[HN Gopher] The inventor of the automatic rice cooker
___________________________________________________________________
The inventor of the automatic rice cooker
Author : jnord
Score : 214 points
Date : 2024-10-30 09:08 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
| AStonesThrow wrote:
| Technology Connections covered rice cookers:
| https://youtu.be/RSTNhvDGbYI?si=PxZYi4YYs9nixATv
| JoeDaDude wrote:
| Came here to point folk to this video. The article seems to
| gloss over a lot of how modern rice cookers actually work. It
| involves latent heat of water, magnetism, and the Curie point,
| as explained in your link.
| ChrisClark wrote:
| Always with the latent heat. :)
| gruturo wrote:
| Technology Connections is generally awesome, but this
| particular video was even more fascinating than its usual.
|
| Instead of a bimetallic switch like discussed earlier in this
| same HN thread, there's a lump of metal in contact with the
| pot, which stops being responsive to a magnet at a certain
| temperature (past its curie point) and that's what triggers the
| switch from "cook" to "keep warm" (and yes, of course it all
| works due to the huge latent heat of water).
|
| So they came up with an alloy whose curie point is just above
| water's boiling point, and thanks to that, the circuit, nah,
| the whole thing is comically simple - just a shunt, a spring, a
| big resistor and the heating element (and ok a led or 2). The
| weight of the pot is also acting against the spring, ensuring
| you can't actually select "cook" if the pot isn't there. This
| is so brilliant.
| ww520 wrote:
| That's an excellent video. Before watching it I didn't realize
| there were so much physics involved in making the rick cookers.
| ninalanyon wrote:
| Off topic but I can't let this go by:
|
| > yogurt requires a constant temperature over a specific length
| of time.
|
| No it doesn't. I make perfectly good yoghurt in an old glass
| vacuum flask by heating a litre of milk to 80 C, allowing it to
| cool to 50 C, adding 60 g of live yoghurt, pouring it into the
| vacuum flask, putting the lid on and leaving it overnight.
| profsummergig wrote:
| Is it necessary to heat it to 80c, can one heat it to 50c only,
| instead? Also, do you use a thermometer to measure the temps?
| toothrot wrote:
| 80c is a convenient temperature for activating naturally
| occuring enzimes in food for breaking down complex sugars.
| Similar, but food specific, holding temperatures are used for
| beer brewing, french fries, and other foods with complex
| sugars.
| hinkley wrote:
| In fermentation the initial heat is usually to harm any
| microbes other than your preferred ones so the selected
| microbes have time to make the environment inhospitable to
| other microbes before they can do the same to the selected
| microbes.
|
| Vinegar and alcohol in grape juice are two factions fighting
| for supremacy by trying to poison each other to death.
| eru wrote:
| Isn't vinegar made from alcohol? So it's more like an
| assembly line of sugar to alcohol to vinegar?
| perbu wrote:
| Both. They can make acetic acid from both sugar and
| ethanol.
| kleton wrote:
| Acetate from glucose requires oxygen
| nsenifty wrote:
| Been making yogurt at home for years. I just heat milk to the
| point when it's just about to boil over. Never measured the
| actual temperature, but I'm pretty sure it's less than 100C.
| I just cool it until it's warm to touch (about 40-45C) before
| adding the culture (a spoonful of last day's yogurt), then
| leave it overnight in the oven with the pilot light on.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| You should follow the guidance and use a candy thermometer to
| kill the nasties.
|
| Once you make a few batches, you can usually eyeball it,
| different milks will act subtly different at temperature.
| Heating also changes how milk components can consumed by the
| cultures. I get milk from a farm that doesn't homogenize it
| the same way as store stuff - the skin develops on the
| surface sooner.
|
| Personally, I prefer to use a yogurt maker that keeps it at a
| consistent temperature. But you can make great yogurt in a
| variety of lower tech scenarios.
| fuzztester wrote:
| yes, and even in a no-tech scenario, as i said here:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42029736
|
| :)
| ahartmetz wrote:
| Also noteworthy but little-known is that unprocessed milk
| from a farm has up to 5% fat - you can't buy milk with that
| much fat in a supermarket.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| I just add heavy cream to the milk for yogurt, has the
| same effect and is delicious.
| Moru wrote:
| In Finland they sell some small portion-bowls with a thin
| solidified cream layer on top. It's not yoghurt but
| something we Swedes call "Langfil" [1]. It has a very
| funny consistency, it doesn't stick to the spoon as
| normal youghurt and is very delicious!
|
| [1] https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A5ngfil
| OJFord wrote:
| If you happen to be in the UK - Graham's Dairy milk (sold
| in supermarkets) is 5%. But you're right that 'whole
| milk' is 3.5% or greater, typically 3.7% for supermarket
| own brand. Gold top or Jersey is 5%.
| dundercoder wrote:
| I find that the yogurt is thicker when I initially heat it
| higher. My understanding is it changes some of the proteins,
| resulting in a higher curd yield.
| OJFord wrote:
| It's pasteurisation, your 50C-only yoghurt would potentially
| not last as long; possibly even succumb to unwanted bacteria
| before (or the wanted be outcompeted by the unwanted) turning
| to yoghurt.
|
| I don't measure it to 80C, just heat milk until it breaks
| then switch off and let it cool. I didn't have a thermometer
| when I first made it, but now I might measure that it had
| cooled enough. I wouldn't say it has to be as hot as 50C, you
| just probably don't want it hotter, so if you're making it
| without just let it cool to tepid, feeling warm to the touch,
| then add whatever you're using. Cheese similar, just more
| specific cultures.
|
| (And I suppose if you really get into it, the specific temps
| and holding them thing is a lot more true for cheeses - or
| rather for different types - than it is for yoghurt.)
| fuzztester wrote:
| right, you don't need a constant temperature to make yogurt.
|
| in india, people don't even measure the temperatures as you
| mentioned.
|
| we just boil the milk (to sterilize it), let it cool some
| amount, put in the curd (indian english term for yogurt, dahi
| in hindi, thayir in tamil) starter (which is just curds from a
| previous batch), mix, and leave it covered for a while,
| typically overnight, anywhere in the house, or in a cooler or
| warmer part, depending upon your location and ambient
| temperature. the milk automatically sets, by the action of the
| bacteria, and becomes curd.
|
| nothing to it. even kids can make curd.
| trompetenaccoun wrote:
| There other inaccuracies. To give just one example:
|
| >One of the key differences between the Japanese and Chinese
| rice cooker is that the latter has a glass lid, which Chinese
| cooks demanded so they could see when to add sausage.
