Zojirushi NP NVC18 Induction Heating Pressure Cooker and Warmer, 10 Cups, Stainless Brown, Made in Japan

Zojirushi NP NVC18 Induction Heating Pressure Cooker and Warmer, 1.8L

Advanced fuzzy logic technology with AI (Artificial Intelligence) “learns” and adjusts the cooking cycle to get perfect results every time. This rice cooker will automatically select from 3 pressure settings according to the menu selected for the best cooking results.

The platinum-infused nonstick inner cooking pan changes the water quality and allows rice to absorb water easily for better-tasting rice.

Zojirushi NP NVC18 rice cooker also includes superior induction heating technology, multi-menu cooking functions with healthy brown rice and GABA brown rice cooking options,

• Exclusive Umami setting,
• Scorch setting and steam reduce setting,
• An easy-to-read colored LCD control panel with clock and timer functions,
• A delay timer with two settings,
• An interchangeable melody and beep signal to indicate the end of the cooking cycle,
• Automatic keep warm as well as extended keep warm, and a detachable and washable stainless-steel inner lid.

For safety, the appliance provides

• • a pressure-control valve,
  • a backup safety valve,
  • an inner lid filter, and
  • a pressure indicator on the control panel, which locks the lid during pressure cooking.
• Easy to clean clear coated stainless steel exterior and washable detachable inner lid makes clean up a snap.

Accessories include a rice spatula, a spatula holder, and two measuring cups (for regular rice and rinse-free rice). The ETL-approved 1,370-watt rice cooker and warmer measures 11-1/8 by 16-1/2 by 10-1/8 inches.

Make every rice type imaginable with a Zojirushi Rice Cooker

Brown Rice

This is a menu setting designed to cook delicious brown rice. In order to cook hard rice bran and the rice inside, preheating time is extended for better absorption of water and is cooked at a lower temperature to allow the rice to cook longer without becoming mushy.

Sushi Rice

Because sushi rice will be processed after it’s cooked, it’s easier to handle when it is a little firmer. This menu setting is very similar to regular white rice but uses less water (adjusted by the water fill lines) for a firm finish.

Mixed Rice

Mixed rice is rice cooked with additional ingredients and seasonings. This setting extends preheating for better absorption of seasoning. Also, the cooking temperature is slightly lower than regular white rice, to avoid ingredients from boiling over.

Porridge

Cooking rice in larger amounts of water may risks making it sloppy. Instead, use the porridge setting to cook fluffy porridge. The cooking temperature is slightly lower than regular white rice, to be cooked longer for a soft texture.

A newly discovered way of cooking brown rice to “activate” it and increase naturally occurring Gamma-Amino Butyric Acid (GABA), an amino acid in brown rice believed to have health-giving properties such as lowering blood pressure, improving kidney function, and relieving stress.

The brown rice is “activated” by soaking it at 104 degrees F for 2 hours before the actual cooking begins. All Zojirushi Induction Heating System rice cookers, including the IH Pressure models, have the GABA brown rice setting.

This GABA Brown Rice is not to be confused with Germinated Brown Rice (which is a type of brown rice that has been processed). GABA Brown Rice is a type of rice that must be purchased. The process gives it a softer texture and improved taste. It also contains increased values of GABA.

Germinated brown rice, sometimes also called sprouted brown rice, may be cooked using the “Softer” menu in most Zojirushi NP NVC18 rice cookers.

About The AI Fuzzy Logic Technology | Zojirushi NP NVC18

The AI (Artificial Intelligence) allows the rice cooker to “learn” from past cooking experiences and adjust the cooking “flow” to cook ideal rice. NP-NVC18 cooks rice to the same consistency in summer or winter, when water and room temperatures may be drastically different. Even after years of use, the rice cooker can cook rice to the same consistency as when the unit was new.

With AI technology, the rice cooker remembers the capacity you cook most often and selects the ideal cooking “flow” from the very first stage of the cooking process. Basically, the microchip does all the thinking for you to adjust cooking times and temperatures. It also set the precise amount of pre-soaking time of the raw grains, and the time for the final “wait” period during steaming.

Conventional rice cookers simply turn on and off in reaction to temperature. Zojirushi NP NVC18 Fuzzy Logic Technology fine-tunes this adjustment to adapt to various rice types, such as white, brown, sweet, or porridge, which all have different cooking requirements.

This model has separate thermometers that monitor the room temperature, the temperature inside the unit, and the temperature of the inner cooking pan. The collected data is used to aid in the cooking and keeping warm process.

What is Induction Heating (IH) | Zojirushi NP NVC18

Induction Heating took rice cooking to another level by literally introducing another dimension to the heating process. Where the heating element would normally be located at the bottom of the cooker, IH transforms the entire inner cooking pan into a heat conductor, allowing for higher, more precise, and more uniform cooking temperatures.

How it works in Zojirushi NP NVC18 Rice Cooker

Induction Heating (IH) occurs when a magnetic material enters a magnetic field. In our case, we recreate this by passing an electric current through coils located at the bottom of the cooker’s body. When the inner cooking pan (with a stainless steel inner layer) is placed into the rice cooker and the unit is turned on, a magnetic field is generated to create instant heat.

Through this technology, the inner cooking pan itself becomes the heat source utilizing both high heat and fine heating adjustments to better control the cooking process.

IH Pressure System

Pressure cooking is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure resulting in even higher temperatures. Cooking rice with pressure is a better way to turn beta starch into alpha starch, which makes the rice softer and easier to digest.

(The starch in grains is beta starch. Raw rice is hard because beta-starch is rigid. Beta-starch resists digestion by any enzyme, to protect the seed from germinating when conditions are unfavorable. When rice is cooked, the starch loses its rigidity, and turns into a soft pasty alpha-starch.)

