ErnieW
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Post by ErnieW on Oct 4, 2021 6:47:59 GMT -8
Typically rice for me take about twenty minutes on the stove top. After the first few minutes using a rolling boil I have it on a very low heat. I have been using a trick that maybe most of you already do. When the rice is "done" I just turn off the heat. I do not open the lid and leave it like that until ready to fluff and serve. Sometime as long as an half hour. My rice has been coming out better doing this. So getting to the Keith pot would it be correct that it would also need about a 20 minute cook time? I would think this process would really need a good wind screen. I have little idea about how much fuel simmering this long would consume. I have been just boiling water at full blast for about two minutes a round for a while now.
EDIT: Just read the instructions and they say 15-25 minutes of simmer depending on altitude.
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swiftdream
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Post by swiftdream on Oct 4, 2021 7:33:52 GMT -8
Intriguing little cooker. Don’t eat rice on the keto diet but have been casually investigating what the ancients did to keep themselves healthy. Amaranth is abundant and ready for harvest all throughout the Sonoran desert right now. This is what my efforts have yielded so far. More is needed but I’m getting the hang of it. Perhaps this cooker could do the job.  |
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Oct 4, 2021 10:58:19 GMT -8
I tried one simple "test run" using short-grain sushi rice on the range in the kitchen.
My problem was that I didn't trust myself not to overheat the pot. I know that dry heating a titanium pot can result in distortion, so I was overly careful, taking the pot off the very low flame at 10 minutes (rice definitely not done, about 1/2" of water still in the bottom) and again in 10 minutes. After two "burns", the rice was mostly done, but not "perfect". The wife suggested that I should have rinsed and soaked it first, and then waited until the steam stopped coming out of the vent.
I'll try another "test run" today, but I have to admit that trying to achieve a good outcome by running until the steam stops coming out of the vent makes me about as nervous as the day I first lit a used XGK white gas stove I bought on eBay.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Oct 18, 2021 16:17:09 GMT -8
I finally tried a test of the Keith pot this afternoon while the wife went to a HS football game with friends. (I figured the house would be quiet and I could "concentrate".) I used 100g of sushi - short grain - rice and added 4 little smoked sausages cut into 1/4" thick slices, a few broccoli florets and salted the whole thing with freeze-dried red onions, garlic and chives. Tried hard to let the experiment go for a sufficient time, which turned out to be about 22 - 23 minutes before I thought the pot sounded like the bottom was starting to go nearly dry. The first attempt didn't work out well because I was being far too cautious. I also rinsed the rice beforehand. Everything came out dead perfect! (As you might have expected, since I cooked it as long as the rice package suggested and slightly more.) The end result isn't all that overly "spiced", given the above ingredients were all I put in it, but it tastes pretty good. All I added before eating was a tiny bit of soy sauce. Still, if you're in a hurry for grub, this isn't going to make you happy. There is also, of course, the greater weight of the double pot.  |
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Oct 18, 2021 18:21:00 GMT -8
I think I could cook decent rice in 23 minutes in a regular pot if I were using my Kovea Spider, which has good flame adjustment. That amount of time (and fuel) isn't worth it for me, so I won't bother testing.
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ErnieW
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Post by ErnieW on Oct 18, 2021 18:53:42 GMT -8
Filled to max, how many good sized portions does this cook? If it was three then that is only 7-8 minutes cook time per serving which isn't so bad. Great for a group of three not so much for a solo hiker like me.
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jazzmom
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Post by jazzmom on Oct 19, 2021 5:57:28 GMT -8
FWIW, my thoughts about cooking rice. I would use a long-grained rice, like Basmati or Jasmine, over Japanese/sushi. Less starch makes clean-up a lot easier and less likely to burn (Japanese rice should be rinsed before cooking.) Adding a tiny bit of oil also really helps. Also, if you soak the rice before cooking, it will cook faster.
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Post by bradmacmt on Oct 19, 2021 6:55:12 GMT -8
I eat rice everyday, and find that long grain White Basmati cooks better on a stove top than a pressure cooker. OTOH, for brown rice I prefer the pressure cooker.
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rangewalker
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Post by rangewalker on Oct 20, 2021 9:23:42 GMT -8
I am with @va3pinner and tipiwalter for reaching into the way-back machine for soaking and cooking rice in our youth. And growing up with the alpinist epics of pressure cookers at extreme altitudes. They also consumed large quantities of lard and sugar bricks too. I am going to pass on an Ti mulit-cooker. RightRice and the Minute Rices that can be hydrated with boiling water and a cozy wait of ten minutes are my staples. |
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ErnieW
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Post by ErnieW on Oct 20, 2021 9:53:36 GMT -8
There was a period for me when I wanted to see how good I can cook on the trail. Part to see what I could do and part to impress others (women mostly). Good food goes a long way in dispelling that backpacking is necessarily roughing it. A good sleeping system and not being cold overnight is the other big one.
One of my favorites is my Outback Oven. Pizza at night and banana bread in the morning with good coffee were always good to impress with it. But like this cooker, you're talking pretty long cook times. So if I was still doing this mode I good be very interested in this cooker.
But I go solo these days and am more interested in a pot that quickly boils water and doesn't need any cleaning. Decent FD food faster for me recently.
