****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I used to have a smaller Krups rice cooker but I couldn't understand why there was a disgusting layer of caked browned rice on the bottom, every time, no matter what I did or didn't do. Well DUH, a really top-notch rice cooker makes all the difference. Who knew?Disclaimer -- I didn't get the cooker from this seller but I did buy it from Amazon. This model is simple to use and has a really huge capacity. In case you're reading this and don't know what the 10-cup part means, it's 10 cups of DRY rice! Egads, when you figure about 2.5-3 times cooked vs. dry volume, that's a bit of rice. Mmmmm, rice!The rice cooker comes with a special measuring cup (don't use a standard kitchen measuring cup for rice cookers), a plastic rice paddle, and a very rudimentary instruction book. The top has a nice handle and it closes securely for cooking. There's also a nice little attachment to hold your rice paddle on the side of the cooker, and something they call a "dew collector," which we Americans would call a condensation collector. The cooking interior is non-stick, which is nice.I've used mine with only good quality short-grained "sushi" rice, specifically the "Koshihikari" rice that was grown in the USA. Other quality Japanese type sticky short-grained varieties are "Sasanishiki" and "Akita Komachi." If you do a web search for "rice cookers" you'll find a wealth of information on what types of rice there are available to use in the rice cookers -- short, medium, long grain, aromatic -- the best quality (including many sold here on Amazon), and how to prepare your rice for the cooker so it comes out perfect every time. There are articles online as well as videos you can watch that teach you what to do. By the way, don't ever try "converted" rice in a rice cooker. You won't like the results, and converted rice is not meant to be rinsed as described below.In the case of sushi, or sticky short-grained, rice the best results are obtained by rinsing and rubbing the rice in a separate large bowl, a process that is sometimes called "polishing." Measure your rice into the bowl using the supplied rice cup. The cycle is: you rinse, drain, swirl with your hand or rub between your fingers, three times, then finally rinse the rice until the water is clear. This is where the videos will show you how it's done. Sounds more complicated than it really is, and the small amount of time to do this will pay off in perfect rice.Many people swear by then putting the now wet but drained rice into the cooker and letting it just sit for half an hour, which is what I do. Now to the cooking process. Add water to the marks on the cooker based on how many cups of dry rice you have. Then flip the button to cook. When the button flips up from cook to warm, unplug the rice cooker and let it steam for 15 minutes longer, without heating. This fluffs it up, but don't worry, it will stay hot. If you want slightly moister and stickier rice, add a little more water before cooking. This is the procedure for sticky/sushi rice, which is all I make. After the 15 minutes of steaming is done, you can plug the cooker in again and it will return back to the warm setting, and will keep your rice perfect for hours. I can tell you that my 3 measuring cups of dry sushi rice cooked about 18 minutes before the switch flipped to warm. Unfortunately, the instruction booklet says nothing about cooking times.Some people might object to the sputtering from the steam vent on the lid, but when you're done with the process it's easy enough to wipe off the spots. The non-stick bowl makes it very easy to clean the little leftover grains of rice. What's not to like?This is a fantastic rice cooker if you don't want to spend the extra money for "fuzzy logic" cookers or you don't plan on cooking brown rice, which may or may not turn out well in this rice cooker -- I've not tried it. I believe this cooker is a winner, and based on consumer reviews here and elsewhere on the web, you'll be happy with your purchase for years.
