Zojirushi Umami Rice Cooker and Heater NL-GAC10 Comment: Slow cooking restrictions hinder this expensive machine

When i first I heard that there is a new machine Zojirushi It can not only cook rice, but also has some slow cooker functions, which I am very interested in. Then it appeared at my house, and I was quickly left behind. Although the bowl is large enough to make a lot of rice, the “slow cooking max filling” line is located in the middle of the side of the pot, which means you can only use the machine to make a small amount of slow-cooked food. Realizing my mistake, I sent the machine back to the larger of the two versions. I soon learned that I can cook rice for 10 people, but I can cook slow-cooked peppers for about 3 people.

Is anyone still confused about this ratio?

Zojirushi is our family’s favorite brand. My wife Elisabeth and I own a rice cooker from the company, namely R2-D2, whose name is adjacent to NS-LAC05. Three standard 180 ml rice cups can be made at one time, which is a veritable miracle. Our gift is a wedding gift eight years ago, and since we received it, it has been making delicious rice on our countertops and keeping it warm for several days. Although some people prefer to cook rice on the stove, I like the quality and convenience of a dedicated cooker and its ability to make some rice for dinner, and then prepare a warm spoon and wait for lunch the next day. It is almost certainly the most commonly used appliance in our kitchen.

Not long ago, I tested Zojirushi’s high-end pressure induction cooker, An expensive but impressive machine, which makes me a little jealous that I don’t have my own machine. But before our little LAC-05 starts working, we will be fine.

I also watched it about two years ago Zojirushi’s “multifunctional pot”, A spacious six-quart slow cooker that can be controlled To the extent You can even grill meat. Slow cooking is its purpose, but it can also make rice and yogurt, and even steam food. It is completely different from a typical slow cooker and has better functions than most slow cookers, especially for control freaks.

Zojirushi’s press material promises that the new Umami combines some of the better features of these two machines: a rice cooker that can cook slowly. Although I believe that the rice will end well, the idea that you can make a big pot of rice but only slowly cook 1.8 liters (two quarts) of food is meaningless.

To borrow a few lines from Hugh Acheson’s excellent cookbook, Chef and slow cooker, “Some slow cookers are very large, up to seven or eight quarts, and some are small, like two quarts. I recommend a fairly large one, four quarts or more.” They are really small.

Personally, I recommend at least six quarts, because heavy cooking is part of the charm of slow cooking. Not only can you put pork shoulder in a six-quart model at the beginning of the day and enjoy delicious tacos for dinner, but you can also make labor-saving peppers for your friends and put leftovers in a yogurt container They go home in the refrigerator.

In addition, almost any recipe you put in a six-quart pot can be put in it.

Once the larger umami reaches the test kitchen, I turn on Eat your book In the online recipe index, I found 17 great-sounding slow cooker recipes in the recipes I own and pulled them off my bookshelf. For no other reason than it sounded great that night, I started with a farmhouse chicken and corn chowder recipe from the American Test Kitchen. After being put in the pot, the amount of ingredients crossing the “slow cooking max filling” line was considerable, but there was no turning back for a pot of raw chicken, so I clicked start and crossed my fingers.

Then I took those 14 recipes back to the shelf because I realized that I would never use such a small slow cooker and it forced me to scale down the batches of my favorite recipes.