I am slightly tempted to get this as more of a home cooker. I would be thinking in the back of my head I could also do this meal on the trail but likely wouldn't
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ErnieW
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Post by ErnieW on Oct 20, 2021 10:03:51 GMT -8
gabby,if you get a chance as part of your testing could you see how long rice stays hot in this thing? I am thinking that since it is essentially a double wall with an air gap it might hold temp pretty well. The reason I ask if I was wondering if you could cook the rice then just leave it in the pot while cooking another part of the meal. This would mean the weight of a second pot but if I was going luxury it might be a small fry pan to saute meat and veggies then serve over the rice.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Oct 20, 2021 15:19:15 GMT -8
I think I could cook decent rice in 23 minutes in a regular pot if I were using my Kovea Spider, which has good flame adjustment. And this was my first thought after attempting rice in the Keith pot a couple of times - there just has to be an easier way that still protects the ingredients from scorching if you just use the pot alone. However, any additions simply add complications and weight, of course. I too could cook rice in a pot with the usual stovetop formulation from the rice container, but I was looking for a bit more flexibility and less chance of "scorching". (I know I work too hard at just about everything, and complicate the simplest crap. :^D) Steaming is a regular part of Asian food preparation, so I've been investigating the potential for simply using something much lighter inside of one of my "regular" cooking pots as an alternative. What I've found is that, although steamers are almost everywhere now (we have a couple of silicone steamer baskets, though they are sized for larger saucepans and such, so they'd need to be "modified"), I suspect that I'll have to search high and low to find something that fits the niche I'm trying to fill. For starters, I found that there are, in fact, 3" and 4" bamboo "mini steamers" out there, but they're mostly sold to restaurants in packages of hundreds (for hundreds of $) for heating and serving dishes (dim sum). There are a few places where you can get fewer of them for less, but ...
On top of all that, there's the restrictions relating to cleaning where you don't have a lot of extra running water and the like. (After only a few shots at the Keith pot, I find that that's one of the things I like about it: food doesn't cook onto the pot surface as easily as if you were just using a single pot - easy cleanup.)
I've also investigated "steaming bags", but those, though reusable -- at least those made of hemp - I'm wary of the ones made of plastic for using in a microwave, but maybe a trial is in order -- are not going to be all that easy to clean, I suspect. Reusability is primary, given LNT. Assuming you could use some rig to give enough room in the bottom of your pot for water (tiny bamboo steamer basket? cut-down silicone steamer? modified InstaPot spacer? -- it's easy to see I'm going off into left field here with my thinking, but what else can an old guy do to pass the time? -- some sort of container with a "steaming sheet" on top might do the trick for rice (and other things that might stick to a bag). FYI: Hemp steaming bags and steaming sheets are readily available at my local Korean market (H-Mart).
Filled to max, how many good sized portions does this cook? The two shots I've done so far were restricted to the 100g measure on the inner pot part. (I think one of the Jaxx Drinkwater videos shows this.) There are 200g and 280g measures as well, but, since I've been adding other ingredients to the rice to cook (veg and meat), I haven't tried to use the extra capacity. gabby,if you get a chance as part of your testing could you see how long rice stays hot in this thing? I am thinking that since it is essentially a double wall with an air gap it might hold temp pretty well. I don't think the rice stays "hot" for very long, though most of the cooking I've seen online with the pot (I linked a couple of them in this thread) often cook the rice partially and then add the extra stuff, like veg and meat. With the lid on and fastened, and given the silicone seal ring, it might work well for longer than I think. I'll try to remember to time it at least once, but no guarantees: I'm hard put just keeping up with recipes and such when I'm using it. Maybe this would be a good reason to just make rice (at one of the higher capacities) in the thing. Basically, I think maybe this isn't a good match with what most of those "backpacking" are going for. Easier to carry "instant" or just stick to "freeze-dried". My habits aren't your habits sort-of-thing. I tend to take shorter trips and do things most people probably skip in order to do "other stuff".
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Oct 26, 2021 8:03:27 GMT -8
Another rice cooker test.I made oyakodon* this morning for breakfast. I'm still using the kitchen range to do the cooking, but made the rice in the Keith cooker on the smallest burner on the range. This time I started the pot, noted the steam coming out of the vent, set my iPhone timer to 23 minutes and let it go. The rice (sushi rice again - sorry, jazzmom - bought it, gotta use it) came out fluffy and moist. Meanwhile, I made up the dashi-mirin-soy sauce mix acc. to the recipe and cooked the onions and chicken in my MSR skillet, finally adding beaten eggs, drizzled onto the surface of the onions and chicken IAW the recipe. Topped with my mitsuba substitute, green onions.  It didn't turn out as well visually as the picture on the website shown below, but it was a relative success, esp. given that the rice turned out so nice w/o a lot of need for attention. It was a nice change of pace for breakfast.  Still, this is a very specific sort of pot, and it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. * Oyakodon, literally "parent-and-child donburi", is a donburi, or Japanese rice bowl dish, in which chicken, egg, sliced scallion, and other ingredients are all simmered together in a kind of soup that is made with soy sauce and stock, and then served on top of a large bowl of rice.As I expected, the rice doesn't stay hot in the cooker for very long, though long enough to serve. Titanium cools pretty quick.
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ErnieW
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Post by ErnieW on Oct 26, 2021 8:44:35 GMT -8
As I expected, the rice doesn't stay hot in the cooker for very long, though long enough to serve. Titanium cools pretty quick. Thanks. So much for my double wall/air space insulating theory. |
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zeke
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Post by zeke on Oct 26, 2021 8:59:58 GMT -8
Any time I want something to stay warm while I cook something else, I drop it into my cozy and then wrap my quilt around it. Insulating it seems to work well. However, I have no interest in this pot because instant rice suits my cooking just fine.
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