How to Choose an Electric Pot
Electric pots are practical kitchen helpers. With their help, you can prepare food quickly, healthily and without any extra fats. But with so many electric pots available, how can you find the one for your needs? Keep reading and we will advise you if your culinary art is more suitable for rice, steam or pressure cookers, electric pans, or Remoska pots. Those of you who require more can uncover the magic of multifunctional pots.
Several Tips for Choosing an Electric Pot
- First, you need to think about what you want to prepare in the electric pot.
- Multiple pots make it possible to prepare more dishes at one time.
- An electric pan can also be used instead of an oven or hot plate.
- If you like to camp or have a cottage, you will love a Remoska pot.
- If you want one pot for everything, you will like a multifunctional pot.
Basic Parameters for Choosing an Electric Pot
Volume
The size of the electric pot varies according to its purpose. If you want to prepare or cook a larger quantity of food, choose pots with a volume of 5 litres or more. We recommend a pot capacity of 29 litres to accommodate a larger quantity of dishes to speed up the cooking process. To prepare rice, it will be enough to have a 5 litre electric pot. Steam pots are generally larger in size because they can prepare multiple dishes at one time. If you plan to cook regularly for more people, the bigger the better.
Material
Most electric pots are made of stainless steel and have a non-stick surface; most often Teflon. The pots are very durable and easy to clean. They resist stuck-on food and do not break easily.
Cooking Temperature
It is known that vitamins and nutrients can be lost from food when cooking. Higher temperatures destroy and split these healthy substances. To avoid this, there are also slow electric cookers that prepare food at low temperatures. Although the food is cooked for a longer period of time, it preserves the colour and taste of the food. An exception, however, are pressure cookers because they work with pressure to maintain vitamins and nutrients even when the food is prepared very quickly and at a high temperature.
Cooking at High Pressures
High pressure cooking has one great advantage, and that's speed. If steam from boiled water is not allowed to escape from the pot for some time, the pressure inside the cooker rises. Cooking at higher pressures along with higher temperatures makes it faster, greener and healthier. Short cooking at higher temperature leaves foods with higher heat content of undiluted vitamins and other substances, and helps keep the original taste of food much longer than cooking in a pot with a lid.
Type of Heating
If you want a choice of cooking temperatures, then electric pans are great! You can choose from two types: upper and lower heating. The upper heater is used for baking meat or buns and other food. The lower heating is ideal for frying and stewing.
Special Features
Some electric pots are complemented by a display that clearly shows the cooking time and program settings. Special features include a timer or delayed start. You can easily plan cooking according to your needs.
Rice Cookers
If you love rice, this pot will make it easier for you to prepare all of your favourite types of rice. You will appreciate that the cooked rice does not stick to the walls of the pot and that it will stay warm for several hours. The pot cooks with steam so that the preparation of the food is very healthy and it will preserve all the nutrients. Rice is very tasty, and using a rice pot is also very easy and fast. Burned rice will be a thing of the past, because once it's cooked, the rice pot turns off automatically.
How much water do I need to cook rice?
Usually 1.5 cups of water is sufficient for 1 cup of rice. But rice such as Basmati is quite dense, so it sometimes consumes up to 6 times the amount of water.
Why is my rice undercooked or overcooked?
Undercooked, hard rice happens because not enough water was used for cooking. In this case, check the rice during cooking and, if it is still uncooked but the water has burned off, add more water. Conversely, overcooked rice means that too much water was used and the rice was boiled for too long.
Maintenance and cleaning - Can I put it in the dishwasher?
Rice pans can usually be washed in a dishwasher without any problems. Some types of rice pans, mostly the cheaper ones, do not allow for this. Be sure to check this before putting it in the dishwasher.
Steam Pots
A steam pot is ideal for healthy cooking. It cooks without fat and oil, so you only need water. Steam pots are suitable for meat, rice and vegetables. Some steam pots are equipped with several cooking utensils, so you can easily prepare a main meal, appetiser and side dish at the same time.
Can I cook full meals in a steam pot?
Yes. In a steam pot, the food can be heated. Some even use it instead of a microwave oven. However, it is important to take into account that the plates do not fit in the microwave so that the food must be changed to a plate or bowl after heating.
Is there a system to cooking food in the different sections?
In general, it is recommended to put the largest pieces of food, which require the longest preparation time, into the lowest compartment.
What should I do when food requires a different preparation time?
The best way to solve this problem is that the foods that require the longest preparation time are placed on the bottom of the steam pot and during cooking you add the other foods to the upper compartments. You can then cook everything for its suitable time and the resulting food will be great.
When and how can I clean the steam pot?
Put 3 glasses of vinegar into the water tank and top up with water. Then plug in the steam cooker and set the timer for 20 minutes. This should be done approximately every 7 to 10 times the device is used. Steam will then continue to flow steadily while extending the life of the entire device.
Electric Pans
An electric pan is suitable not only for home but can also be used at cottages or while camping. Some electric pans are fitted with anti-slip pads, a steam exhaust lid or a practical stand.
Can I bake desserts in an electric pan?
In an electric pan, it is possible to prepare not only meat and vegetables for lunch, but also a sweet dessert. Easily whip up a delicious cake, a sweet pancake or a plum cake. You can even cook a fluffy Christmas cake or a luxurious pizza! It's up to your taste.
Can I put the electric pan into the oven?
No. The electric pan itself is a small oven in which you can prepare both main food and something for your sweet tooth.
Remoska Pots
Remoska pots have been in production since the 1950s and are still popular. You surely know this if you have a cottage or you like to camp. Their advantage is that they are portable and function as a mini-oven. It is therefore great for any place where it is not possible to use a traditional oven. Of course, at home, a Remoska pot can be used as an additional electric baking dish for the stove. You can prepare any meat, fish, vegetables, pizza, dumplings, or cake. The foods cooked in a Remoska pot retain moisture and pleasant aromas.
Pressure Cookers
In a pressure cooker, you can cook thick beef very quickly. Compared to traditional cookers, they use pressure and high temperatures, making cooking faster and cheaper. Electric pressure cooker functions include preset programs and some models even allow you to add custom programs.
Which pot size should I buy?
Pressure cookers are usually produced in the range of 3-12 litres. You can choose from both small and large-sized types. This depends mainly on how many people you will cook for, or how much food you want to prepare. When choosing, however, beware of one crucial thing - for safety reasons, the pressure cooker can only be filled up to two-thirds full.
What are the preferred types of pressure cookers?
Modern pressure cookers are mostly made of stainless steel because it has excellent thermal conductivity and long heat storage capacity. It is also very well maintained. Sometimes you can also encounter pressure cookers of different metals that further improve the properties of the steel. However, avoid nickel as it can cause allergic reactions.
Multifunctional Pots
This type of electric pot can cook, bake and grill. It's one helper that can handle everything. You can easily cook, fry, grill, steam, and even prepare fondue. Sometimes a frying basket is missing.
Preserving Pots
With this pot, you can preserve your produce all year round. Due to this special heat treatment, food is preserved and protected from microorganisms. It can be consumed for a long time and you can enjoy delicious marmalades, plums, compotes, and also pickled cucumbers, mushrooms, and more. Preserving pots have a much wider use, for example they can be used for hot drinks, soups and goulash.
