Page  1    Japanese Electric Rice Cookers Are Not Just for Cooking Rice; You can Bake Bread or Make Stews, Too    Electric rice cookers do just that-they cook rice automatically using electricity. Rice is a staple food of the Japanese, so such rice cookers are indispensable in Japanese kitchens. Called "electric pots" in the past, the advent of automated rice cookers was a revolutionary development for the dietary life of Japanese people.    Electric rice cookers boil the rice, and the rice is eaten after the water used to cook it has evaporated. A home that cooks rice manually in a pot on the kitchen range is now a rarity in Japan. People buy uncooked rice at a rice shop or supermarket; the rice is stored at home and usually cooked once a day or so, at breakfast or dinner time. The cooked rice is kept warm in the rice cooker throughout the day and eaten at mealtimes.    Typical rice cookers are almost cylindrical in shape with a diameter of around 30 centimeters and a height also of about 30 centimeters. Professional-use rice cookers are much larger. There are also rice cookers that are somewhat rectangular in shape now on the market.    When you open the lid on the top of a rice cooker, you will find a removable cooking pan inside. This is where rice is placed for cooking. Below the pot is a heating plate that heats the pan electrically. Washed rice and water is placed in the cooking pot, and the cooker begins to heat up when the switch is turned on. Water comes to a boil in the pressurized interior, and the rice boiled and the water evaporated during a span of about 30 minutes. The electric rice cookers also double as warmers to keep the cooked rice warm for a long time. Rice Cookers Are Now Multi-purpose Cooking Appliances    Rice cookers have evolved over the years. The first electric rice cookers appeared in the 1950s. They were of simple design, heating the internal cooking pan electrically and then switching off automatically when a certain internal temperature was reached. Rice cookers with timer functions later appeared making it possible for people to prepare rice before going to bed and then eat freshly cooked rice the next morning. Rice cookers equipped with micro computer chips that enable the optimum cooking of the rice according to the type and style of rice being cooked also appeared. IH (Induction Heating) rice cookers that use induction heating technology to heat the whole inner cooking pan at a hot temperature have also become popular in recent years. Cooking rice at a hot temperature using IH technology results in tasty rice, and about half of the rice cookers sold are now the IH type.    A recent fad is to use of rice cookers for cooking other types of food. By placing meat, vegetables, water and other ingredients in the cooking pan and pressing the switch, the rice cooker will automatically simmer the content until tender.    Stews and soups can be made with the rice cooker. You can bake cakes if you use wheat and other ingredients, and there are even some electric rice cookers that allow you to bake bread. Induction heating rice cookers that can cook Such use of the electric rice cooker is proving popular because stewed dishes, etc. can be easily and safely cooked even while you are away from home. Some manufacturers are making electric rice cookers that have functions for making yoghurt or tofu. High-end products cost between 50,000 yen and 70,000 yen.    It would not be an overstatement to say that the electric rice cooker is an indispensable item in Japanese households, but they have today evolved into a multi-purpose cooking appliance.