Best rice cookers 2022: how to make great rice every time, with rice cookers from Tefal, Sage, Russell Hobbs
If you’ve never considered buying a rice cooker, let us explain why this underrated kitchen appliance is set to be your new best pal
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Rice is a much-loved staple food, but it’s all too easy to overcook. Fed up with sloppy rice? Us too. That’s where rice cookers come in, cooking your grains to fluffy perfection so that you can focus on the fun bits.
How do rice cookers work?
Rice cookers bring rice to the boil before lowering the heat at just the right time (thanks to sensors, not magic, sadly!) and keeping it warm until you’re ready to eat it. Basic models will do just that but pricier, more complex machines offer a range of programs for cooking different types of rice, from arborio to basmati. Many can also be used for steaming fish and veg, poaching fruit, making porridge and slow-cooking soup, chilli and stew.
Which brand of rice cooker is the best?
With a wide range of rice cookers on the market, it can be hard to know which model to buy, so we asked Vivek Singh, executive chef and CEO of The Cinnamon Collection for his advice. “The quality is reflected in the price,” he said. “If you’re looking to cook large quantities of rice daily, like we do at all our restaurants, Buffalo machines are efficient and consistently produce lovely steamed rice.
“For home cooking, the Russell Hobbs machine makes small portions of perfectly fluffy rice every time and it’s very reasonably priced.”