Rice Cookers

For something so basic, cooking a pot of perfectly tender, fluffy rice can require a surprising amount of attention to heat and timing. Curious if there is a best way, we compared a variety of methods for cooking long- and short-grain white rice. Though all still posed challenges of their own, two methods stood above the rest.

The donabe (a lidded Japanese clay pot) and electric rice cooker were our favorites overall.

The donabe’s clay material ensures even heat distribution, while its design traps steam to maintain temperature and moisture levels. It produced consistently even results across most rice types, though it required some practice to get the hang of it (the rice needs to be soaked, and finish cooking off-heat). It made excellent jasmine and short-grain rice.

Electric rice cookers offered a hands-off approach with reliably great outcomes, especially those with fuzzy-logic technology (which automatically adjusts cooking time and temperature). Electric rice cookers produced nicely separated grains with minimal effort.

Where donabes and electric rice cookers excelled, pressure-cooking white rice in the Instant Pot proved tricky; we found this method prone to overcooking and a bit more challenging to get the water-to-rice ratio correct.

Cooking rice in a conventional saucepan on the stovetop had a tendency to overcook the rice on the bottom. Here, success depends on careful monitoring of the heat and a well-fitted lid.

The worst method by far was the microwave. Though it technically worked, the rice ended up either half raw and half soupy, or it shriveled from overcooking. Differing microwave wattages also make it challenging to come up with a reliable way of getting it right.