“Fuzzy logic” is a way of describing situations that cannot be described in absolutes: yes or no, true or false, white rice or brown. Fuzzy logic is used in automated technology that must sense and adjust for various factors, like mixing cement (depends on humidity) and changing traffic lights (depends on traffic). In rice cookers, fuzzy logic can take into account the type of grain, its age and hardness and its desired consistency. Frequent rice cooks who work with a variety of grains and have room on the countertop will not be disappointed by the performance of these machines.

Inexpensive rice cookers with just two settings can handle many of the same tasks, though they require more attention. A mastery of regular binary logic is quite sufficient to operate these simpler models, but the initial process of measuring the rice and water can be mystifying.

There are many recipes for rice cooker dishes, on the Internet and in books like “The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook” (Harvard Common Press, 2002), but many of them are really recipes for steaming, or involve other pots and appliances. The most intriguing recipes are those that have been developed, out of necessity or curiosity, entirely for the rice cooker, like the ones here.

Hui Leng Tay, a food blogger in Singapore, is unusually committed to her rice cooker, having developed recipes for fried rice, bibimbap, Thai tom yum rice and many others at teczcape.blogspot.com. She sees herself as seeking the elusive grail of cooks everywhere: the make-ahead, not-too-unhealthy, tasty meal. “I try to figure out which ingredients get better when kept over low heat for a long time, like cabbage and onions, and which ones get droopy,” she said.

Shabnam Rezaei, an editor and producer, who grew up in Tehran in the 1970s and now lives in New York and Vancouver, said that a fundamental expectation for women in Iran is the ability to make tender, fluffy rice. “There are all kinds of jokes in Farsi about how women must keep their eyes on the rice pot or they will not find a husband,” she said. Making Persian rice correctly requires the cook to rinse and soak the grains, parboil them, dump them out, oil the pot, put the rice back and steam it, covered with a towel, until tender and surrounded by a golden crust on the bottom and sides called the tahdig.

It is perhaps not surprising that rice cookers, with a built-in tahdig function, have become standard in Iran. “In a culture where rice is so important, such a staple,” she said, “the rice cooker can bring a kind of liberation for women.”

Ratios in Translation

Rice cookers are usually sold with a plastic measuring cup that holds about three-quarters of an American cup. It is the size of the traditional Japanese tool for measuring rice: the masu, a wooden box sometimes used for drinking cold sake. “Measuring seems to be the most difficult part for our American buyers,” said Marilyn Matsuba, the American marketing manager for Zojirushi, the company that sells the most rice cookers in Japan. She said cooks can use the same proportions as when cooking rice in a pot. A ratio of two cups liquid to one cup long-grain rice will work; for short-grain rice, the ratio of water to rice is about one and a quarter cup to one cup. An Asian measuring method is surprisingly reliable: with the tip of the index finger resting on the top of the rice, add water until it rises just above the first knuckle. A rice cooker can accommodate easygoing approaches to measurement, because its long steam bath evens the texture of the rice.