Zojirushi NS-TSC10 Rice Cooker Analysis

As a budding foodie watching a variety of Meals Group inside the ’90s, I was given a deep-seated aversion to kitchen “unitaskers” by Alton Brown. Even years into my occupation as a meals writer, I assumed points like, “I’ve a knife, fork, and spoon; who desires a pizza cutter, potato masher, or basting brush?!” Now, older and wiser, I private one amongst each. My pizza slices are additional widespread, my mashed potatoes smoother, and my egg washes utilized additional evenly.

I felt the equivalent method about electrical rice cookers, for method too prolonged. I’ve been cooking rice on the stovetop my full grownup life, and it appears high-quality. No method could I would really like a clunky machine taking over counter home merely to do the equivalent issue.

I was mistaken. I purchased to take a look at the Zojirushi NS-TSC10 after we examined rice cookers, and I do know now that I’ve been making mediocre rice for the ultimate 20 years. That is the best way it made me see the sunshine.

The vital factor to fully cooked rice is temperature administration. You want mounted, delicate heat—too scorching and it’ll cook dinner dinner erratically, leaving some grains mushy and others crunchy. The Zojirushi’s full job is to handle the temperature, and that’s the reason it’s so good at delivering evenly cooked rice. I assumed my variable outcomes on the vary have been on account of small variations inside the portions of water and rice, nonetheless I’ve found that the rice cooker works properly even when your measurements are a bit off.

It is usually good for brown rice, one factor I’ve under no circumstances really been ready to nail. I always get a mix of mushy rice caught to the underside of the pot and undercooked grains on excessive. Not the case with the Zojirushi. It takes practically two hours to make a batch of brown rice, but it surely certainly’s fully chewy and fluffy, with distinct separate grains.

There’s moreover one factor intangibly…nice about this machine. It is sort of a genial robotic who lives in my kitchen, participating in music as a result of it begins and finishes cooking. (You probably can shut that carry out off if you would like, but it surely certainly hasn’t started to bother me however.) Water measurement markings are etched into the pot itself, so all it is a should to do is dump inside the rice, rinse it, and fill the pot to the indicated line, no totally different devices required. As quickly because the rice is completed, the unit routinely switches to keep-warm mode, which can maintain rice steaming-hot for as a lot as 12 hours. This works very properly—even after a variety of hours, the rice doesn’t burn or comply with the pot.

We’re consuming way more rice in my residence as a result of the Zojirushi arrived. I’ve been using it close to every day for about two months, and it is not confirmed any indicators of harm and tear. Many on-line reviewers report that their machines have lasted a few years or additional, so one amongst these is definitely a superb funding.

Together with cooking rice, this Zojirushi makes a beautiful steamer. It encompasses a plastic insert that sits above the underside of the cooking pot, with a timed steaming mode. That’s good for veggies along with frozen dumplings, which might be a frequent quick-and-easy lunch for those who work from home like I do. The insert holds spherical 10 potsticker-sized dumplings, glorious for a meal for two. You probably may even steam concurrently you cook dinner dinner rice.

This machine moreover has just some totally different modes, along with one for porridges like congee, along with sticky rice. It’d most likely bake cake using the rice-cooking pot as a baking dish! (I’ve not tried this however and should’t vouch for its baking expertise, nonetheless.)

The Zojirushi’s timer is an outstanding attribute, too. You probably can load up rice and water as a lot as 24 hours ahead of time and set it to cook dinner dinner later. You actually set the time for those who want the rice to finish cooking, which takes a variety of guesswork out of timing. And every time I’ve used the timer thus far, it has been dead-on, participating within the “rice is completed” tune at exactly the set time, proper all the way down to the minute.

The timer helps make up for one in all many Zojirushi’s downsides, which is that it cooks rice pretty a bit additional slowly than the stovetop. The standard white-rice mode takes a full hour, and brown rice takes 110 minutes. Slower cooking is part of the rationale this issue can cook dinner dinner rice so evenly and fully, but it surely certainly does require planning ahead. (There is a quick mode that takes solely 40 minutes for white rice. It actually works merely along with the standard mode in my experience thus far, nonetheless that’s nonetheless a fairly very very long time.)

The Zojirushi will be not dishwasher-safe. You could wash the pot and lid insert by hand after every use. I’m an infinite dishwasher partisan, and I don’t love this side, nonetheless the lid insert’s under no circumstances gotten one thing aside from condensation on it, and the nonstick pot scrubs out merely even when left in a single day for just some grains to dry onto it.

Regardless of you do, do not lose the measuring cup that comes with this machine. The marks contained within the pot for varied numbers of “cups” are calibrated to that merchandise and by no means the standard (8-ounce) cup utilized in recipes.

The guidelines worth for this cooker (and, really, all Zojirushi fashions) could possibly be very extreme, nonetheless do not forget that it’s practically always on sale. As I write this, it’s a third off, at $159. No matter “formally” being $233, the price hasn’t exceeded $200 on Amazon in the entire remaining 12 months.

Why Perception The Spruce Eats?

The Spruce Eats writer Jason Horn has been writing about meals and drinks for practically 20 years, along with in publications from Cooking Gentle to Playboy and Yard & Gun to Extreme Eats. He is an particularly expert home cook dinner dinner and even attended culinary school (shoutout to Jeff State!) nonetheless nonetheless cannot cook dinner dinner rice along with a machine.