The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker • Hacker News Board

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#31

Post by jrootabega » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:01 PM UTC

spaceflunky wrote: post #14

The science behind a rice cooker is fascinatingly clever, yet painfully simple. In short, boiling water temperature plateaus due to the latent heat of vaporization. When the water is gone the temperature of the pot starts to rise. The rice cooker uses this principle to control the switch. The switch is held by magnet. When the pot finishes boiling the heat rises and exceeds the curie point of the magnet, which means…

It's not the magnet's curie point; it's the curie point of the metal the magnet sticks to.

And I guess it's not really the curie point, just the point where the force becomes weaker than the spring

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#32

Post by pyk » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:03 PM UTC

Icathian wrote: post #24

bobcostas55 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2:1?! That ratio is crazy and will certainly not produce good rice.

What do you personally recommend instead?

1 cup rice 1.25 cups water is what I use as a ratio for short-to-medium grain white rice (I recommend kokuho rose extra fancy). That also is the one typically inscribed on the side of a rice cooker pot. You can go a little over water-wise for a mushier rice, or under for a chewier/drier rice - white rice is forgiving.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#33

Post by yomly » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

colmvp wrote: post #30

FWIW, I'm Asian and I just use a pot on stove.

When I was a student the hobs were those ancient metal hotplates from the 70s/80s with nonexistent temperature control.

I tried to cook rice in a hob and the surface was still raw but the bottom inch had burnt black to practically charcoal.

I have never since tried to cook rice in a pan.

And yet I cook risotto in a pan /shrug

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#34

Post by Bayart » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

ThePhysicist wrote: post #10

For people that regularly eat rice, buying a decent rice cooker is really a no-brainer. Cooking rice in a pan is possible and you can obtain good results if you're careful and turn the heat down at the right moment before the rice starts to stick to the bottom of the pan and burn, it's easy to miss though. A rice cooker makes this process so much easier though: Put in the rice, the adequate amount of water, press a b…

>Zojirushi seems to be the market leader these days

They also make the best insulated bottles. It's completely besides the point but I felt compelled to talk about it, a good bottle is a game changer when you're drinking tea or coffee at your desk all day long.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#35

Post by cangencer » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

eternalban wrote: post #27

jasode wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Cooking rice is difficult? Hmm .... I didn't downvote your comment but your dismissive snark seems out of place since the _history_ of "tricky/difficult/labored" was explained in the article: >It was painfully tricky. Cooking rice this way, says columnist and food writer Makiko Itoh, takes heat modulation: high heat until the water and rice boils, then low heat, then high heat again. “And that, with a wood-burning s…

The article makes general statements about cooking rice, but it is really about cooking rice Japanese style. In some rice eating countries, automatic rice cookers never really took off because of the 'quality' of the product is obviously East Asia centric, which is considered 'mushy' rice in West Asia. With some rice cooking approaches, the amount of water makes no difference as whatever is left is drained after a fi…

+1, in countries like Turkey, Persia, India, Pakistan rice cookers are pretty uncommon. In my home country of Turkey where rice is eaten very commonly, I've never heard of a single person use it. Further, rice is typically first washed several times, fried with a bit of oil and perhaps some spices before being simmered. I don't know if it's possible to do this with a Japanese style rice-cooker.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#36

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:05 PM UTC

eternalban wrote: post #27

jasode wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Cooking rice is difficult? Hmm .... I didn't downvote your comment but your dismissive snark seems out of place since the _history_ of "tricky/difficult/labored" was explained in the article: >It was painfully tricky. Cooking rice this way, says columnist and food writer Makiko Itoh, takes heat modulation: high heat until the water and rice boils, then low heat, then high heat again. “And that, with a wood-burning s…

The article makes general statements about cooking rice, but it is really about cooking rice Japanese style. In some rice eating countries, automatic rice cookers never really took off because of the 'quality' of the product is obviously East Asia centric, which is considered 'mushy' rice in West Asia. With some rice cooking approaches, the amount of water makes no difference as whatever is left is drained after a fi…

[deleted]

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#37

Post by MAMAMassakali » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:09 PM UTC

Why not just use pressure cooker? Cheap, easy to use, durable and versatile.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#38

Post by travisjungroth » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:10 PM UTC

chris_st wrote: post #13

Note to those who already have an Instant Pot: they make fantastic rice.

The trick I found (maybe this is true of all rice cookers) is it's better if it has time to rest after cooking. I start the rice as the very first thing when cooking and it works well.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#39

Post by damnyou » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

jagged-chisel wrote: post #4

graycat wrote: post #2

Deleted. Mod, fix this attack on me.

So measure water and rice, monitor boiling status, modify cooking temperature... Yep, needs more automation and less human thought. We need single-serving-sized pouches of rice, and single-serving-sized bottles of water. Feeding four people? Use four packets and four bottles. The cooking device can monitor its own temperature and sing a ditty when it’s done.

What you're describing is pretty close to a Zojirushi fuzzy logic cooker, which has a greater tolerance for mismatched rice/water ratios (and most importantly sings a tune when done!)

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#40

Post by robotmay » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

graycat wrote: post #29

jasode wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Cooking rice is difficult? Hmm .... I didn't downvote your comment but your dismissive snark seems out of place since the _history_ of "tricky/difficult/labored" was explained in the article: >It was painfully tricky. Cooking rice this way, says columnist and food writer Makiko Itoh, takes heat modulation: high heat until the water and rice boils, then low heat, then high heat again. “And that, with a wood-burning s…

Then the article is wrong, wildly, overwhelmingly, brain-dead wrong. For the "hours" story, that must be wrong. Cooking rice is EASY, over any heat source with just a covered pot, iron, stainless steel, aluminum -- just a pot. Your quote shows that the article is wrong. I did NOTHING at all wrong. Instead I just explained how darned easy it is to cook rice. For anyone taken in by the article that there is a challenge…

Good lord this is one of the saltiest posts I've ever seen on here, which is an accomplishment.

The simple lesson here is: what is easy for you is not necessarily easy for everyone else, and you should not get pissy if you state your opinion so miserably and everybody fights back.

Also, yes it's fairly easy to cook rice in a pan. I cook rice probably 4 days a week, and I now use a rice cooker. My rice cooker:

- Can be set up ahead of time

- Has different cooking profiles for different varieties of rice

- Can keep the rice warm, safely, for many hours after it's cooked

- Cooks the rice very well. It even has a special mode for cooking the rice longer in a specific way, which results in extremely nice-tasting rice

It means that I have rice ready and waiting when I finish cooking the rest of the meal, which no longer has to be timed alongside the rice, which means I can focus on cooking the interesting food and not the bloody rice.

Your experience is different from many others.

Fix your attitude.