[DoubleF]

What type of rice cooker?

Cooking methods:
1. Non air tight
2. Micom. Induction, air tight
2.5 Instapot.
3. Micom. Induction, pressure rice cooker+

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Rice results:

1. Most people understand cooked rice based on #1. You'll know uncooked and soggy rice as part of a #1 styled cooking method (including on the stove).

Pros: Cheap. Cons: Worst rice. Least forgiveness and features.

2. Micom means that the computer helps to adjust. But you can't dump in way too much water and expect perfect rice each time. I would say the forgiveness is around 10-15% of excess water. Air tight means you can use slightly less water and the cooked rice has more texture/chewy and aroma than method 1. The cooked rice can also be left on "keep warm" for longer than method 1 or 3 meaning that this method is the most consistent. Most Asians restaurants use this type. Even with more money, they don't go for method 3. Brown rice is OK for this method. I find the heat and pressure isn't high enough to truly unlock and make a good brown rice.

Pros: Most consistent texture and results. Decently forgiving. Cons: Not the most features. Not the best possible rice texture and flavor IMO.

2.5 Instapot. Think forgiveness of method 1, but with the possibility to get a result between #1 and #3. Too much water and you get congee. There's barely any in between. It'll be good or meh rice outcome.

Pros: Pressure cooker features. Can also attain results on par if not exceeding #2 regularly. Stainless steel pot for scrubbing. Cons: Less forgiving than method 2. Straight up feels mediocre and a workaround as a rice cooker vs being a primary solution for rice.

3. Pressure rice cooker. If you want the highest amount of chewiness and aroma, this is the one you want. Although most of the ones here can do stuff like in category 2, if you have one of these you are typically not aiming to make that style of rice. We're not talking like Chinese restaurant or Jerusalem Shawarma texture rice here. We're talking another level up texture and moisture wise. However, this is not the style of rice some people like. This style reminds me of a special style of rice in Korea and certain parts of Japan and it is not common at all to styles in North American restaurants here. Think rice, but borderline mochi texture. It's hard to describe. These types of rice cookers have a ton of features, but the features honestly get kinda confusing after a while. I guess the only extra feature I use beyond rice cooking is the self cleaning mode (which I like a lot). The average person also just figures out the 1 or 2 out of 10-20 options and just basically does that over and over. With many that have high heat/turbo modes and if your keep warm setting is too warm, you can get a Maillard browning effect within an hour or two of keep warm that you wouldn't get with a method 2 type rice cooker even on 5+. I'm sure there is a setting that can be done to avoid this browning, but some people actually love this effect. I am not aware of the ability to do this easily with method 2, but it can be accomplished with some skill with method 1. Over watering wise, I think forgiveness is less than method 2. I think the overwatering forgiveness is maybe 5-10% only. Some of the programming is weird too. Settings wise, some of the adjustments I made like changing languages felt like putting in cheat codes on an NES. I still haven't figured out the keep warm setting to lower the temp. Improvements for brown rice and purple rice with this method is just next level superior with this method than other methods IMO. The gap isn't as apparent or huge or desired (occasionally) with white rice.

Pros: A unique type of rice texture/aroma others styles cannot easily imitate (regular or Maillard). Typically it can cook faster that other cooking types. Cons: Much more expensive (up to double). Style of rice isn't for all. So many features that it's kinda confusing to use. Some of the features are overpowered leading to more common Maillard reactions. Paying for lots of features you basically won't be using.

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Cookers:

1. Not recommending.

2. Tiger, Panasonic and Zojirushi good brands here. Cuc koo (Korea) are decent too but the first 3 always seem like they're better value or have more intuitive interfaces. Look for the words "Micom rice cooker" and look for the hinged lid. I've use a few brands in this category, I liked Zojirushi the best. $150-300 ish is a good range.

3. Cuc koo is hands down the brand here. Some cookers have additional features like crisp rice, GABA rice etc. Look for the specific words: "Pressure rice cooker". No experience with any other brand for this category. $250-550 ish is a good range here.


EDIT: And another facet to consider. Calrose rice is awesome. It's close/similar to sushi grain rice. I transitioned from Jasmine rice to this and I've never looked back, even with the price premium.