Rice cookers! They're actually super cool!

A question I have been wondering about from time to time, but never got around to looking it up, finally answered... Consider my hat tipped.

It's all about reaching the common man! I haven't re-checked, but I imagine his series on BTUs/efficiency/air conditioners did rather well.

New patron from the UK here. 426k views for a rice cooker video, but only 200k for a meticulously researched video on the RCA CED? Weird. Guess people like the everyday stuff. Perhaps you should do a video on the retractable ballpoint pen. I SWEAR by my collection of Bic 4s. .

Matthew Lawrenson

As a Canadian I had hoed for a 100°C pop up text to go with your joke, but appreciate the joke nonetheless. Your priorities and preferences rock.

Kevin Tessner

Your end credits closed captions always kill me please never stop

Dearest Alec, I hope this letter finds you well. Thought you'd want to know that your priorities and preferences on [insert pertinent topic here] are wrong. You're welcome. Sincerely yours, - The Internet (❤)

Travis Snoozy

Just saw you got linked from BoingBoing. Cool!

Pretty inventive, thanks for explaining Alec!

MrHammond

The famous clicky MagnaStats, the best soldering irons until they managed to make lighter and smaller electronic ones, but they're still extremely reliable. As I remember correctly, you could put on other tips that used a different-switching tip for a different soldering temperature.

MrHammond

I found one of those really fancy Zojirushi rice cookers on craigslist last year. It definitely can be a pain to clean, but oh my god, best rice I've ever had in my life every time

My first post as a Patron to this channel! No, predictive text, not Matron. Anyway, we had a very high Chinese intake of students at the university I used to work at, and rice cookers used to crop up all the time on the university's internal marketplace-type pages. I always wondered if they were any good. Am I the only lazy git here who buys those microwaveable pouches?

Brad Jones

I wonder if kettles with a base like this use a similar mechanism.. https://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-Electric-Stainless-40880/dp/B00UFQ2LJ2/

Mike Thorpe

If you’re using a rice cooker, too much water will overcook the rice and not enough will undercook it. Pouring through a strainer seems a bit excessive. If you match the water to your cooking time you don’t have to do that.

Quinton Wilson

Yep, exactly at that point.

Mark Krenz

I boil the rice for 14 minutes, pour it through a strainer, and it's always "right" , I don't understand the need to match with the amount of water, please explain.

I have a Weller soldering iron that works on the same principal. The tip has a little cap on the top end made from an alloy whose curie point is the desired operating temperature of the iron. A small magnet is attached to a switch that controls the power to the heater and is attracted to the cap as long as it is not above the curie point. The iron is very fast to heat up and will do jobs that much higher wattage irons will not.

HarveyB

Excellent video btw as I've always wondered how these devices worked. As for "why did it take so long to invent them", I have to say the first time I ever saw a rice cooker was in the US. In Europe, we just use a pan...

Raphaël

Huh. That's on YouTube's end, just checked my file. Maybe it'll go away after a little more processing

Technology Connections

Was that a Tom Scott reference @ the end?

Adin Biederman

Is anyone else getting some white square randomness around 7:37?

PiraTed

FYI: There's some weird artifacts at 7:42

Ian Spence

Another incredibly fascinating video! Thank you for keeping up this great work. Insightful, well-written, extremely clear, and just the right amount of tongue in your cheek.

My problem with rice cookers is they usually cook shitty rice. Once I learned how to do it in a pot with all the proper timing and such, the traditional pot does a better job than any rice cooker and I've been surrounded by them my whole life.

Justin Tokke

years ago I got a fancy Japanese ricecooker from my Japanee neighbor. No idea what all the buttons were since I do not read Japanese, for but I knew which one to press for perfect rice.

Erik van Roode

Ashens reviewed one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFP5mmPZe_c&t=8m15s

Michael Dunn

Now if that rice cooker could just make that rice slowly rise up out of the pot when it's done cooking then maybe it would qualify as Automatic Beyond Belief. I seem to recall Techmoan demonstrating an egg cooker that did that.

Mark Hesse

Interesting, today I cooked rice in my instant pot for the first time since I got the thing like 5 years ago. Never used it before. Now here's this.

That's really clever. Now I know how my rice cooker works. All I have to do now is find it...

Big Car