21 Easy Ways to Screw Up Making Rice (in a rice cooker)

[azurelunatic]

1. Accidentally get a kind of rice you loathe! (Some lucky people like all kinds of rice. You may be one of those people. Then again, you may not. Experiment if you don't already know!)
2. Don't check the rice over for rocks and other unwanted elements! (Despite all the quality control in the world, sometimes these things just happen.)
3. Don't follow the rice manufacturer's instructions about rinsing! (Less and less rice these days is covered in talc, but if it is, it should be rinsed off. For rice that is not covered in talc, it's up to you. Less rinsing = more sticky. More rinsing = if the rice was nutritionally enhanced, you just rinsed that off.)
4. Forget the water. (I have never done this. No one I know has ever done this (or at least, won't admit to it, and it's not easy to forget the water when you wash your rice in the pot of the rice cooker). However, this is unlikely to result in good things.)
5. Put the rice and water in the rice cooker without the pot. (I don't know anyone who has done this either, but it is likely to result in the sorts of problems one gets when one exposes live electricity to water in an uncontrolled environment: tripped breaker, nasty shock, blown fuse, death, a ruined rice cooker, no dinner.)
6. Forget to plug the rice cooker in. (This is really easy to fix.)
7. Forget to turn the rice cooker on/to Cook. (Ditto.)
8. Don't measure your rice or water at all. This way, you'll have no idea what you just did or why it went awry in the way it did.
9. Ignore the rice manufacturer's instructions about how much rice and water to use, because all kinds of rice are exactly the same.
10. Put in too much water. (This results in either really sticky rice, or mush, if you've gone way overboard. If you catch it in time, you can fix it by bailing some of the water out.)
11. Put in too little water. This results in crunchy and possibly burned rice. (If you catch it in time, you can add more water.)
12. Put in too much rice. (This is distinct from putting in too little water, because you are either going to feed an army by accident, or overflow the rice cooker. Your solution is likely to involve putting the leftovers in the freezer (rice freezes well), with or without bailing some of it out to cook in a second batch if you think you're going to overflow. Remember that rice expands when cooking, possibly more than you think it will. You can always cook another batch.)
13. Cook too short. (The rice may be either a little too hard and a little too wet, or just the right softness but a little too sticky. This last may mean you put in a little much water too.)
14. Cook too long. (The rice may dry out (ew), scorch on the bottom (harmless), or burn (ew).)
15. Get so completely lost in the possibilities in the two-variable problem of time vs. water as applies to rice in the rice cooker that you lose all sense of perspective and begin experimenting with combinations like way too much water and way too long. (When in doubt, go back to the proportions that the rice cooker, the rice package, or some recipe recommended.)
16. Turn off the rice cooker immediately after it switches from Cook to Warm mode. (This can lead to rice being too sticky and underdone.)
17. Turn the rice cooker back to Cook after it switches to Warm mode injudiciously, because cooking things at hotter temperatures is always better because it gets them done faster. (It also burns them easier.)
18. Accidentally leave the lid off while cooking. (This dries out the rice more, and steams up your house.)
19. Scrape the bottom of the rice cooker pot with something hard and sharp, like a metal spoon. (Everybody wants aluminum scrapings in their rice and a scratched-up rice pot.)
20. Put too much soy sauce or other seasoning on the rice. (If you're not sure, start with a little and taste.)
21. Be afraid to make rice. (It's actually pretty easy to make once you get the hang of it.)

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Comments

[melannen]

Okay, so newbie question: why do I want a rice cooker?

I cook my rice in a saucepan, which is a step up from the way my mom did it, with instant brown rice, in the microwave. (Mom actually *prefers* her rice soggy, chewy and lukewarm. Don't ask.) Mine doesn't come out perfect every time, but it comes out fine, and it's not that tricky, and I cook a lot of rice, 'cause it's cheap and good.*

The only place I've ever seen rice cookers in use is at the local Korean church's dinners, and they have industrial size ones. So what's the benefit of a rice cooker? Just not having to watch it or stir? (And how tricky is it to use a crock pot as a rice cooker? I have one of them...)

*best rice I've ever made: take several-week-old takeout Chinese white rice from the fridge, old enough that it's hard and dry on the outside. Put in a covered bowl, with a crack for a vent, in the microwave with about 3/4 inch of water in the bottom; cook on high until there's no standing water left. Unfortunately I am currently too broke to justify takeout Chinese...

