We often get asked what the difference is between rice cookers and multi-cookers, the appliances are very different in functions and cook in different ways.
Rice cookers
Rice cookers, moreso those with fuzzy logic or Induction Heating are specialist appliances which cook rice to perfection. They achieve this by using ‘fuzzy logic’, a computer brain that controls the cooking temperatures precisely to ensure the rice is cooked.
Yum Asia’s products are first and foremost rice cookers, the cooking profiles of the rice cooking features are very carefully designed to ensure that they are staged between steaming, boiling, braising with specific temperature profiles for each different type of rice being cooked.
Where the Yum Asia brand of rice cookers is different from other rice cookers available is that they have carefully selected add-on features that do much more than rice cooking. These add on features were chosen to complement the rice cooking functions and also because the temperature profiles of the add-on features are the most similar to the rice cooking profiles.
Far from being one-function appliances, Yum Asia rice cookers can do several things very, very well – not only cooking different types of rice (long grain, short grain, brown rice, yumami extra tasty rice, GABA brown), they also cook porridge (oat or rice porridge), slow cook, cake, steam (they have included steam baskets). Some models have additional functions like crust (for Persian Tahdig style rice), soup, yoghurt. When designing Yum Asia’s rice cookers, we looked at the temperature profiles for each add-on feature and made sure that it would work perfectly with the specialist rice cooking programmes. The majority of functions on Yum Asia rice cookers are for cooking rice but using the different functions you can cook casseroles, soups, grains like barley, quinoa, cous cous, you can cook the most amazing cakes or have freshly steamed food – they are very versatile appliances!
Multi-cookers
Ever heard the phrase ‘jack of all trades, master of none’, this is how multi-cookers should be thought of. A lot of multi-cookers boast 20 in 1 features, which means that it has 20 very different functions and cooking profiles that it’s impossible for the unit to be programmed to do all of these things well and distinctly. For example, any appliance that can reach temperatures suitable for deep frying but can also cook rice, the rice cooking is not going to be very good, it essentially just boils the rice like you would in a saucepan. The key to cooking excellent rice, as in Yum Asia’s rice cookers, is the careful phasing of temperatures along with the steaming and braising as well as boiling – this is what makes rice tasty, the way you cook it has a huge impact on how it tastes. It might do an adequate job of cooking rice, but a lot of people don’t want 20 features in an appliance, they are usually buying it to do a couple of things really well, but multi-cookers most of the time don’t do those couple of things really well, they just do them adequately.
Conclusion
It’s always best to buy an appliance that cooks on every function really, really well – you wouldn’t use a kettle to make toast! Think carefully about the features you want and if you are purchasing an appliance to cook rice, buy a rice cooker – it’s by far the best way to cook rice as it specialises in it!
If you are having difficulty understanding rice cooker functions or choosing between them, have a read of our article – https://greedy-panda.com/2017/06/how-to-choose-the-right-rice-cooker-for-you/