What is an item below 100 bucks that everyone should own?

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One I didn't see mentioned yet: a rice cooker.
Put in rice, add water, push start button, and you get perfect rice every time. I'm usually against single-purpose kitchen tools but a rice cooker is soo worth it.
- Really only if you eat a lot of rice. For once a year or so, a pot on the stove works just fine. The actual benefit I've see for ricecookers is how well they can hold the rice for hours ready to go, but that's more of a commercial benefit I think.
  
  [...] but that’s more of a commercial benefit I think
  For me, this is the primary benefit of a rice cooker. Having warm, cheap, filling food on demand at any time is fantastic. I am so lazy and my little rice buddies are always ready to go when I can't be bothered.
  
  "Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something"
  
  I eat a lot of ice and I still just make it in a pot.
  
  I like to imagine you huddled over an ice field, stirring water in a pot until it turns to the perfect slushy consistency for your fresh homemade ice.
  
  Shit this comment made me so thirsty good lord I need some water
  
  Artesan ice. $17.99/litre
  
  A rice cooker can serve as a cheaper instapot tho. I can steam rice and veggies without having to babysit a pot.
  I also have kitchen anxiety, and in a roommate situation can keep a rice cooker in my room.
- Living in Japan, this almost didn't register to me. I have literally never met anybody that didn't have one. When you move out, you use your family's old one until you can buy a newer one.
  Everyone should have one, absolutely.
  
  When I did a homestay in Japan, my host dad was shocked my family didn't have one. I do now though!
- I know this will be a popular response, but I don’t get it.
  I just use a pot and the rice is always perfect? Not hard at all? Am I just good?
  
  I used to do that for years, but rice cookers really do some magic to get perfectly fluffy rice. I thought my technique was good, until I tried rice from a rice cooker.
  
  Meanwhile, I've been disappointed by rice cooker rice and make it better the old fashioned way. :shrug:
  
  You should look into Zojirushi. They make the best rice cookers
  
  Yeah just add however many cups of rice and then add water to the specified line. Don’t need to do any of that finger bullshit to check water levels
  And by cup I mean the cup that comes with the rice cooker not sure how it corresponds to the actual unit of measurement
- We sold our rice cooker on eBay after finding out the microwave rice cooker addon for 10€ is just as good, if not faster.
  
  Lol TIL people are buying used rice cookers on eBay
  
  So what?
- It’s great for quinoa, farro and couscous too. Love our tiger rice cooker, it’s a work horse!
  
  Speaking of, be careful about consuming too much rice because of arsenic. There are plenty of other grains that don't soak up arsenic so readily and have a better nutritional profile. It's fine to eat rice, just switch it out throughout the week.
- So much this. I’m usually responsible for cooking for the week, and prepping rice was so much of a hassle in the middle of cooking everything else that most of the time I didn’t even bother and went for pasta instead— way easier to cook, but easily 3x the calories.
  After I got a rice cooker, I just pop like 4 cups in that mfer and we got enough rice to last through like 2 days worth of dinner + bentos for lunch the day after.
  Get a rice cooker y’all.
- Love mine.
  When I make chicken or beef stock I put it in I've cube trays. On some mornings I add the rice, a stock ice cube, and maybe some miso. I let it ride while I get ready and then crack an egg on the cooked rice and add some avocado, tamari and rice seasoning (nori and sesame)
  Best breakfast and super easy
- ok this might sound heretical but a "hack" i learned from cooking youtube is to just boil rice like pasta then drain. I do this for about ~12 mins with white rice and it comes out perfect every time with no risk of messing up. Downside is you need to drain it.
  unsure the validity of this claim? but apparently there can be a non-insignificant amount of arsenic in american grown rice, and boiling can help leech it out into the water.
- what's the difference with cooking rice the normal way?
- My husband got us a Zojirushi rice cooker for my birthday one year, and I love it so much! We had an old $15 Oster one previously, which was also pretty nice to have, but oh boy. I'm spoiled by Zojirushi now. We could make a cake in it! I haven't yet.... But I could! Lol.
  
