Your entire argument and rabid disdain for clay as a cooking vessel for rice appears predicated on the conjecture that boiling is the sole and only ‘acceptable’ method for preparing rice. Hence your obsession with vessels made of materials with high conductivity.
From what I have been able to gather from the google translation of the website, the $1k Tiger cooks rice by steaming. The earthenware vessel’s poor conductivity helps retain heat and in the process maintain a consistent temperature to cook rice in addition to the primary heat source emanating from the steam. I have no clue if this holds any water but it seems to have some merit worth exploring.
Let me be very EXPLICIT - I am not a scientist/physicist/metallurgist heck for that matter I am not even a good home cook. I do not profess to have any expertise cooking rice in any form or vessel. I am NOT advocating clay or any other earthenware material for cooking rice. I am however open to ANY cooking methodology/equipment/material from any culture no matter how ancient or modern to achieve what I perceive as warm fluffy unburnt white rice nirvana. The more convenient the better.
You believe the marketing of cooking rice in clay is hyperbole but yet you will consider clay ware to cook other ingredients Have you prepared rice by steaming? Have you cooked rice in clay vessel on a regular basis? Have you researched and tested various rice cooking methodologies? Have you tested the Tiger $1k rice cooker or any of the new Japanese rice cookers with an earthenware pot?
Your condescending tone implies you are an authority in this field. I am inclined to postulate you are not and prefer to place my bet on the likes of Tiger/Zojirushi/Toshiba etc. The Japanese have this annoying habit of obsessing over the smallest details in the goal of perfection. Additionally, the audacity of a well established company introducing rice cookers w earthenware pots at a stratospheric $1+k price tag has me intrigued enough to check it out. I am also intrigued with another trend of using a heavy cast iron pot which appears to more closely mirror Jiro’s kamado cooking method. Jury is still out for me on which is a superior technology in rice cooker advancements - doesn’t help that all the marketing is in Japanese and none of these cookers come in a voltage compatible with US electrical outlets.
I am still puzzled why you keep raising the point of me romanticizing clay??? My two posts prior to your assertion consist of #RiceCookerGoals, a link to a $1k rice cooker and a picture of a metal kamado pot… hardly romantic …
On the other hand I can wax poetically about a delicious serving of HK styled claypot rice/“lap mei fan” cooked over charcoal
