Helpful Rice Cooker Information

What type of rice cooker should I get?

A rice cooker is not vital when making sushi at home, but a good one sure does make things easier. These days they are fairly similar, however their price tags are not. While I have no personal preferences and you certainly don’t need to go out and buy a gleaming $100 rice cooker that may or may not make the best rice. I, for example, still make quite good rice with my $30 Panasonic rice cooker I bought many years ago. But there are a variety of rice cookers available each with different programming features

Alton Brown likes to say “never buy a single use item,” and while a rice cooker is a single use item, it is an incredibly useful single use item. But rice cookers can do more than cook rice. They can steam vegetables. They can cook oatmeal (steel cut, please)

You can find rice cookers just about anywhere. Most can be found in most major department stores or restaurant wholesale supply companies. In the US, you can find rice steamers at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. Some large food wholesalers like BJs, SAMs, Costco, etc. also stock them.

If you don’t find a rice steamer, a food steamer with a rice bowl attachment will do an excellent job. Be careful. Some smaller food steamers have tiny rice bowls. Depending on your rice requirement, you may need to do multiple batches; this is time consuming.