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Cooking rice is not an obvious use for applied high tech, but it's no surprise that the Japanese, renowned for gadgetry, would invent the neuro-fuzzy rice cooker, an appliance with single-minded smarts.
For the state of the art in intelligent rice making, look no further than Panasonic's National SR-MK10N and Zojirushi's NS-JCC10, both available in the US. Their cleverness comes from the use of fuzzy logic (a computing model that doesn't subscribe to the binary yes/no worldview), which lets them handle ambiguous criteria, such as rice's doneness - typically a matter of interpretation and taste.
Just tell the cooker what kind of rice it's cooking and when you want it done, then toss the rice and water into the Teflon-coated pan. Both machines have sensors that measure the temperature of the cookers' pans. At the start of the cycle, the cookers figure out how much rice and how much water are onboard, and then they apply the right amount of heat during the cycle. According to Panasonic, its cooker can compensate for up to a 10 percent error in rice or water quantities. You can also specify whether the rice should be harder or softer than usual and whether it should cook at the regular pace or in quick-cook mode (for a slightly al dente result).
The cookers I tested were 5-cup versions; you can also get them in 10-cup sizes. Of the two cookers, Panasonic's National unit is the better value. Its cooking cycles are shorter than the Zojirushi's, it has a separate setting for sushi rice, and the 5-cup version is almost $40 cheaper. While the Zojirushi's ergonomics are better - the plastic handles built in to the pan are particularly useful - the benefits don't justify the price difference.
National SR-MK10N: $189. Panasonic: (800) 211 7262. NS-JCC10: $225. Zojirushi: +1 (323) 722 1700, www.zojirushi.com.
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