What it means
پلوپز (polopaz) is the electric rice cooker. It is a Persian compound formed from پلو (polo, cooked plain rice) and پز (paz, cooker), from the verb پختن (pokhtan, to cook). The element پلو traces back through Hindustani (Hindi pulāv, Urdu pulāo) to Sauraseni Prakrit and ultimately Sanskrit pulāka, meaning a lump of boiled rice. From Persian the word spread into Turkish, Azerbaijani, and other languages, and eventually into English as pilaf or pilau. Because پلو carries this Indo-Aryan heritage while پز is native Persian, the compound پلوپز sits at an interesting etymological crossroads even though it feels entirely native in everyday use. The appliance is also called برنجپز (berenj-paz) in some dialects, but پلوپز is the dominant term in Iranian Persian.
How to use it
- برنج رو ریختم توی پلوپز. (berenj ro rikhtam tuye polopaz.) “I put the rice in the rice cooker.”
- پلوپز روشنه. (polopaz rushane.) “The rice cooker is on.”
- پلوپز قدیمیمون خراب شد. (polopaz-e qadimimun kharâb shod.) “Our old rice cooker broke.”
- با پلوپز برنج خوشمزهتر میشه. (bâ polopaz berenj khoshmazehtar mishe.) “Rice turns out tastier in the rice cooker.”
Cultural note
Rice is so central to Iranian cuisine that the electric پلوپز has become one of the most common appliances in Iranian homes worldwide, including among the diaspora. Iranian families often have strong preferences about which brand and model produces the best tahdig, the crispy rice crust at the bottom. Some cooks insist that only the traditional pot on a gas flame produces a proper tahdig, and that the rice cooker, convenient as it is, cannot fully replicate the result. This debate is a recurring one in Iranian kitchens and food communities.