Reading a rice cooker 🍚

There’s this term to describe how connected Korean people are to rice:

밥심 = rice power

As a result, the backbone of 밥심 is none other than the humble rice cooker.

However, these days, the rice cookers are anything but humble. We recently got a new rice cooker and here is what it looks like:

Our beloved Cuckoo rice cooker

A little overwhelming, right? Well, that’s exactly what we thought and figured it’d be a great place to learn some new phrases that can be used across a variety of situations.

So, let’s dive in and cook some rice! (Side note: rice cookers, especially those with pressure cooking functionality, are great for making meats, stews, etc — not just rice!)

There are a lot more settings once we press a button, and we can save those for another post, but for now, let’s look at what is on the screen and what the buttons say.

고 — high

On the cooker: 고화력 (high heat power), 고압취사 (high-pressure cooking). (psst! See our post on levels in Korean)

Elsewhere: 고속도로 (expressway), 고급 (high-class), 고온 (high temperature), 고층 (high-rise).

You can also describe a person as 고압적 which has the connotation of domineering, forceful, or overbearing.

무 — none, without

On the cooker: 무압취사 (no-pressure cooking).

Elsewhere: 무료 (free, no charge), 무선 (wireless), 무한리필 (unlimited refills), 무음 (silent mode), 무인 (unmanned — as in 무인카페, unstaffed cafes).

고압 (high pressure) ↔ 무압 (no pressure) is a good example of how these prefixes toggle meaning.

온 — warm, temperature

On the cooker: 보온 (keep-warm mode — 보 keep + 온 warm).

Elsewhere: 온도 (temperature), 온천 (hot spring), 온난화 (global warming), 보온병 (thermos — a bottle that keeps things warm), 온돌 (Korea's traditional underfloor heating system — literally warm stone, and the reason Koreans sit and sleep on the floor!).

재 — again, re-

On the cooker: 재가열 (reheat — 재 again + 가 add + 열 heat).

Elsewhere: 재시작 (restart), 재활용 (recycling), 재입국 (re-entry into a country), 재생 (playback).

자 — self

On the cooker: 자동세척 (auto-clean — 자 self + 동 move + 세척 wash).

자동 alone generates a whole family: 자동차 (car), 자동문 (automatic door), 자판기 (vending machine, from 자동판매기).

Beyond 자동: 자기 / 자신 (oneself), 자신감 (self-confidence).

백 — white

On the cooker: 백미 (white rice).

Elsewhere: 백색 (white, the color), 백지 (blank paper), 백발 (white hair), 백조 (swan — white bird).

Swap the prefix: 백미 (white rice) → 현미 (brown rice) / 흑미 (black rice).

That gets us through almost all of the buttons on the Cuckoo, but not every button is Sino-Korean. A few are native Korean words with no Hanja roots to break apart.

누룽지 — the crispy scorched rice at the bottom of the pot. Koreans pour hot water over it and drink it as 숭늉. This cooker has a dedicated button for it. (Although, we personally prefer just the crunchy rice rather than pouring the water on top)

누룽지

숭늉

찰진 (from 찰지다) — sticky, chewy. Also used figuratively: 찰진 연기 = a tight, convincing acting performance.

나물 — seasoned vegetables and greens. 콩나물 (bean sprouts), 시금치나물 (spinach), 고사리나물 (fernbrake). 나물밥 is rice cooked with these mixed in.

Now that you know all the fancy settings on the rice cooker, what are you gonna cook next?