[0 - 1] - Hi, this is Lisa McManus
[1 - 3] from America's Test Kitchen Gear Heads,
[3 - 4] here to answer a couple of your questions
[4 - 5] that were raised in the comments
[5 - 10] about our rice cooker versus saucepan video.
[10 - 11] Let's see, the first one
[11 - 14] was about the Aroma Rice Cooker.
[14 - 16] Someone asks that
[16 - 18] they checked the Amazon link and
[18 - 21] it showed some percentage of buyers saying
[21 - 24] it stopped working after a few months.
[24 - 25] We'd like to hear an update from ATK
[25 - 28] about the reliability of their unit.
[28 - 32] Well, we have about 10 or 15 of these at the Test Kitchen,
[32 - 35] and we've been using them for years.
[36 - 38] We found them pretty reliable.
[38 - 40] We buy the products that we test
[40 - 41] and if it wins our testing,
[41 - 43] we will buy it and stock it in the Test Kitchen
[43 - 45] and take out the previous winner.
[45 - 47] And we use it every day.
[48 - 50] We really have had a good experience with this one.
[50 - 52] We have seen those reports.
[52 - 54] Is a little concerning and we are planning
[54 - 58] to do a new testing of rice cookers in the coming year.
[58 - 61] But, we are so far pretty happy with this one
[61 - 64] and at the price and the reliability that we've experienced,
[64 - 65] we still recommend it.
[67 - 69] I would love to hear your opinions
[69 - 71] on why we wash the starch off the rice.
[71 - 74] Isn't the whole thing made out of starch?
[74 - 76] I wonder if the only difference that pre washing makes
[76 - 79] is moistening the rice before cooking it.
[79 - 80] Well, as I understand it,
[80 - 82] I mean, yes, rice is a starch,
[82 - 87] but when they're polishing the whole off the rice,
[87 - 88] it creates a lot of dust
[88 - 92] and that dust of the rice itself
[92 - 95] makes a sort of a pasty starch around
[95 - 96] the kernels of the rice.
[96 - 98] And so you want to get that off
[98 - 101] if you want the rice not to be quite as gummy.
[102 - 104] It's also a cleaning process.
[104 - 107] You are trying to rinse it just as you rinse dried beans
[107 - 108] before cooking them.
[108 - 111] You wonna make sure that they're as clean as they can be.
[112 - 114] You don't have to go crazy with this.
[114 - 117] As I said in the video, it doesn't have to be perfect.
[117 - 122] You just want some of that white starchy exterior
[122 - 125] loose starch in the rice to come away.
[125 - 128] And I swear even sticky rice is still sticky.
[128 - 130] That's part of the starch that's built into the grains
[130 - 134] that makes it sticky as opposed to rices like Basmati
[134 - 136] that are very separate.
[136 - 139] They have actual different starches in the rice themselves.
[139 - 140] So, it's not gonna make your rice
[141 - 143] behave completely differently,
[143 - 145] but it will make it less gummy.
[147 - 149] And yes, it does moisten the rice.
[150 - 154] I think that it does start the process a little bit.
[155 - 156] although it's a couple of seconds really
[156 - 158] that you're rinsing it before you cook
[158 - 160] so, I don't think it makes a ton of difference
[160 - 161] in that respect.
[162 - 166] Okay, how does a $30 rice cooker, the Aroma,
[166 - 169] win against the Ferrari of rice cooker, the Zojirushi?
[169 - 172] Well, (laugh) it was by a nose,
[172 - 175] the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy was also in the testing.
[175 - 179] It came in second, it's also recommended by us.
[181 - 183] It costs quite a bit more.
[183 - 185] And I think that is a barrier for people
[185 - 188] who haven't had rice cookers before
[188 - 190] to suddenly invest a couple of hundred dollars
[190 - 192] in a rice cooker.
[193 - 194] If you have any...
[194 - 195] you know, maybe you're not in that place
[195 - 196] where you can spend that,
[196 - 199] but you can certainly spend a lot less
[200 - 202] and get very good rice.
[202 - 204] And one of the things that we really were surprised by
[204 - 207] is that we made the same rice at all the cookers
[207 - 209] using the same water and everything else.
[209 - 211] And we did a blind taste test of the rice
[211 - 213] in the course of our testing
[213 - 216] and the Aroma Rice was getting a little bit better
[216 - 219] than the Zojirushi which was stunning to me.
[219 - 222] I was a little bit kind of leaning toward the Zojirushi,
[223 - 225] so yeah, it actually did well.
[227 - 230] That said, we also recommend Zojirushi, came in second,
[230 - 231] very close behind.
[231 - 234] And you know, we're not just saying only by our winner,
[234 - 236] but we were doing demonstration
[236 - 238] of rice cooker versus saucepan.
[238 - 239] So we didn't have our full lineup there.
[239 - 240] We just had...
[240 - 242] we focused on the winner.
[244 - 245] Last question, I would like to know
[245 - 248] if the ratio one measure of rice
[248 - 250] to one and a half measures of water
[250 - 253] is the same for all kinds of rice cooked in the rice cooker.
[254 - 258] Actually in a saucepan we actually do mostly prefer
[258 - 262] one cup of rice to one and a half cups of water,
[262 - 264] or, you know, that one to one and a half ratio.
[265 - 267] The rice cooker is a little more particular
[267 - 268] as we pointed out.
[268 - 270] They have a measuring cup in there.
[270 - 274] You use that to measure the dry rice
[274 - 275] and then you put it in the pot
[275 - 278] and you fill it to the line of the number of cups
[278 - 279] that you've put in.
[280 - 282] I don't remember if we've ever pulled it apart
[282 - 284] to see how much water that is,
[284 - 286] but especially if you've rinsed the rice,
[286 - 289] there's some water in it and the rice itself weighs it down.
[289 - 292] So when they figured it out so that when you add the rice,
[292 - 295] the dry rice or the moistened rice,
[295 - 299] and then fill to the line of the number of cups you put in,
[299 - 302] that that's the right ratio inside the rice cooker.
[302 - 305] It's magic, no, but (laughs)
[305 - 308] I don't remember if we've ever pulled apart that amount
[308 - 310] and said is it one to one and a half,
[310 - 311] but in a saucepan,
[311 - 313] we have found that one to one and a half generally works
[313 - 315] for long grain white rice,
[317 - 322] and oftentimes it works better than packaged directions
[322 - 325] which sometimes we find they hardly put too much water in.
[325 - 329] Anyway long way around to say it's not necessarily the same,
[329 - 331] but we did find for long grain white rice,
[331 - 334] that it was one to one and a half that worked pretty well
[334 - 336] with our winning white race.
[338 - 340] And I hope that's helpful.
[340 - 341] If you have other questions,
[341 - 344] put them in the comments and we'll try to get back to you.
[344 - 346] And thanks for watching.