A Note on Rice Cookers

I haven’t cooked parboiled rice before and it seems there’s quite a difference in prep. Some rice cookers need the rice soaked beforehand, and I think mine is one of those, as I had to start the cooking cycle 3 times due to the amount of water left in the pot. I measured 1 cup (200 grams)¹ of rice to 1.5 cups (355 mL)¹ of water, in addition to any water left from washing the rice. I think I will reduce the water amount by .25 cups (60 mL), as on the third cooking cycle, the rice consistency and water amount was pretty close to correct, and none of it was burned. I left it on the warm cycle while taking a call for 30 minutes, and came back to the perfect consistency.

I’m not sure how long to soak the rice, the answers I found varied from 5 minutes to 30, and I blocked 11 spam cooking sites in the process. I could probably block every site on the first 3 pages of my search on DuckDuckGo and still not come across a legit site.

While I’m on the subject of rice cookers, a huge game changer for me was learning that you can cook oatmeal in them, and as a picky oatmeal person, the consistency is consistently perfect – just the right amount of chewiness and very slight crunch of the oats, no unholy “creaminess” or dry spots. You can use the same measurements as directed on your oatmeal box, too. And I can start the cooker, get distracted by something else, and not come back to my stovetop turned into a burnt starch wasteland.