Rice cooker

An electric rice cooker is a kitchen appliance with the cooking rice is simplified. Only the rinsed raw rice and the proper amount of water must be poured. The cooking is done without any further action by the "Source rice method " in which the cooking water is completely absorbed by the rice grains and evaporated.

The conventional preparation of rice in a pot on the stove requires continuous monitoring, so that the rice does not boil over, is mushy, dry out or burn, but still sufficiently even is - although too short cooked rice tastes much different, but can lead to digestive problems. In addition, the rice tastes better when dripping from the inside of the lid during cooking condensation. [ Evidence ?] For better rice cookers so the water is recirculated by means other than through the rice through the heating element, and then to evaporate there again.

The first automatic rice cookers were brought in the 1950s by the Toshiba Corporation in Japan to market. Today, automatic rice cookers throughout are East, South and Southeast Asia very widespread, even in families who rarely have kitchen appliances.

Operation

The shut-off mechanism works depends on the temperature: the temperature in the cooking pot initially remains constant through the water at 100 ° C - when all the water has evaporated or been absorbed by the rice (depending on quantity after about 10-30 minutes), the temperature increase of the heating element and the rice cooker switches off or switches depending on the model keeping warm. The temperature sensor is often based on the Curie- effect: a permanent magnet initially adheres to the heating element. At a specific, material-dependent Curie temperature, the magnetism disappears, the solenoid is de-energized and switches off the switch (or by small heating to keep warm ). The process is similar to the case of magneto -controlled soldering iron, with the difference that the permanent magnet in the rice cooker drops so far that he can not put on their own again when the temperature drops. A burning is not possible by this shutdown. For rice cookers from Iran is deliberately downshifted only at higher temperatures, so that the rice to the pot bottom is crispy. This allows these serve as rice cakes. This crunchy ground is called in the Persian Tahdig ( ته دیگ ).

Many rice cookers can keep warm the rice for many hours, some with built-in timer - in Asia, which is an important feature because there usually in the mornings, the rice is cooked for the whole day. The keeping warm at a sufficiently high temperature also prevents the reproduction of the bacteria Bacillus cereus, the cooked rice at too low temperature infested quickly and can cause food poisoning.

The rice cooker has a removable for cleaning metal pot ( with cheap equipment aluminum, with expensive models, a Teflon-coated metal alloy that prevents sticking ). In some models, protects an inserted into the pot silicone mat from scratching on stirring.

In Southeast Asia, rice cooker with a ceramic jar offered. There are models with electronic cooking time control that can be used in addition for preparing soups and rice congee.

Other meanings

A solar cooker is often referred to in the vernacular as a rice cooker, because in poor countries it mainly rice dishes are cooked. Similarly, water-cooled motorcycles made ​​in Japan are pejoratively called rice cooker.

Swell

• Cooking appliance
• Rice