Question: Rice Cookers - Understanding Rice Cooker Size and Capacity

If a rice cooker is advertised as being a 7-cup cooker, what does this mean? Will the cooked rice measure 7 cups?

Answer: A 7-cup rice cooker does not mean that you can make seven cups of cooked rice with it. It means you can cook 7-cups of raw rice, which will produce a larger cooked rice amount, usually double - but this can vary depending on the rice type.

Rice cooker size means the maximum amount of raw rice you can cook in it - not the amount of rice you'll have once it is cooked. With most models, you can cook much less than that amount, but there are minimums.

Rice cookers are usually sold as a 5-cup, 7-cup or 10-cup models and so on. But you will also usually see the capacity shown on the package, which is often double the amount. There's a vast range of cooker sizes on the market, but their capacity refers to the cooked rice - the end result.

In short, rice cooker capacity refers to the cooked rice - how much the pot will actually hold. Whereas the cooker size refers to the raw rice measure - the most raw rice you can cook in it.

So what size of rice cooker should you get? The end capacity (cooked rice) should meet your serving needs. If you generally cook about 3 cups of raw rice for most meals, a 5-cup or 7-cup rice cooker will more than meet your needs and you'll be able to cook more when you have dinner guests. On the other hand, if you love to have rice left-overs and have the room to store a larger cooker, go for a bigger model.

Also note that most rice cookers have convenient measurements marked out on the cooker liner. Many models also include a measuring cup. This is because the general measure of a cup of raw rice is actually slightly less than an Imperial cup measure. To avoid confusion when measuring rice, simply use the measuring cup supplied with the rice cooker for both rice and water, or use a rice and water ratio based on manufacturer's instructions (for that type of rice) in the product manual.