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Rice Cooker Hacks - The Ebert Way
- patio11 14y agoRice Cooker Bread (we think?) for a Snack I'll take the liberty of reading the screen for you: Yes, it is bread. Bread in Japanese is a loanword from Portuguese: pan. Japanese bread? Ja-pan. Get it? (This comes from the genre of puns called oyaji gyagu -- "jokes only considered funny by crusty old men.")
- anonymous 14y agoI get it. I'm dabbling in japanese currently and love puns like these.
- saraid216 14y agoI think I just died a little inside.
- lhorie 14y agoMinor nitpick: bread in portuguese = pão, bread in spanish = pan
- rev087 14y agoAnd Japan in portuguese = Japão.
- swah 14y agojaponês?
- patio11 14y agoWhile you're correct, it is historically a loanword from Portuguese, not from Spanish. You can verify this in your favorite 国語辞典 if you want to. Like many loanwords, the pronunciation got corrupted a bit. (An example in the other direction: Godzilla, which you'd have to take several stabs at before a Japanese person guessed you meant gojira.)
- icebraining 14y agoÃo is a notoriously difficult diphthong to pronounce for many native speakers of other languages. Wikipedia says that it was even used as a shibboleth in the Paraguayan War, but it doesn't cite sources.
- bane 14y agowhich sounds just enough like "pahng" that a non-portuguese, learning about bread might turn it into "pang" or "bbang" or "bao" depending.
- tnkm 14y agoThe "Ja-pan #2" is likely in reference to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakitate!!_Japan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakitate!!_Japan From the "List of Ja-pan": "Ja-pan #2: Suihan ja-pan (a Suihan is any automatic rice-cooker)recipe in chapter 13"
- ahoge 14y agoIn the anime, they actually explained how to cook bread in a rice cooker at the end of one episode.
- Cogito 14y agoYakitake!! is deservedly one of my favourite all time Japanese shows. None of my friends understand why I like it, but then again, none of my friends have watched it. As soon as I saw these images, I knew exactly where they were from (it's an audience participation segment of the show). [edit] The protagonist of the show is upset that while many other countries have their own bread (eg French Bread) Japan does not. He sets out to find the perfect Japanese Bread, and in the process creates a series of different breads labelled Ja-pan #1, Ja-pan #2 etc. It's a great show. He has extremely warm hands, which help when kneading the dough.
- mattmaroon 14y agoPosts like this take the unfortunate (and very American) view of food as fuel, an absolute necessity that you have to get out of the way as cheaply and efficiently as possible. Good food, in that view, is anything where the taste isn't painful. As a foodie, this pains me to see. You cannot cook anything good in a rice maker anymore than you can a microwave except, of course, rice. You cannot cook anything good with a bouillon cube (at bare minimum, buy some decent frozen stock from your local soup store) regardless of technique. Good food to me is worth the time it takes to make. On the other hand, I can understand why people choose to optimize other parts of their life in this way. I constantly remind myself that not everyone wants to spend their Sunday making a quiche and an heirloom bean soup to eat for breakfast and lunch all week. Not everyone wants to roast a chicken every week, save the carcasses, then make a stock once a month. That's fine. But I think everyone should experience it before settling for a life of rice-cooker meals.
- pavel_lishin 14y agoYou would cringe if you saw what I just ate. Made some spaghetti last night, with sauteed onions and mushrooms, with olive oil as sauce. Heated it up today in the microwave, but not long enough, so I just ate it cold, shoveling it into my mouth while reading. Sometimes I like taking the time to make good food. But most of the time, food is just calories and nutrients. (I've also had friends tell me that I should become more of a connoisseur of food, or coffee, or wine - but then, I'd never be able to enjoy the food/coffee/wine that I do now because it would taste like crap by comparison.)
- polyfractal 14y agoI had leftover Easy Mac that was made with Eggnog instead of milk because I had ran out. It was sinfully delicious. Probably took a year off my life though.
