Rice Cookers and Rice Basics
Recently I've been posting on a Facebook group to help foreigners get used to living in Korea. One or two nights ago I noticed that many foreigners are a bit baffled (including me) by the number of functions and range of prices that rice cookers in Korea have, so I spent some time investigating at the Homeplus rice cooker aisle reviewing some of the functions, and I also try to called to mind what I learned from my landlady, and from using my own rice cooker.
Basic Functions
This particular rice cooker has most of the modern conveniences of a basic pressure type rice cooker.
Warming: You can see on the top left it has a warming function. This keeps the rice from going bad, and lets you have warm rice whenever it's meal time. I've kept rice in my cooker (which happens to be a non pressure one) for days on this setting although the manufacturers don't recommend this, and it tends to dry out, and turn yellow. One day is probably the safest for taste.
Reheat: If you want really hot rice to mix your raw egg into for making bibimbap or maybe japanese gyudon, and your rice cooker has already done its initial work, this function is great. It's also great for having not just "warm" but hot rice on some cold day, or if you plan to mix it with something cool.
Pressure/Start: This is pretty self explanatory.
Timer: This is a good way to have warm rice ready in the morning when you get up, or just when you expect to get home from work. This allows you to be up and ready to stir the rice after its done cooking (as my landlady and the lady at Homeplus suggested). Stirring the rice right after it is finished helps keep the texture longer according to my landlady. Make sure to scrape the bottom and sides but don't squish the rice (again my landlady's instructions).The cooker includes the cooking time in the preset so you should set it to when you want your rice to be finished, rather than when you want it to start cooking.
Modes
Most Korean rice cookers with more than one button have a number of modes. I would say considering the very small price gap between a modeless one button and a non-pressure with a few functions it is really worth the extra 15-25 000 won.
White Rice: This is pretty self explanatory. This setting is for making your standard, boring white rice.
White Rice Rapid Cook: This setting will cook things faster but you usually can't put as much in the cooker. Good when you forgot to make rice before you left for work that morning and you get home late.
Mixed Grain: Properly cooking mixed grain rice takes some special attention. Usually the amount of water, soaking time, and cooking time differ for mixed grain so having a setting for this will help ensure more consistently tasty mixed rice variations. Some things people mix for this setting are brown rice, white rice, black rice (ends up being purple), barley, glutenous rice, nuts, beans, and other grains. This can make your rice more interesting and nutritious.
Sprouted Brown Rice: This rice needs special attention because it is a little more textured. It usually is not milled, hence the brown colour, and the slight sprouting makes for an interesting bite of grain. The remaining shell means water penetration into the grain is more difficult but this rice (the same goes for other kinds of brown rice). The protein in the brown rice shell is being used in dietary supplements for weight gain so if you are trying to bulk up this could help. Personally I really like this rice.
Scorched Rice: This is for making that crispy rice that is was left at the bottom when traditional rice was cooked in a big iron rice pot. From my understanding the scorched rice soup came from adding hot water to help clean the pot and get all the rice out so that none was wasted. These days with non-stick pots, it is easy to get the crispified rice out, and has become a crunchy snack (one my landlord particularly enjoys). It reminds me of the rice on the bottom of my hot bowl bibimbap.
Multifunction Steam: This function is good for making mandu (Korean dumplings), or steaming just about anything else you could imagine, like sweet potatoes, or vegetables. I personally haven't used this function for its intended purpose, but after writing this post I'm tempted to try it out.
Rice Porridge: This function is probably the main reason I upgraded from a one button rice cooker. While making rice porridge the old fashioned way does produce better results, if you just hate standing over a hot stove and stirring for ever, and ever, and ever, then this function is a boon. If you are sick and want to ease your stomach back into normalcy you probably don't have the energy to cook tons of your own porridge either.
Scorched Rice Soup: Makes the scorched rice with the soup. Personally, I find it rather bland so I don't think I would use this function much but it could be useful.
Taste and Texture Dialed In
The more expensive Korean rice cookers have almost a Japanese level of over engineering. With all the functions coming standard on most rice cookers you might say, "What more could I want?" Well, if you are a very discerning rice taster you may have a specific texture and taste that comes from various soaking periods, and cooking temperatures and times. What a labor intensive process to adjust these manually you say? Well maybe you (and perhaps even a large portion of Korean consumers) would never think of that, but some people want this kind of functionality and some rice cookers provide it:
Other Functions and Features
This list of features comes from my interview with the Homeplus rice cooker woman. She explained that the location of the heating elements in the rice cooker, the outer coating of the rice cooker's inner pot, as well as the amount of stainless steel that is included in the steam channel portions and the outside of the inner pot all contribute to increased costs. Another function is a rice cooker that talks. Maybe this is useful for the visually impaired, but otherwise I do not think I would spend an extra fifty thousand won for this feature. One feature which made me laugh is one that lowers the warming temperature if the room is dark (because it is supposedly night time and you are sleeping), then warms it up again when it becomes bright. This is for energy saving according the the woman at Homeplus. There are other useful functions like self cleaning, and multi-cook that can make cakes or perhaps pressure cook something. I did not ask too many questions about exactly what you might cook with that function, but just use your imagination. One ad I saw claimed you could make bread (the kind that uses yeast) in the cooker using one of the functions. I think the most expensive models I saw in the store were above 600 000 won. So you could either make rent on your officetel or buy a rice cooker. You choose.
