Panasonic SRG06FG 3.3-Cup Automatic Rice Cooker
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Panasonic SRG06FG 3.3-Cup Automatic Rice Cooker
Customer Review: Try a 5.5 rice cooker... 3.3 has limitations.
Summary: 5 Stars
To me, the magic of cooking rice has a lot to do with prep work. Cooking is the final step. That said, a rice cooker is only doing the final step, no more. The final step involves measuring the correct amount of rice with the correct amount of water... some packages of rice tell you their measurements, some do not. After the measurements are made, they are put into the rice cooker, and the rice cooker does it's job. After the rice cooker is done, due to it having no warming function being a 3.3 and Panasonic's lowest priced model. Therefore, you must not touch the lid for at least 10 minutes after the rice is done. 20 minutes wouldn't hurt.
Measurements:
Nishiki white rice - 12 oz Rice to 16 oz H2O
Nishiki brown rice - 8 oz Rice to 24 oz H2O (water will overflow in this 3.3 size.)
Sho-Chiku-Bai - 12 oz Rice to 18 oz H2O (Koda Farms)
Prep work for Rice:
Rinse the rice. Like washing your vegetables, rinsing your rice makes a better tasting rice. Put the rice in a bowl add two or three times as much water, then move your hand around in the water until the water is dirty. Pour the water and rice into a strainer so the rice stays, and the water does not. Repeat until moving your hand in the water does not make the water dirty.
Soak the rice. Leave a container of rinsed rice with two or three times the amount of water over night. Rinse the rice once for anything that loosened. Now it's ready to be cooked.
Try to buy good rice and don't forget to do this rice prep work. This is how to have the better tasting rice.
Once the rice is cooked, you can do several things with it, including creating hamburger buns out of it.
The Manga Cookbook This is a good cookbook... seriously. It tells you how to do simple things many other cookbooks do not.
If you have health issues, you may consider adding True Health 'Ultimate pH Balance' to the water used for soaking, and to the water measured for cooking.
As for the durability of this product... I've cooked easily over 50 lbs of rice in this rice cooker, as well as have moved once. It still performs as on the day I bought it. Of course, remember to clean the rice cooking container the night you make the rice, so the rice doesn't harden. This way, you can use a washcloth to clean it so the non-stick stays around.
Customer Review: Fine Little Rice Cooker
Summary: 4 Stars
I had a little rice cooker for 20 years. That little rice cooker moved out due to changes in family circumstances.
This one is the same size , I usually make two cups of rice, sometimes one cup, but it looks like it will easily make three "cups" . I'm not sure what the "cups" is because the measure cup (included with purchase) is less than a full cup but it feels like more than a cup come out. I suppose you could put two cups of cooked rice into a cooking container, but you'd have to smush it in. Served fluffed up into a serving bowl its probably 1 1/2 the stated measure when cooked. My point is, that the little cooker will make plenty of rice for a family meal .
This cooker has a couple of advantages over the one I lived with for twenty years. It has a clear glass top which allows you to look in, but you never really need to look in... if you've never had a rice cooker this is a major advantage when rushing to cook dinner for a family. You pop the rice into the removable metal pot, take it to the sink and fill to the marked lines inside depending on how much you put in, plug in the cooker and don't need to look in until scooping it out as one of the last things to put on the table... it shuts itself off and the rice will stay warm and ready to serve when it finishes up before you've finished your other food.
The no-stick pot is FAR easier to clean that the steel/alluminum allow of my old one. I needed to soak that one overnight to get rid of the rice residue. Thats a big time saver.
My only negative is that this cooker does not come with a peforated metal disc to put at the bottom of the pot. Our old one had one of these and while it was another thing to clean it created a little buffer between the bottom of the pot and the rice. Without one of those, the rice at the bottom of the cooker gets a very light browning on some of the rice touching the bottom of the pan. Not a burn, not enough to taste, but if you scoop the entire pot out your bowl of rice has a number of grains that aren't perfectly white. Its not unappatizing, the color is a normal cooking color of begining to brown something... but its not perfect. They didn't seem to offer the disc as an accesory either.
Still, because of the easy cleaning this is a step up, and I couldn't live without a rice cooker.
