Reasons Not to Buy a Rice Cooker

If you enjoy cooking rice on a regular basis and want a device that is convenient, easy-to-use, and quick, then a rice cooker is probably the best choice for you, right?

Not necessarily. Look, no one is going to dispute the fact that rice cookers are incredibly useful devices that do make the process of cooking rice a lot easier and a lot faster. And, if you cook a lot of rice, there are a lot of different benefits to cooking rice, in that manner. Even if you don’t cook a lot of rice, rice cookers still offer a wide variety of benefits.

However, rice cookers offer more than benefits and conveniences. They also offer a myriad of inconveniences, disadvantages, and small problems that can compound and add up to an overall experience that isn’t particularly enjoyable or pleasant, in any sense of the word.

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Today, in this guide of ours, we’re going to be looking at all of the reasons not to buy a rice cooker. There are so many guides out there giving you endless reasons for why you should buy a rice cooker, and yet, there aren’t that many lists out there for the reasons why you shouldn’t buy a rice cooker. Because of this, many people are unaware of the disadvantages that a rice cooker poses, and the flaws that most rice cookers bring to the table.

Now, before we can dive into the reasons not to buy a rice cooker, we’re going to go over what a rice cooker is, so you have a better understanding of what rice cookers are, and what goes into them.

What Is A Rice Cooker?

Rice cookers are relatively small cooking devices that are designed to cook rice. That much is obvious. But, more specifically, they are designed to cook rice, and sometimes various other, related dishes, and that is their sole purpose. Rice cookers aren’t designed for all kinds of different complex dishes and ingredient combinations. Instead, rice cookers are devices that are designed to cook rice, and they can cook rice in all kinds of different ways since they offer a myriad of different settings and options, that allow you to cook rice in whatever way you want.

When you use a rice cooker, and when you press the buttons that determine the way the rice will be cooked, that’s it. The entire process of actually cooking the rice is completely automated and hands-off. For many people, this is one of the biggest benefits of owning a rice cooker, since you don’t have to do much to cook the rice in the way that you desire.

What Are The Reasons Why I Shouldn’t Buy A Rice Cooker?

When using a rice cooker – especially the newer ones – you’ll notice that there are quite a few different options available, for cooking your rice. You can cook your rice in any way imaginable, and that is an appealing feature.

Here’s the problem, though, not all of these cooking options are created equally. Many rice cookers come with a bunch of different options for cooking rice, but these options aren’t always the best, and while they do cook your rice in the way you intend, they don’t always cook the rice very well, so it doesn’t taste that great.

Since there are so many of these cooking options, and since so many of them simply don’t taste that good, this can be annoying. Especially if there is a very specific way you want your rice cooked, and the rice cooker offers that, but the final result doesn’t taste good.

Rice cookers tend to be pretty expensive. Yes, there are several cheap options available out there, but these options usually aren’t the greatest, and many of them cook rice in a manner that renders them tasting rather terrible. While there are a lot of rice cookers out there, you’re probably not going to find many good rice cookers that are particularly inexpensive. Instead, to get a good rice cooker, you will have to spend some extra cash.

However, for a lot of people, this isn’t a problem, since the investment itself will lead to a lot of saved time and energy, since, with the rice cooker, you don’t have to cook the rice by hand, anymore. And this is a very valid point to make, but it doesn’t change the fact that rice cookers do cost a decent amount of money if you’re going to be buying a good rice cooker.

With a rice cooker, the entire process of actually cooking the rice is automated. This is a big deal, and it means you can save a pretty hefty chunk of time because you no longer have to control the entire cooking process for that rice.

However, cooking rice on a stovetop isn’t a particularly difficult task in the first place. When you cook rice on a stovetop, while it may take a little bit more time and a little bit more effort, you have far more control over how the rice is cooked, and the ingredients that go into making it. If you want your rice to taste especially good, then using a rice cooker is a bad idea, because a rice cooker doesn’t allow you to experiment with flavors that much, but cooking on a stove does, and it makes the entire process far more experimental, and education.

What Is A Good Alternative To A Rice Cooker?

The best alternative to a rice cooker is simply taking the extra time to cook the rice on a stovetop, by hand. It does take more time, and a bit more effort, but it will taste a lot better – especially if you learn how to cook rice properly – and you will learn more about how to cook the rice that you like, and you will have significantly more control over what you are cooking, and how you are cooking it.


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