I'm a bit confused about if you're talking about a temporary purpose while you're out of your kitchen or not.

In any case, I always make perfect rice not problem using my all-clad pots. I didn't know about using the micro! Interesting...

However, my Asian friends and SIL would never make rice that way. They'd always use a rice cooker. ALWAYS

During the remodel, I've been using an ancient rice cooker, like 20 years old, that was given to me years ago during a basement cleanout. It's been a godsend. It's not up to the perfection level that I'm sure the new ones would be, but it's done a great job of cooking rice. (plus pasta, steaming veggies, boiling potatoes)

I would bet if you're doing this in the basement the best thing for you would be the set-it-and-forget-it aspect.

Gotta say though I dislike electric appliances to take up space in my tiny kitchen so I look forward to retiring it, but that's not what you need it for.

Do you have Craigslist? I see them all the time for sale with students moving out of my area, getting rid of their kitchen stuff.

I was also confused. I've owned 2 different cheapie rice cookers and loved their functionality, but haven't replaced them yet. I don't really cook rice that often and also don't want to have another specialized appliance floating around.

In your case, however, I would get a rice cooker because it is so easy. With the quantities you cook, wouldn't you rather wear out a $20-40 cooker than an expensive Miele unit?

The only suggestion I have is that it have a removable insert that you could cover and refrigerate, then toss into the refrigerator when you've used all the cooked rice.

Lucky puppies!

Five-cup size Zojirushi or Panasonic. Use bottled water for rinsing and cooking the rice. You'll wonder why you waited so long.

Get the old school Zojirushi (where you just push a button and it cooks). We had one for years and made the mistake of replacing it with a "fuzzy logic" Zojirushi, which has been nothing but trouble. Back twice for logic board replacements (on a rice cooker?!? seriously?!?) and even when it works, it takes twice as long as the old one did. I liked that it was programmable so you could set it to start in the morning for dinner, or at night to cook oatmeal for the morning---but in practice I rarely use this feature. Wish I'd just gotten another of the old school kind, which they still make. (We had the one with flowers on the side, which is still made. It was awesome.)

The only thing I like about the new one is the size, which is 5-cup (old one was 10-cup). The smaller one is good for two people with leftovers or a small family with no leftovers; big one is good for a group or a family with leftovers.

The smaller ones have smaller sized heating elements, which means that they take longer to heat up and cook than the larger ones. If you regularly make at least 3 cups of rice, get the 10 cup one and it'll work a lot faster. I usually make the maximum recipe and just freeze the leftovers in baggies for fried rice, jambalaya, etc.

It's worth going to WallyWorld and buying a cheap $15 one to see if you like using it first before you invest in a spendy one. Even the cheap ones do an outstanding job compared to any other method. Just push a button and you're done with that portion of the meal. What could be easier?

There are three basic types of rice cookers. Most people think they're all the same.

First is the "double pan". This is the classic chinese rice cookers with an outer heating vessel (not meant to hold food directly) that you put some water in and then an inner vessel (usually made of stainless steel but use to be aluminum) that hold s the rice and water.

Second, is the "single pan" which is originally a japanese design where there is only one water tight pan. The outer part can't hold water because there's a direct contact heating element on the bottom which is usually spring trigger to activate only when the cooking vessel in in.

Third, is the newer pressure cooker models, sometimes called speed cookers. They are basically electric pressure cookers that can cook rice about twice as fast.

Of the three, I still prefer the old double vessel one. It's versatile in that you can steam a variety of things in it. For instance, just put some water in the "outer" part and a bowl with something you want to steam or reheat.

You can't do that with the single vessel easily unless you use the internal vessel which can ruin it since it's not meant to be heated until it dries. Also, the single vessel ones tends to burn the rice at the bottom a bit more easily since the heating element is directly contacting the bottom of the cooking vessel.

I've heard good things about the pressure cooker ones but never used one. I have a stove top pressure cooker so I don't see the need to buy the specialized cooker.

BTW, the sizing isn't technically in "cups" but in bowls. Traditional chinese cooking measures things in number of "rice bowls". In the end, a bowl is probably about a cup. I mention that so if you see a box that says 10 bowl size, you don't get confused. Also, be careful with using a 10 bowl cooker to cook 2-3 bowls of rice. The directions might say to use the lines on the side of the pot but if you use a 10 bowl pot to cook 2 bowls of rice, it will come out soggy since the lines are calibrated for the right amount of water if more than half capacity. For 2 cups/bowls of rice, measure out 3 cups/bowls of water, maybe 4 depending on the type of rice and how soft/wet you want the end result.

We use Zojirushi Induction Rice cooker for Basmati (long grained), Jasmin rice, brown rice and wild rice. Each one comes out perfect each time. We had old Zojirushi we used for 12 years without any problems, and gave it to the someone when we renovated our kitchen. That one is still going strong :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Here is the link to Zojirushi Induction Rice Cooker

I have a Sanyo (ECJ-F50S), which works great. It's the only way I can make decent rice. I bought it because it got great reviews and was cheaper than the Zoji's.

