It is also a smaller capacity (most rice cookers measure their capacity by the amount of uncooked rice, whereas GreenPan measures their’s by the level of cooked rice. It’s a quiet machine, but that might be a downside for some as there is no beep to signal when it’s finished. Every rice cooker comes with a couple of key accessories: a measuring cup (don’t get confused, “1 cup” in rice cooker parlance is actually a ¾-cup measure) and a rice paddle. The Zojirushi’s quick-cook setting made firm white rice that felt a little too al dente (it wasn’t nearly as good as the results from the Hamilton Beach or the Cuckoo).

It’s not uncommon for the machines to take between one and two hours, depending on the amount of rice. For simple batches of white rice that are ready to eat in half an hour, a basic rice cooker, like the Zojirushi 3-cup or even the super-cheap Aroma 3-cup are fine options. But with the help of a rice cooker, you can make perfectly tender grains again and again with the push of a button, freeing up your time and attention to spend on other aspects of the meal. You can cook an entire meal in a rice cooker simply by putting some meat, tofu, or fish plus some vegetables in the steamer tray while you cook the rice. mini rice cooker can cook up to 3 cups of uncooked white rice when use the standard measuring cup, perfect for small families of 1-3 people.We were excited to test the Tiger JBV-A10U because it’s one of the cheapest cookers that still offer fuzzy-logic controls. Depending on the volume, white rice will take about an hour, whereas brown rice can require up to two hours, which might seem like a lot for people accustomed to quicker cook times. If that sounds appealing, you might appreciate a great rice cooker, which can turn out perfect, plump grains with almost no effort.

On top of that, its compact design means that despite its larger capacity, it still takes up less counter space than our other picks. We offer a high quality and accessible small kitchen appliances to help you create endless recipes from healthy meals to guilty pleasures, fitting many lifestyles. We also tested the quality and ease of cleaning the inner pot, assembly of the cooker and the ease of packing it away. This is a fine option if you want a streamlined machine for basic white rice, have the counter space to spare, and are willing to trade precision for speed.Also, it took the longest of any of the mini models we tested to cook one of rice—a whopping 34 minutes.

The downfall of all the Zojirushi cookers we tested is their slowness, and the Neuro Fuzzy is no exception. Not every pot sits on the stove the same way, the lid doesn’t fit on the stove the same way,” he said.Ease of use: we looked for cookers with intuitive interfaces, easy to press buttons and responsive touchscreens. Another thing is that you have to cook at least two cups of rice for it to work, which is a little much for my household.

For now, we are leaving the HCC10 as the winner while we take the opportunity to get to know the QAC10 a little better through long-term testing. Finally, though perhaps not the most imperative to the rice itself, Zojirushi’s machines play music when you start them (an adaptation of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”) and when they’re done cooking — and it’s clearly delightful enough that everyone who recommended the brand (again, more on the rest of those folks below) made mention of the jingles.

The Aroma Mi 3-Cup Rice Cooker had a unique shape; tall rather than squat, it features a side-locking lid and top handles for carrying, plus individual buttons for cooking white and brown rice.