What is a rice cooker?

A rice cooker is an electronic kitchen appliance that guides raw rice grains through the four stages of cooking. The rice cooker uses heat to cook grains of rice inside of it as it sits in some water.

A typical rice cooker uses conductive heating on a metal pan inside to bring the water to a boil at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. The rice grains absorb the boiling water, growing bigger and fluffier until all of the water is gone. Once the water inside a rice cooker is all gone, its internal temperature begins to rise, causing the machine to either switch to a warming cycle or to turn off.