Of the several countertop appliances we have accumulated, only one sees enough regular use to be a necessary part of the kitchen. That one would be the electric rice cooker. Not that I can't cook rice without one -- I vaguely remember doing that, and often forgetting I'd left the pot to simmer after the first boil. Smoke was a frequent cue that the rice was ready. I did think that an electric rice pot was a luxury I didn't need, until I used one and found that it makes perfect rice every time, with no burning if you get involved in other things.

Although there are certainly much fancier models available now, I've only use two in the past thirty years, and the one we have now is only a larger version of the first little Sanyo rice cooker I ever had, back in the 70's. There's one control, a switch that begins the cooking cycle when you push it down and pops up to the warm cycle when the rice is finished. To turn it off, you unplug it. I expect it to last forever, since the first one was still working fine when I gave it away a few years ago, making room for a bigger rice pot.

As much as I like the thing, the simplicity of it and the dependability, there are a few things that can go wrong. If you like rice, you want it cooked perfectly. That requires a little bit of fine tuning.

The simplistic rice cookers like ours cook white rice with the same proportion of rice to water, one cup of rice to two cups liquid. That may be a little wet for some, and backing off the water amount to one and three quarters of a cup will be more like restaurant rice. If you choose to rinse the talc off the rice it won't be as sticky, but any enrichments to replace vitamins milled away during processing will also be lost. White rice is like white bread -- tasty but lacking essentials.

Especially if you don't rinse the rice, an ordinary electric rice pot will boil over a bit, or a lot. The pots with tempered glass lids, like ours, have a vent hole in the top that will also spit when things get really going. Use one a couple of times and you will get tired of mopping up the mess from the counter. There is a way to avoid that, however.

Add a little oil to the rice. About a teaspoon per cup of dry rice is what I use, but that's just ball park guesswork. A little jolt from a squeeze bottle I keep on the counter is how I measure. The oil will stop the overflow, and we have learned to stuff a quarter of a paper towel under the pot lid handle, to hang over the vent and catch any projectiles.

You can cook rice without salt, depending on food you eat with it for that essential flavor, but a dash of sea salt makes a lot of difference in flavor if you like to eat rice fairly plain. Adding a couple of bouillon cubes and a pinch of saffron gives the dish a completely different character.

You need a little more water to properly cook brown rice. Short grain and long grain varieties cook up the same way, with the old ratio of two cups of brown rice and four and a half cups of water working well enough. Since I like a drier version I've backed the water off a bit, using only two cups for one cup of dry rice. Add some oil, salt or boullion if desired, and arrange the paper towel barrier over the vent.

Brown rice winds up with a slightly scorched layer welded to the bottom of the pot. If you leave the rice on the warming cycle that layer will get rock solid and even after soaking the pot for a couple of hours it may be hard to scrub loose. When the pot clicks off, save yourself that problem by unplugging the cooker and letting it set covered for another ten or fifteen minutes. That tasty browned layer will now easily come loose and mix into the rest of the rice.

If you are interested in trying mixed grains, start off with 1 1/2 cups of dry brown rice, 1/4 cup of quinoa, and 1/4 cup of amaranth. Mix the cooked grains well after they are done because the amaranth likes to settle on top. Other grains contribute unique flavors. Flax seed should be used sparingly, about a tablespoon is enough to flavor a pot without being too oily. Sesame seed can be used in the same proportions as amaranth.

This short grained variety of glutinous or sticky rice needs to cook a little longer than ordinary brown rice, so don't cut back on the water. Use the old proportions of 1 cup rice to 1 1/4 cup water. And don't forget the salt and cooking oil.

Some cooking oil adds flavor, and some is bland. Stay away from generic brands because the flavor is often poor and you never really know what you're getting except that it was cheaper the day it was bottled. Olive oil is expensive, with a flavor some people love. Corn oil is not expensive, and has a buttery taste. Canola is the vanilla of the lot. The strongest cooking oil is sesame oil, rather expensive in terms of volume but a little will last a very long time. Cut the amount by half, or it will definitely overpower the dish. It's good, but not a flavor I like every day. Mixing a spoonful of black sesame seed with the rice will impart much of that same taste without the heavy oil.

If you only like white rice but want some nourishment along with the starch, you might try Haiga. Haiga is carefully milled to retain the germ and most of the vitamins, but without the bran of brown rice. Use the white rice recipe for Haiga as well. Since the milling process requires six procedures instead of the one necessary for white polished rice, be prepared to spend more for Haiga.

With more nutrients than any other variety, sprouted brown rice adds a unique texture and flavor to every dish. Rinse the rice well and then soak the rice in warm water, above 70 degrees Fahrenheit, for a day and then drain. Put the rice in a bowl and cover it with a towel. Rinse with clean water two or three times a day. By the end of the second day, if the conditions have been right, the rice will develop short sprouts and is ready to cook. Since the rice has already absorbed water you won't need so much to cook it. Reduce the amount of water to 1 1/2 cups per cup of sprouted rice. Remember how much you started with, because if the rice sprouts too vigorously, the volume will increase and your measurements will be a bit off.

Long grain brown rice works best for this, in my opinion, cooking with a uniquely nutty flavor and splitting into light curls instead of straight grains. Sprouted rice is packed with nutrients and much easier to digest than regular rice. It's apparently an ancient way of cooking that people in this country had forgotten until recently. I'm glad to know it's permitted, because I stumbled on the process by accident about 25 years ago when I set up the rice and water for the next morning's breakfast and forgot to cook it for a day or two. It had all sprouted, and I decided to cook it anyway and found it good. I still do.

Don't try this with Haiga or white rice. Milled rice is dead.

If you're into gizmos you'll probably like machines such as Sanyo's ECJ-HC55S/H Rice Cooker and Slow Cooker. It's a computerized combination of rice cooker and crock pot, with two interchangeable cooking pots and a fistful of recipes. The rice pot is marked with different water levels for different types of rice, and you have to carefully measure the dry amounts beforehand as well. To work properly you also need to select the proper cooking cycle for the type of rice you've chosen. If you confuse any part of this, you'll wind up with partly cooked rice or pots that overflow.

On the other hand, you can cook porridge, vegetable stews, meats and even make your own soft tofu. It's tempting. I'll probably stick with the one we have until it breaks. Then I might experiment with new technology. By then it'll be thirty years old and on sale.