The Clay Multicooker That Replaced My Zojirushi
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My kitchen has been relatively plastic free for a long time, not because of health concerns so much as a lack of space and a fondness for Lodge cast-iron skillets that are indestructible and multipurpose. But I had always wanted to own a rice cooker, so when I got married I put aZojirushion my registry and never thought much about the nonstick coating on the aluminum inner bowl. Then, when everyone, me included, startedthrowing away their black plastic spatulas, I made the connection and started wondering how safe my rice cooker was to use. I definitely wouldn’t buy a Teflon-coated nonstick pan anymore, so shouldn’t I look for a similar alternative for making rice?
The answer came about a month later when I got an email about the Magnifique claypot oven. The pleasant-looking multicooker has a casserole-shaped inner bowl made from sturdy kaolin clay that is naturally nonstick. It’s the same material that’s used to give concrete more strength and to shield spaceships from high heat. I responded right away, asking if it was any good at making rice (I was assured it was). Then I decided to test one myself to see what else it could do.
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Because there isn’t much counterspace in my narrow kitchen, I have to be picky about appliances, prioritizing those that can do more than one thing. And while I loved making rice in the Zojirushi, I wasn’t taking full advantage of its other functions because I don’t like how it looks enough to keep it out on the counter at arm’s reach. But display is a central part of the Magnifique claypot’s design and appeal — the inner pot and lid lifts easily out of the base so you can carry it right to the table like a serving dish — and it’s so nice to look at that after opening the box and setting it up for the first time, I gave it a prime spot on a shelf in my kitchen and haven’t reached for the Zojirushi since.
I’ve had the Magnifique cooker for almost four months now and have used it to make long-grain white and short-grain brown rice, oatmeal, veggie chili, beef stew, bibimbap (with an over-easy egg that I fried in the dish), and seared salmon with asparagus and garlic butter. If I were renovating my kitchen or for some other reason found myself without an oven or stove, I could 100 percent do all of my cooking in it. And no matter what I cook, the Magnifique’s the easiest piece of cookware to clean that I own.
While I accept that certain foods like salmon skin will take some scouring when I cook with cast iron, cleaning the claypot is easy because of the nonstick cooking surface. The first time I seared meat in the cooker I was nervous that it would burn or stick. But the dish heats up so evenly and the surface is so hard and smooth that it’s easy to control everything from gentle sautéing to the most aggressive browning. Even without much oil, food releases easily from the surface.
To achieve this nonstick surface, the kaolin claypot was fired and then glazed in a thinner layer of more kaolin clay, giving it a smooth and ultradurable finish that’s resistant to chips or scratches. The Magnifique comes with a squared-off wooden spoon that can be used as a spatula in a pinch, but I have also used a silicone and sometimes a regular spoon or fork when impatient. I also use a scrubber sponge to clean it. None of these tools have made the slightest mark. The claypot also helps food retain its moisture while cooking, so meat (which I typically struggle to cook correctly) doesn’t dry out as easily.
If I were to name a flaw, it’s that the Magnifique doesn’t make rice better than a rice cooker. The shape of the dish is wider and shallower than a traditional rice cooker’s inner bowl, so the resulting thinner layer of rice has more crunchy bits on the bottom and is also not as easy to fluff. That said, the rice it makes is perfectly fine. While I was looking for a rice-cooker replacement, the Magnifique cooks so many other things well and is so nice to look at that I don’t mind compromising a little on the rice.
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