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How
an Electric Rice Cooker Works!
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The electric
rice cooker is an ingenious device that is actually
as simple as a toaster. It’s quite amazing how
this simple kitchen equipment does its magic and cooks
rice, almost any kind of rice, perfectly every time.
How is it that a rice cooker “knows” when
to switch from the “cooking” mode to the
“keep warm” mode automatically?
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Here
is how rice cookers actually work. |
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| Conventional
Rice Cooker |
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| If you
take out the inner cooking pan and look
inside the main body of the rice cooker,
you will see a small round disk, about 1-1/2”
in diameter, in the center of the heating
plate. This is a thermal sensing device,
known as a magnetic thermostat, and it sits
on a small spring. |
When rice and water is placed into the inner
cooking pan and then put into the main body
of the rice cooker, the weight of the inner
cooking pan depresses the thermal sensor.
With the rice cooker plugged in and the
cooking switch turned on, the heating plate
begins to heat up bringing the liquid in
the cooking pan to a boil. Water boils at
212 degrees F and no higher, so as long
as there is water in the pan the rice cooker
will continue to cook. When the rice absorbs
all the water, the temperature will begin
to rise since there isn’t any water
left in the pan. When the thermal sensor
senses that the temperature has risen above
212 degrees F, the machine turns off the
heater automatically and switches to the
“keep warm” cycle. It’s
as simple as that! |
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| Micom
Rice Cooker |
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| In more
advanced models, computer chip technology
is introduced and the rice cooker automatically
makes adjustments in temperature and cooking
time depending upon the program entered.
These cookers are called micom rice cookers
because they are fitted with a microcomputer
chip. The top-of-the-line Zojirushi micom
rice cooker is the Neuro Fuzzy®,
a registered trademark name coined by Zojirushi
to indicate a rice cooker which utilizes
“fuzzy logic” through a micro
computer chip to cook rice. |
This computer chip is the brains of the
unit and instead of simply switching on
and off reacting to temperature, the rice
cooker now makes small adjustments in temperature
and cooking time according to what the thermal
sensor senses. So you can program your rice
to be hard or soft, dry or watery, as in
the case of making rice porridge, the Asian
comfort food. You can also program for cooking
white, brown or sweet (glutinous) rice. |
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| IH
Rice Cooker |
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| The heating
method known as Induction Heating (IH) occurs
when a magnetic material is placed in a
magnetic field. In our case, coils within
the bottom of the rice cooker create the
magnetic field. When the special 2 ply inner
cooking pan (nonstick coated aluminum with
stainless steel outer lining) is placed
into the rice cooker and the unit is turned
on, a magnetic field is generated to create
instant heat. Through this technology, the
whole inner cooking pan itself becomes the
heat source utilizing both high heat and
finely tuned heat adjustments to control
the cooking process. The results? Higher
and quicker heat response that's more
evenly distributed for perfectly cooked
rice every time! |
Please see our How
to Choose and Compare to
compare the features available with our
many models of rice cookers. Also see
Frequently Asked Questions
for more questions you may have about rice
cookers. |
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