- saraid216 14y ago> Probably took a year off my life though. According to XKCD, all you have to do is pick up 2,629,742 pennies (individually) and you'll have your year back! http://what-if.xkcd.com/22/ http://what-if.xkcd.com/22/ Science!
- keeptrying 14y agoWhats the difference between a rice cooker and slow cooker?
- blacksmith_tb 14y agoThe slow cooker is equivalent to the 'warm' setting on the rice cooker - it applies steady heat (sometimes with a timer of some kind). The rice cooker adds one feature, it can test to see if the water in your dish has been absorbed and/or cooked off, and turn down the heat.
- jcoby 14y agoA ricer cooker cuts off when it gets too hot (when the water gets absorbed by the rice and the temp rises). A slow cooker/crock pot keeps a consistent (and relatively low) temperature for a period of time. Some have timers, some don't. Some have thermostats some just have high/low settings.
- kingoftheintern 14y agoA rice cooker automatically goes from "high" to "low" once the temperature inside is above 100C (once all the water has boiled). A slow cooker does not.
- FigBug 14y agoA rice cooker is usually smaller and hotter with a thin metal bowl instead of heavy ceramic. It usually cooks rice in 20min rather than the hours required by a slow cooker. A slower cooker turns off on a timer, a rice cooker turns off when the rice is done.
- snogglethorpe 14y ago> A rice cooker is usually smaller and hotter with a thin metal bowl instead of heavy ceramic Only the super-cheap ones, e.g. the chinese-import-for-$15 model. Good ricer cookers, especially those from Japan (where rice cookers are something of an obsession, and bowl thickness/composition is a definite selling point) often have much much thicker bowls. For medium price models (~$100-200) this can be 5-6mm thick, and on expensive models (I've seen them for up to $1500!) like 10-15mm of metal or 20-25mm of ceramic etc (or some secret combination). Modern Japanese ricer cookers can also have very sophisticated heat distribution and control mechanisms, and are usable for a lot of different stuff.
- cocoflunchy 14y agoI am trying this right now. A few potatoes + one onion + some chicken + spices + 1 and 1/2 cup of water are cooking in the rice cooker. I'll let you know how it was! (My only concern is with the amount of water)
- cocoflunchy 14y agoOk, it was good! Not amazing, but very eatable. A little too dry, I will add more water next time. The potatoes were perfectly cooked. Overall positive experience, all I had to do is cut everything into little bits and throw them in the cooker.
- ssharp 14y agoWhat are the benefits of cooking stuff in a rice cooker versus a crock pot? Crock pots are also cheap and (I'm guessing) have a larger capacity, further "optimizing" your time. They usually have two heat settings as well and you can stick the lid on the food and stick the crock right in the fridge for leftovers. I'm sure they both produce equally boring food. Is the rice cooker faster or something?
- rizzom5000 14y agoI think it's because many people who have a rice cooker don't have or want a crockpot. Ebert's rice cooker recipes are probably directed primarily toward this group.
- johnwatson11218 14y agoI just got into this a few months ago and it is amazing. my favorite is steel cut oats. I spray the inside with Pam skip any butter or oil. steamed veggies in the tray with brown rice is so healthy. The oats cook much faster this way and clean up is a breeze.
- bravura 14y agoI love this recipe for a one-dish-meal in a rice-cooker: White Chicken Chili http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-white-chicken-chili-114789 http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-white-chicken-chili-114... It's like someone decided that chili was too colorful, and stripped it of all tones. It's also delicious. Beware of leaving your rice cooker on for hours or days. Although it's sealed and hot (and presumably thus impenetrable to bacteria), some rice cookers are not suited for being left on for too long, and the heating unit will burn. This is regrettable, because I'd love to constantly have a continuous pot of this dish available at a moment's notice. I am still looking for that magic multi-day rice cooker.