This change makes the rice softer and easier to digest, and even fluffier to taste. Rice cooked with pressure has also been found to stay soft for longer periods of time when compared to regular cooked rice.

Pressure Safety

Zojirushi NP NVC18 rice cooker has multiple safety features for a safe cooking experience.

• The pressure Control Valve (with Pressure Release Ball) Controls the pressure level during cooking
• Safety Valve: Releases excessive pressure in case the pressure control valve becomes clogged or malfunctions
• The pressure Indicator on the control panel turns on when pressure is applied during cooking, and locks the lid
• Inner Lid Filter: Minimizes small particles from becoming stuck inside the Pressure Control Valve, Safety Valve, or Steam Vent Set
• Whistle: A whistling noise warns that the Pressure Control Valve or Safety Valve is clogged and needs to be cleaned

Platinum Infused Nonstick Inner Cooking Pan

The nonstick coating on the inner cooking pan is infused with platinum particles. Through research, we discovered that platinum alkalizes water. Alkaline water breaks down the protein on the surface of the rice grain, and water is able to penetrate the rice grain more easily. Enhanced gelatinization brings out the sweetness of rice ultimately making better tasting rice.

The platinum particles are burnt onto ceramic particles, which are mixed into the nonstick coating. The water is alkalized when poured into the inner cooking pan and comes into contact with the platinum particles.

Umami Setting in Zojirushi NP NVC18

What is Umami? Umami is considered the 5th flavor, along with sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. It is also described as “savoriness”, and comes from the Japanese word meaning “good flavor” or “deliciousness”.

What does the Umami setting do?

The Umami setting soaks the rice before cooking longer than the regular white setting. During this extended soaking time, the sugar contained within the rice is slowly released into the water. Once the rice cooker begins to cook the rice, the sugar that was released into the water re-attaches itself onto the surface of the rice, making the cooked rice taste sweeter.

The Umami setting also extends the steaming time at the end of the cooking cycle.

Steam-Reduce Setting

The Steam-Reduce setting reduces steam to 50% of the Regular Setting. The Rinse-Free setting can be used together with Steam-Reduce, but it is a separate course from other courses, and cannot be combined (e.g., you cannot cook choose Steam-Reduce when cooking sweet or mixed rice). The rice texture may be slightly harder than Regular.

Zojirushi NP NVC18 Scorched Setting

The Scorched setting lightly toasts the bottom of the rice for a crispy texture. This is also a separate setting, and cannot be combined with other settings. It is recommended that the rice be consumed immediately.

Automatic Keep Warm

Extended Keep Warm keeps cooked rice warm at a lower temperature than Regular Keep Warm to minimize drying and yellowing of rice. It is ideal to switch to Extended Keep Warm when keeping rice warm for a longer period of time.

The rice cooker will switch to Regular Keep Warm automatically for 24 hours after cooking completion. The reheat function will raise the temperature of the rice closer to immediately after cooking.

Reheat Function of Zojirushi NP NVC18

Reheating will take about 5-8 minutes. It can be used to reheat rice kept warm under Regular or Extended Keep Warm, to bring the temperature closer to immediately after cooking.

Keep Warm Monitor

The lid sensor detects how many times the lid has been opened and for how long, and calculates the amount of rice left inside the inner cooking pan. The rice cooker calculates how much heat is needed to keep the rice at the ideal keep warm temperature.

The keep-warm monitor alerts you by beeping four times, 10, 40, or 70 minutes after cooking is completed.

If the lid has not been opened, it beeps you to fluff the rice to release excessive moisture. The rice cooker will also beep four times if the lid is left open for over 5 minutes to remind you to close the lid. If unclosed, the rice cooker will beep every 3 minutes thereafter up to 3 times.

Both beeps will not sound if the rice cooker is set to “Silent” mode.

LCD Control Panel

Easy-to-read LCD control panel with clock and timer features. Menu Settings include: white (regular, softer, harder), umami, mixed, sushi/sweet, porridge, brown, GABA brown, steam-reduced, scorch, rinse-free, and quick cooking.

Detachable Inner Lid

The inner lid is detachable and washable for easy cleaning

Features of Zojirushi Rice Cooker – 10 Cups, Stainless Brown

• Advanced fuzzy logic technology with AI (Artificial Intelligence): AI technology “learns” and adjusts the cooking cycle to get perfect results

• Automatically selects from three pressure levels according to the menu selected

• Platinum-infused nonstick inner cooking pan changes water quality for sweeter-tasting rice

• Superior induction heating (IH) technology

• Detachable and washable stainless steel inner lid

• Easy-to-read colored LCD control panel with clock (24H)

• Inner lid filter on the inner lid to prevent small food particles from becoming stuck in the pressure system

• Keep warm monitor

• Easy-to-clean clear coated stainless steel exterior
• Automatic keep warm, extended keep warm and reheating cycles

• Delay timer (2 settings)

• Interchangeable melody and beep signal

• Menu settings include: white (regular, softer or harder), umami, mixed, sushi/sweet, porridge, brown, GABA brown, steam-reduce, scorch, rinse-free, and quick cooking

• Zojirushi’s exclusive Umami setting extends soaking and steaming for better rice

• Steam-reduce setting reduces steam to 50% of the Regular setting

• Scorch setting toasts rice to a crispy golden brown, ideal for special dishes

• Healthy cooking options: brown rice and GABA brown rice settings
  • GABA brown setting or Brown Rice Activation activates brown rice for increased nutritional values

• Recipes: mixed rice, sweet rice with mountain vegetables, hand-rolled sushi, and rice porridge with seven herbs

• Quick Start Guide (Long Grain White, Jasmine, Basmati only) included

• Language: box in English and French, manual in English and French, and Chinese (Traditional), Korean and Japanese (2 separate booklets)