You have the opportunity to customize cooking times with the Manual key and can change the pressure levels to achieve your desired meal. Aroma Professional AMC-300SG with Quinoa Option, 2. Photo: Michael Hession. This simple model ranks among the fastest non-pressure cookers we tested, making jasmine rice in around 35 minutes. In our tests, the Neuro Fuzzy made brown rice better than most rice cookers we tried, but the process took a bit of experimentation. The Hamilton Beach Rice and Hot Cereal Cooker makes good white rice very quickly—it’s a marvel considering its low cost. Conventional rice cookers are the best ones to cook quinoa. Many rice cookers have unique settings for white and brown rice. It is very simple to use: all you have to do is put in rice and water, choose from eight pre-programmed options for rice, soup, hot cereal or other food and push a button. If left wet and unattended, these little cups will get grungy and moldy (or worse, attract pests). Choose from Soup, Stew, Beans, Chili, Meat, Poultry, Fish, Steam/Veggies, Cake, Rice, Multigrain, Quinoa. For the 2020 update, we again tested our three picks against seven new cookers. In comparison, this unit is much bigger and clunkier. It includes stainless steel inner cooking pot, stainless steel steam rack, 2 cooking spoons, measuring cup, and condensation collector. The inner pan is made of durable, non-stick black fluorine-coated and this evenly conducts and retains heat in every grain of rice and this makes after-meal cleanup quick and easy. We prefer the Neuro Fuzzy’s pot because it has handles, making it easier to lift while hot. And unlike other $50 cookers, this machine has advanced functions such as settings for brown rice and quick-cooked rice. © 2020 Wirecutter, Inc., A New York Times Company, Great for frequently making short- and medium-grain white rice, Hamilton Beach Rice and Hot Cereal Cooker, Budget pick: Hamilton Beach Rice and Hot Cereal Cooker, Asian Pickles: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Cured, and Fermented Preserves from Korea, Japan, China, India, and Beyond, short-grain white rice, sushi rice, or brown rice, recommendations for the best way to do it, short-grain rice is mostly amylopectin and medium-grain is somewhere in between, Tatung 11-Cup Stainless Steel Multi-Functional Cooker TAC-11KN(UL), Zojirushi Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker and Warmer NP-NVC10, Zojirushi Induction Heating System Rice Cooker and Warmer NP-HCC18, Cuisinart FRC-1000 Rice/Grain Multicooker, chef and author of Asian-American: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from the Philippines to Brooklyn, food reporter and columnist for The New York Times, sales and marketing associate, Cuckoo Electronics, restaurateur and author of Japanese Soul Cooking: Ramen, Tonkatsu, Tempura, and More from the Streets and Kitchens of Tokyo and Beyond. Whether you consider rice a mundane starch or the star of your meal, there’s no denying it’s a cheap, easy, and versatile staple. By comparison, our upgrade pick, the Cuckoo CRP-G1015F, made overly moist long-grain white rice. You enjoy one-year warranty from the day you decide to purchase it. For our 2020 update we tested the Tiger JBX-B10U, a minimally designed cooker priced around $50 less than our winning Zojirushi model. Rao, who owns a Zojirushi NP-GBC05-XT, also admits that a rice cooker is the only way to get perfect rice every time. Instructions. And if you’re curious about the difference between a rice cooker and the Instant Pot—our favorite electric pressure cooker—we explain the pros and cons of the two machines below. Choose smart keep warm function to maintain optimum freshness and serving temperature for up to 12 hours. It’s one of the most compact models we tested, its removable lid makes it easy to clean, and the inner pot has handles for easy lifting out of the machine. It has auto shut off feature with boil and dry protection, so worries free if the appliance is on and forgotten. The 8-cup (cooked-rice) model was the smallest in our lineup, but we were attracted to its undeniably cute compact size, while the 20-cup (also cooked) version was similar in size to a standard Instant Pot. We also tested Instant Brands’s inexpensive Instant Zest Rice and Grain Cooker (which is not a pressure cooker) in two different sizes. This cooker was also one of the biggest machines in our lineup, requiring an especially high clearance for us to use it with the lid in an open position. All the rice cookers can prepare a nice meal of quinoa for you. If you regularly cook brown rice, however, you might prefer our upgrade pick, the Cuckoo CRP-G1015F. For our 2018 update, we tested the Panasonic SR-ZG105, a cooker with fuzzy logic, 13 cooking options, and a 12-hour keep-warm setting. For a breakdown of the differences between a rice cooker, a pressure cooker, and a slow cooker, check out our guide. But it took around 10 to 15 minutes longer to cook our white rice, and our top pick isn’t even one of the fastest models we tried. Purchase a rice cooker with Quinoa setting: this is how you can discover a simple and fool-proof way to cook delicious quinoa for all your recipes during the entire week or in case you want a protein-packed side dish. All can perform the same work comfortably. Testing the two models side by side, we noticed only minute differences in taste, texture, and cook time. Most often, I do a combination of brown rice and quinoa. A good rice cooker should cook delicious, fluffy, and flavorful short- and medium-grain white rice every time. When it’s finished cooking, the Neuro Fuzzy plays a chipper, electronic rendition of the French gavotte “Amaryllis” (video), which we found charming. In our tests, it excelled at jasmine and brown rice, while sushi rice came out a little soft and basmati didn’t work at all. This time we first tested each with batches of Thai jasmine rice and medium-grain sushi rice—likely the most critical and the most used skill for a rice cooker. Our brown rice was chewy and firm in a way that some of us really enjoyed, but a couple of tasters in our 2020 tests found it too al dente. Allow the rice cooker to do its job without interruption. You can avoid this by rotating the machine before serving, but this precaution is easy to forget. It also has a tendency to gather condensation on top of the lid. We ordered the well-reviewed Tatung 11-Cup Stainless Steel Multi-Functional Cooker TAC-11KN(UL), which appeared sturdy and capable. Photo: Michael HessionWe love these handles, which make transporting the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy’s hot inner pot from cooker to table easier. We also passed on other Panasonic models. Though the cooker never took more than 40 minutes to make white rice, we found the burst and sticky grains it produced disappointingly poor quality for a $100 cooker. Despite its humble price (and lack of pressure cooking), the Hamilton Beach is speedy. Photo: Michael Hession. It is exciting to learn, so you become comfortable and understand the beauty of this pressure cooker. According to a company representative, Cuckoo has plans to team up with other retailers for exclusive appliances, and we wanted to see how this machine stacked up against Cuckoo’s flagship offerings. And the Neuro Fuzzy comes with a one-year warranty, the same amount of coverage as our other picks. Tammie Teclemariam is a freelance food and drinks writer who contributes to Wine Enthusiast, Eater, Taste, and other publications. If that sounds appealing, you might appreciate a great rice cooker, which can turn out perfect, plump grains with almost no effort. Short-grain rice is nubby and almost spherical, medium-grain rice is two to three times as long as it is wide, and long-grain rice is three to five times as long as it is wide. It was, however, the cutest cooker we tested. This model is large enough to cook four servings of rice and can also be used to make couscous, quinoa and other grains. The CR-0631F did make the second-best brown rice of any cooker we tested, beating every Zojirushi model, but the grains looked overly puffed and burst when compared with brown rice from the CRP-G1015F. And we think the pressurized cooking caused our delicate long-grain rice to come out a bit mushy. The quality of the rice itself was good, with firm and separated grains, but not as plump as rice that came from a Zojirushi.