- greenmountin 14y agoI have a Zojirushi that I use from time to time to make rice, and have been experimenting with more complete one-pot meals. I can steam several types of vegetables in the last 13 minutes of operation [snow peas, asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, etc] in addition to the easiest "sous vide"-style eggs you'll ever have [trick: cook it whole]. I think fish is possible too, but only have 13 minutes' warning is a little rough. The kicker is that it's a breeze to clean up, I don't even have to use soap and water. It makes a great meal as long as you can go without meat for a day. It also cooks quinoa and can be programmed to have steel cut oats ready for you when you wake up. It would be fascinating to hack it to see if I could recover its cooking rules, or get an early signal about projected time remaining, and I am surprise no one has put this info on the web yet.
- jseliger 14y ago>I have a Zojirushi that I use from time to time to make rice, and have been experimenting with more complete one-pot meals. That's funny, I just got one in order to replace a random $15 rice cooker. Have you written more extensively about your experience elsewhere? And when you say, "steam several types of vegetables in the last 13 minutes," does that mean you cook rice, then add the vegetables with 13 minutes to go? Or does it mean something else?
- greenmountin 14y agoYes, that's correct. I have the ZCC55 Neurofuzzy. Cooking with "1" cup of rice (roughly for one person), I put in vegetables and eggs at roughly the 13 minute warning, when it knows how long it will take to finish. I have logged in a spreadsheet about 15 meals, where I weigh the eggs and veggies, note how cooked they are etc, but it's not quite presentable. Basic recipe: 2 uncracked large eggs (130g), cut asparagus (130g). Both washed and placed in with minimal steam loss at 13m. Remove immediately at finish (move eggs directly to cold water, or they will scald you as you try to open them). Eggs are cheap! You can afford to experiment with them like this. Open the first ones onto an empty plate; cook a little more in the skillet if you undercook. 2 Jumbos are just about at the limit of the 13m warning. I aim for liquid yellow and 85% "solid" white. Hard-boiled eggs aren't as fun. Scrape your meal out of the cooker, turn it off, and LEAVE THE LID OPEN. It dries out the remnants so they just slide off the teflon.
- callmeed 14y agoTechnically, how different is a rice cooker from a slow cooker (aka crock pot)? I have a rice cooker but I use my slow cooker[1] a lot more. It's especially awesome for cooking steel cut oatmeal. Start it the night before and wake up to oatmeal with all sorts of fruit in it. I personally think a slow cooker is more useful–and they're not really more expensive. But maybe they're just the same.
- mattmaroon 14y agoRice cookers generally give you no control over the temperature. They cook at one temperature for awhile, until the food temperature raises above the boiling point of water (meaning the starches in rice have absorbed it all) then they click into warming mode. With a crock pot you have temperature options and it will stay at that temp until you tell it not to (or a pre-programmed cycle does).
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jjm 14y agoSpeed. Rice cooker, some veggies and/or meat, water, lots of spice, wait 30min and you have a huge pot of soup piping hot ready to eat. Not just hot, but all the veggies or meat is thoroughly tender like it 'was' cooked in a crock pot. Only thing is it ended up taking some 30 min rather than a lot longer. To me a rice cooker cooks almost like a moderate pressure cooker.
