Instant Pot thread

[badgoodDeb]

I waffled, and skipped the Instant Pot 3Qt when it was on sale on Black Friday. It's down to $49.99 today again, so now that I've remembered why I wanted a second Pot, I jumped on it.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y1YD5W7

[tubemonkey]

Amazon Celebrates Biggest Holiday; More Than Four Million People Trialed Prime In One Week Alone This Season

Some fun pot facts from Amazon

• An Amazon Air cargo plane can hold more than 10,000 Instant Pots.
  
• Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook by Laurel Randolph, independently published through Kindle Direct Publishing, has been topping Amazon Charts throughout the holiday season – reaching #1 on the most sold non-fiction list the week of Cyber Monday.
  
• The best-selling kitchen item in the U.S. and worldwide was the Instant Pot DUO80.

[wodin]

The Daily Mail reviews the Instant Pot

[sjfan]

So this thing is not a good pressure cooker (like most electric pressure cookers, it can't get the pressure that a real cooker gets), and it's not a good crock pot, and it's not a good replacement for a Dutch oven. I wanted to like it, but it tries to be 5 or 6 different things, and is incredibly mediocre at all of them.

You're much better off getting a good Dutch oven or pressure cooker than this POS--you can get the Lodge Dutch oven at Target for $30-40, and it'll do a hell of a lot more and better than the Instant Pot will.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by sjfan

You're much better off getting a good Dutch oven or pressure cooker than this POS--you can get the Lodge Dutch oven at Target for $30-40, and it'll do a hell of a lot more and better than the Instant Pot will.

Instant Pot is good in brownies, though

[ApK]

Originally Posted by sjfan

So this thing is not a good pressure cooker (like most electric pressure cookers, it can't get the pressure that a real cooker gets), and it's not a good crock pot, and it's not a good replacement for a Dutch oven. I wanted to like it, but it tries to be 5 or 6 different things, and is incredibly mediocre at all of them.

You're much better off getting a good Dutch oven or pressure cooker than this POS--you can get the Lodge Dutch oven at Target for $30-40, and it'll do a hell of a lot more and better than the Instant Pot will.

Having used the IP regularly for over a year, along side our Dutch oven and slow cooker, I can tell you you are absolutely wrong. What it does it does remarkably well, and far more conveniently and consistently than many alternatives.
There are indeed some dishes that are still best done in the Dutch oven, but many of our recipies have been replaced by equal or better pressure cooker versions. I've never used the actual slow cooker function, but the only thing we use an actual slower cooker for now is overnight unattended oatmeal, and for keeping sauces warm at parties. All our other slow cooker dishes are replaced with pressure cooker versions.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by sjfan

So this thing is not a good pressure cooker (like most electric pressure cookers, it can't get the pressure that a real cooker gets), and it's not a good crock pot, and it's not a good replacement for a Dutch oven. I wanted to like it, but it tries to be 5 or 6 different things, and is incredibly mediocre at all of them.

You're much better off getting a good Dutch oven or pressure cooker than this POS--you can get the Lodge Dutch oven at Target for $30-40, and it'll do a hell of a lot more and better than the Instant Pot will.

It appears one either loves or hates it.
I am curious as to what you tried cooking in it.
Note: The Instant Pot is sold as a pressure cooker not a canner. The difference is 4psi. Now I have heard some High Altitude people have had trouble with the pressure part.
As to a slow cooker, I own several different types and sizes.
A Dutch oven can't pressure cook. Though cast iron is wonderful for some things.
Corn bread comes to mind.

I think kitchen gadgets needed in a kitchen come down to how a person cooks.

I am going to use @Apk as an example. He loves the Instant Pot, me I am never in that big of a hurry and I don't do many one pot meals. On the other hand, I love my manual food choppers, I hope he found a good home for his. He didn't like it.
It just depends on how you cook. In the summer, I am more likely to do slow cooker (West Bend) and other small appliance meals than turn on the stove. In the winter, I tend to use the oven and my stove top boiler/steamer/soup pot more.

So just decide how you cook and enjoy, but please don't put down other people's choices because it doesn't fit your lifestyle.

