/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>18201397
It depends on where “our” outlets are.
If you’re in the US, they’ll work fine.
But I’d be hesitant to import one, as they aren’t “officially” sold here. Which means you’d have a lot of issue if there was a warranty claim or it needed repair.
Which is exceedingly unlikely for a Zoji, but that’s how my luck works.
>I am interested in how multiple induction zones would change the taste
For better or worse, it brings it closer to that ideal of rice cooked in a heavy pot with a heavy wooden lid over an open fire.
That’s literally the holygrail/moonlanding/etc the major Japanese companies are competing for.

Pic is an example, I took it at a store in Osaka. That Zoji is (at least a year ago) approaching $1000.
Not only is it multi-zone, they gave the bottom itself additional zones using multiple induction coils, the purpose of which are to allow for minor fluctuating temperature variances which will more closely mimic the pot being over an open fire.
They’re quite serious about this shit.

>>16293169
>which would be the best?
The “best” ones on the domestic Japanese market are insanely expensive.
Pic is the best Zoji from last time I went to this store in Osaka.

>>16268989
All of the good ones have a rubber gasket to keep steam in or induce pressure.
The different settings are for different types/preparations of rice, or for things like quicker cooking.
It isn’t the rice cooker’s fault if idiots don’t actually use those features, same as it isn’t an oven’s fault if the owner never uses its broil setting.
And the “expensive” rice makers available in the west are cheap as shit compared to the expensive rice makers in actual rice-based countries.
Pic is from a department store near my apartment.

>>16125040
>I just think that you are deluded if you think that machine cooked rice can't be achievend with a pot and a stove
Not that anon, but no, it can’t.
Though I’m only referring to high end rice makers.
You’re correct in terms of the $20 one-button types; it’s a ~70yo design and no different than a pot on the stove.
>I mean, you could always try cooking rice with a dutch oven, you can stack coals on top of it and have a heated lid presto!
Ironically, in attempting to dickslap anon in his face, you got pretty close to the real point/endgame of high end rice makers.

Japanese actually have sort of a unified, hivemind definition of the gold standard of rice-making. i.e. the one single best cooking method which produces the best rice; a heavy iron pot, topped with a heavy lid made of thick wood, cooked over an open fire, in a long process with some insanely-experienced expert in the method making almost constant adjustments with the fire by adjusting the wood.

That’s where Japanese rice cookers have been heading since moving from simple electric pot to computerized logic.
They began using dynamic algorithms to replicate an autistically OCD person adjusting conditions on the fly, based on inner temp, ambient temp outside the rice maker, humidity, and a lot of other parameters.
Then came IH, which allows thinner metal pots to have even heating much closer to a thick one, instead of the heat being concentrated at the bottom.
Pressure came next, which acts like the “heavy lid”. That’s why they don’t use high pressure like a pressure cooker, just moderately elevated.

So the current next step is using multiple induction coils to replicate the nuances of an actual burning fire. Pic is one of the first models to do this, which I found in a store in Osaka. The models which use it are currently unaffordable for most Japanese, and basically unavailable elsewhere. But like the other stuff, the tech will find its way into cheaper models with time.