2012-01-21 07:49 pm
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Okay, now about tweaking the little Rival rice cooker....

On top of the homestead story in the last post, I'm also experimenting with the new rice cooker. It makes good rice (brown-round or white-basmati so far) except that the bottom layer is scorched and stuck and too hard to be edible, and the pot, though teflon, isn't wiping clean very well, even if I watch it and stir or remove the rice as soon as it switches to 'warm'. Reviews say the scorched layer is a common problem and can be tweaked around, maybe.

( may have found a tweak )
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2012-01-21 07:39 pm
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About steam and how a rice cooker works

Wikipedia was helpful.

By design, what controls the cooking time is the amount of water. When all the water is absorbed or lost in steam through the steam vent, the air in the pot gets hotter than 212F, so the cooker shuts down to 'warm'.

I thought it was cooking too long before going to 'warm', so I arranged to let the steam vent out faster. This seems to make a difference. Still experimenting to find the right amount of extra venting.

My cheap little Rival cooker doen't have any adjustment on the vent (a hole in the lid). So I put a couple of pads of folded paper towel between the lid and the pot, to let some steam vent around the sides of the lid. Still experimenting with how much extra vent space this will need.
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