- dingfeng_quek 14y agoTemperature: - Rice cooker: Cooks until water evaporates/absorbs, then warms - Crock pot: Cooks at a steady temperature, usually for items immersed in a liquid (for water, that's generally around boiling temperature), without evaporating the liquid. In general, more convenient to keep the liquid at a fixed temperature. - Crock pot (Expensive ones): Can set specific temperature (instead of just boiling or low/high) Evaporation: - Crock pot: Tends to minimize it, for long periods of cooking items in liquid - Rice cooker: Minimizing evaporation not a concern/engineering-constraint Insulation (insulation of heat in total; not about ergonomics): - Crock pot: Generally better insulation/less-heat-loss, as it is used for long periods of cooking - Rice cooker: Insulation a much lesser concern as expected period of use is smaller - Insulation affects energy consumption Pot material: - Crock pot: offers a variety of pot material - Rice cooker: generally metal (sometimes with coating) - Affects what leeches into the food - Insulation characteristics can be better or worse (energy consumption) - Cleaning costs (weight, handling, sticking) - Heat distribution across the food (fine detail that isn't relevant to someone who asks this) - Retention of flavours/substances on pot surface and in pot (probably fine detail as well) - Reactions with food (fine detail) Cost: - About the same cost for the same size and quality (similar components: thermostat + feedback circuit + heating element + pot + insulation) - Rice cookers are a bit simpler because it has only 1 temperature setting (something set a bit above boiling point of water) => simpler = cheaper - Rice cookers are simpler because they do not need to minimize evaporation => simpler = cheaper - Rice cookers are simpler because they have lower priorities on insulation => simpler = cheaper If you cook soup/stew overnight with a rice cooker, you'll need to start with a lot of excess water, and end up with much higher electricity bills.
- jjm 14y agoI've been doing this for years, I'm glad that the word is out. For soup the cooker is great, of which I make large amounts of it that I freeze for later in the week.
- tptacek 14y agoThe downside is that cooking in a rice cooker is a low fidelity way of cooking. If you invest in a PID controller (Auber Instruments sells a particularly well-known line of them), you can make your rice cooker the highest-fidelity cooking appliance in your kitchen. The PID controller reads the temperature in the cooker with a thermocouple probe and strobes the power to the cooker to maintain a precise temperature, resulting in a temperature-controlled water bath. Temperature-controlled water bath cooking ("low temp" cooking, or, inaccurately, "sous vide" cooking) is the future of the modern kitchen. Most proteins, most starches, and many vegetables benefit from it, it's almost as easy to execute as Ebert's rice cooker meals, and has the huge advantage of taking precise timing out of the equation; most low-temp preparations can be started in the morning and plated when you get back from work, like slow-cooker meals. If you're remotely interested in cooking, low-temp cooking is about the nerdiest way you can go about it, and the results really are pretty spectacular: you can get perfect custard-texture egg yolks (not to mention reliably perfect custards of all sorts), an absolutely perfect end-to-end medium rare steak, reliably perfect pork chops, a week's worth of perfect chicken breasts for cold prep (sandwiches and salads) or last-minute pasta dishes, perfect glazed root vegetables --- I keep using the word "perfect" because when you have a small computer making sure your food never goes over or under its ideal target finish temperature by more than a degree or so, that's what you end up with. I have a Polyscience circulator now, but I used to use a Black & Decker rice cooker and an Auber PID controller, and while there are benefits to the professional circulator (I'm pretty sure I can circulate a bathtub and cook a whole pig in it if I really wanted to), pretty much any DIY plan you find on the Internet will do just fine; you can even try what Serious Eats recommends and do your first couple of experiments with a beer cooler. Also, regarding this particular meal: try chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts. Chicken breasts are particularly expensive (everyone wants them), but chicken thighs are more delicious, more forgiving of time/temperature variation, and in long-cooking applications like this, all the downsides (fattiness and toughness) are mitigated by the cook time. If you're just now thinking about starting to cook instead of going out every night, and you don't want to go too nuts with it, I'd recommend a crock pot / slow cooker. They're not sexy, but wow are they ever useful. You can buy a Costco block of chicken thighs and chuck them in your freezer, and then each morning just open one package of them into your slow cooker with an onion and some garlic, salt, and pepper. Run on "slow" all day. Done. Same thing with any cheap chuck cut of beef, or with pork shoulder. Everyone I talk to that "discovers" the slow cooker falls in love with it.
- geargrinder 14y agoI can't get past the misspelled "Rogert" in all the call-outs.
- mscarborough 14y agoGet a pressure cooker, you don't have to 'hack' a rice cooker. And the bonus is, you have more predictable cook times.
