Tatung has been a leading manufacturer of rice cookers and steamers in Taiwan for over 60 years. With its straightforward on/off switch and cook/warm lever, the company’s signature rice cooker looks like some of the simpler Zojirushi models, but it features a unique inner and outer pot system that steams the rice as it cooks.
What I loved: Nearly all of the rice cookers on this list (and on the market) have nonstick-coated inner pots, and aside from a few ceramic nonstick models, this usually means they include PFAS. While the stable heating element and low level of friction that a rice cooker’s pot gets exposed to make me less concerned about the potential hazards of these chemicals than I would be with, say, a PTFE-coated nonstick pan that’s exposed to direct heat, I understand that some people may still favor a cooker that forgoes PFAS altogether—and for that, the Tatung is a great option.
The Tatung features an all-stainless steel construction, with an inner pot that fits inside the appliance like a nesting doll. To make a pot of rice, you’ll add rice and water to the inner pot as per usual, and then add more water to the outer pot before covering with the lid and setting to cook. In my testing, the Tatung produced fluffy pots of rice that earned praise from blind taste testers. The white rice had a nice amount of bite to it and a pleasant, slightly sticky texture (perhaps thanks to the steam?); the brown rice was a good middle ground, al dente but not as dry as the rice from the Hamilton Beach; and the basmati was fluffy, the delicate grains all relatively intact. One major plus? Each pot of rice was done in about half the amount of time as the winning Zojirushi.
What I’d leave: Because it’s made of stainless steel, the Tatung can get quite hot while cooking—especially the lid, which I burned my hands on a few times during testing. The lightweight lid and addition of water surrounding the inner pot also meant that this model rattled quite a bit as it cooked, and water occasionally bubbled up over the edge when making large batches of rice.
The stainless steel inner pot is, as expected, much harder to clean than a nonstick pot, and required some soaking and serious elbow grease in order to scrub clean.
The other thing to note is that at $210 at the time of writing, this is not a cheap appliance, but it doesn’t come with the kinds of features (like delayed start or multiple settings) you might expect from a rice cooker at this price.
How we tested rice cookers
Many rice cookers these days try to position themselves as do-it-all appliances (the Instant Pot-ification of the category), but we were here to see how each model performed at one all-important function: making rice. We’ve spent years testing over two dozen models and have held numerous taste tests among Bon Appétit staffers, abiding by the following testing process each time:
