Talk:Rice cooker

Plagiarism
Someone needs to talk to these guys about the fact that they appear to be plagiarizing the article (check out the bit about beef stew). They do not reference Wikipedia, and they claim copyright on the text. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 22:18, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

why does this sound like an advertisement from the ricecooker association of america? N1ugl 04:13, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

The webpage has disapeared as of December 11th 2007. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.246.40.54 (talk) 19:58, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Inner bowl
I removed the suggestion that the inner bowl is usually non-stick or teflon-coated as I'm doubtful it's true. It's true here in New Zealand and I guess in the US, but definitely not true in Malaysia and I suspect some other parts of Asia. As an aside I personally, having used a teflon rice cooker think it's incredibly stupid anyway as the coating of course comes off if you scrape the rice off too hard so you either have to waste a lot of rice or eat teflon. Of course, this may not be such a problem for the awful method some people use to cook rice where it doesn't stick but anyway that's another issue. Nil Einne 17:34, 11 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I think "often" is better than the "sometimes" of your edit, but it's a minor point.


 * When I use a non-stick rice cooker I don't get stuck rice which needs scaping off, and I always use the proper absorption method, whether using a rice cooker or not. What awful method do you mean? The "boil and drain" method? LDHan 19:33, 11 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't think often is accurate either. How common are non-stick bowls in China and India which I suspect combined have a very large majority of the world's rice cookers. Answer, I suspect very few. When we throw in most of South East Asia and Pakistan, well we probably end up with like 90% or more of the world's rice cookers. BTW, if your rice doesn't stick to the bowl at least a bit, then it's unlikely to stick to itself. Any rice that doesn't stick at least a bit to itself, frankly isn't properly cooked rice (yes I know it's sometimes fashionable to have rice that doesn't stick to itself in the west but believe it or not, rice is actually SUPPOSED to stick to itself). It obviously depends on the type of rice and how soft you like it and the problem gets worse of course when you forget to turn off the stupid rice cooker which has a useless 'keep warm' function and and the lid isn't on properly or you don't put quite enough water which can happen particularly when you're cooking an unusual amount and you don't waste time with some 'proper absorption method' and instead just add the water and cook the stuff, as you should, and as I suspect 90% of the world does. I have no idea what the 'proper absorption method' is, but whatever method you use is likely a rarity. The proper way to cook rice with a rice cooker BTW, is just to put water in the bowl (about a hand above the rice is about correct but if you do it enough you can tell from an eyeball and it does depend on the type of rice and personal preference), and cook it. Anything else like some sort of complicated 'absorption method' is just plain wrong. Nil Einne (talk) 20:18, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

History
I recently saw In the Mood for Love which takes place in the early 1960s, and one scene shows the reaction to the introduction of a rice cooker. Does anyone know the history of rice cookers? Might be useful to add details about how widespread it was when it first came out, etc. --Vince | Talk 19:12, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Aluminium poisoning?
The inner bowl of all the rice cookers I see seem to be made of aluminium. New ones and used ones look different, and it seems the difference is that the coating comes off with use. So does that mean that users of rice cookers are consuming significant amounts of aluminium? Is it at levels that are bad for the brain's health?

(The only teflon ones I've see were in shops and everyone I know laughs at them because who'd pay that price for a rice cooker?)


 * Aluminum is fairly inert, so not too many worries there. My rice cooker has a non stick surface on the bottom.  It's a cheapy one just like the one pictured in the article.  Now if only I could get it to cook rice on the dry side!  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.64.168.240 (talk) 02:06, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

--Gronky (talk) 19:09, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Gas rice cookers
This article needs more coverage of gas rice cookers. Currently, they only have a brief mention in the opening paragraph. -- Gordon Ecker (talk) 05:06, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Boiling point?
"The temperature cannot go above 140°C (284°F) — as any heat put into the rice/water mixture at that point will only cause the water to boil."

