Panasonic SR-MS182 Fuzzy-Logic 10-Cup Rice Cooker, White

From Panasonic
	Price: $149.99
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Features - 10-cup rice cooker with micro-computerized Fuzzy Logic technology - Various menu options; 12-hour keep-warm mode; 24-hour clock/timer; auto shut-off - Binchotan-type black pan for better tasting rice; large orange LCD read-out - Steam basket, measuring cup, rice scoop, and user manual included - Measures 14-1/5 by 11 by 9-4/5 inches; 1-year limited warranty Product Description Panasonic 10-Cup (uncooked) Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker, Micro-computer controlled, Black Binchotan Non-stick coated Pan with Dimples, Domed Lid with Moisture Cap, 24-hour Clock Timer, Automatic Cooking, 12-hour Keep Warm, Auto Shut-off, 8-menu settings, Big Orange LCD Readout, Deluxe Steaming Basket included, Detachable Power Cord, Print Water Level, White finish with Chrome-menu Display, Carry handle, Measuring-Cup and Rice Scoop included. Customer Reviews Versatility Meets Style Date: 2009-05-27 | Rating: 5 The first thing that went through my mind when the Panasonic SR-MS182 Rice Cooker showed up on my doorstep was,"Where am I going to store this thing?" The box was huge! Luckily, it turns out that the unit was just extremely well packed. The unit itself is just a little bigger than my old standard rice cooker, but holds about 4 times as much. After opening the box I was struck by two things: 1.) The unit matched my modern kitchen very well and 2.)The timer and menu display was already functioning (the clock was even set right). Body of the rice cooker is very similar in design to my bread machine and combo grill/microwave. The menu being active right out of the box means to me that I do not have to worry about power outages wreaking havoc with my dinner plans. Once power returns, the unit will do what it was programmed to do, no lost memory. The unit also has a very sturdy handle. You can cook your rice in advance and then take the unit with you. You can also use the SR-MS182 to carry and keep warm any dish you are taking to your neighborhood potluck. So how well does it work? So far I've used it for steaming vegetables and baking a cake. Yes, I said a cake! Not only will the SR-MS182 make rice and steam vegetables but it is also a slow cooker and can be used to make cake and many other recipes that are included in the operating manual (would have been nice if these had been in a separate book). When steaming vegetables the screen immediately displays 10 minutes cooking time. However for large amounts of vegetables you will want to extend this time. 10 minutes was just enough time for ½ of a yellow squash and ½ of a zucchini cut into strips. The vegetables were cooked but still firm and retained a lot more flavor than boiling. To see just how good this "rice cooker" really was I decided to follow Panasonics instructions for cooking a cake. I used a standard out-of-the-box chocolate cake mix. I followed the time instructions on the box and then went about other business till the cake was done. The cake came out perfect, just as if I had made it in the oven. I set the timer as if making 2 8" rounds (40 minutes). I highly recommend the SR-MS182 to anyone that cooks rice, steams vegetables, or just wants a new, flexible kitchen gadget. If that sounds like you, then this product is well worth the money. Not Just For Rice!---it's so much more. Date: 2009-06-07 | Rating: 5 Having previously owned a Zojirushi rice cooker with fuzzy logic I am familiar with the great advantages of this technology. The appliance can actually sense the cooking of the rice. It knows when the moisture level is just right and will adjust if you add a little too much water etc. It then automatically goes to a "keep warm" mode, until you are ready to serve. This cooker has several advantages that make it a more useful product. Being able to steam a vegetable at the same time the rice is cooking is a terrific feature that we often use----The summer is hot here in Arizona and we like to limit use of the stove when the air conditioner is running. The veggies along with the rice come out to a T! Thought we would try a cake. The instruction book recipe seemed weird and wrong! We threw all caution to the wind and used a box of regular 18.25 oz. Duncan Hines Devils Food cake mix, following the instructions for ingredients.....it came out perfect. I will say it was not quite done when the cycle was over, but keeping the cake in the cooker an extra 5 minutes after it went to the keep warm mode did the trick. The