What do we mean by"well-cooked" rice? It depends on the variety, but generally speaking, rice should cook up evenly, so that all the rice grains in the cooker are of the same quality, and there aren't pockets of over- or under-cooked rice, or any areas of scorched rice. The rice should remain distinct grains that are soft enough to eat, but not so soft that they become mush.
We selected the rice cookers for testing by looking at recommended rice cookers from other publications, like, as well as top sellers on Amazon. To keep the number of cookers manageable, we introduced a few criteria to narrow the field. We limited the maximum yield of cooked rice to about 15 cups, which is more than enough rice for a family of four, plus guests . We removed any rice cookers that had a maximum cooked rice capacity of fewer than 10 cups.
In each test, the rice used was washed and rinsed using an identical method: the dry rice was placed in a bowl, which was then filled with cold water. The rice was swirled by hand in the water 15 times and then drained, and the process was repeated seven times to ensure the rinsing water ran clear. The rice was then drained thoroughly in a fine-mesh strainer before being placed in each rice cooker's pot.
The Cuckoo performed best in the medium-grain Japanese rice test and in the jasmine test, and was a very, very close second in the short-grain test. It placed third in the basmati test.
Rice cookers never cooked rice well for me, so I just use a pot now :p