*@!%**# Rice Cooker

No that is not a typo on the title - I just bought a rice cooker and I have been cursing at it! After hearing some friends singing the praises of their rice cookers and thinking how great to not have to monitor the stove & just let it cook....I bought one, an economical model but still over $50! It's a Zojiroushi, which is a great brand of kitchen products absolutely but I was SO annoyed by this stupid thing.


We are eating brown basmati rice - not white, maybe it cooks white rice spectacularly but we want the extra nutrition from brown basmati. So I followed all the instructions - which, if anyone has a rice cooker, are pretty basic (granted, it's not rocket science!) and flip the switch. It is supposed to cook for about 40 minutes. Well, within 7 minutes I hear this sputtering sound and look and the water/rice mix is bubbling and gurgling and the lid is rattling and it is spitting starchy water from the pot out the vent & out the side of the lid. It is spitting this sticky stuff ALL over my counters, etc. Yuck! Well after 12 minutes total I had to shut it off. Could you even imagine if I had not been in the kitchen and left it unattended. As it spits out the steam & water, some of the starchy water settles on top of the lid and it makes it worse.


So there goes my $$$. I did do another test after the boys were in bed. I thought, o.k., maybe I need to soak the rice or cook a larger amount. I did both and the same results. What a mess! So I cleaned it up and took it back today. The people sort of talked me into exchanging it for another to see if it was just faulty. I tend to think it is not faulty but that rather it is not good at cooking brown basmati. The lady there, who was very nice, said hers has always worked fine & she's never had another person complain. Well that is fine but maybe they are cooking white rice??? She said she did. I did a search online and found about 30% of the people had the same problem as me...so I don't think I'm crazy and I don't think it's user error or a fluke. I'll give this one a try and then if it is the same, return it for a refund. I'd buy another model - I do see that Zojiroushi has lots of models of rice cooker but it is funny the place I went only carries two - one is around $50 and one is $350...gee, that's quite a jump! The company makes all price points so I may have to go elsewhere to get one in the more economical price range!

Anyone have a model they recommend & have you made brown rice??!!