Cook a Pot of Rice

Rice is such a staple in our everyday diet – but have you ever stopped to think about what goes into cooking this humble grain?

In every Asian kitchen, from generations ago, there has always been a pot of rice. In the early days before electricity became a mainstay in homes; rice was cooked very traditionally in a style called Kamado, where earthen pots (and later, stainless steel ones) were used. These were placed directly over an open fire and it took great skill to cook a perfect pot of rice because of the constant attention it needed.

In fact, even when electricity was first introduced to help with rice cooking in the 1930s, it was still extremely primitive – imagine a wooden rice box with two electrodes attached to each end. To cook the rice, the box was filled with the grains and water, and electricity was switched on. However, this carried a huge risk of electrocution, and wasn’t quite ideal for everyday use. In the 1940s, Sony also released its first rice cooker, among several other inventions. However, it was considered a failure because of the inconsistent result of the cooked rice.

It was only in 1955 where the first fully automatic rice cooker was born from Toshiba, and a year later from Matsushita, changing the way rice was cooked in kitchens every day. It would have made bigger waves in Japan, except it was overshadowed by the innovation of three other products at the time – the television, the washing machine, and the refrigerator. This groundbreaking invention had a simple premise: rice was put into a pot, and water into a surrounding container. As the water in the outer pot boiled away, the increase in temperature activated a thermostat, which automatically turned off the cooker. The only problem was that rice cooled quickly after it was cooked and needed to be moved to an insulated pot to keep warm for mealtimes.

Moving forward, rice cookers became more sophisticated and efficient. They included insulated containers and removable pots, which were usually coated with a non-stick surface and marked with water-level notches to take the guesswork out of the amount of water needed. In 1965, a key feature in rice cookers became available, thanks to Zojirushi – the keep-warm function. This essentially kept rice warm for up to 24 hours and was not just convenient but also helped to keep the growth of the bacteria Bacillus cereus at bay, preventing a major cause of food poisoning. In 1967, Mitsubishi even allowed rice cookers to time when to cook rice and to keep it warm after.

In the 80s, the higher-end electric rice cookers also had microprocessors to help control the cooking process as well as an electronic timer to automatically start the cooking process at a specified time. It was in the 1990s when you could use the rice cooker for so much more, even allowing for different cooking results depending on the types of rice, or whether you wanted the rice to be grainier or more porridge-like. Some even had the ability to make cakes and breads. The Hitachi rice cooker uses pressure and steam induction heating to cook, and efficiently recycles the steam water to keep the rice warm later on.

These days, you can find high-end models made of special materials such as hand-carved pure carbon for the inner pot – this allows for better heat transfer with the induction cooking. And it’s not uncommon to find cookers with rice bowls made of pure copper, ceramic-iron layers or even a diamond coating. Talk about adding some bling to your diet.

(photo fotolia Text Deborah Giam)

Rice Cookers Through Time

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Before Electricity was Used
The first rice cooker was very elementary, and was in fact, cooked over an open flame fire in an eathern pot.

The Early Days
As technology progressed, it became more convenient as rice cookers sported a timer function.

Convenience and Ease
Then rice cookers also carried the ‘keep warm’ function, which also helped to keep bacteria at bay.

Rice Cookers 101

There’s such a wide variety of rice cookers out on the market now, so we asked Mr Yasutaka Inoue from the Home Appliance Group, Products Planning Division, Overseas Product Planning Department from Hitachi to give us a few pointers on what to look out for.

How has technology for rice cookers changed through the years?

The first types of rice cookers used a rather simple mechanism, which heated up the inner pot to a set temperature. Once that temperature was reached, it switched to ‘Keep Warm’ mode. That then moved on to rice cookers that had ‘fuzzy logic’. This type of rice cooker could automatically control temperate and time for the cooking to start, and also the heating and steaming process, depending on the surrounding environment. This is also the time that the timer function and other cooking modes first appeared.

Now, you’ll find rice cookers that use induction heating. With the ‘fuzzy logic’ type of cookers, heat was transmitted to the inner pot and the rice inside the pot was then heated. But in the case if induction heating, the inner pot itself is heated directly, which means the temperature can be more controlled, resulting in softer, tastier rice.

What technology goes into the modern day rice cooker?

In recent years, besides the induction heating technology, you’ll also find that the cookers can now raise the inner pot atmospheric pressure and raise the cooking temperature as well. That’s alongside technology that allows the rice cooker to emit steam inside the inner pot during the steaming process to keep the temperature at an optimum, or to prevent it from becoming too dry during the ‘keep warm’ phase.

What are some of the features in Hitachi rice cookers that people might not know about?

The Hitachi rice cookers use iron for the inner pots to maximize heating efficiency, which complements the induction heating process. The thick inner pot also helps to maintain an even temperature during the cooking process, while using both pressure and steam keep the optimum temperature without burning the rice, so you’ll always have soft, moist and delicious rice.

And if steam damage is a problem in your kitchen, the Hitachi KV series actually cuts any visible steam during the cooking process. By using a mechanism to adjust the steam during the pressure stage, it keeps the steam inside without compromising on the quality of the rice being cooked. And in this instance, because there’s no
escaped steam to damage your walls or any part of your kitchen, you can place it almost anywhere that’s convenient
to you.

What are the three most important things people should look out for when choosing a rice cooker?

1. The type of rice cooker. Whether it’s a conventional type, a fuzzy logic type or an induction heating type. Induction heating is the most accurate and efficient, because it gives you the most control over how the rice is cooked, meaning you never have to second-guess how your rice is going to come out.

2. Material and thickness of the inner pot. Iron has a very high heating efficiency, especially when it comes to induction heating. The Hitachi induction heating cookers use a 3.0mm thermal sprayed iron pot for the KV series, and a 2.3mm black thick iron pot for the KG series.

3. Additional features. Features such as pressure, steam and vapor cut. The new induction heating rice cookers use pressure and steam at the same time to cook the rice, both help to maintain the optimum temperature inside the pot so you’ll never end up with burnt rice.

How should people care for their rice cookers, so that they will work efficiently?

Make sure that you keep it clean, so there’s no dirt stuck on the upper rim of the inner pot, or on the lid of the rice cooker. If there’s dirt, the steam might escape and the pressure inside the inner pot will be uneven or the temperature could be less than ideal, resulting in rice that isn’t cooked quite as nice.