfectly boiled chickpeas at 0.45 p. The power to cook that on a stove will cost me more and it's probably better for the environment given the people who put the chickpeas in the can boil them in batches of several hundreds of kgs, not 1kg as I'd do.

maxglute 3y ago
I like myself a fresh loaf as well. I think there's more joy/ritual in bread making/baking. There's more types of bread to experiment with. It's a hobby. Some bakers I know spend more money on mixers and cast iron baking pans and other contraptions than a fancy rice cooker. No one makes rice for a hobby or bring plain rice to potluck. Your chickpea comparison is apt. Imagine if your normal staple is just chickpeas. It's a chore made for automation. East Asian rice consumption is pretty boring, people stick with their brand rarely even switch up grain types. Other cultures put stuff in their rice, spice it up, cook it with stuff and have more one pot raw rice recipes. But if your rice diet is 95% white rice consumed the same way, splurging on a "unitool" like a rice cooker to save time brings joy.
adrian_b 3y ago
Lentils, chickpeas or beans can be boiled in a perfectly reproducible way and with minimum energy consumption in a microwave oven. The boiling time depends on the quantity and on the oven, but it is unlikely to exceed 15 minutes (preferably after soaking them for a half day in acidified water, then rinsing them) (by acidified I mean adding a little lemon or lime juice, or vinegar or citric acid; such acid soaking removes much of the phytic acid from seeds or nuts). I even bake my bread or my cakes in a microwave oven, because it is much faster and more reproducible than in a traditional oven. Thus I have stopped cooking for multiple days, because cooking any dish takes much less than a half hour (the wall clock time may be greater, but it includes times when the food is either in the oven or it must rest, but it is unattended and I can do other activities).