Zojirushi is a leading name in rice cookers all over the world. They manufacture high quality, durable rice cookers for all budget levels. Although they produce some cheaper rice cookers most of their products are higher end and often run over $100. If you take ever make a trip over to Japan you will probably notice that almost all homes and restaurants use Zojirushi brand rice cookers. An entire nation of rice fanatics using a single brand of rice cooker has to say something for its quality.

A large portion of their rice cookers are higher end, made for those who love eating a variety of rice and who care about the end product when cooking. However they do make a number of more simple, cheaper rice cookers as well.

Zojirushi offers a number of different features throughout their line of rice cookers, below are some of the most prominent:

Warming

All but a select few Zojirushi rice cookers come with a warming feature these days and I personally would never buy one without it. At the very least this feature allows the rice to stay warm for hours after it's finished cooking, but many also provide a re-warming ability, allowing you to re-heat rice or other foods in the rice cooker. One thing to keep in mind though is to try to avoid using any warming feature with very small amounts of rice, such as 1 or 2 cups as this can dry the rice out.

The Ability to Steam

A feature that's becoming much more popular in Zojirushi rice cookers is the steamer. This is essentially a plate that usually sits on the rim of the cooking pot that allows steam to pass through. The steamer is great for cooking fish, vegetables and rice that has better texture when steamed over when boiled such as Thai sticky rice and Jasmine rice.

Neuro Fuzzy and Fuzzy Logic

Fuzzy technology is very common in Zojirushi rice cookers, in fact, just about all mid to upper-range models come with it. If you are particular about the way your rice comes out then you shouldn't get any rice cooker without this technology. Neuro Fuzzy is a newer version of Fuzzy Logic but both work very well. Rice cookers with this feature are able to constantly update the temperature and cooking time, thus allowing it to always produce a perfect pot of rice. It also helps reduce the impact of poor measuring or other possible human errors.

Induction Heating

Most rice cookers have a heating coil below the cooking bowl that is used to cook the rice. However there are a few of the higher-end Zojirushi rice cookers that come with a technology called 'induction heating'. This process does not use the simple heating coil and thus creates a much more uniform heating of the rice. This type of heating allows for a much more efficient cooking and allows the rice to stay more uniformly cooked.

Again, Zojirushi rice cookers are the best in my book, finding the right one for you can sometimes seem a bit complicated. I hope that the features described in this article help you in finding the perfect rice cooker for you.