Last Updated on June 19, 2020 by MakeThingsReal
A rice cooker is a vital part of most household kitchens. Top rice cookers make cooking a more comfortable and faster task, it saves you time and energy and delivers perfect results.
There are so many reasons to buy a rice cooker, apart from the fact that you get perfectly cooked rice all the time. This unique household appliance is also a unitasker, with a rice cooker in your kitchen, so many other food items become easier to prepare. Rice cookers range in price, and there are rice makers for every budget type.
A basic rice cooker can perform a myriad of functions, not only can it cook rice to perfect consistency, but you can also make other food items in your rice cooker.
Some of the things that you can make with a rice cooker include noodles or pasta, frittatas, boiled eggs, steamed vegetables, steamed meat.
Japanese top rice cookers are more often than not on the higher end of the price scale, and it’s not hard to guess why. These cookers come with some pretty impressive features that make cooking rice shrimps, sushi and a variety of foodstuff, a pleasant experience.
If you use a standard rice cooker, you may wonder why you need to splurge on a costly one when, after-all, both perform similar functions, that is, they cook rice and they cook it well.
But if you do decide to cook rice with one of the high-end Japanese top rice cookers, you will learn the difference.
First of all, the technology in these machines is optimized to cook different kinds of grains and other food items to the consistency required. Some of the top rice cookers have a microchip that adjusts the cooking temperatures and cooking times accordingly so that foods like sushi, porridge, and noodles are made just as well as rice.
There are many different brands of Japanese top rice cookers on the market, each one with more and even better features. Some of them are;
Tiger JBA-T10U-WU
This is a favorite Japanese brand that makes powerful, versatile top rice cookers. The Tiger rice cooker features a microcomputer that regulates the cooking process. The cooker has settings for porridge, mixed rice, brown rice, sweet rice, quick rice, multi-grain rice, plain rice, slow cook, and steam. It also features an automatic warm function once the cooking cycle ends, the microchip controls these functions. The rice cooker is relatively small and lightweight and is great for small kitchen spaces. Despite its size, this cooker has a large capacity; you can also set the steaming and set delays on the cooker.
Zojirushi NS-TSC10
Zojirushi is another popular brand of Japanese top rice cookers. This cooker actually has a cake setting. It also has settings for brown rice, porridge, white rice, sushi, rice with seasoning and steaming. The cooker has an automatic keep warm function which you can extend, and it has a reheating cycle. It comes with a BPA-free steam basket along with its steam function and a non-stick rice spatula, a spatula holder and rice measuring cup. The microchip in the computer adjusts steaming and pre-soak time when you choose a cooking setting. The rice cooker is stainless steel, and the inner container is made from non-stick coated aluminum that is detachable and easy to clean. You can also pre-set the rice cooker.
Zojirushi NS-ZCC10
This is another Zojirushi cooker that makes use of a microchip to control most of its functions. This cooker also features a thermal sensor to regulate and monitor cooking temperatures and adjust them based on the cooking settings you choose. The device has settings for white rice, porridge, sweet rice, mixed rice, brown rice, semi-brown rice, quick rice and rinse-free. The cooker features a rounded inner pan that allows for even cooking/heating, it also comes with a rinse-free rice measuring cup, a spatula and spatula holder, and a regular rice measuring cup. This cooker is also lightweight and easy to carry around which makes it great for students and a good idea for potlucks. It has a keep warm function that you can extend, a reheating cycle and a delay timer so you can regular the start and finish time on the cooker.
Aroma ARC-150SB
The Aroma rice cooker is another impressive and popular device. It is a stainless steel rice cooker with large capacity; it can make up to twenty cups of rice in just about forty-five minutes. The device also has settings for brown rice, white rice and it has steam and slow cook features. The Aroma cooker includes a steam basket, a rice spatula and a measuring cup, you can delay cooking for 15 hours, and the cooker comes with a water reservoir to drain excess water while cooking. The cooker also has a keep warm setting and a non-stick aluminium inner container that is detachable and dishwasher safe for easy cleaning.
Tiger JAX-T18U-K
This is another type of cooker made by Tiger. This device is bigger than all the others that we have mentioned and it features a large LCD screen, A BPA-free steaming place, a rice spatula and a cookbook. It has settings for quick rice, mixed rice multi-grain rice porridge, brown rice, slow-cooking, steam cooking, plain rice and sweet rice. Just like the Aroma cooker, this cooker can make up to twenty cups of rice in a similar timeframe. You can steam your ingredients in the steam basket and cook rice simultaneously thanks to the synchro-cooking feature called ‘tacook’. The device comes with a delay feature, and an automatic keep warm setting.
It is easy to see why Japanese top rice cookers are so expensive when you consider all of these features. These devices making cooking exciting and hassle-free and they are also quite versatile.