|
| The average Chinese rice cooker looks exactly like the Japanese
| ones. Cookers with glass lids exist but are uncommon in China.
| In fact if anything, I've most often come across those glass
| lid ones in the West, not in East Asia. Also the sausage part
| is so random, lol.
|
| The article is badly researched. A couple of years ago I'd have
| said I'm shocked a university professor wrote this, but frankly
| at this point it's to be expected.
| MichaelZuo wrote:
| IEEE spectrum has gone way downhill, there's literally no
| fact checking beyond brief google searches at all for most
| articles nowadays.
| GauntletWizard wrote:
| I loved my automatic rice cooker, but I have given it up for a
| new love - The Pressure Cooker, in my case from Instant Pot. It
| does as good or better of a job as my rice cooker, but about 33%
| faster, and has several other useful functions. It's better at
| steaming dumplings; With the trivet set they also sell that's
| perfectly sized I can make a meal's worth of dumplings in twenty
| minutes with zero effort. The Instant Pot recipe Pulled Pork is
| almost as good as my local BBQ place, and it cooks in an hour.
|
| On the other hand, one of my friends has a Zojirushi rice cooker,
| and swears by it. He describes making perfectly fluffy and
| buttery rice every time.
| ngneer wrote:
| This reads like an ad.
| imp0cat wrote:
| It's true though. Another great thing is that the IP will
| have regular white rice done much faster (~15 minutes for
| perfect rice).
| navigate8310 wrote:
| Zojorushi cookers are definitely the Bentley of rice cookers
| stephenr wrote:
| > He describes making perfectly fluffy and buttery rice
|
| If your rice is buttery I think they're doing something wrong.
| pessimizer wrote:
| What if you want rice with your dumplings or pulled pork...?
| nox101 wrote:
| Japan sells tons of pressure based rice cookers.
|
| https://www.amazon.co.jp/s?k=%E5%9C%A7%E5%8A%9B%E7%82%8A%E9%...
| kjellsbells wrote:
| My parents had a traditional pressure cooker that was both
| intimidating (they convinced me it could blow up any moment)
| and useless for recipes when I asked them how to cook things.
| "Oh, just cook it for two whistles" Two what?
|
| Instant Pot was sooo much easier. Safety interlock, unambiguous
| timer, much better.
| astrange wrote:
| The #1 Zojirushi product is the hot water dispenser. Doesn't
| matter if 120V heats slowly if you've always got it ready.
| hilux wrote:
| I enjoyed reading the story, AND for most Americans, an electric
| pressure cooker (e.g. Instant Pot) cooks rice perfectly (12
| minutes, 1:1 ratio of rice to water), rendering the rice cooker
| an unnecessary "single use device."
|
| Bonus: instead of rice, use chicken broth, previously made in the
| IP, and frozen.
|
| Bonus2: add some coconut milk. freeze the rest of the can in
| ziploc baggies.
| itchyjunk wrote:
| Hmm, if I use chicken broth instead of rice, isn't the end
| product just chicken soup instead of a rice dish? :D
| GordonS wrote:
| Not if all the liquid is absorbed. I cook rice like this on
| the stove all the time, and it's really tasty. Works well
| with various grains, pltho probably pearl barley is a
| favourite - cooked with good stock, it reminds me of risotto.
| Frenchgeek wrote:
| If between rice and water, you replace the rice with
| chicken broth, I'm pretty sure you don't get to cook much
| rice...
| Agingcoder wrote:
| If all of it is absorbed, then it's a risotto ( you just need
| onions and white wine as well...)
| walthamstow wrote:
| All absorbed? That's a pilaf, or a terrible risotto.
| internet101010 wrote:
| Yeah I use Instant Pot, sometimes replacing water with broth or
| if I am feeling fancy I'll add some saffron. Good to go.
| hollerith wrote:
| I like to prepare my rice as if were pasta (i.e., tons of
| water, which gets drained and discarded at the end) to reduce
| the arsenic by half.
| ngneer wrote:
| Being a single use device has its benefits. Rice cookers are
| lighter weight than an instant pot and have a single button,
| making them extremely easy to operate. I find this is very
| helpful to me when cooking.
| eru wrote:
| You can get some very fancy rice cookers in Asia, with lots
| of buttons. Some of them really do produce a better end
| result.
| VeejayRampay wrote:
| they really do, perfect rice everytime if you wash when
| necessary and use the proper rice to water ratios
| willcipriano wrote:
| Tastes and has the texture of Chinese restaurant rice. I
| use mine 3+ days a week. Worth it if you eat that much.
| eru wrote:
| It's funny, because here in Singapore the gold standard
| for rice would be Japanese and Korean restaurants. The
| various Chinese cuisines aren't really all that renowned
| for their rice. (Just like eg the English technically
| have bread in their cuisine, but it's nothing to write
| home about.)
| rectang wrote:
| I use a Zojirushi NS-LAC05. (I believe the current version
| of this model is the NS-LHC05.)
|
| https://www.zojirushi.com/app/category/rice-cookers
|
| It makes great rice consistently and easily.
|
| The only quirk is that their "cup" measure is 1 gou (Yi He
| Dou ), which is just over 3/4 of a US cup. It's just a
| cultural thing, but the adaptation I had to make was real
| -- I got this rice cooker as a hand-me-down from an Asian
| friend, and it didn't include the OEM 1-gou cup. It took a
| bit before I figured out how to get the proportions right.
|
| The results are better than what my parents used to get
| with their old Black and Decker RC400. It's possible that
| there was user error involved with the RC400, which I
| recall burning on the bottom. I've never burnt any rice
| with the Zojirushi, and I'm not even sure how I could go
| about it if I wanted to. Certainly the Zojirushi produces
| better rice than I used to make cooking it on the stovetop
| in an ordinary pot.
|
| I'd like to know just how the Zojirushi gets such great
| results. My guess is that it's some combination of good
| temperature measurement and even heat application to ensure
| that their well-researched cooking formulas get accurately
| applied.
| kjellsbells wrote:
| The way I think about the Zoji cup is that one cup of dry
| rice makes one (US) cup when cooked. In other words,
| cooked rice is 33% more by volume than dry rice.
| rectang wrote:
| My mother's measure, from an old college cookbook: "One
| cup of rice make three cups of RICE". (With eyes
| springing wide open and fingers splaying outwards at
| "RICE", followed by a hearty giggle).
|
| Our measures are way off from each other. Yours sounds
| like the "rice made for sumo wrestlers" I remember from
| an old story, where rice was made with progressively less
| water over time to toughen up the trainees.
