I don't know about the nicer ones ( with different cooking temps. ) mine is a cheapie. I do know if I put ANYTHING but rice and water in mine it'll burn on the bottom, even a little bit of broth.

Mine has an insert that comes out so I can clean it, strange.

I've used mine to cook things other than just basic rice, I made sesame chicken and also risotto before. The only difference was the rice cooker didn't cook the items for hours of course, only 30-60mins more like a normal recipe and there was more legwork involved.

Like the person above mine has an insert that comes out for cleaning.

I wouldn't use mine like a crock. It's meant to be left on long enough to cook rice and keep it warm, not for hours on end like a crockpot.

Especially with a metal interior.

I would be very leery, for one specific reason: the rice cooker is designed to get rid of steam. In most slow cooking recipes, you want all that lovely moisture to stay IN.

Rice cookers definitely can get hot enough to burn things if one isn't careful. My current one is fairly nice in this regard, but my previous one, you had to stir it after the regular "cook" cycle was done. If you just left it on warm for a while, the bottom would get all crispy.

My rice cooker did come with some recipes, but they were all recipes that cooked in basically the same amount of time as rice would, or that used the steamer basket to cook the other components of the meal.

Bottom line, I think if the recipe book is designed for the rice cooker, you are safe to use its recipes, but I wouldn't try to use just any crock pot recipe in a rice cooker.

I used to use mine as a sorta slow cooker in Japan while I was living there. pretty much i would put curry ingredients into it, close the lid and come back an hour later to curry.

the trick is to get a Japanese one that comes with different settings and stir it now and then.

I don't know about substituting it for a crock pot, but Roger Ebert says you can do all sorts of cool stuff with a rice cooker.

I live in Japan and have a basic rice cooker with lots of buttons, some I cannot read. You can indeed use a rice cooker to do all sorts of crazy stuff. Case in point, I know lots of people who have made bread, and one girl who used leftovers from that bread to make homemade pizza.

Any cooker I've ever seen has a little metal "bowl" you can take out, (mine also has nifty measurement tickers and numbers on the inside), for easy cleaning and the cooker itself can be carefully wiped on the outside with cleansing wipes. Just make sure to clean before it dries on.

The others are right in that it steams and releases that steam. I'd imagine that crock recipes would be impossible as a rice cooker does the exact opposite of a crock.

HOWEVER, carefully look online as from what I've heard, ex-pats living in Japan have posted veritable cook books worth of recipes, created when they were hungry and desperate. Not all of them work perfectly, of course, as different rice cookers have different settings. I've seen high end ones with buttons and special attachments and things basically for the busy family, or the busy single size, who want to basically do what one would do with a crock--put your ingredients together and leave it to do it's thing while you do yours.

Lastly, also be careful because I know here that you have to buy certain extra attachments, or a cooker that comes prepackaged with one, so that you can cook various things. Someone up above me mentioned a steamer basket.

My friend's friend made a freaking cake in her rice cooker. I'm still trying to figure out how that wasn't a complete disaster.

I make oatmeal in mine, but that's about it. It's just a little 3 cup.

I just got a rice cooker this weekend and used it to make brown rice for the first time yesterday. It's just a small 3-cup capacity from Target. The rice came out a little drier than what I like, so I guess I'll be experimenting with cooking times.

I want to make oatmeal in it but I think I'll wait until the weekend, so that if it gets botched up I'll be able to make a backup breakfast, rather than trying it on a weekday morning before work.

To the OP - what is the title of the recipe book that you got?