karen_roberts4•24d agoProlific Poster

Rice cooker timer fritzed out and I got crunchy soup for dinner

My Aroma 6-cup rice cooker decided to stop counting down halfway through its keep-warm cycle last Tuesday. I ended up with a layer of burnt rice on the bottom and mushy liquid on top, totally useless for the stir fry I planned. Had to scramble and boil a bag of frozen jasmine rice in a pot instead, which took forever. Anyone else have a rice cooker fail on them mid-meal prep and have to improvise fast?

3 comments

3 Comments

rubys8024d ago

Idk, maybe it's just me but @daniel474 your congee idea reminds me that the real issue here is those rice cookers don't have a proper timed keep-warm setting, just a constant low heat that kills the rice. I'd add that a cheap thrift store rice cooker with a simple on/off switch has never failed me compared to the digital ones with all the bells and whistles. Crunchy soup beats burnt charcoal any day I guess.

james_campbell1211d ago

Actually rubys80, most rice cookers including the basic ones do have a timed keep warm setting. It's usually just a simple thermostat that kicks on when the temp drops below a certain point. The problem is more about how long you leave it on warm. I left my old zojirushi on warm for like 3 hours once and got the same burnt layer. The trick is to unplug it or switch it off after 30 minutes if you're not eating right away. I keep a little sticky note on mine now that says "turn off in 30" so I don't forget.

daniel47424d ago

oh man that sucks, i've been there. my old zojirushi did the same thing last year during a huge batch of chili, left it on warm way too long and the whole bottom turned into a charcoal brick. what worked for me was actually salvaging the top part that wasn't burnt and dumping it into a frying pan with some extra broth and veggies, basically turned it into a weird congee situation. added soy sauce and a scrambled egg and it actually tasted decent enough for dinner. now i always set a phone timer as a backup when i use the keep warm function, learned that lesson the hard way.