I love my rice cooker (which happens to be the Micom 5-1/2-cup model in stainless steel from Zojirushi), and use it for everything from making plain white rice for my puppy Sookie when she recently had to be put on a very bland diet (after eating something she found buried in the dark recesses of the yard) to making more off-the-beaten-path things like polenta with gorgonzola. But when I was searching out which rice cooker I wanted, I got pretty confused by what the “cup” numbers meant in the titles--such as a 3-cup model. Does it mean 3 cups of rice can fit in it, or 3 cups come out of it? After researching and double checking with some vendors and looking at various models and even a little testing, I finally figured it out.
It should mean how much rice the cooker can deliver, not take in (and if you’re in a brick and mortar store and the clerk tells you different walk away. Same if on an online site). Seems easy enough, right? But it can be awfully confusing, especially as many models look quite similar. Take this Black & Decker rice cooker line, for example (which are dandy rice cookers, from all I’ve seen and from all reports, and I’ve tested this close relative, and like it lots, too). There are three: 3-cup, 6-cup, and 17-cup models (that last one is a lovely monster by the way, especially if you have a big family, or a reunion, or a restaurant). They all visually look similar, only differing if you hold the actual rice cooker in your hand. Even when holding the boxes it can be hard to tell how much they’ll take in or deliver. That’s why you have to remember: the 3-cup one delivers a maximum of three cups cooked rice, the 6-cup one delivers a maximum of six cups cooked rice, etc. The “cup” in the title does not refer to how much you’ll put in the cooker. Whew, it seems simple, but with all the various and random information floating out there, it can be confusing. And the last thing you want is to bring a cooker home for a big dinner and then have half the rice you need. Or to give someone a gift and give the wrong size.
Of course, when making more advanced numbers like a gumbo in your rice cooker (and these really can do so much more than just plain rice), or making Japanese sticky rice, or a rice cousin like risotto, it might be a slightly different yield than the “xx-cup” amount. This is why I would always suggest getting a rice cooker that comes with a good and detailed recipe and instruction book, to help get you started. After using a few of the recipes they provide, naturally you’ll want to branch out and experiment. But without that good bedrock of recipes and instructions, and without knowing going in how much rice can come out of your cooker, you won’t enjoy it half as much.
--A.J. Rathbun
vga-kabel on September 18, 2009 at 11:17 PM
Nice post but Mine has all the bells and whistles including a timer so I can set it when i go to bed and have fresh rice ready for breakfast! I prefer the ones where the lid clamps down. They make the best rice.