| hilux wrote:
| Thanks for reminding me - I also used to own a Zojirushi,
| and all the conversions were a lot more headache than
| I've had with my Instant Pot. I had to write down all the
| calculations on a 3x5 card, and then try not to lose
| that, or get it wet in the kitchen!
| rectang wrote:
| I just take a 1-US-cup measuring cup and fill it 3/4 full
| for each "cup" that the Zojirushi wants. Like a "heaping
| cup" in reverse.
| dadadad100 wrote:
| I was surprised at the rice cooker section at Yodobashi
| Camera in Tokyo Akaba that they were serving samples of
| cooked rice from each of the many, many models they sell.
| My American senses failed to detect any difference. And
| yes, that was only one of the multitude of surprises in
| that wonderland of a store.
| Ekaros wrote:
| Also only needing to make single "cup"(rice measuring) is
| better for my use case. It takes longer, but I feel it is
| simpler process.
| hilux wrote:
| I cook one cup of rice in my Instant Pot all the time.
| hilux wrote:
| I only press one button ("Pressure") when cooking rice in my
| Instant Pot.
|
| It remembers the last several settings I've used - one of
| those is 12:00 for rice.
|
| If you don't have a pressure cooker, that's fine. But for
| those who DO already own a pressure cooker, I'm not sure how
| the lighter weight of the rice cooker is relevant. A single-
| use device takes up more room in the kitchen, and the
| accumulation of these devices just adds to our environmental
| disaster.
| com2kid wrote:
| If I making rice in the instant pot I can't use the instant
| pot to make actual food.
|
| Also that 12 minutes is not inclusive of the 10 minutes it
| takes to get up to pressure, and the instant pot cannot
| keep rice warm throughout the day.
| hilux wrote:
| So much arguing. Don't worry - I'm not going to
| confiscate or outlaw your rice cooker!
|
| > If I making rice in the instant pot I can't use the
| instant pot to make actual food.
|
| I'll just correct this one misinformation. You absolutely
| can cook multiple dishes at once - I've done it, google:
| 'pot in pot' - assuming they can tolerate roughly similar
| cooking times.
| com2kid wrote:
| > I'll just correct this one misinformation. You
| absolutely can cook multiple dishes at once - I've done
| it, google: 'pot in pot' - assuming they can tolerate
| roughly similar cooking times.
|
| I have the OG Instant Pot, it is too small for multiple
| dishes. Especially if I am making a bone broth soup +
| rice!
|
| Honestly I am trying to think of a dish I've ever made in
| my instant pot that hasn't occupied a majority of the
| interior volume...
| ngneer wrote:
| I do have both and still prefer the rice cooker for rice
| cooking. The lighter weight helps me move it around the
| kitchen as needed. I also like that it is easier to put in
| the dishwasher and that I never have to futz with the
| rubber seal or the hard to clean yet easy to lose pin and
| other small parts in the instant pot. It is always a chore
| for me to clean. The steps needed remind me of (not
| unhappy) times in the army having to assemble and
| disassemble an assault rifle.
| kalleboo wrote:
| Our Zojirushi (NP-RC05, it's over 10 years old now) is
| actually advertised as pressure cooking the rice to make it
| taste better, so I guess the two devices are merging. And it
| has 8 buttons (you can select the rice type)
| manbash wrote:
| I sometimes indulge in doing the KFC chicken rice cooker hack
| recipe. Look it up if you haven't yet.
| Dwedit wrote:
| I get bad results when cooking Calrose rice in an Instant pot,
| and much better results when using a rice cooker.
|
| (Rice Cooker calrose recipe: Weigh the rice. 1.1 times the mass
| of the rice is the amount of water you need.)
| mcshicks wrote:
| I use a pot in a pot for 12 minutes and it's ok. I use those
| stacking metal pots you can get at an Indian food market. I
| also have an old rice cooker. The convience of the instant
| pot is I can set a 30 minute delay to soak the rice. The
| newer rice cooker my mother in law has in Japan does the
| delay and has lines on the inside of the non stick pot to
| measure the water so it makes pretty good rice every time.
| hedgehog wrote:
| Pot in a pot also minimizes cleanup, I'm a big fan but few
| people seem to use that method.
| pessimizer wrote:
| What if you're using the instant pot for something else (like
| beans, or maybe the entire rest of your dish) while you're
| cooking rice? A rice cooker is the _best_ single use device
| because 1) you 're probably having rice with 25-100% of your
| meals, and 2) set-it-and-forget-it; you can completely ignore
| it until you're ready to eat.
| fuzztester wrote:
| any downsides to using a rice cooker? never used one before,
| and I am thinking of buying one.
| fragmede wrote:
| It takes up counter/kitchen space, and if you leave rice in
| it too long, it go bad and disgusting (so don't do that).
| It makes rice, and for me, I cook chicken and vegetables in
| it, just put it on top of the rice, for single pot meals.
| It comes down to how often you eat rice. It makes it way
| easier, since you set it and forget it (just don't forget
| too long).
|
| Importantly though, they've had decades to refine the
| design, so the cheap one from Walmart does just fine, no
| need to buy a $100 Japanese one if you're exploring if you
| even want a rice cooker.
| fuzztester wrote:
| thanks.
| com2kid wrote:
| To be clear, "too long" is more than 24 hours.
|
| Feel free to make rice the night before if you have
| dinner plans the next day, it'll work out fine in a good
| quality Japanese rice cooker!
| kjellsbells wrote:
| You can solve this placing a trivet in the pot with your rice
| in a bowl on top. I do this when im in a hurry and need to
| rustle up ruce and lentils on the double. Lentils, stock,
| trivet, bowl, rice, water, done.
| nanomonkey wrote:
| I do a 1:1 ratio, but only let mine run for 3 minutes for white
| rice, 20 minutes for brown rice.
| floating-io wrote:
| I love my InstantPot, but never use it for rice. The few times
| I've tried, I haven't liked the results. Boiled/steamed on the
| stove ftw. :)
|
| Now soups, veggies, artichokes, enchiladas, ... For those
| things, the instant pot is awesome. =)
| billfruit wrote:
| The simple rice cooker can cook rice till all water is
| absorbed. Can Instant Pot do that? I think the Instant Pot
| cooks till the timer runs out, not till when the water is all
| absorbed into the rice.
| jillesvangurp wrote:
| If you measure the right amount of water (not optional with
| either solution), 12 minutes should do the trick. And you can
| just let it sit on the keep warm setting for some time and it
| will continue to absorb whatever water is left in the pot.
