What We Mean By The Yum Factor
Our products are designed to be different and to standout from the crowd. We do this by developing unique functions and features, designing our products to look good and be constructed of better materials and workmanship.
What we call the Yum Factor can be anything from carefully calculated rice cooking phase cycles to our signature healthy ceramic coated inner bowls or our unique UMAI IH cooking technology.
Let’s explore the things that make our products have the ‘Yum factor’
Premium Signature Ceramic Rice Cooker Bowls
Yum Asia rice cookers include our signature ceramic Ninja, Joubu and Shinsei inner bowls for perfect cooking
Our Bowls Are
Ceramic, Healthy and Durable
BPA, PFOA and PTFE free.
Silk Print Level Lines
Exact and easy to read water measurements
Non Stick - No Problem
Easy to clean with a simple wipe
Stay Cool Handles
On Sakura and Bamboo models
First UMAI Induction Heating (IH) In The UK And Europe
Our award winning Bamboo and Fuji IH rice cookers push the technology further
Exclusive to Yum Asia's Bamboo and Fuji rice cookers is Umai Induction Heating (IH). Induction Heating in rice cookers occurs when coils in the bottom of the unit create a magnetic field that specifically heats up the inner bowl and contents.
‘Umai’ in Japanese means smart brain which refers to the microprocessor used to make fine adjustments in temperature and cooking times. Because our Umai IH system is so smart (and combines IH with advanced fuzzy logic AI), it makes our IH rice cookers more efficient, this means your rice is absolutely perfect every single time and it is cooked faster than other older type IH technology.
Cooking
Balanced, Distributed Heating
Magnetic coils agitate the rice
UMAI Technology
Smart brain (AI) fuzzy logic for clever cooking
Surround Heating
Heats the bowl not the cooker
Accurate Temperature
Helps utilise different cook functions
Masters Of Rice Cooking
Yum Asia rice cookers have unique functions using the best technology to cook your rice!
Beauty and
Smart Phased Cooking
Advanced fuzzy logic (AI) cook cycles for clever cooking
Unique Cook Functions
GABA, Yumami and Regular cook cycles done right
Appearance Is Important
Modern displays, cool Looking
Factory Made For Your Country
Designed to work with your power system
What Is Advanced Fuzzy Logic?
Our Yum Asia rice brand cookers all use advanced fuzzy logic (a type of AI) to ensure rice is cooked perfectly every time. This graph shows how the the ‘brains’ of the cooker adjusts the temperature using the weight and detecting the heat inside the bowl along with pre-programmed conditions to cook rice on a typical cooking cycle. The graph shows a detailed explanation of a typical cook process.but varies with each type of function being used.
THE ESSENTIAL COOKING PHASES
PREHEAT– Cooker starts to gently heat the rice and water in the inner bowl to start the cooking cycle; this is key to the release of sugars into the water from the rice grains.
ABSORB WATER – This phase of the cooking cycle slightly increases the cooking temperature so the rice can start absorbing the water.
HEATING– The temperature is increased again to start heating the water and rice in the inner bowl to start the cooking process of the rice.
BOILING– Cooker rapidly increases the temperature to 100˚C, boiling point to evaporate the majority of the water from the inner bowl and to cook the rice part way.
STEAM– The steaming part of the cooking cycle enables the rice to continue cooking while reabsorbing the sugars in the remaining water back into the rice whilst simultaneously evaporating the remaining water. This part of the cooking cycle makes the rice taste sweeter.
COOL DOWN – This water balancing part of the cooking cycle ensures there is no remaining water left
KEEP WARM AND STEAM – The final part of the cooking cycle is to hold steady at the perfect temperature to continue to steam the rice. This ensures the rice is perfectly cooked, fluffy and delicious
What Is The GABA Rice Function?
The GABA brown rice (or germinated brown rice) function uses specific timing and temperatures so the brown rice is allowed to germinate. When you select the GABA function on Bamboo or Fuji they will soak and activate the brown rice for you using the Umai (smart brain) fuzzy logic control after which it begins to phase in the cooking process. During this process, the inner bowl and its contents are kept at a specific temperature for part of the cooking cycle which enables the brown rice to ‘sprout’. More details…
The full cooking time for GABA rice in Bamboo or Fuji, including the additional activation period, takes around 2 hours 25 minutes to complete. The result of this process alters the flavour and increases the levels of nutrients such as gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). GABA brown rice has a softer texture than brown rice and a nuttier flavour.
Zojirushi models NS-YSQ10/18 also have a GABA brown function and the full cooking time, including the additional activation period, takes may take between 3 hours and 15 minutes and 3 hours and 35 minutes to complete.
Explore GABA In Further Detail
Hatsuga genmai (or germinated brown rice) is unpolished brown japonica (Japanese) rice, that has been allowed to germinate in order to alter the flavour and also to increase levels of nutrients such as gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Hatsuga genmai has a softer texture than brown rice and a nuttier flavour.