- guylhem 14y agoA rice cooker is nice, but perfecting the art of microwaving is more efficient. With my small microwave : Frozen raw broccoli in the microwave for 2 minutes (then let it cool down and melt the remaining ice for 3 minutes) = crispy broccoli at room temperature. Put rice in a bowl, with more water than rice, microwave for 4 minutes and let it cool down for 2 minutes = rice the way I love it (not over cooked). Goes fine with mustard tuna or other canned fish if you love sauce : open the can, add the rice- you're done. Put cheap frozen minced meat (I insist on cheap - because it usually has more fat, and meat without enough fat won't do good in a microwave) for 3 minutes and a half : it will roast in its own grease, leaving the inside red (I love that- if you dont, let the frozen meat unfreeze and cook for less time). Discard the excess grease. It now usually takes me 10 to prepare a meal. Can't beat that efficiency, except by adding milk to cornflakes!
- Luyt 14y agoA quick meal (10 minutes preparation time) I eat about three times a week. It's highly parallelized: - chop up mixed vegetables and put in bowl, cover with lid, place in microwave, set it for 4 minutes. - put a pan on the stove with some olive oil in it - pour sweet soy sauce over some fish filet, rub it in, cut in pieces, sprinkle ginger powder over it - place fish pieces in pan - chop some parsley or cilantro - microwave should be finished by now - let the veggies rest for two minutes (lid still on) - turn the fish pieces - fill a glass of wine ;-) - put fish on top of veggies, put parsley/cilantro on top of that - have a nice meal!
- guylhem 14y agoI am not really a big fan of stoves, but it looks great- I might try it next week! Thanks :-)
- joshchan 14y agoBut Soylent Green is people!
- pm90 14y agoI just read a comment about not being able to make "anything but rice" on a rice cooker. That is certainly true, but this variety is extremely large. Just google 'biryani', an Indian dish that is made of an aromatic combination of rice and veggies/meat. Since most HN readers are likely to be non-Indians, I would just like to point out: its incredibly easy to make delicious Indian food, and its incredibly easy to make biryani on a rice cooker. The spices are what make Indian food delicious, and these come packaged in small packets at any Indian store (Some even have recipes on the back). Look at a few recipes, try them out and surprise your gf with your amazing cooking skills :)
- dingfeng_quek 14y agoMust point out that the rice is different too. Bryani is not as nice with other rice shapes and textures.
- pm90 14y agoYes, that's true! It does goes best with the 'Basmati' type of rice
- deerpig 14y agoIt would seem that everyone here has ignored how many different ways that rice cookers are used in the far east. It's very common to put a whole chicken or salted duck egg (in the shell) in with the rice when it cooks, by the time the rice is done you have a hard boiled egg. Then, you put a wire stand on top of the rice and a shallow metal dish on the stand, and put in some meat, and some vegetables and you have a whole meal. If you don't have access to any other way, rice cookers are not half bad at popping popcorn (though if I have a choice I do it in a wok). I have recently moved from Thailand to Cambodia and am still waiting (four months now) to move my things to Cambodia, but I have a rice cooker. So I still use the rice cooker every morning to make ramen every morning. I buy some ground pork and bean sprouts in the wet market down the street, first boil the water, then add the meat, and then add the soup mix and bean sprouts. Many cheap rice cookers include a steaming rack which you fit above the bowl. I use this all the time to cook frozen dim sum -- or a steamed version of the fritata that was mentioned in the article. As some of the other posts mentioned, it would be nice if there was a low heat setting so it could double as a crock pot, but then, there is a reason that rice cooker pots are made from aluminium and crock pots are a thick ceramic.
- mamoswined 14y agoI learned about cooking with a rice cooker from living in crappy grad student housing, where real cooking appliances were forbidden and no one had a kitchen. I thought I was stuck with a microwave. Thank goodness for the Asian grad students I met who showed me how they made delicious tasty meals with their rice cookers. I would note that please do buy one with an attached steamer because it's a really nice bonus for steaming meat/fish/vegetables.