Multi cookers are not a brand new idea but over the last two years, we’ve visible increasingly revolutionary methods of creating them greater multi-practical, which has driven the caliber of new products up, and the rate of them down.
Some multi-cookers provide up to 15 capabilities and this versatility now not handiest saves space via reducing the need for more than one home equipment, it also may want to prevent cash – a key aspect we took into consideration when checking out and reviewing.
The variety of capabilities range relying at the charge but most multi-cookers integrate an amazing blend of current and traditional settings. If you’re after a more healthy way to achieve the familiar taste and textures of traditionally fried meals, sure multi-cookers can be an amazing step up from the first-class air fryers. Others remove the tension of range-top strain cookers by using automating the stress construct and launch, so that you nonetheless get the with no trouble quick, tenderizing impact on meals however greater so.
There are lots of multi-useful appliances for making cooking simpler, however for this guide we particularly looked at people who offered gradual cooking, sear/sauté and strain cooking at its middle, with rice cooking, roasting, baking, dehydrating, dough-proving and different capabilities as useful additions.
Whether you’re cooking on a finances, seeking to streamline your energy usage or really make a few area in a busy kitchen, we’ve brought you our attempted and examined picks of the first-rate multi-cookers currently to be had on the market.
Best multi-cookers at a look
- Best normal multi-cooker: Crockpot Turbo Express 14-in-1 pressure multi-cooker, £106
- Best air fryer multi-cooker: Ninja 15-in-1 multi-cooker OL750UK, £299
- Best rice cooker for top-stop multi-cookers: Sage the Fast Slow Go, £169
- Best budget multi-cooker: Instant Pot Multi-Use Pressure Cooker, £169.99
- Best multi-cooker rice cooker: Tefal All-in-One stress cooker review, £79.99
- Joint first-class small rice cooker: Lakeland Mini Multi-Cooker 1.8L, £fifty nine.99
The exceptional multi-cookers 2022
Crockpot Turbo Express 14-in-1 strain multi-cooker
Pros:
- Versatile with 14 features
- five.6L potential for cooking for 6+
- Dishwasher-secure removable non-stick bowl
- Turbo function for cooking meals 40% quicker
Cons:
- Bowl spins in its base during stirring
- Ambiguous begin and prevent coding for characteristic indicators
- Star score: 5/5
- Wattage: 1400W
At just over £100, this multi-cooker is good fee for money for the scale and versatility on provide. We had been mainly struck by its consumer-pleasant credentials. Each of its 14 modes are labelled via words and icons, and selectable through a easy push-button. It has one lid, which lifts up and off, making it fairly smooth to clean unlike hinged models. The gradual-cooker function created a richly infused bird korma with gentle meat. It also handily routinely jumped to ‘keep warm’ mode after the cooking time had ended. Notifications to sign the cooking progress supposed we were usually in the understand if ingredients wanted a stir. Our typical preferred multi-cooker.
Ninja Foody 15-in-1 Multi-cooker OL750UK
Best air fryer multi-cooker
Pros:
- Single lid for all 15 capabilities
- Integrated virtual cooking probe
- Clear buttons and notifications mid cook dinner
Cons:
- Large countertop footprint
- Tall
- Expensive
- Higher wattage than most
- Star rating: 4.5/five
- Wattage: 1760W
Ninja became one of the first manufacturers to contain air frying functions into its multi-cookers and has been a front-runner with regards to originality. Its most modern model ditches the vintage -lid layout in favour of a single-carry lid with a sliding lock that doubles as a mode selector and it offered more functions than any other multi-cooker available on the market at the time of trying out.