Warnings
Pressure and Steam: Opening a rice cooker, especially a rice cooker with a pressure function while in operation is extremely dangerous and that is why the pressure rice cookers have a lock. Tampering with this function is a terrible idea. Don not do it. Even on regular rice cookers there is a risk of steam burns from opening it while it is operating. Don not do it.
Making the Rice
Check the measurements on the pot that comes with the rice cooker and use the included rice cup to measure the dry rice cups it indicates. One rice cooker cup is about 2/3 of a real imperial system cup. If you want to compare exactly Daiso even sells measuring cups with metric, imperial, and rice cooker measurements. You can see the Chinese characters on the far right side. Those correspond to dry rice cups that will match your rice cooker's measurements.
For beans and grains that are not white rice it is important to soak. Sometimes the rice cooker will do this for you in the setting, however beans usually need special care no matter what rice cooker you have, and must be soaked separately until they are soft.
Whatever grains you have, it is important to rinse your rice by scrubbing it and draining the water until it is clear. There is a special bowl used for this called a ssal bagaji (if I remember correctly). It looks like this:
If you want to be careful about any potential stones you can slowly sift your rice like you are panning for gold by adding lots of water then pouring the rice into the rice cooker pot a bit at a time. The heavier stones will settle out and you will be able to see them at the end. Due to modern milling technology this is quite rare. I have never had a stone in my rice, but my landlady's son on one occasion bit one while I was eating with their family. Not a pleasant experience.
After your rice is washed put it in the rice cooker pot and fill the water up to the line indicated for the kind (and be careful about that as different kinds require different amounts of water) and number of rice in cups you put in.The labels for different kinds of rice and their corresponding water proportions on the inner pot will be similar to the function setting labels on the outside. Notice the white rice part (백미), brown rice part (현미). Each has its own scale for water.
It is not hard to connect the dots. Some modes like scorched rice or steam may require reading the manual if you can find an English one. Having the proper water level makes sure your rice or whatever else you are making is the right texture, and not too dry or not too soggy. Once you have added the water, set the settings to the mode you want, and don't forget to set the timer when needed. Then just press start.
I hope this guide will help you to adapt to a rice culture, and enjoy not just plain white rice but all the other options that are available. By the way, now that I've spent so much time considering rice I think I want to upgrade my rice cooker so my old one is for sale. 45 000 (80 000 at time of purchase) won or best offer. It is about one year old, and holds up to 3 servings. Seoul buyers only please. Here it is:
This particular rice cooker has most of the modern conveniences of a basic pressure type rice cooker.
Warming: You can see on the top left it has a warming function. This keeps the rice from going bad, and lets you have warm rice whenever it's meal time. I've kept rice in my cooker (which happens to be a non pressure one) for days on this setting although the manufacturers don't recommend this, and it tends to dry out, and turn yellow. One day is probably the safest for taste.
Reheat: If you want really hot rice to mix your raw egg into for making bibimbap or maybe japanese gyudon, and your rice cooker has already done its initial work, this function is great. It's also great for having not just "warm" but hot rice on some cold day, or if you plan to mix it with something cool.
Pressure/Start: This is pretty self explanatory.
Timer: This is a good way to have warm rice ready in the morning when you get up, or just when you expect to get home from work. This allows you to be up and ready to stir the rice after its done cooking (as my landlady and the lady at Homeplus suggested). Stirring the rice right after it is finished helps keep the texture longer according to my landlady. Make sure to scrape the bottom and sides but don't squish the rice (again my landlady's instructions).The cooker includes the cooking time in the preset so you should set it to when you want your rice to be finished, rather than when you want it to start cooking.
Modes
Most Korean rice cookers with more than one button have a number of modes. I would say considering the very small price gap between a modeless one button and a non-pressure with a few functions it is really worth the extra 15-25 000 won.
White Rice: This is pretty self explanatory. This setting is for making your standard, boring white rice.
White Rice Rapid Cook: This setting will cook things faster but you usually can't put as much in the cooker. Good when you forgot to make rice before you left for work that morning and you get home late.
Mixed Grain: Properly cooking mixed grain rice takes some special attention. Usually the amount of water, soaking time, and cooking time differ for mixed grain so having a setting for this will help ensure more consistently tasty mixed rice variations. Some things people mix for this setting are brown rice, white rice, black rice (ends up being purple), barley, glutenous rice, nuts, beans, and other grains. This can make your rice more interesting and nutritious.
