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

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#71

Post by brudgers » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

grenoire wrote: post #53

I don't quite get why people think that pot rice on the stove is somehow difficult. Measure your rice and water, and set up a timer. That's it. We've been cooking rice for millennia in this way, a rice cooker is just plastic waste in the end.

For a long time, I would have said something similar. For me, the big advantage of a rice cooker is timing. I can start it before the rest of the dish and no matter how long it takes to cook up everything else, the rice is ready to go. And it is ready to go if someone else in the household eats an hour or two later. And when I go to put leftover rice in the fridge, it's still palatable, so when it comes out of the fridge it's also palatable if properly stored.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#72

Post by dogma1138 » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:01 PM UTC

throw0101a wrote: post #68

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…

> When the water is gone the temperature of the pot starts to rise. Water-to-rice ratios are important. America's Test Kitchen has a good video on the topic, especially if you're using a pot and not a rice cooker: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOOSikanIlI * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFU7ezipbg The rice actually only 'needs' a 1:1 ratio, but you need to put in extra to deal with evaporation; brown rice need…

Rinsing the rice and letting it sit for 30-60min absorbing some moisture then a 1:1.25 ratio is by far the best method I’ve used.

I also let it steam in its own heat for the last 10min or so of cooking since the temp won’t rise it won’t overcook the rice but it will prevent any rice from being undercooked or from the rice at the bottom form burning.

If I don’t have the tome to rinse I usually increase the ratio slightly and cook it for 5min longer and let it sit covered for 5 additional minutes but the result will also be a much more stickier and starchy rice.

People also for some reason stir rice which you should never do unless you are making glue or rice pudding (which tbh is the same recipe minus the sugar and flavorings).

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#73

Post by enraged_camel » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:01 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…

>>For people that regularly eat rice, buying a decent rice cooker is really a no-brainer.

I use Instant Pot. It's not as good as a rice cooker, but most of the time the difference isn't noticeable, and the benefit is that you can cook a LOT more things in it than just rice. Great if you have limited counter space in your kitchen.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#74

Post by ffggvv » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:04 PM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #69

ginko wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brown rice takes significantly longer to cook, so the rice cooker might not be programmed to do that.

With the simplest rice cookers, there's no programming. When the water is gone, it is gone.

yep, i just add more water and the brown rice turns out fine. though i’m sure fancy 200 dollar zojirushi ones probably do it better, i’m happy with simplicity

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#75

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:07 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…

[deleted]

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#76

Post by jasonwatkinspdx » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:19 PM UTC

grenoire wrote: post #53

I don't quite get why people think that pot rice on the stove is somehow difficult. Measure your rice and water, and set up a timer. That's it. We've been cooking rice for millennia in this way, a rice cooker is just plastic waste in the end.

It's about convenience and freeing up a burner on the cook top. I love the hold warm feature on mine in particular. It'a a zojirushi that's pushing 12 years now, and I've never had a single issue with it. It's far from being plastic waste for me, and I wouldn't be surprised if it lasts another decade.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#77

Post by kijin » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:26 PM UTC

nosborn wrote: post #28

cycrutchfield wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO the Korean brands are the market leaders. Check out Cuckoo

I was told by a rice cooker salesperson (in Asia) that Korean brands should be avoided if you plan to cook brown rice. Apparently brown rice isn’t eaten in Korea so the machines don’t have a brown rice setting. I don’t know if the former is true but the latter seemed to be on the ones I saw.

Korea here. Brown rice is fairly common, and every rice cooker I've seen (except the very cheapest) has a setting for brown and/or mixed rice.

If the salesperson wasn't lying, he was probably referring to other cultivars of rice, not just brown rice. For example, long grain rice obviously requires different settings than short grain rice. Southeast and South Asia have much more diversity of rice than Northeast Asia.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#78

Post by gbear605 » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:30 PM UTC

throw0101a wrote: post #68

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…

> When the water is gone the temperature of the pot starts to rise. Water-to-rice ratios are important. America's Test Kitchen has a good video on the topic, especially if you're using a pot and not a rice cooker: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOOSikanIlI * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFU7ezipbg The rice actually only 'needs' a 1:1 ratio, but you need to put in extra to deal with evaporation; brown rice need…

The traditional method in a lot of Asia (per what I’ve read online) is to put a finger on top of the rice pointing down, so that your fingernail is touching the rice, and to fill water up to your knuckle.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#79

Post by slfnflctd » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:32 PM UTC

grenoire wrote: post #53

I don't quite get why people think that pot rice on the stove is somehow difficult. Measure your rice and water, and set up a timer. That's it. We've been cooking rice for millennia in this way, a rice cooker is just plastic waste in the end.

It's a simple robot. Allows you to delegate and time-shift a set of tasks so you don't have to be interrupted while focusing on something else. For many of us, that is more than worth a bit of 'wasteful' product design, and can lead directly to increased productivity in several ways.

Re: The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker

#80

Post by badfrog » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 3:35 PM UTC

gbear605 wrote: post #78

throw0101a wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When the water is gone the temperature of the pot starts to rise. Water-to-rice ratios are important. America's Test Kitchen has a good video on the topic, especially if you're using a pot and not a rice cooker: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOOSikanIlI * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFU7ezipbg The rice actually only 'needs' a 1:1 ratio, but you need to put in extra to deal with evaporation; brown rice need…

The traditional method in a lot of Asia (per what I’ve read online) is to put a finger on top of the rice pointing down, so that your fingernail is touching the rice, and to fill water up to your knuckle.

That's covered in the first video link