|
| I actually got an instant pot recently but I haven't tried
| the rice cooking setting yet for the simple reason that I use
| the instant pot for cooking sauces and other things that
| would go with the rice. Also cooking rice on the stove isn't
| actually that hard. I don't see how this saves me time or
| effort. Just measure out the quantities carefully and you
| should be fine.
|
| Anyway, I need less carbs in my life; not more. One reason I
| got the Instant Pot is cooking lentils and beans becomes
| really easy with it. Also am making lots of tasty meat stews.
| Works great for that.
| imp0cat wrote:
| Nope, it's a pressure cooker, the cooking vessel is air-
| tight.
|
| My favourite recipe is to use 1:1 rice to water ratio and the
| adjust the time depending on the rice. For example, white
| rice takes 5 minutes, basmati 6, brown 30(!). When it'd
| finished, wait at least 10 minutes before opening the lid,
| let the pressure drop naturally.
| ngneer wrote:
| This is known as bang-bang control, a very basic form of negative
| feedback.
|
| The key insight, which may not be emphasized enough in the
| article, is that the vessel can only rise to above 100C once all
| the water has changed phase (boiled).
|
| I think this is the same principle explaining why beach popsicle
| vendors can carry many items on a hot summer day without them all
| melting right away. There is insulation, for sure, but in
| addition the temperature of what is effectively a large volume
| ice cube block must rise above 0C before the popsicles can begin
| to change phase (melt).
|
| In the rice cooker, this property is harnessed while a
| "bimetallic switch measured the temperature in the external pot".
| The bimetallic component means that one metal heats and expands
| faster than the other, eventually breaking the circuit.
|
| If memory serves, this same trick is used in older car model turn
| signal lights, to produce the periodic on/off switching.
|
| I am not asian but enjoy my rice cooker every day. I love simple
| robust engineering.
| l33t7332273 wrote:
| I think the popsicle example may be backwards - they must
| change phase before they can begin to rise above 0 degrees, and
| the phase change is a tipping point that takes a ton of energy
| m463 wrote:
| If they used dry ice, you would have 3-ish phase changes...
|
| 2-ish phase changes when dry ice sublimates, then later for
| the ice in ice cream
| Etheryte wrote:
| The same bimetallic break was used in old circuit breakers. You
| would literally have to wait for the metal to cool down before
| the connection could be restored. Not sure if it's still used
| or we use something fancier these days?
| delsarto wrote:
| My washing machine door works like that; BigClive has a great
| teardown which was quite helpful to explain to me why I
| couldn't open the door!
| https://youtu.be/PIm7q_U3UEM?si=K6wUtHJe2Jm8tW6M
| ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
| Here's that same YouTube link, but without the tracking
| parameter linking you to everyone who clicks on it:
|
| https://youtu.be/PIm7q_U3UEM
| praptak wrote:
| Modern circuit breakers are much fancier. They break not only
| when the current reaches a threshold but also when the
| currents passing in both directions (i.e. also back through
| the ground wire) are unequal. This prevents things like
| grounding through someone's body.
| schiffern wrote:
| > Modern circuit breakers are much fancier. They break...
| when the currents passing in both directions [is] unequal
|
| What you're describing is properly called GFCI[0] -- which
| in some countries is referred to as an RCD[1] -- not just a
| standard circuit breaker.
|
| You _can_ get devices which fit into a standard circuit
| breaker slot which perform both functions. However a
| conventional circuit breaker (which are still widely
| available) doesn 't do any of that.
|
| [0] Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor
|
| [1] Residual Current Device
| gjvc wrote:
| _You can get devices which fit into a standard circuit
| breaker slot which perform both functions_
|
| in the UK such a device is called an "RCBO" aka "Residual
| Current Breaker with Over-Current (protection)"
|
| good summary here from schneider
|
| https://eshop.se.com/in/blog/post/what-is-the-difference-
| bet...
| epcoa wrote:
| In fact in the US, especially residential, GFCI circuit
| breakers are not terribly common for 120V circuits,
| people much prefer and are used to having the GFCI in the
| outlet, which can of course protect multiple conventional
| outlets downstream.
|
| But, what is quite common in the last 30 years are AFCIs,
| arc fault interruptors which are code for pretty much all
| living area branch circuits (just not bathrooms). These
| are built in to the circuit breaker. You can get dual
| GFCI/AFCI breakers, but these tend to be expensive and
| not commonly used. Nobody wants to have go down to the
| basement just because of a ground fault in the kitchen.
| Also the propensity for GFCIs to nuisance trip increases
| with the length of the branch circuit. There's also cases
| where they are specifically disallowed.
| epcoa wrote:
| > (i.e. also back through the ground wire) are unequal.
|
| You mean neutral or return wire. No current should be
| normally passing through the ground wire. In fact in the US
| at least, GFCIs can be used on grandfathered ungrounded
| outlets. When you buy GFCI outlets they come with little
| stickers: "No Equipment Ground" to affix on the outlet in
| that case.
| cwillu wrote:
| They're still built that way: it has the benefit of properly
| handling slightly over current for a short period vs
| massively over-current: the former is permitted and necessary
| for many loads.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Bimetallic strips are still used these days, but it is often
| not the only trigger.
|
| The bimetallic strip is for overcurrent protection over a
| period of time. For example, if you are running an appliance
| using a constant 15A on a 10A breaker. The breaker will pop,
| but not instantly, and I guess you may have to wait a bit for
| the metal to cool down, though it never happened to me.
|
| But there is also a short-circuit protection, it uses a
| solenoid to quickly trip the breaker when the current is way
| over its rating. The fancier types (with GFCI) also pop if
| the return current is not the same as the input current, this
| is to prevent electrocution.
| Projectiboga wrote:
| Fun fact, breakers get more sensitive during heat waves.
| Annoying when it happens.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Maybe it is an unintended but actually beneficial effect.
|
| The problem with drawing too much current is that things
| can overheat, and it is more of a problem during heat
| waves as well.
| itronitron wrote:
| I assume electric water kettles as well, which shutoff
| shortly after the water starts boiling.
| CoffeeOnWrite wrote:
| My late model Subaru uses this cheap solution for the
| protection of the infotainment system. If it trips I need to
| wait for it to cool down for about an hour.
| Buttons840 wrote:
| > The bimetallic component means that one metal heats and
| expands faster than the other, eventually breaking the circuit.
|
| I thought the circuit that powers the cooking was broken
| because, when the water has boiled away, heat rises and a
| magnet holding the circuit closed is weakened by the heat,
| which allows a spring to pull the magnet away and break the
| heating circuit. (Magnets are weaker when hot.)
| Buttons840 wrote:
| I'm getting multiple downvotes here. Am I wrong? What am I
| missing?