Water boils at 100°C (212°F); the way the sentence is written, it sounds like the boiling point for the water in the rice is significantly higher. Certainly, the boiling points of a solution is elevated, though I don't know how this applies to rice. What I'm wondering is if 140°C is just a rather high upper limit to be sure the rice has definitely finished cooking. In any event, the sentence could use a rewrite for clarity. JKeck (talk) 17:47, 6 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I'd have to agree, that sentance is confusing - 123.255.40.171 (talk) 05:56, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Ah. I see your confusion. Don't think "boiling points of a solution", think ideal gas law. The steam generator at our power plant boils water at greater than 500 degrees Farenheit. Consider that the rice cooker seals and cooks at a higher pressure and therefore at a higher temperature. Most of the rice cooker models I've seen in Japan, Korea, and China are pressure cookers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.211.195.3 (talk) 03:46, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

"On the other hands"
How many? Whose hands? 69.9.28.55 (talk) 06:10, 2 February 2011 (UTC)
 * fixed. QuantumSquirrel (talk) 11:34, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Contradictions regarding cooking things other than rice
The "Cooking rice with an electric rice cooker" section includes a (lagely out of context) bulletpoint reading "It is important to note only rice should be cooked in the rice cooker since there is a possibility of food poisoning. Some examples of what not to cook in a rice cooker are chicken,noodles and pasta!" While the "Rice cooker techniques" section further down includes an entire paragraph suggesting you can, e.g., cook beef stew in one. Both might possibly be true of different types of cooker but as things stand it's just a contradiction. Moppet (talk) 10:05, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

I agree; this contradiction is a bit confusing. Perhaps the warning should be reworded to simply draw attention to the different cooking temperatures and variations in cooking times required for safely cooking different types/quantities of meat. However, I feel that most dishes that need to be steamed can be adequately cooked in a rice cooker, since that's what it's designed for. For instance, steamed buns are commonly cooked in the older rice cookers that require additional water to be put in a reservoir outside of the inner bowl.--173.51.106.46 (talk) 03:36, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Cooking process
I come from a traditional Taiwanese family and have been eating rice (cooked in electric rice cookers) my entire life (26+ years), and I have never heard of all the extra preparations described in the article for cooking ordinary white rice in an electric rice cooker. Typically, we just:
 * 1) measure out the amount of rice we want (2~4 cups) into the cooking pot;
 * 2) wash/rinse the rice a few times until the water becomes fairly clear (some prefer to wash it less to preserve more nutrients from the residual bran material that is usually mixed in with the raw rice);
 * 3) pour in the appropriate amount of water for the type/quantity of rice being cooked;
 * 4) hit the "cook" button/switch;
 * 5) wait ~45 min. for the cooking to finish and begin serving;

Now, on some older models, you have to also add a cup or two of water to the rice cooker outside of the inner bowl in step 3, but that's about the only variation I'm aware of to this process. I've never heard of soaking the rice for any amount of time pre-cooking or putting boiling water into an electric rice cooker. I've also never heard of stirring the rice after it's been cooked to prevent sticking (stirring would likely cause the rice to stick together more easily due to the compressive force applied). The rice we cook pretty much tastes just like any white rice served at Chinese/Asian food restaurants, so I'm skeptical of whether the additional steps described by the article actually achieve anything.--173.51.106.46 (talk) 03:23, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Do saucepans not work any more?
I don't see the point of rice cookers when saucepans work just as well and no time is saved? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.198.99.147 (talk) 09:10, 25 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Maybe the article has changed, but I gather that the advantage is that the rice cooker is "fire and forget" - you prepare and turn it on, and leave it be, freeing your mind of a small but regular interruption. Considering rice is probably eaten every day, if not multiple times, it'll soon add up. --194.112.128.196 (talk) 11:50, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

Good source
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/rice-cooker-history

-- John Broughton (♫♫) 22:51, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

Feedback from New Page Review process
I left the following feedback for the creator/future reviewers while reviewing this article: While the copyvio detector tool noticed “plagiarism” in the article's lead paragraph, I doubt that this is a true copyvio because of the age of this article from 2004; possibly the website in question copied it directly from Wikipedia.

Fork99 (talk) 02:01, 2 September 2023 (UTC)