vintach Hitachi rice cooker.. made in Japan!

[barbeckm]

Acquired from co-worker while cleaning out her mother's house.... interesting rice cooker from ?? 70's. Works well, but the 'chime-o-matic'bell does not seem to work.

Anyone interested in this?

Seems to be a fairly unusual appliance... with interesting directions... one suggestion in the manual is to "steam a package of frozen vegetables in just 13 minutes to enjoy as a low-cal snack before dinner"

Willing to send off to someone if intersted.... needs a good home !!

Original box, cord, directions!

 

[westie2]

We have the same one color and all.  Have used it and used it.  The ones today are not as good as this. 

 

And welcome to AW.ORG

 

[rp2813]

We have a "National" that has to be around 35 years old, has taken a few tumbles and still works fine.  I'm pretty sure "National" was made by Panasonic.

 

[cfz2882]

toshiba

i've got an old toshiba rice cooker from around 1965-my oldest japanese appliance.

 

[qualin]

I disagree.. The brand new Zojirushi Rice cookers are downright amazing.

They work like a hot damn and then some...

Although, can't really honestly say I'm into collecting vintage rice cookers..

That's a really nice one you have there though.

http://www.zojirushi.com/user/images/prod/9.2.jpg

 

[sudsmaster]

I believe I have a Hitachi very similar to that one. I'd have to go fetch it out of its storage box to be sure though.

The Hitachi pictured has a desirable feature not found on most rice cookers of its era: an on/off switch. On units lacking the switch, the cooker switches over to a keep warm mode when the rice is done. The only way to shut it off would be to unplug it or remove the cooking pot liner so that the weight activated switch turns off teh heater. There were some reports 10 or more yeas ago of such cookers starting fires if left in the keep warm mode indefinitely. I *think* mine has the on/off switch, and it wasn't easy to find such a unit at the time.

Since then I've "graduated" to more sophisticated rice cookers. The latest is a Zojirushi smart cooker with "fuzzy logic". It's the best so far - does brown rice perfectly, which is something many cookers have trouble with. But for white rice the Hitachi unit is probably just fine.

And yes, most rice cookers come with little steam trays so you could theoretically steam veggies and other foods in them. Honestly I don't like the idea of letting the steam water boil dry in a cooker like that, cause it can cause bad odors/flavors, but then I've never tried that feature in any of the rice cookers I've owned. I suppose for someone with a small kitchen and limited space, the feature could be quite helpful, though. And one could always just time the cooking, using and excess of steam water, to avoid the issue entirely.

 

[searsbest]

hitachi rice cooker

my parents had that very one growing up. it made fluffy rice every time! sadly they replaced it (for no reason...) a couple of years ago I always loved to hear the bell (thus chime-o-matic) and the end of cooking when it switched to warm.

 

[hoovermatic]

I have one of these, almost identical except it is a Sanyo. Not all that impressed with the way these cook rice - there are much better methods in my opinion.

 

[retro-man]

I had a korean girl working for me a few years ago and she showed me how to cook rice. This is for an electric stove, don't know how it would come out on a gas stove. Double the amount of water so 2 cups water to one cup rice. Bring water a touch of salt and a dab of butter in a pot with cover to boiling. Add rice stir then shut heat off and put cover on. Leave pot on burner covered for 1/2 hour. Do not open cover. After 1/2 hour remove and fluff rice with fork. For more fluffier rice leave another 5 minutes. Comes out perfect every time. Nothing burned on and always the way I like it.
Jon

 

[hunter]

@qualin

I have a zojirushi rice cooker I've had for nearly 10 years. It cost me a bundle then (>$100 IIRC) but it was the only one I could find that cooked brown rice as well as white rice.

They are awesome.

 

[passatdoc]

I had a small mid-1980s National which worked for 25 years. It was the small size (accepts two cups dry rice and four cups water, i.e. six cups maximum capacity) but after about twenty years it began to burn the rice on the bottom of the vessel. I replaced it with a six cup current Panasonic. Traditional styling and single switch operation, but with a nonstick interior...what an improvement over the old aluminum interior of the National, there was always a half inch or so of rice stuck to the bottom. Per the Amazon link, it can take up to 3 cups of dry rice, but that would be really full.

At the time I bought the new Panasonic, they offered a non-stick interior only in the size I bought. I just checked Amazon though and they offer 5 and 6 cup larger models also with the nonstick interior. This model has given me three or four years of flawless service. It also cooks brown rice perfectly, as well as rice-seasoning mixtures such as Zatarain's, Near East and New Orleans brands (dirty rice, rice pilaf, yellow rice, beef flavor rice, etc.)

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-SRG06FG-3-3-Cup-Automatic-Cooker/dp/B0009E3F68/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331737426&sr=8-1

 

[brisnat81]

We've given our Ricecooker away this days, With the Panasonic Genius microwave, just select auto program 6 and white or brown rice comes out perfectly.

Its yet to ever turn out an under or over cooked batch.