The Sage Risotto Plus Multi Cooker, Brushed Stainless Steel, BRC600UK

Product Information

Regular cleaning is crucial to maintaining your Sage Rice Cooker’s performance and longevity. Clean the inner cooking pot, lid, and steam vent cap after each use. Every few months, gently clean the main body with a damp cloth and mild detergent. Remember, never immerse the main body in water or place it in the dishwasher. For steaming, we added more water than necessary to the bowl below the steamer then manually turned it off once the food was cooked. However, over time we could easily have worked out the right amount of water needed to get the perfect result. That would mean that once the water had boiled away the cooker would switch to the keep warm function as for rice. With such a wide array of models available when it comes to Instant Pots and multi-cookers, choosing the right one for you can be confusing. The capabilities of each multi-cooker will vary though, so decide on your priorities before you buy. Here are the main functions on offer.

Rice cooker does not start cooking: Ensure the inner cooking pot is properly placed and the lid is securely closed. The larger 8 quart / 7.5-liter size will be a better fit for bigger families, or anyone cooking on a large scale, such as creating chilies, stews, or curries for a party. Meanwhile, for one or two-person households the smaller 3-quart / 3 liter, Instant Pot will ensure you're not using additional energy by cooking a small quantity in an Instant Pot that's just too large for your needs. Plus, with so many of the cookers offering multiple functions like baking, vegetable steaming, porridge making and more — you’ll be using it for more than just rice-based meals. So, which rice maker are you adding to your kitchen? Cheaper rice cookers turn off this element once it detects that boiling point has been maintained for a set period. More expensive models will have a number of ‘fuzzy-logic’ settings. These automatically adjust the cooking time and temperature depending on the contents. The Fast Slow Go is more expensive than other multicookers such as the Drew & Cole Cleverchef Pro Multicooker, but what sets it apart is the automatic steam release that really takes the stress out of the sometimes-daunting task of pressure cooking. The cluttered control panel means that it’s not the most streamlined or attractive appliance but, that said, having all the buttons clearly laid out makes it easy to use and get to grips with. The recipes I tried from the recipe book were tasty and easy to make and I’d happily try more.

Advanced multi cooker with stir free risotto.

Constructed from durable brushed stainless steel, this large gadget is a soup maker, pressure cooker, yoghurt maker, steamer, stewer, saute-r and more — all in ONE handy pot. Brilliant for cooking sushi rice, long and short grain, brown rice and more — this is a device you can rely upon to produce outstanding, more-ish morsels, every time. It’s worth remembering that cooking times can vary – especially with the processor-controlled “fuzzy logic” models as these will adjust cooking times automatically as needed. Even so, our results should give you an idea of what to expect. Even if cooking times are long, this isn’t necessarily a disadvantage – some of the models with the longest cooking times also produced the best quality rice. Plus, that time can be used to cook the rest of your meal or attend to other household tasks. Sage are expert at designing kitchen appliances with cleverly integrated functions to take the stress out of cooking. Their range of smart appliances, which includes kettles, toasters, and blenders, through to their ice cream maker and microwaves, has been exactingly considered to give you perfect results every time, all at the push of a button. Whether its prepping, boiling, whisking, whipping, grilling, cooking and baking, thanks to Sage, cooking has never been so easy.

Measure Your Rice: Use the included measuring cup for accurate results. One cup is equivalent to one serving. Set the Cooker: Place the inner cooking pot into the main body, ensuring it sits flat. Close the lid, plug in the cooker, select the desired menu setting, and press ‘Start’. We also experimented with the crust function. The crusty bits at the bottom of a rice pot are much prized in Asian cooking. Although at an hour and a half it took quite a while, it was definitely worth waiting for. There’s a sub-menu for cooking specific kinds of rice for more refined results and even a preset function. This allows you to set a timer up to 24 hours in the future, although if the pot contains perishable foods that long isn’t recommended. Sauté/Sear: for browning your meat and veg in the bowl, and softening your onions before slow cooking The resulting rice is fluffy and fairly well separated. We used basmati and short-grain and both came out well, although both did form a very thin crust – as do some of the more expensive heat-from-below rice cookers – but it was easy to break up and stir into the rest of the rice.When it comes to choosing the best multi-cooker with a dedicated rice function, the Sage Fast Slow GO is your best bet. The GABA setting is another unique cooking option that supposedly releases additional nutrients from brown rice by germinating the grain. We couldn’t ascertain whether the rice was more nutrient-dense during testing, but its texture was noticeably softer and it certainly had a slightly different taste. There’s also a porridge setting, which can be used to make congee and a crust setting for Persian Tahdig. You can also steam, bake cakes and slow cook in the Bamboo Induction, making it a truly multifunctional cooker.

However, if you’re looking to save space in your kitchen by replacing several gadgets with just one, or you are looking to broaden the repertoire of dishes you cook, without having to research and learn new cooking skills, an Instant Pot will more than prove useful. What's the best size instant pot? Not really, no. Microwave cookers and some less feature-led models will give you well-cooked rice in about the same time as pan cooking. Some fancier models might even take a little longer. This is because they have separate stages to deliver the rice at the optimum texture. The beauty of these machines is not necessarily the speed of the cooking. It's more the fact that you can walk away, safe in the knowledge that the machine is doing the hard work for you. Can I put a rice cooker in the dishwasher?The Instant Pot Pro is the best Instant Pot you can buy right now. It sets out to replace ten kitchen appliances including a pressure cooker, slow cooker, saute pan, rice cooker, steamer, yogurt maker, and warmer, and has 28 cooking modes for preparing different dishes. There's also a version that can air fry too, known as the Instant Pot Pro Crisp. There’s no fanciness with this machine, it does what it says on the pot. But if you want something that does the job and is small enough to store in a cupboard when you’re not using it, this is perfect. Unlike the electric machines, it’s all dishwasher safe, too.

This rice cooker is easy to clean, at least when cooking long grain rice – a bit of mess around the inside of the rice bowl and on the upper surface of the lid around the steam exhaust hole was easily cleaned up. It made a much more substantial mess when cooking short grain rice, in both the rice and risotto modes, spewing droplets of excess water around our counter top and creating a thin filmy residue over the top of the lid. This is highly unimpressive. VerdictThere’s nothing we don’t like about this fantastic rice cooker – apart from, perhaps, the price. That said, it is a hard-working, multi-functional machine. There are modes for steaming, slow cooking, cake baking, porridge and yoghurt making. We’d be willing to give up our slow cooker and steamer to find room for it on the worktop. Crucially, if you’re a fan of fancy rice then this one isn’t for you as it only cooks white rice, but it does cook it very well and was one of the simples to use with the best results.