[laohaire]

My mom got me a cheap-o rice cooker a few years ago, and I found that I really like to use it for (what else) rice. It's so convenient because I can just dump it in and walk away and check on it later, and I don't have to worry about timing the rest of the meal quite as exactly. I never spend 45 minutes preparing the OTHER stuff, so rice is kind of the weird thing I have to keep planning around.<br><br>
Anyway, despite trying to be careful, the aluminum pan got all scratched up, and obviously that's not good for us, having aluminum bits in our rice. Are there any alternative rice cooker models you can recommend, with stainless steel pots or something other than aluminum?<br><br>
When I try to search, I tend to find cookers with the EXTERIOR in stainless, and while it's pretty, I don't really care about it. Plus would prefer not to pay a premium for it. I don't need a million features either, just the ability to dump water and rice, hit a button and go - and know that it will automatically switch to WARM (instead of COOK) when the rice is done. It's unfortunate that it seems like when I'm looking to upgrade, I have to pay a premium for lots of different features, when all I want is to avoid the aluminum pot!

 

[lakeruby]

My grandma gave me a Black and Decker rice cooker, and I really like it. It works great. The cooking bowl appears to be made of some kind of Teflon, which is icky, but I only use it 4 or so times a month, so I don't worry about it much.

 

[laohaire]

Ah, yeah, teflon would be out too. No stainless ones out there, eh?

 

[allnaturalmom]

I only know of 2 cookers w/uncoated stainless pots:<br><br>
Here is the first:<br><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325&tag=motheringhud-20&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FMiracle-Exclussives-Stainless-Steel-Cooker%2Fdp%2FB000I5UEQM%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dhome-garden%26qid%3D1273264726%26sr%3D8-1" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Exclus...3264726&sr=8-1</a><br><br>
And here is the other one:<br><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325&tag=motheringhud-20&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FOyama-CFS-B18U-Stainless-Rice-Cooker%2Fdp%2FB002UVV2Z4%2Fref%3Dsr_1_2%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dhome-garden%26qid%3D1273265761%26sr%3D1-2" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Oyama-CFS-B18U...3265761&sr=1-2</a><br><br>
It's great peace of mind knowing that you don't ever have to worry about icky stuff in your rice, or the off-gassing chemicals from a non-stick one <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/grossedout.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="gross"> !<br><br>
gl<br>
hth

 

[laohaire]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br><br>
Thank you so much!! Sent the link to hubby.<br><br>
$70 is a little pricey but I'm willing to pay it. (See my "Oh, crud, Mother's Day" thread and now you'll think I'm even worse of a hypocrite. I'll buy myself a nice rice cooker but I won't send MIL flowers. Sigh).<br><br>
I can cook rice in a pot, but the ability to set it and walk away will seriously increase the chances I make it, and thus increase the chances that I actually cook. And that, I think, is worth $70. Just Tuesday, we had to run out for 30 minutes and when we got back we were starving. If I could have started the rice before we left, it would have been perfect. But then we just called for pizza. SIGH.

 

[cristeen]

<a href="http://www.lotusfoods.com/Stainless-Steel-Rice-Cooker-and-Steamer-12-Cup/p/LOT-20110" target="_blank">Lotus Foods</a> also has a stainless one.<br><br>
Just be aware of how much rice you use... one of these has an 8 c capacity, one has a 10 c capacity and one has 12 c. Don't know if you'd ever need more than 8 c, but it's something to be aware of when you're comparing them.

 

[laohaire]

Awesome, good to have choices to consider.<br><br>
I only cook 2 cups of rice at a time. It would be awesome to find a little 4-cup model, then there's less clutter to contend with <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile"> I actually found a model that was stainless, 4 cup, also a great price (around $40) - but - hello? - the actual cooking basket was non-stick. The exterior was stainless and the steaming tray was stainless. It was absolutely perfect except for the most important feature. Figures.

 

[Beauchamp]

I had a Black & Decker steamer that I used but it was plastic, and I didn't know what kind of plastic. So I recently started microwaving my rice. I'm not sure how bad it is, but I just put the rice in a large Corningware (5 qt, I think?) with the lid on. Nuke for 5 mins on high, then 35 mins on 50% power. For brown rice, it works great. I know a lot of people on here don't use microwaves, though. (Is it *really* bad?)