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Comment by zeroimpl | Hacker News Reader

100%. The proper measuring of ingredients and timing is all that's required.

Take a look at the first line of the article:

    Cooking rice on a stovetop can be fraught. Add too much water and you end up with porridge.

Then take a look at this line shortly afterwards:

    These devices can seem all-knowing. So long as you add water and rice in the right proportions, it’s nearly impossible to mess up

So in other words, the device doesn't actually solve the most important problem... The timing isn't particularly important, as long as you remember to turn down the heat as soon as it starts boiling.

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> The timing isn't particularly important, as long as you remember to turn down the heat as soon as it starts boiling.

The timing is never important on anything as long as you always get it right.

You have to get the water and rice in the right proportion in both rice cookers and pots.

However, a rice cooker frees you from having to watch over it while it cooks. It'll stop cooking automatically once it's done. Not so for the pot, which you have to keep an eye on or time, and turn off when it's done.

This difference makes a rice cooker much more convenient for those of us who want to do other things while the rice cooks, and not have to worry about it.

Also, a rice cooker will keep your cooked rice warm for a long time after it's done, but a pot won't.

Most of the time that I cook rice, I also need to cook something to go with it. So after I turn on the rice, I then start preparing for the rest of the meal or just tidying up the kitchen a bit. Usually by the time the rice boils, I’m still around. Once you turn down the heat, it doesn’t really matter if you leave it on for 20 or 30 minutes. (40 minutes would be kind of crunchy, but if you’re going to forget about it that long you probably weren’t hungry and shouldn’t have put rice on)

Also I use a glass pot which will stay quite warm for at least an hour after turning it off.

I used to have a rice cooker. But I gave it away to free up counter space. My stove has 4 elements, but counter space is precious.

The original article describes rice cookers were invented because cooking rice over a wood fire is very difficult. I’ve no argument with that. But cooking rice with a generic pot on a modern stove is trivial, and most people buy rice cookers because they’ve been taught to.

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