  I've always wanted to try one of those, nice.
- An instant pot can do that and a whole lot more. I'm not sure if that falls under $100 but I would bet if you got an off-brand version it would.
  
  The relatively good larger instant pot that I bought a couple of years ago was around $79, so I reckon you can still get one for under $100. Although I also have a rice cooker, I find this thing indispensable. I often have 5-8 people at my house, so a go to is throwing a bunch of chicken breast, soy, ginger, garlic, brown sugar, etc, in the instant pot for around 30-40 minutes total time while the rice is cooking. Shred chicken, turn to sauté, add a little corn starch slurry. Boom teriyaki chicken.
  We do a similar thing for chicken tacos, but spicing with chicken bouillon, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, garlic, onion, tomato. Shred, enjoy meat for tacos, enchiladas, etc. I make a passable birria in about around 2 hours.
  Country ribs/pork shoulder, bbq sauce, apple juice, onion, garlic. While it's cooking in the instant pot, simmer down an onion. Not quite caramelize until it's jelly, but sweat until onions are soft. Turn oven to broil, cut the entire pack of kings hawaiian rolls or similar in half, butter and brown under the broil. Shred the pork, spread on the rolls, add a little bbq sauce, the onions, and cover with provolone slices. Broil again until cheese melts.
  Chili is another good one. Although I haven't done it, you can use unsoaked dry beans in some recipes. I usually just throw a few cans of my faves (I prefer it bitier, so more kidney) with spices and browned meat of some sort (feel free to omit) and we're good to go.
  Most of the things I make in the instant pot are things that I would normally have to wait all day for, or at least 3-4 hours. Not great after a work day. Low and slow recipes work really well in instant pot with a minor adjustment here and there, and often you turn a 4 hour recipe into a 1 hour recipe. And as a poor, this type of cooking can be a game changer because low and slow is often for foods that are cheap. if you head to the store and buy a ny strip, you can come home and be eating great in 15 minutes. Not so much with a much, much cheaper piece of chuck.
  
  You can do a lot more with a rice cooker. Soup, pasta, sauces, even steam vegetables if you put a tray on it.
  
  You can do all of that. I don't care either way. I was just suggesting because of the "single use" comment.
- Is it different from a pressure cooker? Because pressure cooker is similar (add water, rice, start cooking, wait for X whistles) and has multiple use cases.
  
  Rice cookers are not sealed for high pressure (they are in fact not sealed at all, just like regular pots and lids, because they need to lose excess moisture) and they are configured for this one particular thing: every rice cooker is calibrated for a fixed serving of rice (or couple different settings) with fixed amount of water. All it really does is turn off at the perfect moment, ~~which is determines by weight.~~ which is determined by a thermostat (magnet-based in this case)
  
  The high end rice cookers use sensors and will vent excess moisture or hold in moisture as need and can adjust cook time.
  Zojirushi calls their sensors "micom"
  
  Oh, I have a pressure sealed rice cooker, but it's the top of the line Zojuroshi and is more like $600. It's also not fast, takes like an hour, but the rice is divine. Sadly, I rarely cook rice. I got it for my sister, who lived in China for a while and used to eat rice all the time, but then moved into a tiny house and gave it back to me... I can't really bear to throw it out - but I only use it if I'm making a huge amount of rice randomly.
  
  It takes longer because it soaks the rice, which makes it more consistent.
  
  Ah okay. Thanks!
- For anyone who doesn't want a rice cooker but can't find a good basic white rice recipe: Put rice and water in a pot (1 cup rice to 1.5 cup water. People will tell you 2 cups water, punch them, or ignore them, your choice.) Turn it on high until it boils, stirring lightly occasionally to stop it from sticking. As soon as it starts boiling (not simmering) cover it with a lid and turn on low. Keep covered until it's done (just taste it to test if it's done.)
  P.S. You can add whatever seasonings you want if you find something good online or something. It's not important to actually cooking the rice.

968 comments