[starkiller]

We already have a large rice cooker but my wife likes white and i prefer brown rice so i want to get myself a small, 6 cup or under, rice cooker that does well with brown rice.  The fuzzy logic ones are very nice but also pretty expensive.  The digital ones seem to be good also but are there any out there that are "cheap" that will do a good job with brown rice?

[jmc207]

I used an inexpensive ~3 cup Panasonic rice cooker with brown rice for over 5 years and it worked pretty well. I've since bought a much more expensive Sanyo fuzzy logic one with quite a thick pot and the rice does come out more evenly cooked but not drastically so. It also takes a good bit longer than the Panasonic. With both I just had to experiment with the water to rice ratio a few times to discover what works for me. I do just a bit more than 2 to 1.   

[starkiller]

With either of those you can add in veggies and such..right??

[jmc207]

I have not tried adding veggies yet. Been thinking about it. You'd have to gauge when to open the cooker to add them because I think that many veggies would be overcooked and mushy with the time it takes to cook brown rice. The Panasonic would take ~45 min. and the new Sanyo takes an hour or more.

[macrojack]

Not sure what you mean by cheap but I have used an Ohsawa Pot inside my stainless steel pressure cooker for about 30 years with great success. OSGBR cooks to perfection in 45 minutes. You'll have to check current pricing but I imagine you can put that combo together for under $200. The only vegetable I add is kombu.

[JohnR]

My experience has been that small rice cookers just don't work that well at all... I'm not sure why. macrojack's recommendation sounds interesting.

[Guy 13]

Hi all Audio Circle members and rice lovers/eaters.
My Vietnamese wife told me to tell any Audio Circle members
that is interested in cooking brown rice,
that brown rice (Dark or light) should be soaking in 75F water for about 10 to 15 minutes before cooking.
Cooking is longer for brown rice than it is for white rice.
My Vietnamese wife recommend to have two part of water, for one part of brown rice and check a few time to make sure there enough water.
45 to 60 minutes is about right depending of where the rice come from and the color.
She should know a thing or two about rice,
since she eat rice two to three times a day.
And no, rice does not constipate,
if it did you would have 90 millions of constipated Vietnamese.
The rice cooker does not really matter, of course like JohnR said,
might be better to use a larger than too small rice cooker.
Make and/or model, manual or fuzzy logic does not matter to my Vietnamese wife.

Guy 13
Husband of a Vietnamese wife for the past 18 years and no,
I don't eat rice everyday.

Guy 13

[macrojack]

Guy13 adds an important detail. I wash short grain brown rice by swirling it in water and then decanting. Then I soak it overnight in fresh water. The Ohsawa pot is probably still available from Gold Mine or someone like them. The rice soaks in the Ohsawa pot and stays in there to cook. Very important to add salt to the rice at this point. Use Muramoto or some other quality salt. I sit the entire pot in a couple of inches of water inside the pressure cooker and bring it up to pressure. From that point I count 45 - 50 minutes of escaping steam. It's important to have enough water in the bottom of the PC so as not to boil dry.

With this method there is no scorched rice - ever. And cleanup is pretty simple. Rice can be served and stored in the Ohsawa pot. Make a big pot on Sunday and use it during the week.

[Vulcan00]

I have a 20 cup capacity Aroma rice cooker, its digital, stainless steel,is very easy to use, I have steamed corn and many vegetables with is cooker. Actually the food steaming is a great addition to rice and the taste and texture of the veg's is  perfect. It cooks(steams) from 4- 20 cups, you can combine food for example the rice stays in bottom removable , non stink pot and the steam pan fits on top for steaming. you can cook complete meals, soup,meatballs,etc. in this thing.  Its pretty inexpensive , Worst con is its size, I have to store it away from kitchen.

[Bemopti123]

Being that we rely on rice as a staple food, what I noticed about cooking brown rice is that my mom goes with a pressure pot cooker to make it edible.  In our case, we have a pressurized rice cooker, that pressure cooks it and ensure that it is fully cooked, the way Koreans like it.
The issue that I find in many case when brown rice is offered in restaurants, I find it a little rough, tough.  I would eat it but, if we have a choice, I would have it better cooked. 

This is the brand that we use....

http://www.amazon.com/Cuckoo-Rice-Cooker-CRP-G1015F-Ivory/dp/B001POJHU4

Expensive but very reliable. 

[Doublej]

I've used a basic rice cooker for years.  It's basically a heating element with a pot. As stated it takes you a few tries to dial in the rice to water ratio but seems to work fine for me.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Elite-Cuisine-3-Cup-Rice-Cooker/21554252

You can mimic this technique on a stove simply by putting rice and water in a pot and then putting it on the stove.

[jmc207]

Thanks for mentioning kombu. I had forgotten about that addition. 30 years ago I also used a pressure cooker for short grain brown rice mixed with adzuki beans and kombu; a nice combination. Not familiar with the Ohsawa pot, need to look that up

John

Not sure what you mean by cheap but I have used an Ohsawa Pot inside my stainless steel pressure cooker for about 30 years with great success. OSGBR cooks to perfection in 45 minutes. You'll have to check current pricing but I imagine you can put that combo together for under $200. The only vegetable I add is kombu.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Instead of using water, I cook rice with chicken stock. Much more flavor.

I have nothing to add regarding the cookers, I have never used one.

[starkiller]

Wow, wasn't expecting this many replies...thanks!  I did forget to mention in my original post that the size is important as we don't have alot of room in the kitchen for storage and the easier the better because of my life and such.  Of course i just read a thing about arsenic in rice, higher in brown then in white so rinsing i guess is in my future

[Bemopti123]

In the West the rice cooking instructions say stuff like "Do not rinse the rice when cooking due to vitamins that were added to the powder that surrounds the rice"  but in Korean kitchens, rinsing rice is a big part of preparing the rice for cooking and the final rinse needs to show clear water. 

[gregfisk]

We already have a large rice cooker but my wife likes white and i prefer brown rice so i want to get myself a small, 6 cup or under, rice cooker that does well with brown rice.  The fuzzy logic ones are very nice but also pretty expensive.  The digital ones seem to be good also but are there any out there that are "cheap" that will do a good job with brown rice?

We cook rice all the time and use a big one at home. We have a small beach house and bought one of these because of space and it's usually just the two of us.   

http://www.target.com/p/rival-6-cup-rice-cooker-red-rc61/-/A-10266987

It works perfectly every time and it didn't cost much at all.

Greg

[starkiller]

Greg

Works well with brown rice then??

[randytsuch]

So this is probably racist, but I would only buy a rice cooker made by an asian company.

We have a small 4 cup we use most of the time, and a larger (10 cup?) we use for large dinners if required.

I think the 4 cup is zojirushi, but couldn't swear to it.

I think we use more water, and let it soak longer for brown rice.

[gregfisk]

Greg

Works well with brown rice then??

We have cooked brown rice in it twice at least, maybe three times. We do rinse ours first like some above but don't soak it. We had good luck and I know we used two different types, one was typical brown rice and the other was a wild rice blend. I have never tried adding veggies thou so don't know about that.

Good luck with your search,

Greg

[Bob in St. Louis]

So this is probably racist, but I would only buy a rice cooker made by an asian company.

 
That's the quote of the week, right there. Spectacular.