[zarhooie]

I lived with someone who had a rice cooker and it's superior over a stove for two reasons:
1- you don't have to baby sit it. Rice on a stove needs tending and is fairly easy to screw up, but rice in a rice cooker is practically brainless and allows you to do other things.
2- it doesn't take up another spot on your stove. For some people, this might not seem like such a thing, but for someone who cooks a lot of things at the same time, this is a biggie because it frees up space on my stove so I can make tea to go with dinner. It also helps keep the kitchen cool in the summer because, if needed, you can stick the rice in the bathroom or whatever.

[melannen]

Oh, I didn't even think about the spot-on-the-stove thing. (I mostly just cook for myself, and for me, a pot of rice some frozen veggies or canned meat and cheese *is* the entire meal.)

[zarhooie]

...Which is why you're here. We'll have you cooking with 4 pans and something in the oven in no time!

[melannen]

But I only have 3 pans! :D

(I was actually taught to cook by someone who highly valued minimal clean-up. So I'm used to dishes where cooking pans get creative multiple uses. I can make and eat spaghetti with meat sauce and end up with only one dish to wash at the end. My roommate, who is proud of his cooking skills, follows the same recipe, but uses every burner on the stove and leaves me with five pots to wash...)

[azurelunatic]

If you're already cooking rice happily without one, and it's not something you're fighting in the kitchen, then I wouldn't have any particular reason to defend the noble appliance.

[melannen]

Okay! I saw it on everyone's kitchen essentials list and started to worry I was missing something. :D

[marcelle42]

If you're happy with rice on the stove, go for it. But I quite honestly cannot make rice without a rice cooker. I don't know why. I'm usually a good cook. I can make complicated things. But I cannot cook rice worth a damn. I burned it a million times trying to figure it out. I finally gave up, admitted defeat, and asked for a rice cooker for Christmas, while everyone and their mother lectured me about the (different) ways to make proper rice. *shrug* Different strokes, etc.

[melannen]

Huh, yeah, everybody's got things they can't manage. (I can't fry a hamburger properly to safe my life.) So a rice cooker would be nice, but I probably don't need one. Good to know.

[ursamajor]

For me, it's the ability to dump rice in, dump water in up to a knuckle above, and *walk away*. I can be doing anything and everything else - making other dinner components, doing laundry, watching until a couple of minutes after I hear the soft click of it going over from cook to warm. I don't have to judge whether I've turned up the flame on the stove too high or not high enough, and consequently adjust time, hope that I've waited the right amount of time before picking up the pot lid (and if not, deal with the consequences). (Don't ask how someone as time-unconscious as me manages to bake reasonably well. I have no idea! :) ) In a rice cooker, the temperature is regulated for me and it Just Plain Works. Oh! And if the rest of your food isn't quite ready when the rice is, you can just leave it on Warm instead of trying to keep it warm on the stove and possibly overcooking it or making it cold again.

Crockpot, it depends, but I don't know of a crockpot that will tell you when your food is done. They may also cook at lower temperatures, so a longer wait to get your rice? And you might need to use less water, as it doesn't have a steam vent.

I'd say it depends, though, honestly, how often you plan to make rice before making the investment. We make rice at least 3-4x/week, if not more often; I add eggs to mine, while the boy adds pungent kimchi to his, and we both give each other the hairy eyeball about our chosen accompaniment. ;) But if you're not making rice at least weekly, it's probably not worth taking up cabinet or counter space for it.

Honestly, I wish someone would invent a *pasta cooker*. I would so make room in my kitchen for that.

[janinedog]

There are pasta cookers! Though I haven't used any of them so I can't say if they're any good or not.

* http://www.pastaexpress.tv/
* http://www.pastanmore.org/ (this one's on our wedding registry, heh)
* http://www.asseenontvguys.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=426

[melannen]

Makes sense! The first thing I learned to cook was boxed mac'n'cheese, so that kind of cooking is the one thing I'm practiced at (and I'm fairly good at remembering it's there.)

I tried crockpot rice tonight! I think I messed up the water/time ratio, but since I had no recipe or experience it came out pretty well - just a bit too sticky. It took about two hours, but it *was* nice to just ignore it. (I need to start using my crockpot more anyway; I have a little one-person sized one, and it has so many possibilities.)

[pamacii]

Sorry for the late reply, but one huge benefit of a rice cooker is is that you can have warm, fresh rice at almost all hours. Rice cookers are easy to use, and have consistent results. As someone who, like you, preferred to cook rice in a saucepan, buying another piece of equipment didn't seem to make much sense. I received one as a present, though, and haven't looked back. Allows me to make a simple breakfast of eggs and rice in the morning and still have a bowl of warm rice left over for a quick snack when I get home from work/classes.