REVIEW – Cooking rice is an art. People eat a lot of rice. People in my house eat a lot of rice, I stink at art so it’s best to let a professional handle the job. The Toshiba TRSH01 Electric Rice Cooker is just the expert I need to rescue my family from my kitchen foibles!

The Toshiba TRSH01 Electric Rice Cooker is an electrical appliance that cooks rice and other grains and can be used as a food steamer.

My wife is from Madagascar. Her home country isn’t in the top 10 rice-consuming nations, but it’s still a staple for her. If she goes without rice for a few days, she starts getting the DTs (of course, I’m joking). Still, we cook a fair amount of rice in our home and enjoy different varieties, so it made sense to have a look at the Toshiba TRSH01 Electric Rice Cooker.

It arrived in a full-color box, well-packaged, and free of bumps and bruises.

The cooking pot is non-stick and, I’m jumping ahead, but it was pleasingly easy to clean.

A rice measuring cup, a serving spatula, and a soup ladle were included. Thank you, Toshiba.

Also included is a steamer basket that fits into the cooking pot.

Construction is plastic and stainless steel. It’s one nice-lookin’ rice cooker.

There’s even a built-in handle so you can carry your rice picnic basket style.

A spring-loaded button on the stainless-steel face opens the lid.

When closed, the lid latches securely.

The rice cooker is rated at 120 volts at 1130 watts. That’s about 9.4 Amps at peak energy consumption so you might not want to operate it on the same circuit as a power-hungry toaster or microwave running at the same time lest you make a trip to your domicile’s power panel to reset a circuit breaker or fuse.

Atop the TRSH01’s lid is an attractive white LED display. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with a clock display immediately upon applying power.

 Buttons from left to right are “Menu,” “Keep Warm/Cancel,” “Start,” “Preset,” and a combination of “Hr.” (hour) and “Min.”(minute).

Holding the “Hr” button for three seconds enters the clock setting mode. Tapping or holding the “Hr” and “Min” buttons advance the time. You’ll want to set that clock for reasons I’ll explain in a moment.

The display is in “military time.” Toshiba was wise to implement the clock as 24-hour because it might be yucky (or even dangerous) to accidentally set the timer to complete at 6:00 in the morning rather than 6:00 PM. Better to use 18:00, right?

“Menu” selects the type of grains you plan to cook. Selections are “Low Carb,” “Quick Rice,” “White Rice,” “Brown Rice,” “Mixed Grain,” “Quinoa,” “Steam,” and “Oatmeal.”

If you have a habitual favorite, quantity, and time you like to eat, before starting to cook your grains of culinary joy, pick the type and then press the “Preset” button. The Toshiba TRSH01 Electric Rice Cooker enters a timer mode that displays the current time, then the “Hr” and “Min” buttons can be used to choose the completion time when you want the cooking to finish. There are two timers available (Timer1 and Timer2) that can be stored to have hot and fresh fluffy rice ready after you slumber or arrive home after a long work day. Of course, you can use the timers without saving a preset, but these are… Ahhhh… Nice…

Preparation isn’t difficult in quantities of up to 5.5 cups (white rice). Using the included measuring cup, place it in the cooking pot, rinse (if necessary), and add water to the appropriate mark. Brown rice uses more water so it’s limited to three cups.

Rotate the pot a few times to ensure it’s properly seated, close the top, touch the “Menu” button to choose what’s being prepared, and push “Start.” Unless a timer is being used, cooking begins immediately and a countdown is displayed. If a timer is used, cooking will be completed at the time of your choosing. So cool!

Thou shall heed the warnings lest thou shalt receive a steam burn ouchie!

The Toshiba TRSH01 Electric Rice Cooker uses fuzzy logic to measure temperature and adjust the time to perfectly cook rice every time. I tried four different types of rice (red, glutinous, Jasmine, and Basmati) and the textures were uniformly fluffy, even if adding excess water (you’ll get a greater volume of rice this way, but it will be less flavorful).

When complete, the Toshiba TRSH01 Electric Rice Cooker automatically enters the warming mode. For the best taste, Toshiba recommends rice should be consumed within five hours, but the TRSH01 is capable of keeping the contents warm and toasty for up to 24 hours.

If you’ve ever cooked red rice on the stove using a covered pot, you know that the copious starch produced bubbles out from the edges of the lid and makes a mess. The same thing happens when I used one of my less sophisticated rice cookers. With the Toshiba TRSH01, the mess was contained inside (Yay!), save for a little starchy steamy dribble on the steam valve cover (no big deal). Engineers anticipated the need to clean and the steam valve cover is removable.

Cleanup was the most painless of any rice cooker I’ve ever owned.

Cleaning the inside was equally satisfying. After allowing the cooker to cool, a few wipes with a damp sponge did the trick. The inner lid can be unlatched and opened for scrubbing.

A few swipes and the rice cooker is in spiffy shape!

Not done cleaning yet, but this is after a gentle 10-second sponging…

A slick Toshiba innovation implemented in this cooker is for “Low Carb” rice. This process uses the steaming basket and allows the starch to collect in the cooking bowl. Clever! The manual is clear and describes the process.

This year, more than 500 million metric tons of rice were produced worldwide. The USA only consumes 4.6 million metric tons and nowhere near as much as Asian countries, but sometimes I think my household consumes most of it. The Toshiba TRSH01 Electric Rice Cooker makes my (almost) daily task much more convenient, it’s easy to clean, and it produces remarkably consistent results.

Price: $199.99 Where to buy: Amazon Source: The sample for this review was supplied by Toshiba.

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