The rice cookers we examined fell into three free classes: small, reasonably priced units, midrange multicookers and specialised, high-end rice cookers.
Every mini rice cooker we examined, together with the $19 Imusa 3-cup the $25 Sprint mini 2-cup rice cooker (at present out of inventory) and the $20 Black & Decker 3-cup rice cooker supplied respectable, small servings of white rice — though the Sprint took a painfully lengthy 35 minutes simply to prepare dinner only one cup of white. All of them struggled with brown rice and blended rice, although.
The marginally bigger 6-cup Oster (our funds choose) and the $60 Zojirushi rice makers carried out almost identically, making excellent pots of white rice in 19 and 20 minutes respectively and superb brown rice — albeit maybe simply barely underdone — in a lightning-fast 22 minutes. We might gleefully suggest both one as a strong space-saving rice cooker choice. Whereas the Zojirushi does appear barely extra solidly constructed, it is greater than double the worth of the Oster, which supplies the Oster our last nod.
The less complicated Oster and Zojirushi rice makers carried out almost identically in our testing.
The $50 8-cup Hamilton Seaside rice cooker looks as if a great deal for the scale, however its rice was inconsistent, with severely undercooked, dry rice sections. Zojirushi’s 3-cup choice additionally disillusioned with rice that was too moist and barely damaged down, shedding the excellence of well-cooked white rice.
Cuisinart’s 4-cup and Black and Decker’s 7-cup rice cookers had been a few of our least favorites as a result of they had been each so messy. Cuisinart’s boiled every time we used this typical rice cooker and Black and Decker’s bigger mannequin leaked onto the counter, necessitating important cleanup.
When it got here to the midrange multicookers, we discovered the cooking time to be gradual and the outcomes persistently a bit of off. An 8-cup Aroma rice cooker and meals steamer, On the spot Pot’s Zest cooker and a five-cup Panasonic obtained us excited with the assorted capabilities accessible on their interfaces, however all three produced overcooked, barely mushy rice, presumably as a result of gradual cooking. We additionally examined the $140 Cuisinart’s bigger Rice Plus Multicooker and whereas it could actually maintain a whole lot of rice and produced respectable batches of white and brown, cooking rice took longer than another machine to take action at effectively over an hour and a half for brown rice.
If you end up cooking a great deal of several types of grains, considered one of these could also be a viable choice since they’ve so many area of interest settings. However for rice, there are higher choices accessible. You may additionally discover you get extra bang on your buck with a real multicooker that features a strain cooker perform. I would direct you to CNET’s checklist of greatest On the spot Pots for 2024 for a bit extra on that.
Someway I did not blow a fuse.
Lastly, the higher-end, specialised rice cookers from Tiger and Zojirushi had been each spectacular, as famous above. It is clear these units are rigorously calibrated; Zojirushi even presents a bit of little bit of personalization as to the way you need your white rice cooked, which is right for those who’ve obtained people with completely different rice texture preferences dwelling underneath the identical roof.
The Tiger, nevertheless, is lower than half the worth of its counterpart and cooked rice extraordinarily effectively quicker than any others. It might not have all of the bells and whistles of the Zojirushi, which nabs our high choose for customized rice, but it surely’s our high general selection for the most effective rice cooker in 2024.
