/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>18520981
>>18520912
>>18515768
>>18521123
You can't make superior rice over stovetop with a normal pan/pot and it's def not worth the time/effort.

However, you can make superior rice to the rice cooker rice if you're making claypot rice in particular. It requires a claypot and high heat. Also it's only marginally better. It's mostly subjectively based on whether if you like crispy crust and high heat created fragrance. Sort of like how most pizzas can be made just as good in a normal oven, but a wood-fired brick oven would make marginally better pizzas while dominos will save you the time and effort for a $7.99 carry out with 3 toppings that is around 80% as good.

Even then. Some high-end rice cookers claim to have similar functions but are over priced shills that create a pale mimicry compared to the real thing.

Rice cookers also have an "umami/sushi" function to mimic sushi rice methods
>My main examples are high end sushi chefs will cook their rice on a "stovetop" or without a machine and make some of the best and most refined rice in the world.
That chef rice and rice cooker functions are not rice cooking technique superior. The rice cooking process is merely delayed and done slower/longer because some sushi chefs would slow cook their rice with water mixed with dashi/msg/umamiagents. Those umami/sushi rice modes just lower temps and set a longer timer. Ditto with mexi/esp rice, paella, rissotto, etc. Flavored rice is it's own category. That's like comparing how well your steak is done with spicing/mixing meatballs.

TL;DR
>just get a normal $20 rice cooker if you're a non-asian who doesn't eat rice daily.
>$60-100 range Tiger (always made in Japan) like >>18520903 said and fuck Zojirushi's cheap thai/china made shit since their non-stick coating will come off and poison you
>Claypot can make marginally superior rice but don't bother if you're not a big rice person, Asian, a chef, have the time, and/or can even tell the difference.