Aroma Housewares ARC-150SB Rice Cooker

The Rice is Nice from Our Aroma Rice Cooker

Our aging Oster rice cooker still works, though it's just a matter of time. In an unusual fit of anticipation, we replaced it with a cooker several generations newer. The Aroma Rice Cooker ARC-150SB has features unheard of in the Oster's day, which cooks white rice. Period. The new one cooks white or brown rice, has a timer that lets us start our rice up to 15 hours in advance, and came with a steamer tray. The owner's manual has recipes for dishes like soup and stew to make in the pot. Haven't tried them; probably won't...

Description

Aroma's cooker makes four to twenty cups of white or brown rice in its large nonstick pot. Setup's simple: dump in from two to ten measures of rice (¾ Cup each) and add water until it reaches the matching line on the pot. Latch the lid, the switch on, choose white or brown, and press "START"; or set the timer and press "START." The cooker uses fuzzy logic to optimize the cooking time, but on average white rice takes 35 minutes and brown about 110. The pot cooks until the water boils off, then shifts into "KEEP WARM" cycle.

The STEAM function uses the tray that fits into the top of the pot. Press the STEAM button and then press START repetitively to set the time according to a chart in the owner's manual. You can steam foods while cooking rice, though that tends to overcook veggies unless you open the lid to remove them.

Using an Aroma Rice Cooker We've cooked both white and brown rice and also steamed asparagus and cauliflower. The instructions warn to rinse rice before cooking to prevent crispiness on the bottom; we've found this good advice for both brown and white rice. The timer function works fine, although the instructions are a little fuzzy on whether the timer controls start or finish (it's finish...) To clean, the pot lifts out, a rubbery steam vent pulls loose from the lid and there's a little eservoir under the hinge to capture water that drips from the lid. The pot can be washed in a dishwasher or by hand.

A non-stick interior, the brown rice cycle, and timer and steamer are all improvements over our old basic rice cooker; especially the setting for the healthier brown rice. In the minus column, the lid is fixed and has to be be wiped clean instead of washed. It's also hard to see the water markings on the pot's black interior surface, so we keep a flashlight handy. Once we figured out the differences from our old model, we gave the Aroma Rice Cooker 150SB a hearty thumbs up.

Summary

PLUS: non-stick pot, steamer, brown rice cycle and timer,
MINUS: lid must be wiped to clean, lines on black pot interior are hard to see
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: The 150SB Rice Cooker from Aroma is feature-rich and, most important, makes a mean pot of rice.