Buying Guides
Multi Cooker Buying Guide
WHAT IS A MULTI COOKER?
A multi-cooker is an unassuming small appliance that’s actually able to do an amazing amount of things that will transform your kitchen. These can include performing cooking methods as varied as steaming, slow cooking, rice cooking, and pressure cooking. With the leading manufacturers behind these benchtop appliances continuing to innovate, their exact features - and what they “can do” - will vary. But in a nutshell, multi cookers:
Are an all-in-one appliance saving you effort, time and bench-space.
Typically include timers and recipes that will help you dish up healthy and hearty meals on demand with no-fuss convenience.
Ideal for those who crave versatility in their cooking - but want complete simplicity!
Popular brands of multi cooker: Philips, Tefal, Breville, Sunbeam
WHAT IS THE BEST MULTI-COOKER?
As is often the way, the “best” is defined as what’s best for you.
A lot of the features of the best multi-cookers overlap - you’ll find rice cookers that also have slow-cooking programs, just like you’ll find combination pressure and slow cookers, if you have a preference for these particular cooking styles.
Meanwhile, there are models that do just about everything (including air-frying) apart from make small talk at the dinner table afterwards.
With that in mind, when considering what’s “best”, consider what you really want - and what styles of cooking each suits. If you have simpler tastes and just like a lot of rice dishes - maybe a dedicated rice-cooker that’s ready and available to go at all times is more your style.
If you’re worried about cooking capacity a 4.5 litre bowl will generally do the job.
WHY CHOOSE A MULTI COOKER?
There are many great reasons to invest in a multi cooker, ranging from sheer convenience to the quality of food that they produce. Our multi-reasons include:
Healthier and more delicious meals: multi cooker functions (such as pressure cooking) work to help lock in the flavours and nutrients of food.
Simplicity: these machines are extremely easy to use and do a lot of the work for you (don’t worry, they love it). You can apply timed programs and thanks to sensor technology, the machine is able to adjust variables such as cooking times and temperature to get the best results.
Set and forget: you can let the machine do its thing thanks to cooking programs which will automatically switch the machine off (or switch to Keep Warm mode) at the right time. The only exception to this is when you’re using the pressure cooking mode.
De-stress: Need to make something in a hurry but don’t have time, energy or the sheer willpower to focus on it? Or maybe you’re cooking up a multi-course meal, juggling multiple responsibilities, and need your side dish to magically cook itself while you’re preparing the main course? Okay, just let the multi cooker do the work.
Timing: The timers and keep warm features mean that your meals are ready to be eaten when you’re ready to start eating. So if you’re guests are running late - your multi cooker will patiently wait for them.
MULTI COOKER FUNCTIONS
Here are some common duties that a multi cooker can perform:
SLOW COOKING
As you may have guessed, slow cooking applies low heat to cook dishes over an extended period of several hours. It’s slow, but it builds flavour, improves texture and can take your cooking to a whole new level.
There are dedicated slow cookers (sometimes referred to as “crock pots”) available, but it’s also a feature of multi cookers.
Set and forget: reliably producing rich flavours and tender, succulent meat.
Requires little supervision, so ideal for busy families and professionals. However, we wouldn’t advise that you leave them entirely unattended. So unfortunately - in the case of multi cookers - we wouldn’t recommend switching them on in the morning and then going to work.
Slow cooking can save you money on grocery bills - they can work magic to turn tougher (and cheaper) cuts of meat into succulent morsels.
Obviously will take their sweet time to deliver the results - so a bit of pre-planning will be required.
PRESSURE COOKING
Pressure cooking basically uses steam pressure to rapidly cook food inside the sealed, air-tight cooker - more quickly than if the steam would be allowed to freely escape. It’s a great way to get things done in a hurry. Just come home from work and all you have is a frozen chicken in the fridge to eat tonight? No problems, whack it in the multi cooker with pressure cooking capabilities - judiciously applying water and the ingredients for a sensational sauce - and you’ll have dinner ready in 20 minutes.
Cooks a variety of dishes: everything from frozen meat to soup and desserts.
It’s very healthy: only a small amount of water is needed, so the food won’t lose vitamins and minerals normally dissolved in the cooking process.
