There appears to be little to no info out there specifically regarding black rice and rice cookers. My rice cooker manual says nothing about it. The article on wikihow, "3 Ways to Prepare Black Rice", does mention that black rice "does not cook well in a rice cooker." But, I am simply not willing to cook rice the old fashioned way. I already spend too much time on eating and cooking (fast metabolism means I eat all the time, which is time consuming).
Therefore, even if it does not work well in a rice cooker, I need to figure out how to make it better. I recently got a new rice cooker, an Aroma ARC-150SB. I made black rice for the first time with it, and it was terrible. It was really mushy, watery, and very sticky. It looked almost as wet as below:
(That's just an image from some pudding recipe on another site; it's NOT my own photo.)
Further details: I used 2 parts water to 1 part rice, as told to do on the rice packaging. Specifically, it was 2 cups rice, 4 of water. I briefly rinsed the rice via a strainer with cold water from the faucet. I used the "brown rice" setting on my rice cooker and left it overnight. (It switches to "keep warm" after it finishes cooking, of course.)
Now, what is the explanation for my result, and what can I try next?
My suspicion is that there was a lot of starch. The wikihow article suggests a very thorough rinsing, although the instructions on the rice packaging say nothing about rinsing. Is thorough rinsing really all it takes? Like I said, I did rinse it a little. There are other variables here that I can change. I could try playing with the water:rice ratio. I could try to not leave it overnight. I could try the white rice cook setting?? Although that one sounds counterintuitive. Maybe a thorough rinsing AND a different water:rice ratio is necessary?
The objective is to have it turn out more like this:
Best Answer
Perfect black rice in a rice cooker - I just cooked 2 cups of black rice, after a single quick rinse using a wire strainer in my Zojirushi rice cooker (fuzzy logic). I used a standard American measuring cup. I added 3 and 3/4 cups of water (vs. the standard straight 2 waters for every one unit of rice - I do this for ALL rice types as I like a fully intact rice kernel with texture remaining - that fluffs and separates as you expect ).
I also added a crumbled organic vegetarian bullion cube (just one) it adds just a little seasoning (still neutral) but I think also provides a little coating on the finished rice that makes it fluff and separate better.
The rice came out perfectly - tender, with just the right kernel bite, fluffed and separated as expected.
One other note, I NEVER use the keep warm function and always pop open the cooker at the first bell signaling cooking is complete, unplug, and I fluff immediately - I leave the cooker open a minute or two to allow steam to escape, then I close it. The rice stays perfectly warm after that for a very long time, long enough for a leisurely meal and warm rice for second helpings.
I can't say enough great things about the Zojirushi rice cooker. It is worth every penny. In addition to rice it cooks wheat berry, rye berry, millet , barley, and many other grains ( including perfect oats) automatically ith zero fuss. I have owned two in 22 years and replaced the first only because the bowl was list and the model was discontinued so no replacement bowel was found.
Many blessings in your rice cooking journey!