3 hours ago, TicTac said:Bit of an old topic revival, but rather than start a new thread, I wanted to inquire...
I am looking at the Zoijirushi brand and am trying to determine what the benefits (besides what their marketing dept. claims) are to their pressurized cooker systems vs. non.
Cost difference is fairly significant, but I do like the idea of being able to do crispy bottom rice (do any other models do this?).
I have had and still have several Zojirushi rice cookers - I got one soon after they introduced them to the US. I previously had a couple of smaller ones, a Salton and another brand I can't recall and for my catering business a 25 cup Panasonic.
Friends who had lived in Japan told me that Zojirushi was expanding to the U.S. and their rice cookers were superior to the others.
I have moved up as new models became available, gave away some - I got the "neuro-fuzzy" cooker when it first was offered and then passed it on to my daughter - they also consume a lot of rice.
I then got the Induction Heating one, which I still use - I got the 10-cup because I cook batches of rice and other grains that are large enough that I have leftovers that I can portion out and freeze.
I too like the crispy-bottom rice but solved that problem years ago when I bought one of the "special" pans with the bottom with the rounded sides made especially for "TADIG" rice - and I cook the rice in the Zo, melt butter in the bottom of the tadig pan, add turmeric and saffron and allow to "bloom" while the butter melts and ALMOST gets to the "brown butter" stage, dump in as much of the cooked rice as I want, press it down firmly (I use one of the round perforated potato mashers) cover tightly and reduce the heat. I have several squares of muslin, that are large enough for the corners to be tied together over the top of lid which I have ready as a Persian friend showed me this was the best way to catch condensation so it doesn't dampen the rice.
The rice should be golden brown and crusty after about 10-15 minutes - faster on higher output burners, slower on lower output burners.
My friend has tried my version and says it is "almost" as good as hers made the traditional way - which takes almost an hour.
And in fact, she has adopted my method when having to cook for a crowd because she can't dedicate one or two burners on her stove for just that one dish for an hour for each batch.
