Model: Cuckoo CR-0655F
We've never been successful at cooking stove-top rice, nomatter the brand or type (not counting the pouches of ready to heat microwave rice).
Our very first try, made a batch of nearly perfect rice. Not mushy, not crunchy, just wee bit firm but quite edible.
Our second try, and every batch afterwards - literally perfect Asian restaurant quality cooked rice! Only required rinsing the rice a bit longer and adding water to just wee bit - 1 or 2 line thickness above the water fill line. Yeah, it was that simple.
Comes with an instruction book, measuring cup, and rice paddle.
The inner pot water fill line is notched into the metal, so there's no marking paint to wear off over time, and as long as you have some light in the kitchen, preferably near the kitchen sink, the fill lines are easy to see.
You must use the provided measuring cup for measuring rice, be sure for 1 cup, fill rice directly to the top cup lip, and use the paddle handle to "level off" the rice for perfect measurement. Same as you would if measuring ingredients for other recipes that call for precise amounts ( not "heaping full" )
The measuring cup does have some measurements on it, also engraved into the plastic, they may be hard to read at times, but sofar we're just using it for per 1 measuring cup or rice for 2-cup batches at a time.
The rice cooker is very simple maintenance with few removable parts:
The inner bowl, inner lid, steam cap, and water collection cup are all removable parts of the rice cooker, for ease of use hand-washing and drying.
- Inner bowl is non-stick. Once cooled off, a quick wipe wish dishcloth, or bit of soap and water to clean the little bit of flaked starchy residue.
- The inner top plate is very easy to remove, a spring loaded lever, and the plate simply comes out, no force needed. Simply wipe with dry or wet dishcloth, or run under tap then wipe to dry.
- The Steam cap on the top lid pulls out very easily, and unscrewes - top half, inner removable rubber ring, and bottom half. Simple twist action to assemble or disasemble.
- The water collection cup at the back of the unit simply slots in and is seated, no effort to remove or replace.
Controls are very simple and easy to use. Digital display is easy to read. Setting the clock is fairly straight forward, press and hold either of the buttons for Hour and Minute as the instruction manual says to. The buttons have both English and Korean/Chinese? languages printed in white lettering. Display is in English, may be possible to change display to other languages.
The rice cooker by default is set to Glutenous (white) rice, so its simple just plug in, add rice, water, and press the cook button.
The rice-cooker once finished automatically switches to keep-warm mode, and will keep your rice ready to serve for hours on end. If you prefer to keep it plugged in, and need to clean it, you'll want to hit the Cancel button to shut it off. The display is also battery powered and keeps the cooking settings progress, very handy if you live in an area that is prone to or has frequent power outages. (In comparison we have a different brand digital slow cooker that is absolutely useless to set and forget for overnight or during the work day cooking, if the power blips for a second or is out for any length of time it resets to "off" mode.)
There's several different modes including Turbo (quick mode), brown, mixed, porridge, baby food, Gaba (brown rice) etc,.
Instructions have both English and either Chinese or Korean printing on opposite pages. The instructions are very well written, does not feel like anything was auto-translated over to English. The instructions are straight forward, they show a simple illustration of the measuring cup of rice - correct and incorrect examples.
Instructions cover all the main modes of rice and mixed ingredients cooking, and provide a couple mixed-mode cooking instructions for other foods.
It lists 35-50 minutes for rice cooking time, for us doing a 2 cup uncooked / 4 cup cooked batch took approx 35 minutes on the non-turbo mode. Haven't tried larger 4-6 cup batches or the Turbo function.
This is our first rice cooker, and very impressed with the results, and finally can enjoy home cooked perfect rice.
Also - go to the company's website, they have a large selection of different easy to make recipes to try! Recipes are sorted by rice cooker, pressure cooker, etc.
If you sign up on their website, register your model of rice cooker they'll supposedly send you alerts for other specials as well as possible replacement parts when they may be due needing replacement - which is a very nice and thoughtful service, being able to say order a replacement bowl or other parts years down the road means extending the life and investment of your rice cooker.
The only oddity is the question of size to price point - this is the 6 cup rice cooker, bought for $124.99, and there's a 3 cup model - identical design for a much higher regular price (or just over $100 when on sale). Not sure why the smaller model is actually more expensive. We went with the 6 cup model as it was cheaper at the time, and it never hurts having a larger capacity for if/when you need it and to try cooking other meals with it. No regrets, and we highly recommend the CR-0655F model.
| Brand | CUCKOO |
|---|---|
| Model Number | CR-0655F |
| Colour | Red/White |
| Product Dimensions | 23.88 x 21.84 x 33.02 cm; 3.18 kg |
| Capacity | 6 Cups |
| Power/Wattage | 700 watts |
| Voltage | 120 |
| Material | Plastic |
| Special Features | Timer |
| Item Weight | 3.18 kg |