Sprouted Brown Rice: This rice needs special attention because it is a little more textured. It usually is not milled, hence the brown colour, and the slight sprouting makes for an interesting bite of grain. The remaining shell means water penetration into the grain is more difficult but this rice (the same goes for other kinds of brown rice). The protein in the brown rice shell is being used in dietary supplements for weight gain so if you are trying to bulk up this could help. Personally I really like this rice.
Scorched Rice: This is for making that crispy rice that is was left at the bottom when traditional rice was cooked in a big iron rice pot. From my understanding the scorched rice soup came from adding hot water to help clean the pot and get all the rice out so that none was wasted. These days with non-stick pots, it is easy to get the crispified rice out, and has become a crunchy snack (one my landlord particularly enjoys). It reminds me of the rice on the bottom of my hot bowl bibimbap.
Multifunction Steam: This function is good for making mandu (Korean dumplings), or steaming just about anything else you could imagine, like sweet potatoes, or vegetables. I personally haven't used this function for its intended purpose, but after writing this post I'm tempted to try it out.
Rice Porridge: This function is probably the main reason I upgraded from a one button rice cooker. While making rice porridge the old fashioned way does produce better results, if you just hate standing over a hot stove and stirring for ever, and ever, and ever, then this function is a boon. If you are sick and want to ease your stomach back into normalcy you probably don't have the energy to cook tons of your own porridge either.
Scorched Rice Soup: Makes the scorched rice with the soup. Personally, I find it rather bland so I don't think I would use this function much but it could be useful.
Taste and Texture Dialed In
The more expensive Korean rice cookers have almost a Japanese level of over engineering. With all the functions coming standard on most rice cookers you might say, "What more could I want?" Well, if you are a very discerning rice taster you may have a specific texture and taste that comes from various soaking periods, and cooking temperatures and times. What a labor intensive process to adjust these manually you say? Well maybe you (and perhaps even a large portion of Korean consumers) would never think of that, but some people want this kind of functionality and some rice cookers provide it:
Other Functions and Features
This list of features comes from my interview with the Homeplus rice cooker woman. She explained that the location of the heating elements in the rice cooker, the outer coating of the rice cooker's inner pot, as well as the amount of stainless steel that is included in the steam channel portions and the outside of the inner pot all contribute to increased costs. Another function is a rice cooker that talks. Maybe this is useful for the visually impaired, but otherwise I do not think I would spend an extra fifty thousand won for this feature. One feature which made me laugh is one that lowers the warming temperature if the room is dark (because it is supposedly night time and you are sleeping), then warms it up again when it becomes bright. This is for energy saving according the the woman at Homeplus. There are other useful functions like self cleaning, and multi-cook that can make cakes or perhaps pressure cook something. I did not ask too many questions about exactly what you might cook with that function, but just use your imagination. One ad I saw claimed you could make bread (the kind that uses yeast) in the cooker using one of the functions. I think the most expensive models I saw in the store were above 600 000 won. So you could either make rent on your officetel or buy a rice cooker. You choose.
Warnings
Pressure and Steam: Opening a rice cooker, especially a rice cooker with a pressure function while in operation is extremely dangerous and that is why the pressure rice cookers have a lock. Tampering with this function is a terrible idea. Don not do it. Even on regular rice cookers there is a risk of steam burns from opening it while it is operating. Don not do it.
Making the Rice
Check the measurements on the pot that comes with the rice cooker and use the included rice cup to measure the dry rice cups it indicates. One rice cooker cup is about 2/3 of a real imperial system cup. If you want to compare exactly Daiso even sells measuring cups with metric, imperial, and rice cooker measurements. You can see the Chinese characters on the far right side. Those correspond to dry rice cups that will match your rice cooker's measurements.
For beans and grains that are not white rice it is important to soak. Sometimes the rice cooker will do this for you in the setting, however beans usually need special care no matter what rice cooker you have, and must be soaked separately until they are soft.
Whatever grains you have, it is important to rinse your rice by scrubbing it and draining the water until it is clear. There is a special bowl used for this called a ssal bagaji (if I remember correctly). It looks like this:
After your rice is washed put it in the rice cooker pot and fill the water up to the line indicated for the kind (and be careful about that as different kinds require different amounts of water) and number of rice in cups you put in.The labels for different kinds of rice and their corresponding water proportions on the inner pot will be similar to the function setting labels on the outside. Notice the white rice part (백미), brown rice part (현미). Each has its own scale for water.
It is not hard to connect the dots. Some modes like scorched rice or steam may require reading the manual if you can find an English one. Having the proper water level makes sure your rice or whatever else you are making is the right texture, and not too dry or not too soggy. Once you have added the water, set the settings to the mode you want, and don't forget to set the timer when needed. Then just press start.
I hope this guide will help you to adapt to a rice culture, and enjoy not just plain white rice but all the other options that are available. By the way, now that I've spent so much time considering rice I think I want to upgrade my rice cooker so my old one is for sale. 45 000 (80 000 at time of purchase) won or best offer. It is about one year old, and holds up to 3 servings. Seoul buyers only please. Here it is:
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