Cooker may refer to several types of cooking appliances and devices used for

cooking Cooking, also known as cookery or professionally as the culinary arts, is the art, science and craft of using heat to make food more palatable, digestible, nutritious, or Food safety, safe. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from ...

foods.

Types

* AGA cooker – a heat storage stove and cooker, which works on the principle that a heavy frame made from

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

components can absorb heat from a relatively low-intensity but continuously-burning source, and the accumulated heat can then be used when needed for cooking. Originally heated by slow-burning coal, the Aga cooker was invented in 1922 by the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

-winning Swedish physicist Gustaf Dalén (1869–1937), who was employed first as the chief engineer of the Swedish AGA company * Iron stove

Cook stove – heated by burning wood, charcoal, animal dung or crop residue. Cook stoves are commonly used for cooking and heating food in households that lack access to clean, modern facilities for cooking. * Electric cooker – an electric powered cooking device for heating and cooking of food *

Gas stove (British English) – uses natural gas, propane, butane, liquefied petroleum gas or other flammable gas as a fuel source. Most modern stoves come in a unit with built-in extractor hoods. * Induction cooker – heats a cooking vessel with induction heating, instead of infrared radiation from electrical wires or a gas flame as with a traditional cooking stove. For all models of induction cooktop, a cooking vessel must be made of a ferromagnetic metal such as cast iron or stainless steel or at least compounded with a steel inlay. Copper, glass and aluminum vessels can be placed on a ferromagnetic interface disk which enables these materials to be used. * Kitchen stove (British English) – a kitchen appliance designed for the purpose of cooking food. Kitchen stoves rely on the application of direct heat for the cooking process and may also contain an oven, used for baking. * Pressure cooker – heats food quickly because the internal steam pressure from the boiling liquid causes saturated steam (or "wet steam") to bombard and permeate the food. Thus, higher temperature water vapour (i.e., increased energy), which transfers heat more rapidly compared to dry air, cooks food very quickly. * Rice cooker – also referred to as a rice steamer, is an electric kitchen appliance used to boil or steam

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

. Apart from cooking rice, there are multiple recipes cooking options in modern rice cookers such a
cooking lentils in rice cooker
recipe, etc. Electric rice cookers were developed in Japan, where they are known as ''suihanki'' (Jap.: 炊飯器). * Slow cooker – also known as a Crock-Pot, (a trademark that is sometimes used generically in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), is a countertop electrical cooking appliance that is used for simmering, which requires maintaining a relatively low temperature. It allows for the unattended cooking for many hours of pot roast, stews,

soup Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot – though it is sometimes served chilled – made by cooking or otherwise combining meat or vegetables with Stock (food), stock, milk, or water. According to ''The Oxford Compan ...

s, "boiled" dinners and other suitable dishes, including dips, desserts and beverages. * Solar cooker – a device which uses the energy of direct sunlight to heat, cook or pasteurize food or drink. Many solar cookers presently in use are relatively inexpensive, low-tech devices, although some are as powerful or as expensive as traditional stoves, and advanced, large-scale solar cookers can cook for hundreds of people. File:California Kitchen Cooktop 1.jpg, Top view of an induction stove File:Pressure cooker.jpg, A pressure cooker File:Oval Crock Pot2.jpg, A slow cooker with button controls and a digital timer File:Solar funnel cooker with hot dogs.jpg, Hot dogs being cooked with a solar funnel cooker

In popular culture

The Cooker is the given name to a coin-activated robot made out of an oven and storage cabinet that patrols the moon, as seen in the 1989 Wallace and Gromit short, '' A Grand Day Out''. It is very protective of the moon and becomes hostile when it discovers that Wallace and Gromit have landed there. It secretly has a lifelong dream of skiing. As well as being called The Cooker, an audio adaptation of ''A Grand Day Out'' refers to it as "The Moon Machine".

References

Cooking appliances Ovens Stoves {{SIA

Types

In popular culture

See also

References