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How Does A Rice Cooker Work?- Hmm Very Interesting

How Does A Rice Cooker Work?- Hmm Very Interesting

How does a rice cooker work? Technology is great, and sometimes it can make certain tasks easier to do. 

Cooking rice for some people is hard, and it never seems to turn out any good.

It can be such a hassle to make rice manually.

If you take your eye off rice for too long, it can boil dry and end up burning the rice.

The good thing about technology is the fact you don’t need to worry about this anymore, with the wonderful invention called the rice cooker.

And even if it’s called a rice cooker, you can also steam vegetables, tamales, or beans in it.

Cooking rice just got a whole lot easier.

How exactly do we use a rice cooker?

How Does A Rice Cooker Work?

A rice cooker will cook and heat the rice. All you need to do is to add your rice to the cooker with the right amount of water and set it to a basic cook setting. Generally, you need to add one more cup of water than rice. If you use two cups of rice, three cups of water are needed. Once the rice is cooked a switch will flip and the “keep warm” setting will be on. Rice cookers first boil, then the steaming and resting stage occurs, and finally, the warming time.

The Parts Of A Rice Cooker

Knowing what all the components are will help when it comes to using the rice cooker. A rice cooker has 6 parts to it.

The Main Body

This is the outside area that is home to the heating plate, the circuitry, and the inner cooking pot. The main body will either be plastic or stainless steel, depending on the type you have.

The Inner Pot

The inside cooking pot is where it all happens.

When you turn the cooker on, the heating element heats, and it will start to boil the water inside the inner pot.

You can get ceramic, non-stick, and stainless steel inner pots.

The Heating Plate

It will depend on the type that you have, but the heating plate will heat the entire pot or just the bottom of the pan.

The Thermal Sensor

This is the part that works with the temperature.

It will keep an eye on the temperature and stop the machine when the temperature has reached boiling point.

Indicator Light

The is the light that is found in most rice cookers. It notifies you when the device is in resting or warm mode.

Navigation Mode

For the advanced devices, the display menu will have another function called the delay timer. For the standard modes, this is where you select the cooking modes.

The 4 Stages of Rice Cooking

There are a few phrases that the rice cooker will go through, such as these:

Sitting Stage

Once the rice has gone in with the cooker with the water, the weight will push on the thermal sensor, which can be found at the bottom of the main body.

Once you plug in the cooker, the heat will start producing, and heat the plate ready for cooking.

Heating And Boiling Stage

From the sitting stage, the rice cooker will go into boiling mode.

You want the water to boil, and this can take some time.

What material your pot is made from can make a difference as some surfaces will heat up faster than others.

One cup of normal white rice will take 15 minutes to cook fully.

Absorbing Water And Steaming Mode

You will notice the cooker, when boiling, will let out steam.

This is the point where all the other water disappears and gets absorbed into the rice. When all the water is gone inside the pot will start to get hotter. 

From here, the rice cooker sounds a little confusing.

There is a button that can be found among the heating element, which works by a spring.

In the bottom of the spring, there is a powerful magnet.

The button has a material covering that gets attracted to the magnet.

When the magnet comes into contact with the button, it connects by a magnetic force.

When you press the button onto cook mode, the machine goes into full mode.

Once a certain temperature has been reached, the button struggles to hold the force.

This temperature is just above boiling point.

This works as a temperature-reliant kill switch.

Once the inside pot has gone past the boiling point, the button becomes too hot to stay connected to the magnet.

The loss of the magnet ends up causing the level to stop, and the rice maker will bypass the resistor.

From this, the result is a cooker that goes from power mode to a warming mode.

The rice cooker needs magnets to sense the temperature so it can heat the water.

The Resting Stage

The keep-warm or resting stage is when the cookers resistor lowers the electrical current the inside pot goes on to a lower temperature mode.

There are different types of rice cookers, but most will have a warming function, which allows the rice to stay warm for quite a while.

Conclusion

If you are a mum or live alone and don’t like messing around with cooking, a rice cooker is a go.

The rice cooker can make up to 6 cups of cooked rice, and you can cook many varieties.

You can buy big or small rice cookers, which might be better for bigger or smaller families. Stop cooking rice the hard way, not to mention the messy way.

Now that you know how to cook rice easier, you will be finding more recipes to cook with.

Frequently Asked Questions about Rice Cookesr

What Else Can You Make In A Rice Cooker?

You can use a rice cooker for so much more than just rice. You can cook barley, pancakes, oatmeal, soup, dumplings, and quinoa.

Are Rice Cookers Actually Safe?

Rice cookers can be used for many things. They are completely safe to use. The materials are all non-toxic and work together to keep the nutrients inside your food.