| yreg wrote:
| No idea. You are correct - that's exactly how many rice
| cookers work.
|
| Technology Connections: https://youtu.be/RSTNhvDGbYI
| gcanyon wrote:
| I came to post this video! But I think it's clear that
| this isn't the design being describe in the original
| article: that mentions a double-boiler, which is not in
| evidence here and TC even mentions the double-boiler
| aspect of earlier designs at around 9:30 in the video. He
| also says that he was only able to trace the origin of
| this design back to the '70s.
|
| So it's possible that earlier designs didn't use
| magnetism, and the magnet-based design was a
| simplification of earlier water-boiling-at-100c-based
| designs.
| jeffalyanak wrote:
| > I'm getting multiple downvotes here. Am I wrong? What am
| I missing?
|
| I wouldn't have downvoted you for it, but it sounds like
| you missed this from the article:
|
| > While the rice cooked in the inset pot, a bimetallic
| switch measured the temperature in the external pot.
|
| While more modern rice cookers may use curie point magnetic
| switches, that's not what the original rice cooker used.
| dmoy wrote:
| Thermostats also used to use the bimetal trick
| antegamisou wrote:
| There are also neuro-fuzzy control based devices [Slide #4]
|
| https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/lectures/ece348/22_contro...
| tdeck wrote:
| One thing this article completely glossed over is that most
| rice cookers you find these days don't have an outer water
| reservoir that boils away like the one described in the article
| (until reading this I thought of those as "Taiwanese style rice
| cookers" because the only ones I had seen like this were from
| Taiwan).
|
| There is a difference between waiting for one cup in the outer
| reservoir to boil completely away for 20 minutes, and waiting
| for the rice+water mixture to come to a certain temperature.
|
| Edit: I ended up down a rabbit hole about why Taiwanese rice
| cookers more commonly use indirect heat and found this great
| article:
|
| https://www.taiwangazette.org/news/2021/10/23/thinking-outsi...
| CarVac wrote:
| Interesting, so in Taiwan at 110V a Tatung won't have the lid
| rattle around like mine does at 115-120V in the US?
| rendaw wrote:
| Tatung even makes rice cookers with stainless steel bowls!
| CarVac wrote:
| That's what I use.
| atombender wrote:
| For those in the U.S., Aroma and Elite also make
| stainless steel inner pots.
| bmikkelsen wrote:
| Interesting tidbit: It was Sony who actually tried to build the
| first rice cooker, but they failed so badly that they gave up
| and pivoted to radios [0]
|
| [0] https://onefromnippon.com/rice-cookers/
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| What's with so many Asian rice cookers advertising "fuzzy
| logic" and now "neuro fuzzy logic"? Is that just a meaningless
| buzzword? Or is it something actually useful?
| eurleif wrote:
| See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_control_system
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| I guess to me that feels basic? Is it really something
| worth advertising?
| bobmcnamara wrote:
| It's typical for 50+ year old technology to be considered
| basic. Especially by those who may not remember the
| before times.
| silisili wrote:
| Both. Almost everything today uses some form of it. I think
| the term stuck with rice cookers because they were advertised
| that way as an advancement from the binary type cooker
| described in the article. In that sense, it's a buzzword of
| sorts. There's a lot of examples of that, like it still being
| called Unleaded Gas despite it having been so by default for
| how many decades?
|
| Is it useful? Hard for me to answer - I don't like rice, but
| most of my family does. They all swear by their Zojirushis
| and Tigers, so I have to imagine it provides a better cook
| than the old style.
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| Zojirushi offers a wide range of rice cookers. We just have
| the basic one and it works well, but they have higher end
| ones that cost 4x the price that we bought ours, I'm not
| sure if the rice is actually better in the higher ends
| Zojirushis. They even have cheaper ones that use fuzzy
| logic, it looks more like an economy thing over the
| traditional non stick pressure based rice cookers.
| fragmede wrote:
| Nah. They've had a long time to perfect rice cookers. The
| $40 Walmart one works fine. If it turns out you use it a
| lot and you really want the nicer one, _then_ spend the
| money for it. But honestly the cheap one is fine.
| Yeul wrote:
| Rice cookers are still a bit of a novelty in Western
| countries but in Asia they are ubiquitous. It's like
| microwaves: expensive in the 80s now they are mass
| produced and sold for 80 dollars.
| goosedragons wrote:
| I find the nicer ones tend to do a more consistent and
| better job. With the cheap ones the bottom is often drier
| than the top. Timers are great and so are modes for
| different types of rice.
| seritools wrote:
| > There's a lot of examples of that, like it still being
| called Unleaded Gas despite it having been so by default
| for how many decades?
|
| Depending on where you live, about 0.35 decades?
|
| > On 30 August 2021 the United Nations Environment
| Programme announced that leaded gasoline had been
| eliminated. The final stocks of the product were used up in
| Algeria, which had continued to produce leaded gasoline
| until July 2021.
|
| - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraethyllead#Modern_findi
| ngs
| OJFord wrote:
| That's interesting, but obviously they meant 'in places
| where it has been banned a long time', there being
| countries where that's not the case doesn't stop it being
| an example of this, that terminology/marketing sticks
| around outliving a point it might've been making.
|
| The EU (incl. UK at the time) banned it 2.4 decades ago.
| bobmcnamara wrote:
| This same mechanism is how a dryer knows when the clothes are
| dry.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| > There is insulation, for sure, but in addition the
| temperature of what is effectively a large volume ice cube
| block must rise above 0C before the popsicles can begin to
| change phase (melt).
|
| hopefully the "large volume ice cube" is something like a
| saturated salt or sugar solution so that the ambient
| temperature it tries to hold is colder than the melting point
| of the popsicles.
| billfruit wrote:
| Do the InstantPot has this basic control circuit which even the
| cheapest rice cooker has. I ambnot finding clear information on
| this online.
| luckystarr wrote:
| From my experience operating it I reckon it does the
| following: after you fill it and start, it starts heating and
| measures the time it takes to reach 100degC. This allows it
| (in the rice program) to figure out the amount of mass
| present and adjust the simmering time under pressure
| accordingly.
|
| Using the same trick (in alll programs) it figures out
| overfilling and aborts for safety reasons.
|
| Edit: I think the only sensor needed is a temperature sensor.
| billfruit wrote:
| If it had a temperature sensor it could just figure out
| when the temperature starts rising above the boiling point
| of water.
| killingtime74 wrote:
| No it doesn't. Still prefer my instant pot though because it
| is so much faster and can make much larger volumes of rice
| fallinditch wrote:
| Using a rice cooker is not the healthiest method due to the
| arsenic and other carcinogenic substance that rice plants can
| contain.
