News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker by Torkel on Saturday August 01, 2020 @10:59AM (#24020921)
We have a cuckoo rice cooker in Sweden (purchased in Korea). It is great!

Our cuckoo is a preassure cooker, and the rice it makes is the best I’ve had.

We currently live in Tokyo, and the Panasonic we got here is not as good as the cuckoo. Maybe because the power here is weaker?

Re:The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker by kijin on Saturday August 01, 2020 @11:43AM (#24021314)
The Japanese Kamado referred to in the article is related to Korean Gamasot [1][2], with one crucial difference. The Korean version has a heavy, close-fitting, holeless iron lid that helps maintain a higher-than-atmospheric pressure inside the cooking vessel.

Higher pressure = higher boiling point = higher cooking temperature = different taste.

Korean rice cookers modeled after the Gamasot are basically autoclaves. The good ones maintain a pressure of about 2 atm and a cooking temperature of 120C. Unpressurized rice cookers are more common in Japan, and Japanese people are more used to the texture of rice cooked at 100C. Your sushi probably won't taste right if you cook the rice at 120C.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamado

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamasot

Re:The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker by ubercow13 on Saturday August 01, 2020 @09:00PM (#24025392)
How would you describe the difference in taste?
Re:The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker by kijin on Sunday August 02, 2020 @01:20AM (#24026555)
It's subjective, but I'd say that rice cooked under pressure is more chewy and has a stronger flavor of its own. The higher temperature produces a more pronounced Maillard reaction, which not only increases flavor but also turns the rice slightly yellow as if it had been toasted. This is exactly what you want in a strongly flavored Korean dish like stone-bowl bibimbap.

Rice cooked without pressure comes out light and fluffy. This is more appropriate for sushi where you don't want the flavor of rice to overwhelm or collide with the subtle flavor of the other ingredients.

Re:The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker by Torkel on Saturday August 01, 2020 @07:26PM (#24024826)
Good info! I didn’t know this :)