For many amateur cooks, making rice can be tricky. It takes a little know-how, patience, and requires the cook to keep a close eye on the rice in order to prevent over or undercooking. Toshiba is a company that’s known for its extensive line of appliances and electronics. Their latest vacuum rice cooker showcases their technological innovation, offering a new take on design and improved functionality.
Our Verdict: The vacuum technology combined with induction heating produces rice that’s fluffy, sweet, and tender. This model may come with a high price tag, but the hands-off cooking approach and the rice cooker’s ability to keep rice warm and ready to serve for a period of forty hours are both huge selling points for any buyer who eats rice several times a week. If you’re looking for an easy to use, straight forward rice cooker that produces a faster cooking time compared to competing models, then your search is over.
Read on to learn about this rice cooker’s unique design, innovative technology, and why this model earned top marks for performance and overall quality.
Table of Contents
Overview and Features
If you’ve purchased Toshiba products in the past, then you know this rice cooker offers a solid, reliable performance. It’s tough enough to handle daily use and comes loaded with some great features that the avid rice eater will love, such as a longer than average stay warm mode and beginner-friendly controls.
This unique rice cooker utilizes a vacuum pump and internal sensors to produce perfectly cooked rice. The multiple sensors ensure that the rice has a richer, sweeter flavor and just the right amount of stickiness.
Product Rating:
- Easy to use
- Stay warm feature keeps rice warm for forty hours
- Induction heat
- Vacuum design infuses the rice with flavor
- Excellent for rice cooking
- Premium design
This model is the result of hundreds of hours of testing. It utilizes a combination of pressure and vacuum techniques designed to infuse the rice with flavor while keeping it nice and warm and ready to serve for up to forty hours in a vacuum. This design works to prevent the rice from drying out during the forty hour period.
Accessories
Like other models in this price range, this rice cooker comes with some great extras including a measuring cup, rice paddle stand and rice paddle, and user’s manual.
Pot
The rice cooker’s pot is made out of five millimeter thick forged iron. The pot was designed to recreate the type of thermal convection that’s similar to a traditional furnace.
Innovative Design
The rice cooker uses a vacuum to help soak the rice at a rapid rate. This process normally takes several hours. Once the rice has soaked and is ready for cooking, the pressure in the vacuum is then used to heat up the water to a temperature that’s beyond the boiling point. This works to infuse the rice with more flavor. This is an induction heat model, which means air is circulated around the internal pot in order to promote even cooking. This is a more efficient cooking process compared to conventional rice cookers, and it provides the type of hands-off cooking process that most buyers are looking for.
Capacity
This model offers a five and a half cup capacity, which results in eleven cups of cooked rice. This amount is slightly higher than average as most models in this price range produce only ten cups of cooked rice.
Cooking Results
If you’re looking for a rice cooker that will not only produce rice that’s perfectly cooked but one that can also have a major impact on flavor and texture, then look no further.
The vacuum design combined with induction heating results in rice that’s fragrant, sweet, and fluffy. The rice cooker will keep the rice at the perfect serving temperature, without cooking it further. This prevents mushiness, which is a common issue you’ll run into with lower priced models. The induction heat technology also ensures that the entire pot is heated at the same temperature, so every grain of rice will be cooked to perfection.
In terms of flavor, this model really shines by capturing the subtle, sweet flavor of the rice, with the type of texture that only the best Japanese rice cookers can produce.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Stay warm feature keeps rice warm for forty hours
- Induction heat
- Vacuum design infuses the rice with flavor
- Excellent for rice cooking
- Premium design
Cons
- Price
- This model is unable to cook other types of food such as veggies
Related Questions
Is the Rice Cooker’s Pot Dishwasher Safe?
No. The cast iron pot is durable and easy to clean, but it should be washed by hand in order to prevent the cast iron from rusting. The pot can be cleaned with warm soapy water and should be dried promptly. To learn more about rice cooker maintenance, click here to read our article on how to clean rice cooker.
Can I Use This Rice Cooker to Steam Fish?
No. In terms of presets, this model is pretty basic. It cannot cook fish or veggies, which may be a drawback for the buyer looking for a multipurpose rice cooker. If you’re in need of a rice cooker that will allow you to steam veggies and prepare other dishes such as steel cut oatmeal, then we recommend the Panasonic Rice Cooker & Multi-Cooker SR-HZ106.
Will The Rice Cooker Burn the Rice if it’s Left On for More than Forty Hours?
No. If you decide to continue to heat the rice for longer than forty hours, the rice cooker will keep the temperature low enough to keep the rice serving ready, without burning it. However, after the forty-hour mark the rice will begin to dry out.
Conclusion and Rating
Product Rating:
This isn’t a model that comes with a lot of bells and whistles, but as a dedicated rice cooker, this model really shines for a variety of reasons.
Overall, this Toshiba Vacuum rice cooker outshines the competition in terms of flavor, texture, and a hands-off cooking approach. While the price is steep, if you find yourself cooking rice several times a week, then a model that provides a forty hour warming period and induction heat that’s designed to cook rice to perfection is a great choice. We gave this model a rating of four and a half out of five stars.