Perfect for those people who don’t want to put a lot of time and effort into their cooking. Just grab the ingredients from the shops on the way home from work - you can be confident you can whip something up in no time.
Please note, unlike some other methods, once in pressure cooking mode your machine shouldn’t be left unattended.
STEAMING
Steam cooking has seemingly become very popular in the world of cooking over the last few years - despite the fact that it’s, of course, an ancient culinary practice. But the key is that it has been incorporated into contemporary appliances, such as multi cookers, in dynamic ways. And its advantages are genuine and numerous. In particular:
It’s very healthy. Unlike boiling, frying and other cooking methods, steaming retains more vitamins and nutrients - and you don’t need to cook with oils.
Steaming retains the moisture when you’re cooking food such as fish and veggies - which can be very important: they retain their succulence without drying them out in the cooking process.
RICE COOKING
Want perfectly cooked rice and grains? Here’s your solution - no need to keep an eye on the water level or stirring the pot, just add the amount of rice and water as per instructions and the automated processes will do the rest.
Obviously ideal for those who use a lot of rice in their cooking and want something they can depend on to deliver - every time.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...
Many multi-cookers can also:
SAUTÉ
This is yet another convenient feature of a multi cooker. Often recipes call for searing or browning meat before stewing it in a slow cooker or pressure cooker function. With the sauté function that step is done for you. It saves you time and energy, cutting out the use of another saucepan. This means less washing up so essentially it's a 'one pot' dish.
ROAST
Yes, roast! The deluxe Multi Cookers can roast any meat that will fit in the pan. You can even collect the juices left at the bottom to make gravy. Then steam your peas, carrots and potatoes for mash, and voila! A complete roast dinner with minimal washing up.
DEEP FRY
Hot chips, spring rolls, felafel or donuts. This function is there for those family favourites. Just add oil and your cooker turns into a deep fryer. This may not be a function you use too often, but it's precisely why having it as an option is better than having a deep fryer as a separate appliance. It takes up less room to have one machine that cook in multiple ways.
HEAT/REHEAT
This is a handy function that allows you to keep your food warm after it has finished cooking, without drying out your food. So when having dinner parties, or if serving needs to be delayed, you don't have to worry about your food going cold. It also lets you reheat food, like the leftover stews, soups and casseroles you made with your multi cooker.
BAKE
It's not the conventional way of baking, but have you ever tried baking banana bread in a slow cooker? You could be saving on energy bills. If you have an electric stove, you will approximately halve the electricity consumption by using the Multi Cooker. And in Summer, using this machine instead of your oven will greatly reduce the heat in the kitchen, if you can't stand it.
PROS AND CONS
Okay we’ve told you how amazing multi cookers can be - and, yes, they are. There is, of course, so much to like about combining all those cooking modes in the one appliance - the convenience, the savings on space and money ... but have in mind a few points:
It could still be helpful to augment your kitchen with appliances that perform one of the individual tasks that a multi cooker does. Depending on your needs, this will give you more flexibility. Maybe you want to use your multi cooker to make bread ... but you also want to do some slow cooking simultaneously?
Sometimes multi-cookers can’t quite give the same richness and depth of flavour that a standalone slow-cooker can deliver. Similarly if you are a bread making enthusiast, then it might be more convenient in the long run to just get an appliance dedicated to that.
Multi cookers can be a bit fiddly to clean. This may only become an issue if you’re going to use them regularly - and, of course, you don’t like cleaning. Cleaning and maintaining the seals and valves is important as blocked seals can cause issues when pressure cooking. Again, a standalone slow cooker has the advantage here - the cleanups on these relatively simple appliances are very easy.
WE’RE MULTI-TASKERS TOO
At Bing Lee, we’re always here to offer great advice and service - so if you need any more information, please feel free to get in touch. Additionally, we want to make the incredible functionality of the best multi cookers available for all our customers, so please note, we offer flexible payment options, including Zip and Afterpay.
And as a proudly Australian-owned family business, Bing Lee is dedicated to providing great service for all our customers, with simple pickup and delivery options across both Sydney and Melbourne*.