|
| Dr Michael Mosley studied the science of this for his BBC program
| Trust Me I'm A Doctor [1]. The advice is to soak rice overnight,
| parboil and discard the water, change water and bring back to
| boil again and change water again, etc.
|
| [1]
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2F1MDzyW55pg97Tdpp...
| tomohelix wrote:
| It is funny to me that any time an article or claims regarding
| rice being unhealthy appear, it would be from some far West
| country whose diet barely contains any rice. Meanwhile, Asian
| countries whose populace exclusively eat rice every day,
| multiple times, in humongous amounts, consistently rank higher
| in life expectancy than a Western country with the same level
| of development.
|
| I am not saying rice is the only reason. My point is if rice is
| so bad, we would not see Japan or Korea or Singapore dominate
| the life expectancy charts. Compared to the extremely greasy
| and highly processed food being sold widely in the US for
| example, rice is extremely healthy.
| hedgehog wrote:
| Arsenic content is also highly variable depending on where
| the rice was grown.
| schiffern wrote:
| >claims regarding rice being unhealthy
|
| The claim isn't that rice is unhealthy. The claim is that
| rice can potentially contain high levels of arsenic, which is
| easily avoidable by modifying the cooking method slightly.
|
| As you say, measurable health effects from arsenic are
| confounded by the alternatives being largely "greasy and
| highly processed."
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIM_zjCmQ5Y
| tomohelix wrote:
| Well having to soak the rice overnight and reboil it
| multiple times doesn't seem like an easy method to me.
|
| Also saying rice is filled with arsenic and warn against
| eating it multiple times a day is not that different from
| saying it is unhealthy. It almost sounds like fear
| mongering to me considering how the Asians seem to be doing
| fine so far and it is the cultures that don't eat enough
| rice or carbs that struggle with being healthy.
| schiffern wrote:
| >Well having to soak the rice overnight and reboil it
| multiple times doesn't seem like an easy method to me.
|
| Yeah, I'm not sure that's really necessary. Other sources
| say that simply boiling in lots of water (like pasta) and
| discarding the excess water is enough.
| >It almost sounds like fear mongering to me
|
| I don't mind, because that's an unrealistic and over-
| broad standard for speech.
|
| I don't care what it "almost (!!) sounds like,"
| especially after I took care to disabuse the reader of
| that exact misunderstanding. I care what it _is_.
|
| Truth > Optics / PR
|
| You can't stop telling the truth just because some people
| might possibly misinterpret your words (which, spoiler
| alert, people can _always_ do that), or else you
| literally can 't ever say anything.
| hollerith wrote:
| My ancestors ate a diet heavy in meat, butter and cheese
| starting about 7,000 years ago. They weren't the first to
| keep sheep and cattle for food, but they were the first
| _farmers_ to do so. They 're usually called the Germanic
| peoples, which by the way make up about half the ancestry of
| modern-day Italians, Spaniards and Scots -- and a larger
| fraction of the ancestry of the other Western European
| countries modulo Ireland.
|
| So, I don't think the experience of people whose ancestors
| have been heavily reliant on rice for the last 4 or 5,000
| years and until recently didn't have much access to meat is
| particularly informative for what I should eat.
| VoodooJuJu wrote:
| Could be simultaneously unhealthy for Westerners and fine for
| East Asians.
|
| Per the Lindy effect, we should all be eating foods that
| we're adapted to eating. You are likely adapted to a food if
| you and your ancestors have been eating it for thousands of
| years. The longer the better.
|
| East Asians seem adapted to rice and its arsenic content.
| Northern Europeans, maybe not so much. The former has had
| thousands of years to adapt and select for rice-eating. The
| latter, again, not nearly as long. Another example: dairy.
| East Asians can't digest it, Northern Europeans can.
| fallinditch wrote:
| I don't normally bother to soak rice overnight. I believe you
| can get rid of most arsenic etc by changing the water once or
| twice during the boil. A final rinse in hot water before
| serving is good.
|
| I mostly eat long brain brown rice which contains more
| contaminants in the bran and so this purification method is
| important to reduce one's intake of bad s*t.
|
| Eating organic rice is good but doesn't mean it's
| uncontaminated.
| Tepix wrote:
| Could you buy organic rice instead?
| tail_exchange wrote:
| Organic rice still has arsenic. The arsenic is not coming
| from pesticides, but from the soil and water, which naturally
| carry some arsenic.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| I just use 2:1 water to rice ratio, boil, reduce to low
| heat/simmer covered for 15 minutes, generally perfect.
| narag wrote:
| I've had no luck with that devices, moreover the instructions
| advised against broth, just water. But found out that with the
| right proportion of liquid and rice, a regular pot, six minutes
| on the vitro and ten minutes after switching out the power, gives
| perfect _paella_. So simple that I wonder how people spends money
| on widgets or are watching the whole process to add water.
| jajko wrote:
| I learned how to cook rice properly in India, just pot, water,
| some salt in right quantities and timing. Did that for decade
| at least.
|
| I still use rice cooker though these days, even more trivial to
| operate, can't mess up things if I miss the final part, and it
| will keep it warm for hours. Extremely practical. Its also baby
| trivial, at least the device we have (which is not pure rice
| cooker rather some multi stuff with rice as one of many
| options, but we basically just do rice and yogurt).
|
| Also, paella may be a fine food (if eaten in Spain or
| affiliated countries), but that type of rice has nothing to do
| with usual type of rice used as side dish. I actually don't
| know how to cook that type of rice well.
| floating-io wrote:
| I learned how to cook rice properly from my Mom. Pot, 2x
| water, boil then turn to low, add rice, 18 minutes, done. My
| only gripe is that I'm still trying to find a good rice pot
| with the little steam vent in the lid.
|
| The rice cookers I've seen take twice as long to make rice
| that is by no means twice as good.
|
| To each, their own. My Mom loves the rice cooker I gave back
| to her because it took too long to cook rice. =)
| narag wrote:
| The same method works for any type of "dry" rice cooking.
| With "dry" I mean that all the liquid ends in the rice, no
| soup. The main advantage over cookers is that you can use
| chicken or seafood broth and add any other ingredient before
| the rice. You can still use it for white rice, just rice and
| salt.
|
| My favourite recipe is to saute chopped onions and peppers, a
| little garlic and black pepper, add shrimp, cuttlefish and
| clams, and then top up the water to the required amount and
| add the rice when it boils. Six minutes with the vitro on
| and, in ten more, it is delicious.
|
| Change the seafood for mushrooms, chicken or whatever you
| like.
