When you’ve regarded into shopping for a rice cooker, odds are you’ve stumbled throughout the web’s sage recommendation on the topic: “Simply purchase a Zojirushi.” Heard, however which one? Based greater than 100 years in the past, the Japanese equipment maker sells 20 totally different fashions starting from $55 to $800, and, consider it or not, there are variations between them past measurement and variety of buttons. 

When you’re in a rush, right here’s the one-sentence model of this story: The tiny-but-mighty 3-Cup Rice Cooker provides glorious worth, however the pricier and roomier Zojirushi NP-HCC10XH is superior if you happen to eat a number of styles of rice.

I examined six of the model’s hottest choices to get a greater sense of the similarities, variations, and worth every provided. Right here’s what I discovered. 

The Checks 

• Max Amount Brief Grain Rice Check: I cooked the utmost quantity of white rice that every mannequin allowed. Most rice makers are both three-, 5.5-, or 10-cup machines, however I examined three- and 5.5-cup choices, as these are extra widespread in residential settings. I famous the cooked rice’s wetness and consistency, and I evaluated the machine’s ease of cleansing.
• Minimal Amount Brief Grain Rice Check: I additionally cooked the minimal quantity of white rice that every pot allowed. Generally this quantity isn’t said within the guide, so I used the etched marking contained in the cooking pot. Each rice cooker I examined can cook dinner a minimal of 1 cup of raw rice (although many Zojirushi lovers say you’ll be able to cook dinner lower than this with a little bit experimenting). Once more, I evaluated the feel and consistency of the rice, and the machine’s ease of cleansing.
• Brown Rice Check: A superb rice maker can whip up extra than simply sushi and jasmine rice. On this check, I aimed to determine vital variations between the rice cookers when challenged with a easy cup of brown basmati rice. I once more rated the fashions on cook dinner time, evenness of cooking, rice texture, particular options, and ease of cleansing.
• Preserve Heat Check: Making a pot of rice for the day is commonplace, however preserving a pot of rice at a pleasing temperature with out degrading the standard of the cooked rice is a difficult process. For this check, I left cooked rice within the rice cookers and set them to “Preserve Heat” for the utmost allowable length. I then in contrast the standard of the rice after it sat in every of the fashions I examined.

Our Favourite Zojirushi Rice Cookers 

After testing, this was our clear Goldilocks rice cooker. It’s large enough to cook dinner for a household however deft with single-person servings as nicely. It makes delicate and traditional short-grain white rice in addition to it does steel-cut oatmeal, long-grain brown rice, and even quinoa. It’s probably the most reasonably priced Zojirushi to characteristic an induction heating system and an upgraded heavy cooking pot. To prime all of it off, its Preserve Heat setting is customizable (that means you’ll be able to inform it to maintain the rice heat, to not soften the rice on the underside of the pot). And, better of all, it doesn’t include a $400-plus price ticket. 

Finest For: This mannequin will please anybody who enjoys all kinds of rice and grains, together with a little bit flexibility when it comes to customized programming. The standard of the cooked rice scored extremely throughout the board. When evaluating a product line for an organization, our objective is to seek out the product that delivers probably the most options on the lowest price, and that is the product from Zojirushi. 

Challenges or Shortcomings: This mannequin is $100 to $500 cheaper than the remainder of the model’s induction-heated rice cookers, almost definitely as a result of it comprises extra plastic elements than pricier variations The cooking pot is product of metal and aluminum, however the exterior is product of black plastic. This didn’t have an effect on cooking, however it does really feel cheaper, and I’m guessing it’s additionally why this machine was noticeably noisier than all however the most cost-effective rice cooker I examined. Consider it because the Subaru BRZ of rice cookers—a performance-first machine with out a number of the consolation options of its dearer competitors.

Its nooks and crannies are extra susceptible to buildup than another fashions from the model, however nothing a minute or two of centered cleansing can’t deal with. 

Key Specs

• Raw rice capability: 5.5 cups
• Cooked rice capability: 11 cups
• Dimensions: 12.25 x 9.25 x 7.88 inches
• Twine size: 3 toes, 7 inches 
• Settings: White, Fast, Sushi/Candy, Blended, Jasmine, Fast Jasmine, Congee, Brown, GABA Brown, Metal-Lower Oatmeal, Quinoa, Steam 
• Equipment: Rice measuring cup, spatula, steam basket
• Cooking pot materials: Aluminum with PTFE (Teflon) inside coating and chrome steel exterior coating

If the $375 induction-heated, preprogrammed supercomputer rice cooker made you second-guess Zojirushi, the OG 3-Cup Rice Cooker shall be your champion. It’s tiny, dead-simple, and free from the excesses of high-tech kitchen home equipment. Plug it in, toss in some rice and water, flick the change down, and wait half an hour (or much less) for excellent rice.