"BTW, the sizing isn't technically in "cups" but in bowls."

This is an important point. The American marketplace is, indeed, accustomed to thinking in terms of "cups". However the "cups" designation of these rice cookers isn't the same thing at all.

My Panasonic came with its own plastic measuring "cup" which is the "cup" referenced in ALL of it's various recipe suggestions and corresponds with the water-level marks in its holding pan. However, that "cup" is actually a "bowl" which is about 3/4 of a normal measuring cup.

In other words, if you throw in a normal cup of rice and pour in water up to the cup-marks in the container.....your rice won't turn out right.

I use my pressure cooker for rice. 5 minutes to cook white rice or 10 for brown, after it comes to a boil. I put the rice and water in a stainless steel mixing bowl, and 2 cups more water in the bottom of the pressure cooker. I cook it on my induction burner, which has a timer. So once I get it started boiling, it cooks and turns off by itself.

For comparison with attofarad's method I'll add here time for typical 110V counter-top rice-cooker........

From cold, full-cycle "regular" setting for white rice on my Panasonic takes 43 minutes. I fluff and rest on warm for 10 minutes after that before serving....but I'll bet the dog won't care.

Before buying the cooker, I did this on the stove-top. 25 minutes covered simmer after boil obtained about right for my taste. However, for human consumption, rice from the cooker is superior. Everyone that eats here says so. And the forget-about-it convenience is pretty nice, too, when one has other things to do in the kitchen.

Thanks everyone. Sounds like a simple, old-school rice cooker is what I should get.

The thing we're using now is just a plastic rice steamer that is designed to be used in the microwave. And we always do let the rice sit and fluff -- I guess the dogs really do care.

Thanks again. Teddy and Ellie say "woof woof" thanks too!

sayde: zojirushi all the way. they are so wonderful. we love ours and use it 2-3 times a week. however, if i were only cooking rice for the dogs...get a cheaper automated brand.

FYI....here's the one I've had/used for many years. Won Wall-Street Journal's rice-cooker shoot-out some years ago. Recommended to me by the Koda family who grow and market Kokuho Rose rice which is where it all started for me. Also got the bottled-water preparation idea from them....although that's mostly because tap-water where I live tastes bad.

Bought at Williams-Sonoma but was $50.00 cheaper then. I have no doubt whatsoever that MANY competing brands are just as good. They've been making these for an awful long time. Zojirushi, for example, is as good as they get.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Rice Cooker

I have a ten cup Zojirushi that I hardly ever use. Stovetop rice is so easy to make.

However, if you were to get a dedicated rice cooker (the main advantage is that you 'set it and forget it', to use Ron Popeil's famous phrase), I would highly recommend the Zo. I'd also recommend getting one with a nonstick inner bowl to make cleanup easier.

The Zo I have is essentially the one at the link. Simple, huge capacity, no problems, nonstick bowl.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zojirushi rice cooker 10 cup

We have a Zojirushi, after living for many years with the basic dorm-room aluminum rice cooker where you just push a lever down to cook and it pops back up when it's done (or when it's burned, or when it's not done... those cheap old-school rice cookers are a little annoying).

We far and away prefer the Zojirushi. It was well worth it. The rice always comes out perfectly--you push buttons to select which type of rice you're cooking, and the cook time varies according to that--and it starts singing a little electronic melody to let us know when it's done. Our old-school dorm room rice cooker was as likely to burn rice as to cook it; we really had to watch over it, and add water sometimes, etc. With the Zojirushi you just push the button and leave, and it's always perfect.

It's not the exact model shown at the link, but it's basically like that. So, it's a fuzzy logic one. We've had it for three or four years and haven't had any problems at all.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zojirushi fuzzy logic

We have a Zoji NP-HBC18 induction unit. The rice is delicious, and never burnt, at least so far. It can keep the leftover rice warm for a whole day without making it inedible.

There was a massive thread on this site (maybe on the Kitchen forum) about rice cookers. It may still be accessible. If it doesn't come up in the Garden Web's search engine, try Google and tailor the search parameters to search ths.gardenweb.com.

The cups that the Zoji is calibrated for are called 'go' cups, from 'gohan,' Japanese for both 'rice' and 'meal.' You get one with the unit. They are marked 180 on the bottom. I forget whether that refers to 180 gms of rice, or 180 mL fluid volume.

I recall reading that Korean rice cookers, similar in appearance to Japanese rice cookers, except less likely to have English markings, are designed for different rice varieties and resulting textures. I can't confirm that myself, but if one were a fan of Korean cooking over Japanese, such cookers might be a better fit.

Anyway, the Zoji works fine for rice for American cooking.

kas

The most efficient way is to cook it on your stove in a pan you already own -- pretty much the way it has been done for centuries.

As long as "efficiency" has nothing to do with taste, or with convenience I have no argument.

However if rice prep. is a frequent/regular part of your diet (or your dog's diet) a dedicated rice cooker is much more convenient and makes better rice.

I have a Zoji induction one (linked above). It's OK.

I prefer a sauce pan.