Germinated (GABA) rice an emerging health food where any type of brown rice is soaked in warm water prior to cooking; the warm bath induces germination, or sprouting, which stimulates rice enzymes to produce more nutrients. One of these nutrients is the important brain chemical GABA (which is why germinated brown rice is referred to as “GABA rice”), and some scientific studies have shown that a germinated brown rice rich diet can improve cognitive function and other studies have found that it could also act as an anti-diabetic.
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is an essential amino acid and was “discovered” in 2004 as part of the United Nation’s Year of Rice research. By germinating the brown rice prior to cooking, GABA, lysine (another amino acid), tocotrienols, magnesium and zinc are all significantly increased. To make GABA rice, you need to start with brown rice – this is because white rice has had the hull removed, which means that it is no longer capable of germinating. The brown rice is rinsed, then soaked in water for an extended period of time before cooking. As the rice germinates the amount of gamma-aminobutyric acid increases.
Take a look at our explainer image – on the tip of each grain of rice is an embryo; this is the part of the seed that will germinate. The rice is soaked until the embryo become fuller and larger or a sprout starts to emerge. This means the rice has germinated. Since water is naturally absorbed during the germination process, GABA rice will cook faster and need less cooking liquid, than other forms of rice.
Fans of GABA rice say that it’s less irritating to the digestive tract and less likely to promote allergic reactions than regular rice and believe that its nutrients are better absorbed. However, all rice is generally considered a non-irritating food and is unlikely to produce allergic reactions in most people. Emerging research suggests that sprouted brown rice may contain compounds that promote blood sugar control. However, the studies showing an advantage for diabetes are generally comparing sprouted brown rice to refined white rice; there’s usually no difference compared to regular brown rice. Whether or not it’s actually healthier than regular brown rice is unknown, but some people prefer it simply for its softer texture and mildly nutty flavour. People who have trouble making the move from white to brown rice may find the taste and texture of sprouted brown rice a good mid-point between the two.
GABA brown functions on rice cookers makes it much easier to cook GABA brown rice, our Bamboo, Fuji and Zojirushi models NS-YSQ10/18 or NL-GAQ10/18 have a GABA brown function which can be used with any type of brown rice.
What Is The Yumami Rice Function?
What Is YumCarb?
The 3 Types Of Rice Cooker
Conventional Rice Cookers
The type of rice cookers available in most markets are basic models which do not have any type of logic controlled cooking. If you take out the inner bowl and look inside the main body of the rice cooker, you will see a small round disk, about 3.8cm in diameter, in the centre of the heating plate. This is a thermal sensing device, known as a magnetic thermostat, and it sits on a small spring.
When rice and water is placed into the inner cooking pan and then put into the main body of the rice cooker, the weight of the inner cooking pan depresses the thermal sensor. With the rice cooker plugged in and the cooking switch turned on, the heating plate begins to heat up bringing the liquid in the cooking pan to a boil. Water boils at 100°C and no higher, so as long as there is water in the pan the rice cooker will continue to cook. When the rice absorbs all the water, the temperature will begin to rise since there isn’t any water left in the pan. When the thermal sensor senses that the temperature has risen above 100°C, the machine turns off the heater automatically.
This type of rice cooker is essentially an automated saucepan and common complaints are burnt or uneven cooked rice.and overspilling of water from the glass lid type of rice cookers.
Fuzzy Logic Rice Cookers
All the rice cookers we sell utilise “fuzzy logic” which uses a micro computer chip to cook rice.
This is the brains of the unit, making the cooking of rice foolproof. Instead of the cooker simply switching on and off reacting to temperature, the rice cooker now makes small adjustments in temperature and cooking time using phased cook cycles according to what the thermal sensor or sensors detect. This means you can also have different programmes for the rice cooker which include cooking various grains such as white, sweet (glutinous), brown rice and porridge (both rice and oat varieties of porridge).
Additional features available with fuzzy logic models include cake baking, steaming function, slow cook and GABA brown rice. On certain models you will also see additional features such as soup, crust (for Persian Tahdig style rice), yoghurt and slow cooking that are particularly suited to the cooking environment which is used to cook the rice.
Induction (IH) Rice Cookers
Induction Heating (IH) in rice cookers occurs when coils in the bottom of the unit create a magnetic field. When the stainless steel inductive layer of the non-stick ceramic inner cooking bowl is placed into the rice cooker and the unit is activated, a magnetic field is generated to create instant heat throughout this layer.
The inner cooking bowl itself rather than the heating element becomes the heat source utilising both even yet high heat and fine heat adjustments to control the cooking process. By using these fine adjustments in cooking termperatures and moisture content it can utilise more advanced cook functions such as Yumami and GABA rice such as our Bamboo and Fuji models, the first Induction Heating rice cookers made for the UK and Europe.
