Shout out to my trusty rice cooker, which patiently keeps my rice warm for 15 hours after I forget to put it away after dinner. (Seriously, this thing is the best — love a tool that does one thing incredibly well.)
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. ❤️
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Comments 10
thread
latest
popular
@whogivesashirt reminded me of Roger Ebert's classic piece about rice cooker cookery, The pot and how to use it.
That opening line! He later expanded the piece into an entire cookbook.
This is the exact model we have that my partner swears by. Better than a pot of boiling water. Better than an instapot. It makes rice perfectly every time. I wish it weren't so good, so we didn't need it. But it is so good.
Per the Amazon description, it's 'wall-mountable.' People, help me resist the urge to search for images of 'wall-mounted rice cookers,' I beseech you.
Note that keeping rice on the counter can lead to food poisoning. The cooker is probably keeping it at around 140°, which is the lower limit to prevent growth of bacteria. So maybe don't get in the habit of trusting the rice cooker...
Yes, this. Be cautious about leaving it in the pot for too long. A warm moist environment is a bacteria's best friend.
I had the exact thought!
Not to freak anyone further out, but the bad stuff
that grows in rice (and pasta) left out in the “danger zone” temp range (40-140F) cannot be eliminated by simply reheating the food. It survives even reboiling and will still make you sick.
I have a zojirushi from 2001 that has even less features, only one button (cook or warm heat setting) but has consistently made perfect rice every week since I bought it. I buy a new low-end zojirushi for every wedding involving any friends these days and for years after I get regular updates about how the rice cooker I got them still works flawlessly for years after, even outliving some of the relationships.
It's just a perfect damn rice cooker.
Rice cookers also work in a really neat way, using magnets that vary in strength over temperature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSTNhvDGbYI
Whoa, that is a very clever little bit of engineering.
Hello! In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!
In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal.
This is the name that'll be displayed next to comments you make on kottke.org; your email will not be displayed publicly. I'd encourage you to use your real name (or at least your first name and last initial) but you can also pick something that you go by when you participate in communities online. Choose something durable and reasonably unique (not "Me" or "anon"). Please don't change this often. No impersonation.
Note: I'm letting folks change their display names because the membership service that kottke.org uses collects full names and I thought some people might not want their names displayed publicly here. If it gets abused, I might disable this feature.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!