Digital Rice Cooker With Oatmeal Setting For Oat Porridge

Rice cookers with built-in microcomputer technology often have a menu setting for cooking rice porridge. However, this porridge setting is sometimes used by people for cooking steel cut oats. Nevertheless, I have found a few digital rice cookers that have an oatmeal setting for cooking old-fashioned rolled oats or steel cut oats.

Oat Groats vs. Steel Cut Oats

Oat groats is the whole grain kernel. The inedible hull has been removed, and the oat groats have been cleaned. The groats can be cut into smaller pieces with a steel blade to make it easier and faster to cook. This is then called steel cut oats.

Steel Cut Oats vs. Rolled Oats

Steel cut oats is simply the whole grain oat groat which has been cut into smaller pieces. It is sometimes called Irish oatmeal. It is also possible to grind the groats into smaller pieces with a stone mill. Stone-ground oats are often called Scottish oatmeal.

Rolled oats, or old-fashioned oats, are made by steaming the whole oat groats and then rolling it flat into a flake. This process gives it a longer shelf life and makes it quicker to cook.

Rolled Oats vs. Quick Oats

Quick oats are made by steaming the oat groats even longer and rolling it much thinner. This makes it even faster to prepare at breakfast time.

Aroma Rice Cooker With Oatmeal Setting

Aroma ARC-616SB
Aroma ARC-616SB

The Aroma ARC-616SB (read my review) has a modern, egg-shaped design with an easy-to-see horizontal control panel. It offers multiple cooking functions that go beyond preparing just white or brown rice. The ARC-616SB has a maximum uncooked rice capacity of six measuring cups. It can steam vegetables in its plastic steam tray or slow cook food in its nonstick cooking pot. There are also menu settings for making soup, cake and oatmeal.

The Aroma ARC-616SB instruction manual has a recipe for Breakfast Oatmeal. The recipe uses old-fashioned rolled oats, milk, brown sugar and salt.

The oatmeal function of the Aroma ARC-616SB is easy to understand. Add the rolled oats and water to the cooking pot according to the instructions of the packaging. Place the pot in the cooker, close the lid, connect the power cord and press the power button. Now, keep pressing the menu button until the oatmeal menu option is selected on the control panel. Press the start button to commence cooking the oatmeal.

The ARC-616SB rice cooker switches to keep warm once the oatmeal program has finished cooking. Open the lid, serve and enjoy your steaming bowl of oat porridge. Remember to turn off the rice cooker and unplug the cord when you are finished eating porridge.

Two tips for cooking oatmeal in the Aroma ARC-616SB digital rice cooker. The first tip is to open the lid, while avoiding the hot steam from the steam vent, and stir the oats with a long wooden spoon. The second tip is to avoid keeping the oatmeal porridge warm for longer than 12 hours in the rice cooker pot.

The Aroma ARC-616SB is an affordable digital rice cooker with an oatmeal setting for cooking rolled oats or steel cut oat porridge (buy on Amazon – paid link).

Panasonic Rice Cooker With Oatmeal Setting

Panasonic SR-ZC075K
Panasonic SR-ZC075K

The Panasonic SR-ZC075K has a 4-cup uncooked rice capacity. It offers eight automatic menu programs: White Rice, Brown Rice, Quick Cook, Slow Cook, Oatmeal, Quinoa, Cake and Yogurt. Its keep warm function keeps the cooked food at serving temperature for up to 12 hours. It has a fluorine-coated nonstick cooking pot.

The oatmeal setting is a convenient way to prepare oat porridge, but be sure to use the right water to oatmeal ratio (about 2:1). Follow the instructions on the packaging.

The Panasonic SR-ZC075K is a great rice cooker with an oatmeal setting. It is a smaller 4-cup uncooked rice cooker which might not prepare more than one or two servings of oatmeal porridge (view price on Amazon – paid link).

Tiger Rice Cooker For Steel Cut Oats

Tiger JKT-B10U-C
Tiger JKT-B10U-C

The Tiger JKT-B10U-C is an induction heating rice cooker. Its 1.5-millimeter thick inner cooking pot has a 5.5-cup uncooked rice capacity. There is also a larger 10-cup uncooked model available (the JKT-B18U).

The Tiger JKT-B10U-C has eight microcomputer controlled menu settings. There are three menu settings for cooking white rice: Plain, Ultra or Quick. Other settings include Mixed, Jasmine, Brown, Porridge and Oatmeal (Steel Cut).

The steel cut oatmeal setting cooks oat porridge without the need for constant stirring. You can use this rice cooker to make oat porridge in the morning and a pot of rice in the evening. However, it has neither a steamer basket nor a steam setting for steaming vegetables.

The Tiger JKT-B10U-C is a high-quality induction rice cooker with a steel cut oatmeal setting that is made in Japan (check price on Amazon – paid link).

Zojirushi Rice Cooker For Steel Cut Oatmeal

Zojirushi NS-LGC05
Zojirushi NS-LGC05

The Zojirushi NS-LGC05 is the only Zojirushi rice cooker I could find that has a specific menu setting for steel cut oatmeal. This setting is similar to the porridge setting found on other Zojirushi rice cookers (the NS-LGC05 does not have a porridge setting). However, the oatmeal setting seems to have a shorter overall cooking time when compared to the rice porridge settings.

The Zojirushi NS-LGC05 also has a few other menu options to choose from, such as long-grain white and GABA brown. This small rice cooker has a 3-cup uncooked rice capacity.

The Zojirushi NS-LGC05 seems to make excellent steel cut oat porridge, even though its 3-cup capacity is too small for a large family and many servings (view price on Amazon – paid link).

Toshiba Rice Cooker For Steel Cut Oats

Toshiba TRCS01 rice cooker
Toshiba TRCS01

Toshiba has been making automatic electric rice cookers since 1955, but I only recently noticed this Japanese-style fuzzy logic rice cooker.

The Toshiba TRCS01 fuzzy logic rice cooker has a 6-cup uncooked, or 12-cup cooked, rice capacity. It is a digital rice cooker with an LCD, buttons and seven cooking functions:

  • White Rice (Sushi Rice)
  • Brown Rice
  • Mixed Rice
  • Multi Grains
  • Steel Cut Oats
  • Porridge
  • Quick Cooking

The Toshiba TRCS01 has a steel cut oat setting for making oatmeal porridge for breakfast.

Other notable features include a 24-hour keep-warm function, delay timer, non-stick cooking pot, carry handle and steam basket for steaming food.

In brief, the Toshiba TRCS01 fuzzy logic rice cooker is not as popular as other fuzzy logic rice cookers, yet it can cook steel cut oats just as well as a Zojirushi rice cooker. Shop now on Amazon (paid link).

Conclusion

These digital rice cookers with oatmeal settings are the best that I could find. Which one do I prefer?

I would probably buy the Zojirushi NS-LGC05, because I think it is one of the best fuzzy logic rice cookers for cooking steel cut oatmeal porridge (buy now on Amazon – paid link).

The Tiger JKT-B10U-C is probably the best rice cooker for steel cut oats, but it is too expensive for me. The Toshiba TRCS01 would be the more affordable choice for cooking steel cut oats.

Thank you for reading my review of rice cookers with an oatmeal setting or steel cut oats function. Enjoy eating your oat porridge!