Why Everyone Should Own A Rice Cooker

For many households, a rice cooker is a non-negotiable kitchen essential, right up there with frying pans and toasters, and is becoming more popular by the day. We can't say we're exactly surprised that this immensely handy gadget is having a serious moment. We could list countless reasons behind its popularity, but few can top its convenience. Sure, you can easily cook perfect rice on the stove with the 10-5-5 rule, but a rice cooker is purpose-built to take all the guesswork out of it. You just press a button, walk away, and forget about it until you hear that beep letting you know the rice is ready to be served.

Before 1955, cooking a pot of rice meant babysitting it. Pair washed rice with water, bring it to a boil while preventing it from boiling over, drop to a simmer, cover with a lid, and let it cook through. During this entire process, cooks had to remain vigilant. Open the pot too early, and you'd be met with an undercooked, porridge-like mess. Leave it too long, and you risk scorching your rice and the bottom of the pot entirely. This tedious oversight is what made cooking rice a full-time job — one the rice cooker automated entirely.

Using research collected by his wife, engineer Yoshitada Minami launched the Toshiba ER-4, the world's first automatic electric rice cooker. The concept was as simple as it was revolutionary: It worked by cutting the power the very moment the water fully evaporated. No more anxiously hovering over the pan, debating whether it was finally time to lift the lid. The sales proved that people were more than willing to pay for this kind of convenience, and the rice cooker spread like wildfire across Japan, the rest of Asia, and eventually the entire world.

It's easy to think of the rice cooker as a one-trick pony, taking up valuable counter space for just a single ingredient — albeit an ingredient that is vital in many a household. Though many fans would argue that it's worth it anyway, there are also countless ways to expand the function of a rice cooker beyond just rice. Strip away the rice part entirely, and what you're left with is essentially an electric pot that boils water and holds a steady temperature. That might sound unimpressive on its own, but it opens up more practical uses than you'd think.

A natural byproduct of the rice cooker is steam, so there's no shortage of home chefs who double their rice cookers as a steamer. You can use it to steam anything from vegetables to frozen dumplings, or even fish and chicken (a word of caution: Make sure to always use a thermometer when working with meat). You can even turn the whole thing into a lazy one-pot meal, layering raw or marinated meat on top of rice and vegetables to cook an entire dinner all at once, minimal effort required. You can even bake a cake in a rice cooker (especially a chiffon or Japanese-style cheesecake).

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Some rice cookers can even handle a hearty soup or stew, though it comes with caveats. A basic rice cooker only has one gear, a boil-level "cook" setting that runs until the water fully evaporates and trips the switch to "warm." That works fine for something like congee or a fast soup that's happy to finish within 15 to 20 minutes, but it's the wrong tool for something that needs a gentle, low-and-slow simmer rather than a rolling boil. With that said, certain newer, premium rice cooker brands occasionally come equipped with a dedicated slow-cooking setting, giving customers the benefit of an all-in-one rice cooker and a crock pot.