Finest For: Solo cooks or {couples} who can’t be bothered with a display screen stuffed with choices and need their rice ASAP will recognize this mannequin. The three-Cup is ideal for house cooks who’re quick on countertop house and time. It’s the smallest, most reasonably priced, and quickest Zojirushi rice cooker available on the market. We liked the short-grain white rice it turned out, particularly as a result of it struck a stability between moist and agency that no different Zojirushi mannequin we examined might compete with. 

Challenges or Shortcomings: It’s not excellent. Brown rice, particularly non-short-grain brown rice, was simply OK within the 3-Cup, which may solely deal with two cups of brown rice. (It expands way more than white rice.) I’m guessing that is brown rice’s longer cooking time at work, which exposes the weak spot of the easy bottom-up heating system. Past that, I’d suggest consuming the rice pretty quickly after it’s completed cooking—the Preserve Heat perform runs a bit sizzling, and there’s no approach to alter it. 

Key Specs

• Raw rice capability: 3 cups
• Cooked rice capability: 6 cups
• Dimensions: 7.5 x 9.18 x 7.5 inches
• Twine size: 3 toes, 7 inches 
• Settings: Single change cooking; automated preserve heat perform 
• Equipment: Rice measuring cup, spatula, steam basket
• Cooking pot materials: Aluminum with PTFE (Teflon) coating

This rice cooker sits on the low finish of the excessive finish. It pulls collectively computer-driven cooking with a delicate induction heating system and each preprogrammed cook dinner mode you may need. 

Finest For: House cooks with a ardour for rice will love this machine, however if you happen to solely make rice twice per week, it’s most likely overkill on your wants. The 5.5-cup model of this cooker turned out glorious short-grain rice when stuffed with minimal and most volumes of rice, then did it once more with brown basmati, and once more with jasmine rice. I even dumped wild rice, which the machine isn’t preprogrammed to cook dinner, and it got here out floral, tender, and scrumptious. (Use the brown rice setting for greatest outcomes.) Past the settings and induction heating system, the cooking pot itself performs a job right here. It’s about 50% heavier than most mid-level Zojirushi rice makers, offering higher warmth retention and extra even warmth distribution—two issues that you simply sometimes need out of a vessel cooking a meals as finicky as rice.  

Challenges or Shortcomings: It’s $375! That’s so much, and there’s no possible way round that. To a lesser diploma, I’d word the small studying curve concerned in making the sort of rice you need. This machine consists of a whole lot of settings and options, and Zojirushi’s instruction manuals aren’t at all times probably the most useful. (I discovered the solutions to most of my questions on Reddit and cooking boards from 20 years in the past.) 

Key Specs

• Raw rice capability: 5.5 cups
• Cooked rice capability: 10 to 11 cups
• Dimensions: 14 x 10 x 8 inches
• Twine size: 3 toes, 3 inches
• Settings: White (common, softer, tougher), fast, combined, sushi, porridge, candy, brown, gaba brown 
• Equipment: Rice measuring cup, spatula, spatula holder, steam basket
• Cooking pot materials: Aluminum with PTFE (Teflon) inside coating and chrome steel exterior coating

Although attaching the phrase “fan favourite” to a rice cooker feels compelled, it’s a well-earned descriptor for the Neuro Fuzzy. The identify is a reference to the mathematical time period “fuzzy logic,” which controls the rice cooking course of in actual time.

Finest For: Although the Neuro Fuzzy comes with loads of preprogrammed cooking modes, it’s greatest for people who love Japanese-style rice: short- and medium-grain rice cooked to tender, barely sticky, chewy perfection. 

Challenges or Shortcomings: The flip facet? When you like firmer, dryer rice, the Neuro Fuzzy isn’t for you. You’ll be able to reduce on water to eke out a rice texture you favor, which sort of labored in testing, however it’s not price it. The rice cooker excels at making fluffy rice for consuming with chopsticks. If that’s not the way you eat rice, there are different Zojirushi fashions to select from. 

Key Specs

• Raw rice capability: 5.5 cups
• Cooked rice capability: 11 cups
• Dimensions: 13 inches x 10.13 inches x 8.13 inches
• Twine size: 3 toes, 3 inches
• Settings: Preserve heat, prolonged preserve heat, white rice, reg/sushi, softer, tougher, fast cooking, combined, porridge, candy, semibrown, brown 
• Equipment: Rice measuring cup, pre-washed rice measuring cup, spatula, spatula holder
• Cooking pot materials: Aluminum with PTFE (Teflon) coating

The sibling to the lovable three-cup cooker, this 5.5-cup bottom-up rice cooker is one other no-nonsense cooking software, that includes precisely one button. 

