What new technologies are being developed for rice cookers?
All types of technology are advancing rapidly.
Electrical engineers are creating new and exciting electronics with features
that we never knew we needed, but we now feel we can’t live without. Rice
cookers are undergoing similar changes right now. These machines may have
once simply been a fast and convenient way to cook rice, but they have
quickly involved into a machine that strives for perfection.
For decades the most advanced rice cooker available
was the standard on/off rice cooker, designed to easily cook rice at the
click of a button. In many ways, this technology is still all one needs in
order to produce high quality, perfectly cooked rice.
But how perfect is perfect? Apparently not perfect enough. Within the past decade the technology for rice cooking evolved, and started to include a mathematical/programming principle known as “Fuzzy Logic.”
Fuzzy Logic Rice Cookers
Fuzzy Logic rice cookers represented a new wave of
advanced appliances. Rather than simply starting and stopping a
pre-programmed process, Fuzzy Logic was able to make judgment calls, and
adjust for them accordingly. These appliances know when they need to heat
the rice up more, as well as when to make it colder, and it adjusts for
these changes at a moment’s notice, as soon as it detects that they changes
may be needed.
The technology could have stopped there, but
instead people chose to advance it further. Soon after Fuzzy Logic started
being released, a new cooking method, known as “Induction Heating” was
created.
Induction Heating (IH) Rice Cookers
IH contains many of the same capabilities as Fuzzy
Logic, except to an even more advanced level. IH is able to heat the rice
through electromagnetic pulses, warming it on all sides and helping it
envelop itself in flavor. When any piece of rice starts to cool, IH is able
to adjust the heat in that area, helping ensure that all of the rice is
receiving the proper heat from top to bottom.
IH itself as evolved as well. For a hefty price tag
(about 400-600 dollars), you can get your hands on an IH Pressure Cooker
rice cooker, that blasts the rice with so much heat that it causes the
grains to dance in the pot. These rice cookers also have multiple rice menus
as well as texture features in order to ensure that no matter what the rice
– and no matter what style you like – you will be able to get every single
grain coming out of the pot perfect.
The Future of Rice Cookers
To some this may seem like overkill, but rice
connoisseurs in
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