Zojirushi NP-HTC10 Induction Heating 5-1/2-Cup Pressure Rice Cooker and Warmer
Amsb...@sparkle.com
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1) Note that better prices can be had offline. I bought this product for $239 at an Asian grocery store and it came with a 20lb bag of rice to boot. I imagine the invoice price is around $200. Someone's making an insane amount of profit selling this for $400+.
2) This rice cooker produces moist, fluffy, chewy, textured rice that exceeds a vast majority of the restaurants out there, including those that cook individual portions of rice in stone pots. It will spoil you and make you a snob when it comes to rice. The menu has different settings for pretty much any kind of rice you want to cook like white (soft, regular, hard), brown, mixed, rinse-free, sushi, porridge, GABA, etc. You can keep the rice warm and tasting fresh for upto 24hr.
3) Good things take time, but this cooker pushes the limit of patience, taking ~50mins for white rice, ~75min for mixed rice, and upto 3.5hr for GABA rice. Fortunately, there's a timer so you can tell it to have rice done by say 6pm, as well as an express mode (25mins) when you are starving. Though still quite good, rice cooked in express mode tends to be slightly firmer and not as impressive as the regular mode. (Minus half star for long cooking time)
4) Compared to the $10 variety I used for a number of years, this one has more parts to clean. The non-stick bowl, the inner lid, and the steam vent needs cleaning after each use as you'd expect. In addition, you need to check if any debris is obstructing any of the sensors, holes, or vents. The air intake and exhaust located on the bottom of the cooker for dissipating heat needs an occasional vacuuming. (Minus half star for extra cleaning required)
5) This unit is rated at ~1230 watts, but that doesn't mean it's using that much electricity continuously like a hair dryer. The cooker turns the heat on and off as needed like an oven to maintain internal temperature and pressure.
6) Back to the original question, is it worth it? This is really a personal decision based on your budget, utilization, and love for rice. My thought process was I could buy 16 x 20lb bags of rice, or get this rice cooker and enjoy that 1 bag of rice like I never have before. Finding it for $200+ cheaper sweetened the deal too.
This is an excellent pressure cooker with some caveats
I have been using Rice cookers for a long time. Mostly the pressure cookers that operate on steam on the gas stove top. When I was in Dubai, I purchased a Tiger fuzzy logic electric rice cooker that served me very well for 4 years. I have been using a Tiger cooker in US for the past 5 years. It broke down recently (I got it repaired from Tiger, excellent Service by Tiger ), so I wanted to buy a new one and ended up buying this one. I did not buy from Amazon since they did not have this a month ago. I called Zojirushi and got the internet dealer who sells Asian appliances online and got from them.
First Negative points:
1)Can't cook Steel cut oats:
This is a big disappointment for me. What a bummer. The Zojirushi's website gives a recipe for steel cut oats, but apparently it is for cheaper fuzzy logic cooker and not for this one for which you pay 450$. We eat steel cut oats everyday. I did not know that we can't cook oats in this cooker initially when I bought it. So using a timer function, I programmed it previous day night, (there is a menu for porridge!) so that we could have it ready next day morning. What happened was shocking. At 5.00 AM I woke up to big noise (Like pressure build up inside a container). What I saw was that the oats and water has leaked out of the cooker on all the sides and also a pressure build-up inside the cooker. I spend nearly an hour cleaning the whole mess. I called and spoke to Zojirushi. The reply was this unit is not tested for Steel cut oats, so it will void warranty. Of all fairness, I have to say that I cooked Steel cut oats for 10+ times (without knowing) with excellent results, and the accident happened only once. The cooked oat taste was excellent. By the way, there is a menu called porridge in the cooker, but i was told by Zojirushi that it does not mean oats but porridge style of rice cooking.
2) For GABA Brown rice cooking, it takes 3 1/2 hours. I have cooked GABA brown rice 10+ times in the cooker so far. The taste is good, but I am not sure how to validate the science behind the nutritional aspect of GABA cooking. I guess it cooks very slow to preserve the nutrition, so probably three hours. Not a big deal, but thought I will highlight this.
2) Power consumption - This cooker is rated 1230 watts. If this is going to be plugged for 3 1/2 hours for GABA cooking and some more hours for warming, you do the math on the power consumption
4) Price is steep compared to the fuzzy logic. Both Tiger and Zojirushi have several fuzzy logic cooker for 150 to 200$ range which does an excellent job of cooking rice. We have to pay more than double the price for pressure cooking. I can definitively say that the Pressure cooker (Gas and electric) rice taste better than plain electric cooking as well as it does not become 'DRY' Quickly. For 150- 200$, you can get a gas (Stove top)pressure cooker, but you can't program it the like electric one
Now the positive points
1 Typical Zojirushi/Japanese Quality - Excellent build and design
2)Rice Tastes very good
3)Programmer/Timer is a great feature and very convenient
4) Cleaning is a breeze (You need to clean not just the container but also two more pressure cooking components after every cooking, but it is easy)
5) Small foot print - I have a 5.5 Cup one enough for a family of four
Suggestions:
1)Cup in Zojirushi does not mean US cup measure. They supply their own cup which I would say 25% smaller than US cup. So when they say 5.5 cup capacity, it is actually 3.5 or so US cups! So take this in to account when decide which size to buy.
2) Water level: You would think that water level recommended in the manual will be accurate. You need to adjust the water level based on the rice. Every rice is different - Some suck in more water, some less, you need to find this by trail and error.
3) I have a Tiger fuzzy logic, which I repaired recently and I compared the difference in taste between these too. GABA definitely tastes better in Zojirushi but rest all - White rice as well as oats are the same
In summary, an excellent product, build and design for which you pay a premium price. I gave only three stars - 1)because of high price compared to fuzzy logic and gas cookers.2) Can't cook other grains. I have to say Zojirushi and Tiger Customer service is top notch. Will not hesitate to buy their product again.
If I have to buy a cooker again, I will certainly buy a electric cooker from Zojirushi or Tiger, the leaders in the field, but not a cooker that costs 450$ can cook only rice.
Zojirushi's advanced rice cooker system uses precise heat control and pressurized cooking to create perfect rice. Induction Heating (IH) directs the heat right into the inner cooking pan, which is vacuum insulated to maintain temperature. Three pressure settings are available to steam the rice to varying degrees of firmness; lower pressure and temperature for firmer rice, and higher pressure and heat for softer rice. Precise rice made easy.