I actually bought this product to make black garlic, you put several heads of garlic in paper towels and place in machine for days on warm. It works very well for this purpose, although you'd better place it out of your house because the house will smell intensively like garlic if you keep it inside. Garage is best. I got the bonus of discovering that it is an excellent machine for its real purpose, cooking rice. You will save significant time cooking either brown or white rice and it cooks it to my specific preference of "sticky". The cleanup is very easy as the insert is nonstick. It has an excellent warm function and is programable. It is compact. It works very well for 1 to 4 servings, possibly more but I do not need it for more. I would highly recommend this device. Read more
Got it a few days ago. I tested it with just one cup of rice - this cooker cooked it in 10-15 minutes flat! I'm Korean-American, and I expected the Cuckoo to be faster than the Zoji cookers, but, wow, this was the fastest I've ever seen rice cooked! This was on the "Turbo" cooking function but there wasn't that THAT much of a difference between quality of the rice cooked on the turbo vs the normal glutinous functions that I noticed. Actually, I kinda preferred the rice cooked on the turbo function. With two cups it took 5-10 minutes more - still fast as lightning. The rice kernels were fully cooked into its center altho only a tiniest bit al dente. I read another Korean reviewer remark that she wished it was a pressure cooker. I understand this sentiment, however, because I know Koreans like their rice fully cooked and evenly from outside of the kernel all the way in. The pressure cooker models cost around $400 a pop, however, so, yeah.... Also, I think many Americans, however, would prefer this texture, and I myself didn't mind it at all either. The kernels were truly cooked all the way to center - don't mistake me... just the pressure cookers I think do tend to change the molecular structure of the starch to make them more texturally appealing to Koreans, and there is a difference. I, myself, am not that picky, however. I think this cooker still cooks rice to a quality that you would find from 90% of so called sushi restaurants in the US and that on the "turbo" function - in other words, not bad at all, unless you really are picky and sensitive to the texture and flavor of rice. Also, no residual moisture on the sides when I opened like you would get with bargain basement 20$ cookers. No splattering or boil overs either. And even on the regular glutinous rice setting, the rice cooked evenly and rather fast. The glutinous setting I think took maybe 10-15 minutes more, but that's still really fast to cook rice. For reference, the Zoji models I'm familiar with can take over an hour. The tiny quality difference in rice flavor of rice cooked for an hour vs this rice cooked in 15 minutes was not at all big enough for me to favor the one hour cooked rice. I'm too old and impatient for that. Also, many Zoji I think tend to rot the rice after a day, because their warm setting sometimes is not hot enough, but I think with the Cuckoo rice cookers, they got the temperature so that altho the rice may overcook a bit after a long time on the warm setting and turn a tad yellow from the heat, they got the temperature just hot enough to keep the microbes from forming too quickly. In other words, I think this cooker keeps the rice fresher a day or so longer than most Zoji models on the warm setting. This model still does say to take the rice out and store away in refrigerator, etc. if longer than 24 hours, etc. But, I'm confident the rice is still good enough for me a couple days later, etc. Zoji makes really good rice cookers, but imo, the top of the line Cuckoo cook better rice these days. It's like the Toyota vs. Hyundai wars among rice cookers, I guess. Zoji still has all the best reviews from being the top manufacturer of yester years. I wouldn't discount the Cuckoos tho. I'm getting on middle age and I live alone, so I bought this small model because I've been trying not to eat too much carbs. For last 2-3 years, I've almost never ate rice but once a month or so. My mother's family all had diabetic symptoms, and I didn't want to go that route. Still I had a craving on occasion for rice. This model can really cook tiny portions, which was what I wanted, and I'm very happy with it. Easy to use, easy to clean. Small portions, so, little waste. Lastly, the English in the user manual was atrocious - as if it was Google translated directly from Korean. I also read some reviewers who never bothered to set the time, perhaps because the instructions were confusing? In case it helps... To set the clock; 1. Press the left bottom button for two seconds. This will activate the time setting feature and make the time blink. 2. Press the same button to adjust the hour. Press the right bottom button to adjust the minutes. 3. After getting the correct time inputted, press the right top button to set the time. You're done! The cooker does have a lithium battery in case of electrical brown outs. So, if you use the timer function to cook at a certain time, less to worry about too. Your rice will more than likely be ready and cooked unless a very long prolonged electrical black out or something. Love this cooker - perfect size, perfect function, great price - at least for me. Now, I gotta stop using it because, I got fatter. Read more
This rice cooker consistently makes great rice (be sure you're using the right setting based on what grain rice you're cooking!). It's easy to clean, the instruction booklet took a moment to read through and properly understand, but once I figured out how to read it correctly everything was useful and helpful. Makes a good amount of rice for one to three people, likely not as useful for a family of four or more. Very attractive looking, it takes up less counter space than I was expecting, and neatly fits both into cupboards and other shelving for storage when not in use. The orange interface can be a little difficult to read in certain lighting, but change your angle of looking at it and it's easier to see again! Read more
This is the cutest rice cooker I have ever seen. I’d keep it even if it didn’t work just for the “cute” factor. Luckily it does work and makes great rice. It also makes great mixed grains, which is why I bought it since I am trying to eat more whole grains. I wish it didn’t have a non stick bowl but it is really hard to find those, especially in a small unit. This is a “small” rice cooker but you can still cook a large amount of rice. (3 cups of raw rice makes up into like nine cups of cooked rice, right?) It is much easier to store and move around than the 30+ year old rice cooker I finally parted with. It’s easy to use. The directions are clear with some funny but understandable translation errors. One downside is that when you first unbox it, there is a weird chemical/plastic smell. I washed it well but it still had a weird smell so I made a small amount of rice in it and then threw it away, washed it again and the smell was gone. Also, make sure to remove all the various tape and packing materials before you use. Read more