Pressure prepare dinner, air fry, grill, bake, dehydrate, show, sear/sauté, steam, gradual cook and yogurt features are all selectable, in conjunction with 5 combi steam-meal alternatives. The big 7.5L capability makes it ideal for cooking a beneficent six portions at one time. When prepping our red meat stew, the sear/sauté characteristic become the most effective at softening and caramelizing the elements out of all the fashions we tested, rendering all fat down and giving an amazing color. The hinged lid proved tricky to clean completely freed from aromas after cooking strongly aromatic dishes but there may be guidance within the guide for a cleaning characteristic.
Sage the Fast Slow Go
Best rice cooker for top-quit multi-cookers
Pros:
- Stylish
- Large virtual touchscreen
- Versatile 14 capabilities
Cons:
- Small indicator lighting fixtures on interface
- Star score: 5/5
- Wattage: 1100W
If you’re after a beneficent-capacity multi-cooker to maintain out at the countertop, that is the one for you. The stylish brushed chrome steel design offers this model a cutting-edge experience it truly is forgiving to greasy fingermarks. This cooker focusses on slow and stress cooking functions, and is equipped with a strain launch protection valve and locking lid.
Its capability to cook dinner grains like risotto from the preset feature produced very creamy outcomes with out all the attempt of standing and stirring. Stocks, stews, sous vide, yogurt and extra are a part of its push-button interface, genuinely labelled with writing and icons.
Instant Pot Pro Multi-Use pressure cooker
Best finances multi-cooker
Pros:
- 10 capabilities
- Customizable settings
- Vocal notifications
- Silicone-coated handle for appropriately casting off pot
Cons:
- Progress indicator a touch doubtful
- Instructions a touch sparse
- Star score: 4/five
- Wattage: 1200W
Instant Pot is synonymous with multi-cookers. This version comes ready with 10 settings, including five customizable ‘favorites’ you may set, gearing it nicely towards adventurous cooks or the ones searching out an improve. The education manual emphasizes the stress cooking feature, that’s helpful in case you’re a primary-timer.
One nifty feature we in particular loved turned into the heatproof handles for holding the bowl consistent at the same time as stirring and effectively lifting it up and out.
Tefal all-in-one strain cooker
Best multi-cooker rice cooker
Pros:
- Condensation collector built in
- 6L capability cooks up to 12 cups of rice
- Delayed begin capability
Cons:
- Limited recommendation on rice cooking
- Wattage: 1600W
The size and variety supplied by using this Tefal multi-cooker makes it a fantastic choice for families. The infant food preset is something we’ve now not visible on some other models tested before or for the reason that, alongside rice and porridge recipe features. The useful staples of ‘behind schedule start’ and ‘preserve heat’ capabilities have been additionally on provide. The specific putting for boiling rice produced fluffy grains with out the same old sogginess that comes from trapped condensation, way to the smart drip collector.
The digital manipulate panel proved simple to use with cooking time and temperature adjustable to your alternatives if you need to move past the presets. A recipe booklet is blanketed along side a measuring cup, spatula, steam basket and trivet.
Lakeland Mini multi-cooker 1.8L
Joint excellent small rice cooker
Pros:
- Three rice cooking programs
- Small footprint
- Simple to apply
- Low wattage
Cons:
- Unclear steerage on water to rice ratio
- Wattage: 400W
With a 28cm x 23cm footprint, Lakeland’s mini multi-cooker is a superb alternative for small kitchens or for cooking for up to 2 at a time. Three rice cooker capabilities – brown, white and quick-prepare dinner – are among its packages that still include gradual cooking, baking, porridge and quinoa.
There’s no behind schedule-begin characteristic and the removable non-stick pot isn’t dishwasher-secure, but this may extend the lifestyles of its non-stick coating. A handy rice spatula and measuring cup are protected.
How to pick out the nice multi-cooker
Multi-cookers vary widely in capacity and flexibility. If you’re cooking for a crowd, you’ll discover the larger the higher, but there are mini ones for smaller households, too. Some fashions can stand pretty tall in the event that they have hinged lids, that’s something to think about if you have low kitchen cupboards.
