Rice Cooker Advice?

[Mischief Maker]

Back in college I went through a slew of cheap rice cookers that tended to burn my rice and all died within a month. Then I shelled out for a Zojirushi pot and it made perfect rice and showed no signs of dying. Despite being more than twice as expensive as the cheaper cookers, it was the only one that ended up paying for itself in food savings. Had I not lost it, I'd still be using it today.

I recently decided to jump on the exotic super healthy varieties of rice bandwagon and bought one of those mid-tier fuzzy logic Zojirushis. It has white/mixed rice, brown rice, sushi rice, and porridge settings.

My question: How should I cook black rice (forbidden rice) or Bhutanese red rice? I used the brown rice setting (longest cooking time) with a load of black rice last night, but while it came out soft and sticky, I didn't encounter the strong flavor that apparently is supposed to scare off ugly americans. Should I go for white rice settings even though it still has the hull?

[Ed Oscuro]

[CMoon]

Assuming serious thread, my proctor silex??? has lasted for a decade and is going strong.

Edit: has absolutely no settings..do everything on the one setting it has.

[Mischief Maker]

Epilogue:

Tonight I experimented with 1/2 black rice 1/2 red rice on the white/mixed setting.

The black rice was cooked to perfection, the red rice was hard and crunchy.

SO. Cook black rice using the white rice setting, cook red rice using the brown rice setting.

[Randorama]

Zojirushi is an excellent brand, although very expensive.
Their products are built to last, though, so one of rice cookers is a long-term investment.

[SuperGrafx]

Zojirushi is an excellent brand, although very expensive.
Their products are built to last, though, so one of rice cookers is a long-term investment.

Agreed.
I bought a small 3 cup Zojirushi cooker not long ago.
Probably one of the best kitchen gadgets I've ever bought...rice comes out perfectly cooked every time. No fuss, no hassle.
Perfect!

[Frenetic]

I love my JP spec Tiger rice cooker!

[Ed Oscuro]

What's the difference in rice after being cooked in a cooker, versus microwaving it with water? Microwaving is kind of an imperfect science and may well use more energy than the rice pot, so comments on that are welcome too.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The National brand of rice cookers are superb for their ease of use...a single button for operation and it's ready in about 45 minutes tops. I really haven't tried cooking rice using the microwave method but you can't go wrong with a dedicated rice cooker. Of course, para-boiled rice will cook faster if using that type (i.e. Rice-A-Roni, etc).

The larger rice cookers feature a multitude of buttons for cooking larger batches of rice for use in making sushi. It's a given alrighty.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Mischief Maker]

Zojirushi is an excellent brand, although very expensive.
Their products are built to last, though, so one of rice cookers is a long-term investment.

Just like CH flightsticks.