This thread was started to see if I needed to invest in one.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by sjfan

So this thing is not a good pressure cooker (like most electric pressure cookers, it can't get the pressure that a real cooker gets), and it's not a good crock pot, and it's not a good replacement for a Dutch oven. I wanted to like it, but it tries to be 5 or 6 different things, and is incredibly mediocre at all of them.

You're much better off getting a good Dutch oven or pressure cooker than this POS--you can get the Lodge Dutch oven at Target for $30-40, and it'll do a hell of a lot more and better than the Instant Pot will.

Well, no. Obviously, a Dutch Oven and an IP/Pressure Cooker are two completely different things. I have several DO recipes that I wouldn't convert, for one reason or another, but I've been shocked, after a lifetime of what I'd refer to as more-advanced cooking than the average bear, at just how well this DOES work. I've already made a number of dishes I would have thought couldn't work out well, in an IP/PC, and I was, I'm happy to say, completely wrong. The IP/PC versions came out brilliantly.

I am inferring that you are deriving this opinion from the Daily Mall article, presumably, but...the Amazon IP factoids should tell you that if it were true that the IP was "mediocre" at all these things, it wouldn't have the fanatical following that it does. (Not to say that the masses necessarily recognize quality, in food or anything else--otherwise, there's no explaining reality TV, Kardashians, etc.--but there would have been a clear schism between people who KNOW how to genuinely cook, and people who can assemble a recipe, when it's provided in detail, and there hasn't been. Foodies haven't turned their noses up at the IP, nor Foodie rags. Wouldn't they have been the very FIRST to say that it's the tool of a lousy cook?)

It's been a lifesaver for me with my work schedule--but not simply because it's remarkably fast for "comfort food" meals, but because the food is incredibly GOOD. Not mediocre.

But, hey...I don't think that anyone here is twisting your arm. You have processes that work for you, so...why change?

Hitch

[Blossom]

Instant Pot lover here. Everything I've cooked has turned out really good.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by ApK

Having used the IP regularly for over a year, along side our Dutch oven and slow cooker, I can tell you you are absolutely wrong. What it does it does remarkably well, and far more conveniently and consistently than many alternatives.
There are indeed some dishes that are still best done in the Dutch oven, but many of our recipies have been replaced by equal or better pressure cooker versions. I've never used the actual slow cooker function, but the only thing we use an actual slower cooker for now is overnight unattended oatmeal, and for keeping sauces warm at parties. All our other slow cooker dishes are replaced with pressure cooker versions.

One thing that a slow cooker is good for are dishes that require long simmering. The classic example in Texas is chili. No matter what your recipe is, ( and Texans are are very tied to their recipes!), you need many hours of simmering to marry the various spice flavors. Nice to be able to do it overnight.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

One thing that a slow cooker is good for are dishes that require long simmering. The classic example in Texas is chili. No matter what your recipe is, ( and Texans are are very tied to their recipes!), you need many hours of simmering to marry the various spice flavors. Nice to be able to do it overnight.

I had never thought to do chili in a slow cooker.
I always do my pinto beans in the crock pot.

[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

[Cinisajoy]

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

Wants your wife's gumbo recipe. Unless it is one of those always fabulous but never exactly the same twice.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Wants your wife's gumbo recipe. Unless it is one of those always fabulous but never exactly the same twice.

In the olden days when I lived in the South Carolina low country we used to start with a 55 gallon drum filled with fresh okra, add water to cover and set it on a live oak (cypress can be substituted for live oak) fire to boil. Boil until the water's gone then add more water to cover. Spin rinse and repeat for six days, then strain out the okra and discard. Use the water to kill the mosquitoes.

[Purple Lady]

So did anyone else ever forget to put the silicone ring back in the lid before cooking? I don't advise it.

I was going to have the rest of the minestrone I made a few weeks ago, but we're having frozen pizza now. 🙁

Hubby came home and was emptying the dishwasher and asked me if the silicone ring was necessary. When I told him it was he said "so that's why there was steam coming out all over". It was burning and stuck to the bottom since most of the broth had evaporated. I was wondering why I could smell the soup so strongly while it was thawing.