I cook rice -- white, brown, mixed and wild rice, for us and for the dogs -- I disagree. It's much more convenient to reach into my pan drawer than to did out an appliance and it works great, tastes great. If there's room, that pan can go in the DW too.

I once thought rice was difficult -- I listened to so many TV ads telling me it was. That lasted while I was single and not cooking it that often, but not once we were cooking for 2 and more regularly. It's actually very easy to cook rice. Even if I cooked a new batch of rice every day, I wouldn't buy a rice cooker.

Single function appliances seem to me to be more about the industry selling us a need than actually needing something special. I know folks love them, but they really aren't necessary -- even for good taste or convenience. If you have the room to store another appliance and it makes you happy to have a fancy rice cooker, enjoy it. But the OP did ask the most efficient way to cook rice. I gave my opinion. No reason to get snippy.

Re-read it. Yup, kinda snippy sounding. Sorry.

Whoa! You feed wild rice to your dogs?

The dogs have only had wild rice in a mix (so not much of it at that) -- leftovers of what we eat. When I cook for them it is usually brown rice.

I need to stop reading this thread now. I want to go cook a pot of rice and just sit and eat it. Multi variety/wild rice blend, cooked in chicken stock and maybe add some mushrooms and toasted pecans. I'm the only one home tonight -- I think I know what I'm having for dinner! Until then.....LOL

Having been married to a Japanese woman and spending a lot of time there, I saw and used many different cookers (both in the US and in Japan) and the Zojirushi ones are by far the best. The one I use now is the fuzzy logic model. No problems in over 5 years of use, perfect rice every time. Before that I had a Panasonic, which was good, but not as consistent as the Zojirushi.

I had always made rice on the cooktop, and thought nothing of it. True, we didn't eat rice that much, but I had never even heard of a rice cooker. However, my Asian friends all used rice cookers and would never even think of cooking rice on the stove top. I'm sure in part due to the fact that not only is the rice better, but they eat rice at nearly every meal. If you eat rice frequently, there is nothing that beats the ease of a good rice cooker. I have the Zojirushi NS-JCC18 Neuro Fuzzy 10-Cup Rice Cooker Warmer, and love it. You can load it ahead of time and set to cook before a meal, or just as easily cook it early and let it keep warm for hours without getting dry. The inner container has a non stick quality, (NOT TEFLON), that makes clean up a breeze. The only negatives would be cost - (in my opinion worth the $$), and the size of the rice cooker for storage - it is pretty big, and if you are short on storage it might not be the best option. I routinly make 2 bowl/cups - as noted above NOT american cups, for a family of four which gives us just a tad bit left over for the dog. The smallest amount you can makes is the 2 bowl/cups. I got the bigger unit so I would be able to serve a crowd. I would buy the Zojirushi again in a heartbeat.

OH - I forgot to add: now that we have a rice cooker, we eat rice much more frequently. That was the idea, to increase our intake of whole grains, like brown rice, and decrease pasta consumption.

Does anyone know, if one of the neuro-fuzzy-logical rice cookers will handle sticky rice (or sweet rice, or glutinous rice, whatever you call it)?

I have a standard old rice cooker. It works fine for me, although rice tends to get stuck on the bottom of the pot, especially if I let the cooked rice sit for too long on ''warm'' - I'm not very motivated to get a new one. But if a new one would do away with the washing and steaming of sticky rice, that would be a nice plus.

By the way, getting back to regular rice, why do they call it ''steamed rice'' when there is no steaming involved?

I have seen some nicer Japanese made units that have a sushi rice setting. If you mean Chinese sticky rice or rice porridge then no, I've never seen one with that setting. I think it's just not that many people interested in that feature.

If you leave your rice on warm, I think you'll run rice sticking or burning on the bottom with any rice cooker. I typically don't use the warm function at all. The double pot ones maintain heat pretty well so I just leave it in there and it stays warm for at least an hour or more which is plenty of time for a mean. If I want to be fancy, I have a clay pot that I heat up in an oven just to about 200 deg and then serve the rice in that. Especially nice on a cold day.

I think the term "steamed rice" is an American artifact. The term in Chinese is usually simply rice or "white rice". Traditional preparation is mostly steaming. The double pot rice cooker is actually also called a "steam pot" in Chinese and doubles as a steamer. The water in the outer pot insulates the inner pot from high direct heat and generates steam. The automatic shutoff is just a simple thermostatic relay that shuts off if it detects high temps due to all the water in the outer pot drying out. This prevents burning of the rice. One of the main reasons people have problems with these simple rice cookers is that they don't add enough water to the outer pot.

The newer cookers are all direct heat of one form or another so they rely on microprocessors and such to know when to shut off. The early direct heat units were notorious for burning rice but that hasn't been a problem for more than 5 years now. The "newer" units seem to work quite well and require less guesswork or experience.

Mine...and all the others I've seen...have non-stick coatings. In my many years of ownership of the little Panasonic I've never had any sticking issues no matter what I've cooked in it. Cooked some pretty gloppy stuff, too, and sometimes (by accident) left it on warm for a looooong time.