Finest For: That is successfully a bigger model of the 3-Cup Rice Cooker I selected as one of the best finances choice, so in order for you a whole lot of well-cooked short- and medium-grain white rice and don’t wish to spend just a few hundred {dollars}, that is most likely your greatest guess.

Challenges or Shortcomings: Cooking at max capability (5.5 cups dry rice), the rice we obtained out of this machine was pretty inconsistent: some very mushy, some agency, some practically melted. This can be because of the limitations of the standard bottom-up heating techniques, because the rice on the backside was moist and fluffy, whereas the rice on prime was dry and dense.

One other quibble: The lid refuses to remain open when you’re prepping rice and water for it. 

Key Specs

• Raw rice capability: 5.5 cups
• Cooked rice capability: 11 cups
• Dimensions: 10.25 inches x 10.25 inches x 10.25 inches
• Twine size: 3 toes, 7 inches 
• Settings: Single change cooking; automated preserve heat perform 
• Equipment: Rice measuring cup, spatula, and spatula holder
• Cooking pot materials: Aluminum with PTFE (Teflon) coating

That is Zojirushi’s middle-of-the-road rice maker. I scored it common to good on every efficiency check, which is kind of in keeping with standard sentiment across the product.

Finest For: Somebody who likes pre-programmed options and a lovely chrome steel exterior.

Challenges or Shortcomings: There aren’t many obtrusive points with this product, however in testing and in side-by-side comparisons, it was bested by a number of the model’s different rice cookers, together with my best choice. 

When you’re on the lookout for an all-around nice 5.5-cup rice cooker with plenty of applications and features, my prime choose, the NW-QAC10 Induction Cooker, is extra versatile and scored higher in testing than this mannequin. Upgrading from this one to the winner will price about $25. 

Key Specs

• Raw rice capability: 5.5 cups
• Cooked rice capability: 11 cups 
• Dimensions: 14 inches x 10.13 inches x 8.5 inches
• Twine size: 3 toes, 7 inches 
• Settings: White sushi, fast, porridge, combined, cake, brown, steam, candy 
• Equipment: Rice measuring cup, spatula, steam basket
• Cooking pot materials: Aluminum with PTFE (Teflon) coating

FAQs

How lengthy does it take a Zojirushi rice cooker to make rice?

This is determined by the type of Zorjirushi rice cooker and the quantity and number of rice you’re cooking. Take our two prime picks for instance: A cup or two of short-grain Calrose cooks in roughly half-hour within the electrical 3-Cup Rice Cooker, however the identical sort and quantity of rice takes about an hour within the induction-heated, fuzzy logic-powered Neuro Fuzzy. With rice cookers, pace is earned at the price of consistency and high quality. The speedy 3-Cup cooker merely activates and brings the warmth up till the rice absorbs the boiling water. The upper-end mannequin’s cook dinner time consists of soaking, a ramp-up interval, simmering, and a quick relaxation interval earlier than the rice is prepared.

Please learn this, then learn it once more: Zojirushi rice cookers don’t make rice quicker than every other rice cooker or cooking rice on a stovetop. 

Do I must soak the rice earlier than placing it in a Zojirushi rice cooker? 

This is determined by the mannequin you’ve gotten. The model’s one-button cookers should not have a presoak perform, however the entire programmable choices do. How are you aware which sort you’ve gotten? If the machine solely has an “On” button, you need to soak the rice beforehand; if the machine includes a dozen buttons or a display screen, there’s no must soak. That stated, most often, you need to nonetheless wash your rice earlier than cooking. 

Must you purchase a Zojirushi rice cooker?

Zojirushi rice cookers are dependable, constant, and end up high-quality rice. I’d suggest them to most house cooks. That stated, you probably have a robust choice for drier, extra al dente rice, I’d hunt down a rice cooker from a Western model, just like the Severe Eats favourite Hamilton Seaside Programmable Rice Cooker.

Why We’re the Consultants

• Will Value has been testing, breaking, and reviewing cooking gear for greater than a decade. He’s written opinions and guides for juicers, blenders, knives, each sort of grill, and extra. Earlier than he was a product reviewer, he made forged iron cookware by hand in a storage in South Carolina. 
• For this information, we examined six standard Zojirushi rice cookers. After months of cooking, our two favorites have been the budget-friendly 3-Cup Rice Cooker and the extra programmable and extra highly effective Zojirushi NP-HCC10XH. 
• Although our baseline assessments for every rice cooker remained constant, we additionally examined a number of the units’ specialised cook dinner modes for quinoa, congee, steel-cut oats, and many others.