| 0898 wrote:
| This is an interesting mechanism, but is it really that difficult
| to boil rice for 20 minutes? I'm not exactly Gordon Ramsay, but I
| don't think I've ever failed to make decent rice.
| miltonlost wrote:
| It's very difficult when you only have a wood or charcoal stove
| that needs to be fanned for 20 minutes at a constant rate or
| else the rice will burn. Which is why the electric rice cooker
| was such an amazing creation. It's in the article about the
| inventor of it.
|
| As for today? Well, too hot on the stove or a phone call comes
| in, and poof, there goes all the water and the rice burns. If
| you're making rice 3 times a day, it's easier and safer to cook
| in a machine that guarantees perfection every time.
| masfuerte wrote:
| You don't simmer for twenty minutes. You simmer for ten and
| remove it from the heat for the remaining ten. The rice never
| burns because it is still quite wet when you remove it from
| the heat. Start with twice as much water as rice (by volume)
| and it comes out perfectly. I've been cooking rice like this
| for thirty years and it's always great.
| walthamstow wrote:
| That's synchronous cooking. Think of a rice cooker as
| asynchronous cooking. You turn it on, walk away, come back
| whenever you're ready and you've got rice waiting for you.
| It is extremely convenient.
| tdeck wrote:
| The article is very thin on details. For example, why not use a
| mechanical timer like many other appliances did and still do?
| That's the kind of detail an IEEE reader might appreciate.
| rawgabbit wrote:
| The 20 minutes is for ideal conditions. The article explained
| the goal was to boil away the water and then reduce the heat.
| The time needed may change with different ambient temperature
| or humidity.
| walthamstow wrote:
| A timer doesn't work because it takes longer to boil three
| cups of water compared to one. The bimetallic mechanism is
| agnostic of the amount of rice being cooked.
| tdeck wrote:
| In the design being described there is an outer water
| reservoir where the water is being boiled away specifically
| as a timer. An alternative would be to have a bimetallic
| strip detect when the rice pot comes to temperature, lower
| the temp, and start a mechanical timer that could be set by
| the user. The advantage would be a significant energy
| savings vs. boiling water away as a kind of crude timer.
| akira2501 wrote:
| It depends on how much rice you are making, how often you make
| it, and if you'd like it to be setup overnight and started on a
| schedule for you for certain types of rice and other grains.
|
| Rice cookers can generally make a pretty large volume and
| they're still rather efficient at doing so. If you get the
| water and rice ratio to your liking it will make nearly perfect
| rice every time at the press of a button. The best ones have
| multiple markings for white and brown rice on the bowl so you
| don't even need a measuring cup to do this.
|
| It has a little countdown timer so you can get your sides ready
| on time. It plays a little song when it's done. It covers and
| seals up well and can keep rice warm and good to eat for a few
| hours.
|
| There are only two parts that you have to wash, the bowl itself
| and the detachable lid seal, and one you have to wipe down, the
| steam vent cap.
|
| I generally don't like special purpose tools in my kitchen. The
| rice cooker has been a part of it for 20 years anyways. It's
| simply too useful without any additional hassle that it has
| easily earned it's place.
| walthamstow wrote:
| Think of it as asynchronous cooking. You turn it on, walk away,
| come back whenever you're ready and you've got rice waiting for
| you.
| kalleboo wrote:
| In many Asian households, rice is a part of breakfast, lunch
| and dinner. Boiling rice and washing the pot for every meal is
| a lot of work. Instead with a rice cooker, you set it the
| evening before with a timer. Rice is automatically ready in the
| morning for breakfast, you take out the breakfast portion and
| close the cooker again. It now goes into warm mode and keeps
| the remaining rice fresh and warm for the remaining meals of
| the day where you can just take out a portion here or there.
|
| If you're eating a more western diet with rice only a handful
| of times a week, it's probably overkill as a single-tasker.
| CiaranMcNulty wrote:
| The best analogy is a toaster
|
| Is it really that hard to grill bread? Nope, but you have to
| pay attention somewhat to stop it burning.
|
| Once you hit a certain volume of usage, an automatic device
| makes a lot of sense.
| croes wrote:
| Toast needs more attention than rice
| fkyoureadthedoc wrote:
| Considering the proliferation and popularity of the rice
| cooker, the answer is a resounding and obvious "yes"
| tionate wrote:
| A few people mentioning pressure cookers as an alternative. A
| heavy claypot is the ideal manual alternative for those with a
| gas stove.
|
| Probably the most popular is "kamadosan". It makes beautiful rice
| and you have control over it so eg it is easy to create a crust
| on the bottom if you like.
|
| Unfortunately I have an induction stove now so a bit hard to use,
| but I occasionally cook rice on a small charcoal stove when
| enjoying the slow life.
|
| Review: https://thejapanesefoodlab.com/kamado-san/ Recipes:
| https://toirokitchen.com/blogs/recipes
| nogajun wrote:
| Fumiko Minami(San Bing Feng Mei Zi )'s knowledge and contribution
| to the development of the rice cooker is greatly appreciated, but
| she is rarely mentioned in Japan. I think it deserves more
| attention.
| markhahn wrote:
| Imagine a rice cooker (perhaps with pressure) that gives you data
| and control.
|
| Modulate the applied power (pwm), read a few thermocouples,
| pressure sensor, release solenoid. Make it all programmable, let
| people program it.
|
| I speculate that the usual strategy would be full power to get
| things warm while extracting an estimate of the specific heat of
| the contents. oh, maybe add a scale, so you can estimate the
| water content. I guess that once you get things hot, the specific
| heat of a rice-water mixture changes, so you want to ramp down
| the power. Validate that by looking for an increase in pressure.
| Heck, maybe different kinds of rice (or different rice dishes)
| would benefit from different heat-pressure schedules.
|
| Think of it as a Decent (espresso) machine, but for rice. And
| open-source, please.
| TaJonkla wrote:
| I too love my rice cooker, but peeps should defo be soaking rice
| overnight before using or something:
|
| BBC News - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38910848 Should I
| worry about arsenic in my rice? - BBC News
| TaJonkla wrote:
| I love my rice cooker but people should defo be soaking there
| rice overnight or something.. (before use)
|
| BBC News - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38910848 Should I
| worry about arsenic in my rice? - BBC News
| utdiscant wrote:
| I found the ratio of rice and water to be the main issue - and
| the rice cooker didn't fix that. I stumbled upon a recipe with a
| different approach that I use now.
|
| Take plenty of water and get it to a boil. Add any amount of rice
| to the boiling water, and let it boil for 8 minutes. Then drain
| the water, remove the pot from the stove and put the lid on for a
| few minutes. Reduces the need for measuring quantities.
