As the name implies, a rice cooker cooks rice; it is that simple. Cooking rice has been made better with a rice cooker. A rice cooker or steamer is a kitchen appliance made to stray rice or boil rice. The parts include a steam source, thermostat, a cooking bowl and it is automated. There are other complex rice cookers which have many more components and could have multipurpose uses.
The term rice cooker has an ancient history and formerly applied to dedicated rice cooking utensils. The electric rice cooker was first developed by true Japanese companies Toshiba and Mitsubishi. In Japan, a rice cooker is called Suihanki.
The most basic of rice cookers have the following components, inner cooking pan, heating plate, the rice cooker’s main body, a thermal sensing device, and a program menu. Aye cooking pan is filled with water and rice, and then it is heated to 100 degree Celsius, which is the boiling point, and it stays at that temperature. When the rice absorbs the water in the cooking pan, the temperature will rise above boiling point, and attack that point the rice grains themselves are tripped. Some rice cookers, however, can reduce the temperature to warming mode which keeps the rice safe at an average 65 degrees Celsius. A simple rice cooker will simply switch off, and at that point, the rice is at the resting phase.
There are more advanced rice cookers which use fuzzy logic for more detailed temperature control. They employ the use if induction rather than resistive heating. They also are multipurpose as they have a steaming tray that can cook or steam other foods; it also comes with an ability to rinse the rice.
The need for a rice cooker cannot be overemphasized. Before now, the traditional methods of cooking rice using charcoal and firewood was not very suitable as it required constant attention to ensure the rice was cooked properly to prevent it from getting burnt. The advent of electric rice cookers revolutionized the process of cooking rice. Rice could now be cooked in an automated electrical or mechanical process that controls heat and timing hence preventing a case of burnt rice. There is however no significant difference in the time it takes for cooking rice using the traditional method or using an electric rice cooker, the advantage is that the cook involvement in cooking the rice is drastically reduced to just preparing the rice for cooking and adding sufficient amount of water. No other attention will be needed as the rice cooker will do the rest of the cooking until the ice is ready.
It is wise to note that not all species of rice is suitable to be cooked using the rice cooker; they must be cooked by hand or using the traditional method of cooking rice. A rice cooker is not limited to cooking only rice alone; it can be used to cook other grain foods, usually boiled or steamed.
For more information about the best rice cookers, health benefits of rice, and all you need to know about rice, and its types, please check out other links on www.ricecookers101.com