Comment by SwellJoe | Hacker News Reader

Comment by SwellJoe | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

If you cook rice more than once per week, and you're doing it with a pot, you're a masochist. A rice cooker makes the process dramatically less error prone, and the resulting rice is better: fluffier, more consistently cooked, etc. A girlfriend bought me a fuzzy logic rice cooker (about $150, I think) a few years back. Best kitchen device ever. It cooks brown rice, oatmeal, etc. in addition to white rice, and it gets it right every single time. The pan also has measurement marks inside so I don't even have to measure the water.

The big problem with a pot is that you'll often get the temperature wrong, and end up baking the lower layer of rice onto the pot bottom, or not quite cooking it fast enough and end up with mushy rice. I only get great rice from a pot about 75% of the time. It's 100% of the time with a rice cooker.

So, yes, not having to pay attention to the rice while I work on other parts of the meal is a huge bonus. If you only need white rice, you can get a basic rice cooker that will work very well for about $25 (I've heard brown rice is possible with the lower priced devices by giving it a bit more water, and leaving it to "warm" for a few extra minutes, but I've never tried it).

A girlfriend bought me a fuzzy logic rice cooker (about $150, I think) a few years back. Best kitchen device ever.

Single-use kitchen products are silly, not to mention space-inefficient. Even if it makes oatmeal and rice, that's basically just a bunch of starch. Might as well just eat Ramen.

One can find a nice set of sturdy department-store quality cookware (with lids!) at a discount retailer (like Ross or Marshalls). They'll go much further in ensuring consumption of the variety of nutritional foods. Basics one can get for about $60 for all three: a boiling water pot for the stuff to be cooked in bulk, a saucepan (cause bland rice is boring) and wok-shaped skillet. They fit neatly inside each other space-wise, as well.

My secret to rice cooking: add a wee bit of vegetable or other oil (I also like to add a bit of cayenne pepper to the oil sometimes) in the skillet, and let it warm, but not over super hot temp. Then add the rice, and kind of "sautee" it for a little while, but keep the rice moving to make sure it doesn't burn. You really just need coat it a little little bit, to prevent it from going mushy and therefore cannot coat the bottom of the pan with the black mush that happens when the rice is added to the water. After adding the water and bringing it up to a boil, you can turn it down to the lowest temp on your stove, cover it, and let it cook for the rest of the time on the package.

I guess the one prevailing great thing about the fancier rice cookers it that they beep when they're done. So I guess if you use my method, don't forget to set a timer.

I really like the idea of sauteeing the rice in oil and spices beforehand. I'll have to try this.

Single-use kitchen products are silly, not to mention space-inefficient.

I agree, which is why I called it out as one of the few instances where it is worthwhile. And speaking of pots and pans, Cuisinart makes a great set of pots and pans, covering everything you need, that sells for $149 from Amazon. That, and a good knife, and a few other bits and pieces, are most of what you need to have a nice cooking kitchen for dinner for a group of up to about four (and the two small ones are good for single and double meals).

To put things into perspective, I don't even own a microwave. But, I consider a rice cooker absolutely mandatory if you eat rice regularly. If you don't eat rice regularly, then obviously a rice cooker is not a useful expenditure or use of space. I consider it a good investment of both, because my most common meals are various kinds of Chinese, Indian, and Mediterranean foods that include rice as a base.

Even if it makes oatmeal and rice, that's basically just a bunch of starch. Might as well just eat Ramen.

I'm not a believer in the Atkins anti-carbs crusade, nor do I accept that all grains are created equal. Oatmeal and brown rice are both quite reasonable "slow" carbs, when combined with proteins and vegetables. Ramen is not a slow carb by any stretch of the imagination, and is actually "just a bunch of starch" (it also has way too much sodium, if prepared as directed).

Single-use kitchen products are silly, not to mention space-inefficient. Even if it makes oatmeal and rice, that's basically just a bunch of starch. Might as well just eat Ramen.

Rice cookers are also great for steaming vegetables. Growing up, the rice cooker was our most commonly used cooking appliance, even when we didn't have rice.

$150 to cook rice? That's ridiculous! How do you think the majority of poor people the world over do it?

I can't remember the last time I came close to burning rice: it's about the easiest thing to cook that there is.

As I mentioned, there are several rice cookers around $25 (my first rice cooker was about $15 at K-Mart). They work very well. I don't know how poor folks the world over cook rice, as I've never had occasion to be really poor (I grew up "poor" by US standards, at least until my teenage years, but not by world standards of poverty). But, I'm not speaking to the world's poor. I strongly suspect that no one reading my post is too poor to afford a $25 rice cooker in order to be able to make cheap meals quickly.

A $20 rice cooker with a timer works great too! Don't feel the need to shell out for a $150 Zojirushi cooker.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com