Kitchen

[sunshine45]

have no need for a pressure cooker.....i generally prefer low and slow when i am cooking something to be tender.

LOVE having a rice cooker and i use mine several times a week. i make all different types of rice dishes in them and i like not having to use a burner on the stove if i dont have to. i actually own three rice cookers!

[cndkrick]

Do yourself a great favor and get an instant pot.

[debic]

My son has a Zojirushi rice cooker and uses it all the time. I've never had one myself, but I do have pressure cookers. I think they are too large to do rice, but with all the options the electric ones have I think they'd be more versatile. I do rice on the stove like many others, but I do know it's not always perfect.

[Poodlepet2]

I think a pressure cooker is far more versatile: you can cook rice in any pressure cooker. I also have a rice cooker, and I like it, but it just is not versatile. You can make soups and stews in a rice cooker, but here's the deal: it's dangerous. I bought a couple of rice cooker recipe books and you have to "jam" the operating lever-that is not the what the rice cooker was designed for, or how it was designed to be used. If you were going to use it that way, I would make it a point to be very near the kitchen. If you use it strictly as a rice cooker, I feel that's safe-no worries about fire or burning.I like the Sanyo: it can do white, brown, sticky, quick, porridge, steam-and of all things-and this feature I have never used, cake......A pressure cooker can do all that and more. The best cheesecake I ever made came out of my PC. I can make risotto the old fashioned way, but it's so easy to do in the PC, I don't make it that way any more. Poodlepet

[Sooner]

We hardly ever use a pressure cooker (we have 2) but use the rice cooker at least once or twice every week. We eat beans and rice, rice and soups, we do a lot of stir frys and have rice with that, chili over brown rice, etc. etc. It is a Zojirushi and we would NOT part with it.

The pressure cookers? We'll either put roasts in the oven on the weekends or chickens or something. Chicken breasts we thaw in the microwave and cook during the week (but not in the PC), and fish we have frozen in single portions, thaw quickly in water and then cook either bake on in a skillet. When they quit working, I won't buy another. Actually one won't quit--it is a Fissler 6 qt and 2.5 qt pans and is a good one--not electric, so the electric one is nice because you can walk away, do something else and come back to cooked food.

[Madisson]

Hmmm...A lot to think about when reading these posts -- which is what I wanted. I definitely do not want both a pressure cooker and a rice cooker. There are only my husband and I at home now. We are trying to minimize the amount of appliances that we have in the kitchen. We are semi-vegetarians, so we rarely cook meat...usually on the BBQ pit when we do. I am leaning toward the rice cooker as I didn't realize that they had steamer baskets...which is right up our alley. We love rice, legumes, lentils, and veggies.

I've read both good and bad about the Insta-Pot, which is typical for any appliance. I'm just not sure that we need all those features. Pressure cookers have always scared me ever since I saw cabbage rolls in tomato sauce splatter all over the kitchen of my parents' home. I know that they are made much safer now.

I know that you can be even more practical and just cook rice in a sauce pan and lid on the stove, but we like to cook different types of rice, which require different amounts of water and timing. Sometimes we end up with slightly burned rice, mushy rice, or underdone rice. It's almost a science! I'd like to take the guess work out of it.

Guess I'll continue to study up on these appliances now that I have some educated opinions on them. Thank you, everyone!

[Sooner]

We have the Zo Neuro-Fuzzy 5.5 cup model and have had it a long time and it is still going strong. It is expensive (wasn't THAT expensive when we bought it) but that and the VitaMix are two things I'd replace for sure if they quit working.

I'm sure there are less expensive ones that do a good job, but wanted to say this has worked great! Some of the newer ones have more rice settings I think, but this has done the job for us. You can some AMAZoning (ha ha) deals on them cheaper than some other places you might look. . .

[depglass]

We just don't eat rice as much as we used to, no idea why. So I have a pressure cooker and just do rice on the stove top, Uncle Ben's Converted is super easy.

[ChynnaBlue]

On 9/25/2014 Campion said:

Who says you can't have both in one unit? There are some pressure-cooker-seven-in-one units that do rice, pressure, saute, slow cooking and I have tried it on rice and it is actually better than a rice cooker for brown rice.

The Insta-pot is one that really does a good job. It even works as a yogurt maker.

Thank you for posting that. I've been looking for a crock pot with a removable and dishwasher safe liner, but didn't want to spend too much or get one that is too big because I also wanted a rice cooker. The smaller size will work for me and the fact that it's more expensive than the other cookers I looked at is more than made up for by the fact that I can use it for rice and so much more! Being able to remove the liner and put it in the dishwasher means I'll get even more use out of it because I won't dread cleaning it and won't feel like I'm being wasteful by using a plastic liner. This looks like a great solution!

[suzyQ3]

I never thought of it as an either-or. They really are very different appliances.

I second the comments about buying a Zojirushi rice cooker. We have a similar "fuzzy logic" National/Panasonic (not sure if they're even still around) and love it. If it ever dies, we'll get a Zojirushi. I'd say we use ours four to eight times a month. And we have the cookbook already mentioned here (The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook) and find it invaluable.

We also have two Kuhn-Rikon stovetop pressure cookers and use them both quite often, especially in the fall and winter. While we have made wonderful risotto in the pressure cooker (no stirring needed!), we have not used it for steamed rice. And I checked the five or six excellent PC cookbooks I have, and not one of them stresses the use of a pressure cooker for plain rice.