Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have been using rice cookers for 15 years, both to cook rice and grains. Here is what I have learned: - Lesson 1: As a millennial, I don't have the attention span to cook rice/grains on the stove without something terrible happening. Rice-cookers main feature is that they "know" the cooking time, and switch to "warm" when needed. (Does not mean you can leave a rice-cooker on warming for hours, but means you can get caught in deep thought with no dire consequences.) - Lesson 2: There is no reason to buy a rice-cooker that is more than $50. Indeed, the convenience of a rice-cooker comes in large part from being able to toss it in the dishwasher. More expensive (and producing better tasting rice) devices are just not worth the hassle in my opinion. - Lesson 3: Most cheap rice cookers either use an aluminum or teflon-coated pot. No matter the convenience for anti-stick purposes, there is good evidence that suggests that neither material is ideal to store food. In particular, if ever you use something a bit acidic (like tomato juice, or lemon juice) in the pot, it can exacerbate the amount of aluminum that leeches into your food. After years of using a cheap Continental rice-cooker I bought when I first moved here (see it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KEJQEC), it broke one day, and I finally decided to do something about the worrisome aluminum pot. You would not believe how impossible it is to find a rice-cooker that meets all the above criteria: Essentially, when you are looking for non-Teflon/non-aluminum alternatives, you get a LOT of weird products: From "ceramic coating" (which is just a buzz word), to "steel" that isn't steel, it is very difficult to find something that is inert. This product fulfills absolutely all the marks. I was very concerned by the claims that the "plating" comes off. First, that has not been my experience—I have used this rice-cooker about a dozen times now, and there have been no issues. It is worth remarking that there are DIFFERENT kinds of stainless steel. This is advertised as being in 304 stainless steel: This is an austenitic stainless steel, which is not magnetic (magnets won't stick to it and that is normal), that is very heat resistant, but will have a sensibility to prolonged exposure to SALT. Perhaps reviewers who had trouble with the plating left salt water in the pot. Second, it is worth noting that this device is both sold from Amazon.com but also from a multitude of third-party sellers. It seems like a lucrative scam to sell a $40 stainless steel rice cooker, with some cheaper pot. If you pay attention, you will notice that all rice-cookers of this kind look VERY similar, down to the specific moldings and components used. I included some photos: - The first one shows my pot in use, cooking 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups of water. - The second shows the quinoa as it is being removed from the pot—not that I used olive oil to avoid sticking. - The third picture shows the difference between my previous Continental rice-cooker (lid with triangular grip) and the Aroma rice-cooker (lid with rectangular hold). You will notice that the diameter of the air duct is twice the size. This is why this device is slightly more prone to "sputtering". - The fourth picture shows the weird corrosion of a typical aluminum pot, here from my Continental rice-cooker. This is what I was hoping to avoid by buying a model with a stainless steel pot. Here are a few tips for using this: - First, pick a model for 2.5x the largest amount you intend to cook. I never put more than 2 cups of grain in my 6 cup rice-cooker, and I *never* have any problem with sputtering. (Two things that affect sputtering are the amount of rice + liquid in the pot; and also how much starch is in the liquid, that is, you can also rinse your grain as suggested in these reviews). - Second, rub a paper towel with a bit of olive oil inside the pan, before you pour the grain and liquid. It may feel confusing to add a bit of oil before pouring liquid, but the oil adheres to the pot, and ensures a clean removal of the cooked grain (see photo for evidence). Overall, I am very, very happy with this rice-cooker. I am glad I did not let a few worrisome reviews discourage me from giving it a try. I am also happy a few reviewers went ahead and posted positive reviews about this product to help me make my choice. --- Please, if you have found this review useful, consider marking it as "Helpful." Amazon is great when you get to see reviews from actual shoppers—as opposed to paid writers and fake bots—and posting photos of the products and marking each other's actual reviews as "Helpful" is part of the way we help make sure reviews remain useful. Thanks! -- JL