cake was as high as a two layer cake (approx.3-4")and was beautifully moist. We now have cake without firing off the oven----perfect! We purchased the "Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger from Amazon which contains many recipes for soup, puddings, polenta and more which are fairly easy to prepare using the rice cooker instead of the stove. I will have to say that yes the rice comes out perfect, this cooker does so much more, including slow cooking, veggies---well, it just makes food prep easier and more enjoyable. So from here in the land where it can reach 115 in the summer I can truly recommend this product. If you do purchase this be bold, very bold and bake a cake, do a stew, steam veggies, make a pudding, let it make your life just a little easier. I think you will be impressed with your purchase, as I am, and will use it a lot..... Does more tasks than I expected! Date: 2009-07-16 | Rating: 5 First of all, the SR-MS102 is a FIVE cup cooker and the SR-MS182 is a TEN cup...the little ordering buttons on top both say "10-cup". Hopefully amazon will correct that. I wondered what the difference is between these fuzzy logic cookers and plain old rice cookers, so I looked for some info on it. What I found was, basically to cook rice, there are 4 stages: standing in water, boiling, absorbing, and resting. At each stage, heat is used differently, and with a machine such as this, it isn't just "on" but instead, it knows when to turn it up or down (based on type of rice, volume, etc. that we program in.) It also has a keep-warm setting (which I really like.) With this type of programming the machine can be used to make things like rice (of course!), but also risotto, pilaf, steel-cut oats, polenta, grits, steaming veggies or any other moist cooking, although you will likely need to experiment to you get your consistencies that are exact to your preference. My results were excellent with both white rice and veggies. The rice almost tasted sweet it was so good. There are recipes in the book for different rices, porridges, soup, slow cooking, main courses (yes, you can put meat in this...nice!) even cake (when you don't feel like heating up your whole kitchen with your oven!) I was going to upload the manual to this page (there used to be an option on amazon to do that, but I don't see it now.) You can download the product manual so you can see how it all works, options, and the recipes here: edit: I see that my link to the product manual is not posted with my review. It IS available online if you google it...in case you want more detailed instructions and pictures of features. look for the retrevo site, that is where I found it. An Excellent Choice Over Zojirushi Date: 2009-12-30 | Rating: 5 When looking for a rice cooker, I was torn between this model and a similar one by Zojirushi. What finally swayed my decision (aside from price) was a complete look at my lifestyle: I enjoy steamed vegetables, and the Zojirushi didn't offer a steaming tray. This Panasonic rice cooker is great. As soon as I opened the box, I washed the steamer basket, cooking bowl, the paddle and the measuring cup. I know one review here stated that their first few batches tasted a bit chemically. Mine did not--from the very first batch all the way to now (as of this writing I have had the rice cooker for 3 weeks) my rice has tasted excellent. Even when I made oatmeal with lots of cinnamon, a simple washing was all it took to get the cinnamon smell out of the cooking bowl. The batches of rice since then have not smelt or tasted of cinnamon. When I cooked brown rice, I used the brown rice setting as opposed to the instructions given on the separate sheet of paper included with the manual. My rice came out very well--much more tender and flavourful than any brown rice I have ever made in the past without a rice cooker. That fact alone makes this cooker a god-send to me--my significant other prefers brown rice to white for health reasons and now I can cook it in a manner that makes it taste excellent enough for me to enjoy it as well! Steaming vegetables and dumplings in the cooker couldn't be easier. Just add water to the cooking bowl, put in the steamer basket and your veggies and then select "Steamer" on the display and adjust your time. For most frozen vegetables, I have found 10 minutes to be sufficient. Also, you can steam vegetables while you cook your rice to 'kill two birds with one stone'. The longest I have left my rice in the machine on the "keep warm" setting is two days, and for that duration the rice was kept as a nice, warm temperature