The Truly Unexpected Tool That Makes Deep Cleaning Your Rice Cooker A Breeze

Purchasing a rice cooker means one thing: Your life is about to become infinitely easier. Long gone are the days of burning rice at the bottom of your saucepan, or of ending up with a batch of mushy, inedible grain. A rice cooker does all the heavy lifting for you; all that's required is a bit of measuring to ensure you have a correct water-to-rice ratio. And while rice cookers do, certainly, make cooking with rice a more hands-off process, it's still possible to make mistakes if you aren't attentive. If you open up your rice cooker to find a serving of burnt rice, never fear: We have just the trick to keeping your beloved rice cooker nice and clean regardless of any mistakes you might make along the way. Interestingly enough, one of the best tools to use to remove the toughest rice residue is ultra-fine sandpaper.

Each time you make rice with your rice cooker, you'll notice that there's always a bit of a sticky white residue remaining. This is completely normal; it's the excess starch from the rice that's made its way to the bottom of the rice cooker. Sometimes, though, the residue can be especially tough to remove, especially if you accidentally burn your rice. In this case, you'll be faced with getting all that gunk out, but this is where sandpaper comes in handy and proves itself to be an effective and essential kitchen tool.

Depending on your rice cooker, you might want to avoid this tool; for example, if your rice cooker is primarily ceramic, sandpaper will scratch it. Ultra-fine sandpaper, like this one from Amazon, is particularly effective on a rice cooker's metal heating plate and sensors, so if yours is metal and you've got a ton of debris in it once you remove all the rice, it's safe to use, as long as you are gentle and follow a few essential guidelines.

Before you go ahead and get to scrubbing, dip the sandpaper in a bit of water and squeeze it out so it's damp. Wetting the sandpaper helps ensure that there won't be any scratches. Gently scrub the metal plate to scrape off the residue from the rice cooker. Then, you can use a wet cloth to get any remaining dust or bits of starch.

If you don't have sandpaper at home, you can use a non-abrasive sponge to remove any pieces of rice that might be stuck or any gunk that's especially stubborn. If there are still pieces of rice or remaining ingredients you've added to flavor your rice that just won't budge, use a plastic spatula to try and nudge them out of place. Then, when it's all nice and clean again, wipe it dry with a towel and place it back on the shelf for next time.