Let’s admit it, cooking rice can be a bit of a chore with the conventional rice cooker models and you might be looking for a much more convenient way to cook rice in order to accompany the meals that you are preparing. Fortunately, these days – the simple rice cookers have evolved into a much more cutting-edge and high-tech form wherein they sport a variety of features that brings a whole new take to cooking rice at home.

One of the brands that’s well-known for cutting-edge rice cookers with a variety of features and functionalities is Zojirushi. Their rice cookers have been making lots of waves in the market these days and we’ll be covering one of their high-tech rice cookers and it’s none other than the NS-ZCC10 5 ½-cup Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker and Warmer.

We’ll get to familiarize ourselves with the features that this rice cooker has in store for the user and get to see the advantages and disadvantages that it has. So, let’s proceed first to the key features of the NS-ZCC10 rice cooker!

Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 Key Features:

1. Neuro Fuzzy Logic Technology

  • The computerized Neuro Fuzzy Logic Technology is one of the recurring features in some of Zojirushi’s high-tech rice cookers. This technology allows the rice cooker to “learn” the cooking habits and patterns of its owner and results in automatically adjusting the cooking time and temperature in accordance to what it has learned from the user.

2. Lots of cooking settings

  • The NS-ZCC10 rice cooker isn’t just merely locked to cooking rice. It has cooking options that allows you to cook brown rice, sushi rice, mixed rice and porridge. In addition to those options, you can even steam your favorite food inside the rice cooker. Steaming food can be lengthened or shortened through tweaking around with the time setting.

3. Interchangeable beep or melody sound indicator

  • The NS-ZCC10 utilizes a programmable beep or melody sound indicator which eliminates the need of constantly “babysitting” the rice cooker just to check whether it is ready to be served or needs a little more time to cook. All it takes is to hear a beeping sound or a melody to let you know that the rice cooker is finished with cooking the rice that you’ve placed inside it.

4. Automatic keep warm, extended keep warm and re-heating cycles

  • Zojirushi rice cookers have the recurring automatic keep warm, extended keep warm and re-heating cycles. After cooking, the rice cooker immediately shifts to an automatic keep warm phase where it will keep the rice from going cold for a long period of time. If you think that’s the time it can retain the warmth is not enough then that’s where the extended keep warm features comes in. Shall the rice run cold soon, the user can make use of the re-heating cycles to bring back the heat into the rice and enjoy it like back when it is just recently cooked.

5. Spherical cooking pan for even heat distribution

  • The non-stick cooking pan uses a spherical form to ensure even heat distribution. Through even heat distribution, the rice that comes out of this rice cooker will always come out nicely and sport a quality that can rival those served in Asian restaurants.

6. Fold-down handle for easy carry and transportation

  • Going out to an outing or maybe going to transfer the rice cooker to another spot? Don’t you worry because the NS-ZCC10 comes in with a fold-down handle so it can be easily carried from one place to another!

7. Retractable power cord

  • The power cord is retractable and can be reeled in for the sake of easy storage when not in use.

8. Additional Accessories

  • Every purchase of a Zojirushi rice cooker includes a few additional accessories for you to use. This includes a spatula, a spatula holder and two measuring cups. Take note that the measuring cups utilize the Japanese standard of a single cup of rice which is slightly less than that of a US-standard 1 cup of rice.

With the features now covered, let’s proceed to the Pros and Cons section where we will dissect the strong and weak points of the Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker and Warmer.

Pros and Cons

Admittedly, the Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 is a potent workhouse in the home kitchen and while it does have a strong array of features, it may come in with a few caveats in the mix. Let’s get to know both of its strong points and shortcomings even better in this section.

Pros (+)

  • Variety – The NS-ZCC10 offers a huge variety of options in cooking rice whether it is plain rice, sushi or maybe brown rice – the possibilities could be endless in terms of cooking your favorite rice delicacies. In addition to cooking the rice of your liking, the NS-ZCC10 can even steam food!
  • No more babysitting needed! – Another advantage the NS-ZCC10 has against the conventional rice cookers is that there’s no need to constantly monitor the rice cooker. With the use of a programmable melody or beep signal, it will let you know when the rice is ready to be served.
  • Portable – With the addition of a fold-down handle, you can transfer the rice cooker from one place to another with ease. The cooking pot sports stay cool handles so that you won’t accidentally burn yourself from carrying the rice cooker’s cooking pot.
  • Your rice stays warm and nice – Thanks to its automatic keep warm, extended keep warm and re-heating cycles, the rice cooked in the NS-ZCC10 will stay warm for a long time and if ever it runs cold – the re-heating cycle should do the trick in bringing back warmth.
  • Fairly-priced, might be even more than what you’ve purchased for – It is not the cheapest option in the market nor the most expensive Zojirushi rice cooker out there but it stands at a decent price range of $170+ up to the mid $200 price tag. However, when you look at the features it has, its capabilities seem to outweigh its price tag.
  • Easy to use – Despite the plethora of cooking options and high-tech features, Zojirushi rice cookers are easy to use and operate. All it takes is a press of a button of the cooking option you’ve chosen and you are all set!
  • Excellent quality rice – The spherical structure of the cooking pot ensures that heat will be evenly distributed throughout the pot during the cooking phase. The end result of this is rice

that’s on par with the ones served in restaurants.

Cons (-)

  • A bit small – This is more of a minor nitpick but the 5.5-cup variant might not be a good fit for larger households. On the other hand, the NS-ZCC10 rice cooker has a larger 1.8-liter variant that’s meant for larger homes.

Now that we’ve covered the strong and weak points of the Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 rice cooker, let us move onto the maintenance section – on how to care for your rice cooker so it will be functioning well in the longer run.

Maintenance of the Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 5-1/2-Cup Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker and Warmer

Treat the Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 well and keep it maintained and it is assured that it will keep on yielding restaurant-quality rice for years to come! Follow these simple steps in order to make sure that the rice cooker will operate smoothly.

  1. Clean the spherical cooking pot with a combination of warm water and dishwashing soap. After cleaning, keep on washing and rinsing it thoroughly. Once done, leave it to dry.
  2. Check the heating element when you remove the cooking pot. Keep an eye out for leftover rice and water droplets. Remove them with the use of a dry damp cloth.
  3. Detach the inner lid and clean it with a combination of warm water and dishwashing soap. Wash and rinse repeatedly until thoroughly cleaned.
  4. Wipe the exterior with the use of a dry damp cloth.
  5. Serve rice from this rice cooker with the use of the plastic spatula that it comes in with. Don’t use metal spatulas in serving the rice because they can scratch and scrape the non-stick surfaces and can reduce its effectiveness later on.
  6. Check the gasket from time to time. If it starts to show signs of discoloration – call the Zojirushi customer support for a replacement.

Final Remarks

For a mid-range priced rice cooker from Zojirushi, the NS-ZCC10 5 ½-cup Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker and Warmer is a must-have in the home kitchen. This auto-learning rice cooker will take ideas from your cooking habits and turn it into ideal settings for cooking rice.

It has a lot of fun features and cooking functionalities to add some nice twists and turns for meal time. The rice cooker also offers you the option to steam your favorite food items aside from entertaining a variety of rice grains and it doesn’t need to be monitored from time to time due to its sound-based notification system.

While the 5.5-cup version might not be ideal for larger homes (its 1.8-liter variant exists for that purpose), when you look at the features and the price tag – you will then realize that it is worth every dollar you invested in. In fact, you could even say you got more from the NS-ZCC10 rice cooker than what you’ve paid for!

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