and it did not brown or dry out. It stayed just as delicious as it was when it was freshly made. I have yet to bake a cake in this, but I am tempted to and will probably update this review if I ever decide to test that feature. It's not necessary, no, but it is definitely something that has a 'fun' quality to it. I know some have complained about the 24-hour clock, but for me this is actually a perk to the Panasonic. As someone who prefers the 24-hour system and is more used to it, I now find myself checking the time on the Zojirushi rather than on my stove or microwave. I say this simply to give an alternate opinion on the clock--24-hour time isn't necessarily a bad thing! I do agree, however, that not being able to change the battery yourself is a downside. But, it should have a long life so I will cross that bridge when I get to it. Aesthetically speaking, this unit is not as cute as the Zojirushi (in my opinion), but is far from being an eye-sore. It has nice, sleek lines and a pleasing modern appearance to it that will most likely match any kitchen. I suppose another "downside" that has nothing to do with functionality is that it does not play any cute songs when the rice is done cooking--it merely sends out a long "beep". For those that don't want to hear "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" every time they cook rice, however, this is probably a perk. As far as cooking capacity, I did opt for the larger model. When my SO first saw it, they joked that if we ever wanted to feed a small army with rice, we've got it covered. The 10-cup capacity of this model really translates to around 20 smallish cups of COOKED rice. It's something to take into consideration if you don't feel that you will ever need that much rice, or if you don't eat a lot of rice to begin with. I wanted something that would grow with us if we ever decide to have a family, but the larger capacity is also nice when we have guests over. Plus, the steaming tray is larger which means we can steam more vegetables at once. And even though it is meant to make large capacities of rice at once time, I have had no problems making just 2-3 uncooked cups in it. The rice still turns out perfect even with the small amount of rice. All in all, I have been very pleased with my Panasonic rice cooker and have been very happy with my purchase! Miles better than my old one! Date: 2009-06-01 | Rating: 5 Well, actually, my last rice cooker wasn't even that old, it's just that it is sub par to this fantastic rice cooker - and I wasn't even aware that my Aroma 10 cup rice cooker wasn't the "cream of the crop." When I received my Panasonic rice cooker, I was so excited to see that it was pretty compact! I love the feature of the handle - it's definitely completely portable with the handle and detachable power cord. I also noticed that the time on the cooker was already set and correct! I wasn't aware of the battery feature, but the instruction booklet says that this battery for the LED screen should last the cooker about 5 years - who knows after that. My first attempt was plain old, regular white rice. It's so simple - follow the instructions of measurements - which a 5 year old could comprehend, press the menu button until "white rice" blinks, press start, and presto! I love the feature of the timer on the LED screen - once the water cooks out of the cooker, a timer will appear to let you know that there are 15 or so minutes left of cook time....which is a fantastic feature that my previous rice cooker didn't have. Another attempt was with the famed "sticky rice" - yummmmo! Perfect sushi rice if you're into making your own! Once thing I also noticed about this cooker is that the exterior of the unit does NOT get hot - yes, it's warm to the touch, but my previous one would burn your hands if you touched the exterior casing - so, this unit definitely is a bit more safe than my last rice cooker. Each attempt, my rice turned out beautifully. No burned edges or overcooked areas inside. Wonderful rice and a beautiful exterior - I love the way it jazzes up my kitchen! Very chic!! 5 stars for a wonderful appliance! ETA - I made a chicken and sausage jambalaya in this rice cooker last night and it turned out perfectly! Brown the chicken in a pot, add sausage and onions, peppers, garlic to the pot and saute until heated through - add 4 cups of rice to the rice cooker, fill cooker with 3 cups chicken broth and 1 cup of water, add herbs and seasonings - throw the chicken and sausage mixture into the cooker, and set on the "white rice" setting - the cooker does the rest!