Sometimes cooking rice can be a bit of a hurdle, but we’re here to help. We tested two of the most popular rice cookers on the market, the Aroma Select Stainless® Rice & Grain Cooker and the Aroma Digital Rice & Grain Multicooker.
The Aroma Select Stainless® Rice & Grain Cooker is a simple rice cooker that has a 100% food-grade 304 stainless steel pot to cook rice and various grains. It’s a single-button system that makes cooking rice simple in your kitchen. We picked out a six-cup rice cooker in white, but they also come in red and black colors and a larger 14 cups sized rice cooker. If you want a simple machine and aren’t too picky about your rice, then the Select Stainless® Rice & Grain Cooker is your preferred rice cooker.
The Aroma Digital Rice & Grain Multicooker is a little more complex in that it not only makes rice, but it can also make oatmeal, other grains, chili, and even steam vegetables. It also includes a digital screen and delay timer for planned meals. While the Select Stainless® Rice & Grain Cooker model is made with stainless steel, this version has a ceramic nonstick coating. This version we tested is an eight-cup rice cooker.
Between the two machines, we prefer the Aroma Digital because it gives you plump and consistent rice grains versus the Aroma Select Stainless, which can often give you unevenly cooked rice or slightly wet and slightly hard rice grains. This difference in rice consistency is due to the type of heating element in each machine.
The Aroma Digital is made with an induction heating element, which cooks food evenly throughout the chamber and the Aroma Select Stainless heats the rice from a single hot plate which can have spots that are hotter than others–this also can cause burned rice at the bottom of the pot. We also appreciated that the Aroma Digital beeped loudly to alert us the rice was finished when the Aroma Select Stainless only switched from on to warm; This could lead to dried-out rice if you forget about the cooker.
Each rice cooker also comes with manuals that describe how much rice and water to cook. These models also include specific rice measuring cups that you need to use if you are following the manual. One rice measuring cup equals ¾ traditional measuring cup. For the most part, both models use the same measurements for cooking white rice, but it’s displayed differently on each manual.
The Aroma Digital recommends using a 1:1.33 ratio of rice to water, which means for every 1 cup of rice you need to add 1 ⅓ cup of water to the pot. The Aroma Select Stainless states to use 2 cups of rice and fill the water up to line 2 inside the pot. We measured this at about 16 fluid ounces (or 480 ml or two traditional liquid measuring cups) and this means leaning more towards a 1:1 ratio. This latter 1:1 ratio is similar to our rice cooker post for our National brand rice cooker.
Each Aroma rice cooker also has manuals available online, you can access the Digital Rice & Grain Multicooker manual here and the Select Stainless® Rice & Grain Cooker manual here. If you have other types of
When cooking in each of these rice cookers, it’s important to know the maximum amount of rice you can cook for each cooker. The Aroma Digital can cook between two to eight cups of cooked rice per batch. The Aroma Select Stainless can between two to six cups of cooked rice per batch. When we refer to cups, this is in reference to the rice measuring scoop that each rice cooker comes with because it differs from traditional measuring cups.
Yes, you should definitely wash rice. Washing rice helps to remove excess dirt and debris that may be leftover during processing. You are also removing extra starch on the grains and this helps to prevent mushy rice. Note if you are using enriched rice, washing rice might remove some of these nutrients.
I’ve found that the best rice to water ratio for Aroma Select Stainless to be 1:1 and the ratio for the Aroma Digital is 1:1.33.
It’s important to note that each cooker comes with its own measuring scoop that they note measures to be about ¾ cup. All the measurements in these manuals that refer to “cups” refer to this particular rice scoop. If you want to use a traditional dry measuring cup, make sure to use the ¾ cup instead of a full one cup spoon.
While the Aroma Digital listed the number of white rice cups to water cup ratio, the Aroma Select Stainless uses the water line inside the rice pot. They also use a completely different table for brown rice and grains, so make sure to use the correct table.
| # of Rice Scoops | Rice by weight | Water Line | Water Scoops | Water Volume (ml) | Water Volume (Fluid Ounces) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 150g | Line 1 | 1 1/3 | 236ml | 8 fl. oz. |
| 2 | 300g | Line 2 | 2 1/3 | 475ml | 16 fl. oz. |
| 3 | 450g | Line 3 | 3 1/3 | 620ml | 21 fl. oz. |
| # of Rice Scoops | Rice by weight | Water Line | Water Scoops | Water Volume (ml) | Water Volume (Fluid Ounces) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 150g | Line 1 | 1 1/3 | 236ml | 8 fl. oz. |
| 2 | 300g | Line 2 | 2 1/3 | 475ml | 16 fl. oz. |
| 3 | 450g | Line 3 | 4 | 710ml | 24 fl. oz. |
For more recipes on how to cook rice see below:
