What’s the smallest amount of rice you can make in a rice cooker? I like to make single portions, so I prepare 4oz. in a pot on the stove. Can I make that little in a rice cooker?
Depends on the size of your rice cooker. Mine’s a small 3 cup affair, so I can do a portion (.75 - 1 cup) for myself if I REALLY wanted to. In a bigger rice cooker, though, I’d guess more rice would be left stuck to the sides than you’d actually be eating. 
The one we use if for the microwave. It works fairly well, and you have rice after a mere 15 minutes. We actually have three of them, two that have never been used that are put away for the inevitable demise of the current one (it’s been 3 years, so far, though), but I’ve never seen another anywhere.
Hey, the ones that don’t use a microwave, do they have two lids too? I think that’s the only reason the microwave one works.
I make a lot of Stir frys, so I eat rice almost everyother day.
I splurged and got
a Zojirushi as well. It is great.
it has setting for all kinds of cool stuff like Jumbalaya, porridge, all differet types of rice perfecty. I love the thing.
It’s have the little three cup version, but it’s perfect for me living alone. For a whole family it would be way too small.
Here’s the microwave rice cooker. We’ve used it the last couple of years and absolutely love it. Apparently you can make pasta and popcorn in it too. Who knew? The rice, though, has always come out great.
-Lil
http://www.kitchenetc.com/Products.cfm?sku=000093829&trackingid=frgl
Sorry, just noticed that one’s not available anymore. Here’s what it looks like now.
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=125670
I have a National rice maker and I love it! Make sure when you are choosing yours that you get one with even heating like a National or a Zojirushi. Cheaper ones will sometimes have a hotspot over the single element and the rice will burn.
Second the no vote on the Hitachi. And here I thought ours was just broken. I suppose now I have to get my wife a new rice cooker AND a compost bin for her birthday!
Mine’s a little shorter and twice the age, but like Jovan said:
I’m with Ginger on this one - I bought the Black and Decker Flavor Scenter Steamer (the smaller one) in January and I love using it for rice. Unlike Chefguy, I prefer to use the steamer to cook rice because I can put the rice and water in, turn the thing on, and ignore it while I do other things to get dinner ready. When I cook rice on the stove, there always is a risk that it will foam up and boil over, and I have to watch the pot carefully. Not so w/the steamer. Plus I’m more likely to cook brown rice if I can get it started way before dinner and not have to watch a pot for 45 min. straight.
It’s also pretty small, so you could use it for single servings, as Dewey Finn wanted.
Wish I’d had rice for dinner, now.
One other thing I forgot. One of the main reasons I finally got the fancy schmancy programmable one is that I live in Denver at a mile high. And I used to have the simpler rice cookers, but they wern’t set up for the lower boiling point of water, and didn’t come out quite right. Lowland folks might not find the same benefit for the expensive one as I did
This is an awesome brand of rice cooker! It’s easy to make, the instructions are simple. Gooooood rice. I never cared for rice before cooking it in this cooker. Yum!
I’ve got a National that’s over 10 years old and still works perfectly. I hate to cook, but I love my rice cooker. I also use it to steam vegetables.
Ours is a LG (Goldstar) brand from Korea. I carried it home on the plane. When we got into LAX, somebody asked me if it was a hair dryer.
I use the 6 cup model and have read about the “spitting”, but I’ve never had the problem as long as I rinse my rice well. I use the measuring cup it comes with, and just add the water up to the pot’s line, and get perfect rice every time. I use jasmine rice. Damn. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!
I’ve got a Zojirushi neurofuzzy 5 cup model and I couldn’t do without it. It has multiple settings for white and brown rice as well as porridge. It also does other grains, prepackaged mixes, and beans. I’ve used it for farro, quinoa, spelt, and even some one pot meals such as fish and rice. It’s fabulous. I also heartily recommend the Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook. It’s got some great recipes.