Customer Review: Teach an old dog new tricks
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been cooking rice for years but lately my short grain brown rice has been less than stellar. Over the weekend
I was watching a cooking program for the best chef. I noticed that one of the contestants was using an electric rice cooker and was making brown So I thought hmmmmmmmm. I ofcourse my favorite one stop, one click shopping is at Amazon.com. I read the reviews for the above rice cooker and decided it was the best bet.
It came in two days!
Anyway, last night I was reading the directions and thought I was losing my mind as they were less than stellar.
hmmmmmm. So back to the reviews. I read manny of them and took to heart many of the points. I guess everyone has
their own ideal how to use the rice cooker. So I decided to rinse the rice and then go with 2 1/2 cups of water, 1 cup of
brown rice, a splash of olive oil and salt. Amazingly enough the rice was perfect. I also sprayed it with pam. It makes a nice amount of rice.
Now I have moved on to the rice pudding. I am not a big fan of rice pudding but I thought this might be better and I might like it.
I have some of that steel cut Irish oatmeal and am thinking of soaking it over night in the cooker and jump out of bed in the morning and plug it in.......Stay tuned. I might wear out the cooker in a short time.
As a good snack try adding a little peanut butter and soy sauce to a serving of brown rice as a snack. Yummmmmmm.
Back again. Yes I did the oatmeal thing. Soaked steel cut oats overnight in cooker and turned it on first thing.
Excellent! Also made the rice pudding. Took note to half the recipe. Good advice. Excellent. Wondering if I can use evaporated milk instead of the coconut milk. Today I made Quinoa and it came out perfect. I cup of Quinoa to
two cups of water. Plus a little salt. I will probably wear it out. Good thing I am going away for awhile!
Customer Review: works great
Summary: 5 Stars
Fast easy no fuss way to make rice in a snap. The directions are a little Engrish-y. But in a nutshell:
Scoop out your desired rice amount say 2 cups(using the enclosed scoop).
Rinse the rice a few times in a strainer to get some of the starch out--help it from making a bubbly mess and I find it makes better sticky rice.
1.Dump rice in cooker.
2.Add water to the proper line. Two cups of rice means you add water up to the fill line 2. And yes you put in the water after the rice is already in there.
3.Turn on, wait 15 minutes for the cooker to shut off and let the rice sit unmolested for 15 minutes before eating. = perfect rice.
The directions also recommend soaking the rice for 30 minutes before turning the cooker on, I never do and the rice turns out perfect...let the steam do the work and don't stir or take the lid off while cooking.
Super easy clean up since the unit is non-stick. Can't ask for more at the price. I love mine.
Update: It's June 2008 and mine is still working great. I now don't even bother to rinse the rice first and I've never had my cooker bubble over. For making brown rice, I add a little more water than normal, say 1/4 cup.
Update: 2010, still works great and after running it (the cooker base insert) through the dishwasher all these years it has not yet chipped or scratched or flaked. Also found out the cooker works great with Vigo brands pre-packed Red Beans and Rice or Black Beans and Rice 8oz bags. (1 packet = fill line #2 of water)
Customer Review: Pretty good stuff (even after one year!)
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a really nice hassle-free basic rice cooker. I got it about a month back and have been using it everyday. Somethings about the cooker:
1. Ease of use: very easy to use. Calibrations for water measures inside the rice cooker are spot on. No need for any improvisation.
2. Cleaning: very easy to clean as its non stick and rice doesnt stick to the bottom, unlike other cheaper cookers.
3. versatility: have cooked two very different types of rice in this and it manages both with panache.
4. quality of rice output: very good, fluffy rice. Manages to cook even the starchiest ones properly (though you would need to clean those a little more than others)
5. wish list: wish this had a steam basket.
I highly recommend this one as its value for money at $20.
UPDATE (11/04/09):
1. Everything that I said above still holds true.
2. Apart from small scratches, no damage to the product yet.
3. Surprisingly resilient (I once dumped rice and water into it, only to realize that the plastic container wasn't there...)
4. Still cooks any type of rice with ease.
Seems like its in for the long haul. $20 well spent (pat on my back...)
UPDATE (01/24/11):
1. Still works the same as the first day I got it.
2. No damage to electricals yet.
3. Have learnt that a little extra water doesn't hurt and would lead to less scratching due to scraping with spatula.
4. Cooks all kinds of rice (brown, basmati, starchy) and we cook pilaf in this all the time.