| adrian_b wrote:
| I always use a ratio of water to rice (by weight) of 4 to 1
| (e.g. 500 g of water for 125 g of rice).
|
| I cook the rice in a microwave oven in a covered glass vessel
| (preventing the escape of water) and it is very good with this
| ratio.
|
| For most other cereals that are either coarsely ground or whole
| grains, e.g. cornflour, semolina or wheat grains, the same 4 to
| 1 by weight ratio works fine when boiled in a closed vessel.
|
| Most other kinds of starchy seeds absorb less water when
| boiled, so the ratio must be lower.
|
| I assume that a dedicated rice cooker is useful only for those
| with numerous family members, who might want to cook large
| quantities of rice at the same time.
|
| For smaller quantities, e.g. suitable for a couple of people, a
| microwave oven is very fast and reproducible, so there is no
| need for dedicated equipment.
| will5421 wrote:
| What wattage is your microwave on?
| adrian_b wrote:
| It is controllable, but for rice and other cereals I use
| the maximum of 1000 W. Small powers are needed for things
| like meat or eggs, but very seldom for vegetables.
|
| The time depends on the quantity. For around 125 g of rice
| + 500 g of water, the time is between 12 and 15 minutes.
|
| An advantage of using a microwave oven is that no stirring
| is needed during cooking, unlike when boiling rice or other
| cereals on a traditional stove.
| Tade0 wrote:
| > Small powers are needed for things like meat or eggs,
| but very seldom for vegetables.
|
| I understand why you would use low power for eggs, but
| meat? I always applied power in proportion to the
| product's water content, as it has high specific heat and
| absorbs microwaves readily. Meat is largely water so high
| power it is.
| adrian_b wrote:
| This may depend on the kind of meat. I cook mostly
| turkey, chicken or fish.
|
| At high powers over 500 W my meat would explode.
|
| Moreover, when cooking meat at a lower power for a longer
| time (e.g. up to between 20 and 30 minutes), the cooked
| meat is much more tender than when cooked faster.
|
| If I boiled the meat, then maximum power could be used.
| However I do not boil it, but I roast it in the microwave
| oven in a covered glass vessel, with nothing added,
| except salt and condiments. Thus it is much more tasty
| than boiled.
| jillesvangurp wrote:
| Works great indeed. Another useful trick is to use a microwave.
| Simply put rice and the water in an open container in the
| microwave. Let it go at full blast for 14-15 minutes. Keep
| going until the water is gone. Let it sit for a few minutes and
| done. You get perfectly fluffy rice every time. Works great for
| small portions and it won't boil over.
|
| I learned about this trick only a few years ago and when I
| tried it, I basically got a perfect result. Which was not what
| I was expecting.
| brbrodude wrote:
| How about the seasoning? Years ago I used to do this
| microwave rice but I threw in some powdered flavoring and it
| would boil & stick everywhere :/
| adrian_b wrote:
| The seasoning is better added and mixed immediately after
| taking the rice out from the oven, when it is hot and soft.
|
| If you want to add some kind of oil, that is also better
| added immediately after taking the rice out of the oven.
|
| If you add salt or sugar, then that should be added before
| cooking in the oven.
| pandemic_region wrote:
| How do you prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the
| pot? Do you stirr it a few times?
| fkyoureadthedoc wrote:
| I just use the included rice cup and fill to the correct line
| in the rice cooker pot...
| FrojoS wrote:
| > But how would an automatic rice cooker know when the 20 minutes
| was up?
|
| How about a clock?
|
| Now, I understand that in 1955 the required components might have
| been deemed too expensive, or actually the problem is more
| complex than that. This article is so poorly written. Like almost
| everything I've read in the last 20 years from IEEE Spectrum.
| jeffalyanak wrote:
| > How about a clock?
|
| How would the rice cooker know when to start the clock? It
| needs to be started only after the water reaches a boil.
| FrojoS wrote:
| Well, I would have thought that once a temperature sensor
| reads 100 deg Celsius the clock would start. I'm sure there
| are good reasons why this wouldn't work well or is overly
| complex, but I would expect the article to discuss them.
|
| From the article: > Fumiko found that heating the water and
| rice to a boil and then cooking for exactly 20 minutes
| produced consistently good results.
|
| That knowledge about the ideal timespan of 20 min seems to be
| completely irrelevant to the implemented solution.
| fkyoureadthedoc wrote:
| > That knowledge about the ideal timespan of 20 min seems
| to be completely irrelevant to the implemented solution.
|
| Partially. They also mentioned that it was generally
| believed that you needed to vary the temperature during
| cooking to get fluffy rice. Fumiko's discovery is just as
| much about the fact that you can use a straight boil the
| whole time as it is about the duration.
| rty32 wrote:
| I had the same question, and this article definitely could have
| discussed other potential engineering approaches and why they
| didn't work to provide the full context. To be honest, I
| learned very little from the article -- I already know how rice
| cookers work, so I want to learn much more when I decided to
| read the article
| austin-cheney wrote:
| > It isn't often that housewives get credit in the annals of
| invention
|
| * https://www.fastcompany.com/3047428/how-two-bored-1970s-hous...
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Rudkin
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberta_Williams
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Sutherland_Bissell
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Blackwell
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_13 - Not housewives, but
| absolutely worthy of more praise and attention, especially Jerrie
| Cobb.
|
| And many more
| freddie_mercury wrote:
| 8 names doesn't disprove "it isn't often".
|
| "It isn't often" doesn't mean "it has never happened".
|
| If anything, only listing 8 only proves their point. To
| disprove their point you'd need to list hundreds of housewives.
| Possibly thousands given the number of patents out there.
| austin-cheney wrote:
| Define often...
|
| This feels like an argument only for the sake of hearing
| one's self out loud, a poor man's denying the antecedent
| fallacy.
| AStonesThrow wrote:
| Entire books have been filled with home remedies, sewing
| ideas, and cooking methods. You could, perhaps, cite the
| editors of those books, but the "individual housewives" who
| contributed them would not have traceable identities.
|
| The ideas and methods were shared among communities, church
| groups, in schools, and handed down in families. Often by
| oral tradition and by illiterate people.
|
| In modern times, you could check the archives of Heloise, and
| magazines such as _Good Housekeeping_ and _Sunset_.
| Columnists would usually receive hints and tips from readers,
| and give credit at that point.
| throwaway4220 wrote:
| I have a Philips fully automatic coffee machine that goes feom
| beans and water to espresso. Is there such a thing for rice? (Yes
| im that lazy/disorganized)
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