There’s little factor paying for functions that you’re not likely to apply but do bear in mind those who excite you. Multi-cookers are remarkable gadgets for introducing new approaches of cooking in your normal meals and completely mitigate the need to buy and store multiple home equipment.
You’ll frequently see the name ‘pressure multi-cooker’ and this is really the brand’s way of highlighting a now computerized manner of cooking that traditionally required a separate range-pinnacle pan technique. This, together with gradual cooker and air frying features, are some of the most green methods to keep instead of shopping for three instead huge and costly home equipment.
Look out for the difference in recipe presets and cooking modes together with dishwasher-safe internal bowls and further add-ons. Models consisting of the Ninja Foodi nine-in-1 multi cooker offer a separate lid for pressure cooking, which would require additional storage while the usage of different capabilities. With its more moderen 15-in-1 version (featured above), Ninja is leading the way with its mixture steam and convection cooking modes, designed to lock in substances’ moisture and flavour whilst nonetheless crisping the outside.
How we tested multi-cookers
The greater capabilities an equipment has, the greater checking out that’s warranted to ensure the whole thing works the way it should. We tested the capabilities we deemed essential for everyday cooking and maximum beneficial to have below one lid: strain cook dinner, air fry/crisp, sluggish prepare dinner, rice, bake, grill, roast, sear and sauté functions, in conjunction with combi steam-air fry and combi-air fry alternatives, if available.
To take a look at pressure cooking, we adapted BBC Good Food’s pork and vegetable casserole recipe, decreasing liquid portions via half of and adding flour for thickening toward the stop of cooking. Slow cooker hen korma is an super indicator of flavour infusion and highlights a model’s ability to tenderize but not overcook meat. The aromas additionally linger, which makes a terrific take a look at of ways smooth it’s far to smooth every multi-cooker. For baking features, we used a gluten-unfastened lemon drizzle cake to indicate an calmly baked cake with out burning throughout the top, facets or bottom.
Quality of meals
We looked for flavour-packed casseroles and kormas with soft meat and no bitterness from hot spots or burnt bits on the lowest. We also anticipated the grilled aubergine to be juicy and tender, the halloumi to show described grill traces without being burnt, the air-fried chips to be fluffy on the interior with a crisp outer and combi-cooked salmon to be tender and juicy.
Ease of use
Were the features smooth to locate and select? Does the multi-cooker update you on the cooking progress of its ingredients? Are manual elements like stress release valves safe and smooth to open?
Value for money
The fee of the multi-cooker needed to sense proper for the versatility of its features and excellent of meals it produced.
Ease of cleansing
Does the lid keep onto sturdy aromas? Can sealing rims be removed for clean cleaning? How clean it is to clean the internal bowls can depend upon whether they offer a non-stick coating.
Quality of materials
No one needs to shop for a pricey new equipment handiest for it to interrupt six months down the line. Multi-cookers commonly include one large internal bowl that sits inner an outer with a lid – we searched for a very good fit. Accompanying accessories together with rice stirrers, grill racks and crisper baskets additionally needed to be strong enough to stand the test of time.
Sustainability
Is the multi-cooker blanketed by means of a honest warranty and is there steering on a way to recycle it on the stop of its life? Is the packaging excessive or recyclable? Where changed into the multi-cooker made? Is it cost-effective to use?
Are multi-cookers energy efficient?
Multi-cookers range in their strength performance relying on their length and the characteristic decided on. But it’s miles feasible to calculate how an awful lot power it’s going to use, which in turn will assist you value up the impact it’s going to have in your bills. Here’s how:
Take the appliance’s wattage and multiply it by using the system’s hours of use in line with day, then divide the overall through 1000. The result will be the equipment’s every day kilowatt-hour (kWh).
The value in line with kilowatt-hour will range relying on your strength tariff and region. If you have a clever meter set up at domestic, you may be able to see the fee in keeping with use at some point of cooking without having to calculate it.
