When you start cooking dinner, you already know that you should start with cooking your rice first because it will take the most time. This is especially if you don’t have a rice cooker. Then, you turn your focus to preparing the rest of your dishes. Suddenly, you’ve forgotten about the rice. You start to smell the burnt rice at the bottom of the pot.

Alternatively, you didn’t burn the rice. But you still end up with rice that is either too mushy or too dry, and it would totally ruin your meal.

These days, most people have rice cookers in their homes to prevent this. It automatically turns off when your rice is done and has a “keep warm” function to make sure you have warm rice to enjoy with your meals. Some rice cookers also have settings for different types of rice such as brown rice or long-grain jasmine rice.

How do you choose the right rice cooker for you?

Types of rice cooker

Conventional Rice Cooker

Conventional rice cookers are the ones that most homes have. Most of these will just have one button – “press down to cook” or similar, and a “keep warm” function. Most of these you can find at a cheap price. These rice cookers also cook rice quickly.

Smart Rice Cooker

Cooking the perfect rice on a rice cooker still requires most people to master the right proportions for the type of rice and rice cooker they have. However, smart rice cookers have the ability to sense exactly what rice needs to cook perfectly and adjusts itself accordingly.

If you put too much water or the temperatures in your home might affect how your rice is being cooked, it will change its temperature to accommodate these factors. This is called “fuzzy logic”.

However, they can be a bit more complicated than conventional rice cookers and might take more time to finish cooking. While good for various rice types, it’s also more expensive.

There are also rice cookers that function as slow cookers, pressure cookers, and steamers. Choosing the right rice cooker for you can be complicated. Remember to consider your budget and needs. If you need help, our sales representatives at EMCOR will be more than happy to help.

Visit your nearest EMCOR store or browse for your next rice cooker on the EMCOR website.