Last Updated on 06/02/2022 by Tarun

The essential guide to buy an electric cooker 2021

We know that an electric cooker plays an important role in Your magic kitchen.  this kitchen appliance is mostly used to cook rice but there are many other tasty recipes which can be cooked in this cooker. Basically, an Electric cooker is powered by electricity and used for heating and cooking food.

But do you know which kind of cooker do you need? In kitchen appliances market there are many kinds of cookers from tens of dollars to hundreds of dollars. the cookers with a price tag of $20-$50 don’t look much interesting. the cookers more $60 have lot many options and features. I bet that you will not use all of these features unless you have some really good cooking skills.

In this market, there are many cheap and valueless cookers. Don’t fall for the manufacturer’s attractive offers cause you might end up buying another cooker within next few months. here I will provide you a detailed guide on to how to buy an Electric cooker.

How to cook rice in an electric cooker?

This is simple and easy. You need to know How to cook the rice before you get a cooker. This depends on the type of the cooker you purchase.

Check the instruction manual before you cook the rice. for most of the rice cookers, it is the same process. Firstly wash the rice grains gently so that there are no dust or preservative chemicals on it. Now you need to add twice the amount of the rice.

For example:-  if you want to cook 2 cups of rice then you need to add three to four cups of water.  for the best-cooked rice let soak for 15 to 20 minutes before you cook. Most of the time rice gets cooked within 20 minutes. Now let the rice stand still for other 5 minutes. This will allow the rice to absorb the remaining water.

Congrats you have just learned how to cook the best rice.  those are the tips I want you to learn about cooking the best rice. The Electric cooker can also be used for making many are the dishes but rice is the important item.

How does an electric cooker work?

Let’s get educated about the technical stuff of the electric cooker.  simple and traditional Electric cooker has two modes, cook and warm mode.

This has a total of five elements to function properly. Let’s know the functions of each element one by one.

MAIN BODY: – This is the outer part of the cooker. This holds the cooking pan it separately. The thermal sensing device.

INNER COOKING PAN: –

This will hold the rice and water.

PROGRAM MENU: –

This holds the cooker modes. This might vary from a cooker to cooker. But for most of the cookers, it is the same.

Cook mode: – Heats the pan to the water boiling point.
Warm mode:- Keeps the pan at minimum temperature.

THERMAL SENSING DEVICE: –

This is used to sense the temperature of the pan to cut the heat power.

HEATING PLATE: –

This plate will cover almost all the area of the pan.  it will heat the pan to the water’s boiling point.

Here I am using rice for all scenarios. There might be anything like veggies or eggs. In any of the case, we use water for boiling these items.

Here is a video of how electric cooker works.

Now let’s see from the start how this process goes on.

You will fill the rice in the inner pan and turn the device into cook mode.  now the heating plate starts to heat the pan until it reaches the boiling point of water.

Here we need to learn few numbers in Physics. water has a boiling point of 100’c or 212 ‘f. While the water starts to boil most of the water gets absorbed by the rice.

Some will get evaporated. When there is no water left the heat levels of the inner pan starts to increase more than 100’c. At this point, the thermal sensing device will cut off the power.

When the heat levels start to increase it says that there is no water left in the pan. So the thermal sensing device will let the cooker enter warm more. At this warm mode, the temperature will be at 65’c or 115’f. This temperature will not let the rice burn.

Cheap Alternative to electric cooker : –

There are 2 types of cookers electric and stovetop model. Till now we have discussed the electric cooker. An electric cooker is expensive than a stovetop model.

The stove top cooker is a simple piece of metal. All you need to do is to light up the stove and close the lid tightly. The water inside boils evaporates and escapes the cooker through the tiny opening on the top of the cooker.

If you don’t want to spend more on the cooker then you can choose this stove top cooker. But it has many cons when compared to electric cooker.

The electric cooker has many features in it. It looks after your dish not to burn. Whereas the stove top cooker burns your dish if you forget it for a while. On an electric cooker, you have many other features to make a delicious dish whereas this stove top lacks them.

But if you are good at remembering things to turn off the stove then for sure stovetop is the best option for you. I personally recommend purchasing an electric cooker over the stove top. I have many times burned by dishes in a stove top. The dish would taste like a piece of charcoal. So electric one is the best choice, one day you might turn your house into a chimney.

Things to looks before you buy electric cooker: –

Know your Capacity: – There are many manufacturers in the market providing various capacity cookers. You need to know which one is the best fit for you. Most of the users use 3-5 liters capacity. This will be good enough for the family of 3-5 members.

Why capacity is important: – The higher the capacity than higher the price tag. If you don’t know which capacity cooker you need and get a high capacity cooker. Then you will be paying extra dollars for the cooker which you will not use to its full extent. This is definitely a waste of your money.

Cooking Mechanism: –  There are 2 different types of mechanisms adopted by the electric cooker. Thermal cooking and heat induction are the mechanisms used in the cooker. You can cook your food well with heat induction mechanism. So, look out for a heat induction electric cooker.

Easy and safe clean: –   Almost all cookers on the market have non-sticky inner pans. This is definitely a good feature. But few inner pans of cookers lose the non-stick coating. This very dangerous,  non-stick cookware is made using a carcinogenic chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which starts emitting toxic fumes that you inhale every time you cook with a non-stick pot or pan.

It is better not to cook your food at high temperatures. You have so many options besides non-stick cookware – aluminum, stainless, coated, non-coated, etc. Here I Will list aluminum, stainless along with non-sticky inner pans. The non- stick pans are good when they are new. When they get old you need to change them.

Warranty: – This is one of the best things most of the manufacturers give you. Always look for a warranty. The more the warranty period, safer you are. In some cases, the higher warranty appliances are of good quality because they are confident about their product.

Self-timer/delay features: – This is a really cool feature. This mostly comes with the digital display, it will allow this electronic appliance to cook your food at a particular time. It will also calculate the estimated time to cook your food.

Detachable power cord: – This will not let you get annoyed while you move the cooker. When you move from your town to other, things should be easy to handle. Detachable power cord can be kept apart from the cooker. This makes you carry the cooker easily.

Cool design: –  The kitchen looks beautiful with good cupboards and cool electronic appliances. A cool electronic cooker will decorate your kitchen. Most of the time digital display cooker will look good.

Cook and serve: –  Pick the one which can cook and as well serve you. It would be a headache if your cooker can only cook and cannot serve.

Conclusion: –

I have tried many rice cookers, at some point in time almost all cookers are losing their non-stick coating. This is dangerous to our family health. It is advisable to change the cooker when the coating starts to lose its grip on the pan.

I have picked a top ten list of electric cookers which have all of the above features. You can easily select one within your budget.