Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
Surprisingly enough, we have started doing our chili in the IP rather than low and slow in the Dutch oven like we used to.
I must admit though, our chili seasoning comes out of a brand-name box, so we might not be quite on the same chili level as some.
But my wife, who is a bona fide Texan, is perfectly happy with it.
A couple of things that come to mind that we still do low and slow: Spaghetti sauce with sausage and meatballs, and my wife's gumbo. We've tried various IP recipes for the sauce and, like Ralph's chili, they just never get that long-simmered flavor.
I don't think my wife has ever tried to do her gumbo in the IP, but one does not mess with perfection.
ApK
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I have not yet had the gumption to try my pasta sauce (Italian, meat) in the IP, because like you, I feel that the flavors and spices need the long low simmer time; I typically cook my sauce for 6-8 hours on the stovetop. But I've been quite surprised at the depth of the flavor in some dishes where I didn't expect it--Stew, Stroganoff and the like. I had thought that if I used the thing for stew, I'd get viable meat, but that the potatoes would be mush, ditto the veggies, and I'd get no complexity of flavor--but that's simply not what happened. Potatoes were fine and the depth of the flavors was great.
I've considered making my sauce in the IP, but I confess that on "sauce day," for me, part of the pleasure is the making of it; the simmering; the smells in the house, the disastrously-sprinkled and splattered stove, etc. It's all much of a thing, "sauce day," so I haven't quite considered "just" using an IP to try to make it. (PLUS, I like to really MAKE SAUCE, and lots of it, when I do, b/c I freeze a bunch. The IP only makes, what, 6qts? That's not a ton of sauce.)
Chili? Another confession--I LOVE the Carroll Shelby's spice packet, and we use that mix
all the time. It's the
only boxed/mix food we use, of any kind, because we tasted it someplace nearly 40 years ago, loved it, and you know the saying--if it ain't broke...so I'll use that with a crockpot, or if I have time, a long/slow stovetop, too, but I see no reason that wouldn't work well in an IP, either. You'd get very nice, tenderized meat, and the beans are pre-cooked, anyway, so..why not?
Hitch