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Rice Cooker Boiling Over: Why it Happens & Fix

Why is my rice cooker boiling over? This a common question that I get from readers who have recently bought their rice cookers and are experiencing this problem. There are a few reasons why and in this article, we will go through some of them.

Why Does Rice Boil Over?

So, why does rice boil over? Rice cookers boil over because of excess start in the rice. We don’t experience this much in America because our rice is washed prior to being packed. This does not usually happen in most parts of the world so you have to wash the rice thoroughly until all the starch is out.

What to Do if the Rice Cooker is Boiling Over

The best way to do this is is to put the rice in a bowl and rinse it a couple of times until the water is no longer cloudy but clear. If you still get some issues, simply add a teaspoon full of cooking oil and that should do the trick.

Rice Cooker Boiling Over Story

When I first got my rice cooker a couple of years ago, I noticed one time that some bubbles were forming around the edges of the cooker.

I had used my rice cooker at least 20 times prior to that and had not experienced that. At first, I just brushed it off as a once-off occurrence but I saw it happen again the next time I cooked my rice.

To say the least, I was a bit worried and thought that the rice cooker was faulty. It was only about 2 months old at the time and I was a little dejected thinking that I had wasted my money.

It was an expensive brand of the rice cooker. I shrugged it off because, frankly speaking, I had a million other things to worry about.

I put it away for 2 weeks and went back to preparing rice in a pot. One day I got home and my husband had decided to cook dinner that night.

I got into the kitchen and he was using the rice cooker. It had stopped boiling over according to him. He had had no issues with it at all.

I used it the next day to see if it wasn’t a fluke and lo and behold, it was now working again. All was right again with the world. I used it for 2 more months without any issues until one day, it started again.

It happened again every time I used it after that. I was frustrated and to make matters worse, the warranty period had expired.

I kicked myself for not trading it in when this matter happened the first time. As I sat and pondered my next move, I had an “aha!” moment.

The first time this happened I was using a certain brand of  Japanese Basmati rice cooker a friend had brought me from a trip to Japan.

I loved it and had asked that they brought it for me the next time they went there. I was willing to pay them for it. They had made another visit to India and brought me that rice.

Both times that my rice cooker had boiled over, I was cooking that particular brand of rice. To test my theory out, I cooked another brand of rice I had bought from my local supermarket and, as by magic, my rice cooker was working again.

Just to be sure, I tried the Japanese rice cooker again and it started boiling over. I quickly jumped onto Google and researched that and finally discovered why my rice cooker was boiling over.

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