Is it basically a pressure cooker? What makes it "instant"?
How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
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Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed! One thing to add: Learn to keep your knives sharp. A sharp knife is a safe knife and makes the whole prep process go faster.
Any tips on this?
I've had great results with a Japanese water stone.
https://youtu.be/kSKpz1UqIl4?t=4m13s has overkill levels of detail (and some marketing upsell) but communicates the idea well.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't usually post, but please don't use a pressure cooker for canning as it can cause botulism if the food isn't sufficiently acidic. The only safe way to can non-acidic foods is with a pressure canner, not a pressure cooker.
Having now looked up the difference between the two (I've only ever seen pressure canners, with the locking lids and real pressure gauges, but which everyone I know calls a pressure cooker ), I'm now curious what in the world you would use a plain pressure cooker for? It seems like a strictly worse piece of equipment.
You'd use a regular pressure cooker for things like cooking a roast or chili in 45 minutes instead of 4 hours.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#94It's great to see the Instant Pot on Hacker News. A couple of key takeaways: - There's no marketing magic here, this is just a great product. - It's ugly, and the interface is weird. Doesn't matter, it gets the job done. - Pressure cookers have been around for a long time, they're a really great cooking technology marred by some serious safety and inconvenience issues. There are a bunch of companies competing in Sous…
One thing I also notice is that the silicone seal inherits past smells of things you've cooked. Seems to be hard to get rid of the smell too.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#95I see so many articles like these. Honestly they all read like one of those pages that is advertised at the bottom of a CNN article.
After reading 'add HN to cart' I really wonder why this is #1
I was heartened by how poorly "add hn to cart" would actually do on this site. Most of those articles are instantly killed by various filters. Maybe I should go back and have another read through the comments, but that was my takeaway and also something I've noticed when browsing /new.
That said, it doesn't surprise me to see this at the top of HN. It is a geeky cooking tool with a cult following. I'm certainly intrigued.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#96I am part of the cult. We bought after the recommendation of a friend. What I liked: nice set of presets, comes with a cookbook with quite a few recipes, very easy to operate. Some time ago, when Apple bailed out of self-driving car business, my friend and I discussed what would be the good category for Apple to try next and I suggested advanced kitchen devices. Seriously though: instant pot with Nespresso machine ar…
> Nespresso machine I got one of these as a gift and ended up giving it away after realizing how much garbage I was generating from it with those disposable one-use cups. I don't mind the 30 seconds of ritual to enjoy a cup of coffee/espresso.
I have an espresso machine and an aeropress. The aeropress was about a tenth of the price and I use it 90 percent of the time.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#97I am part of the cult. We bought after the recommendation of a friend. What I liked: nice set of presets, comes with a cookbook with quite a few recipes, very easy to operate. Some time ago, when Apple bailed out of self-driving car business, my friend and I discussed what would be the good category for Apple to try next and I suggested advanced kitchen devices. Seriously though: instant pot with Nespresso machine ar…
As a fellow lazy kitchen-er, I've got a decent recommendation: - small food processor to significantly reduce the chopping time. I picked one up cheap on a whim (I think for making hummus) and now most of the time I just coarsely chop veggies and throw it in with a slicer blade or grater, depending on what I'm making. (By coarse, I mean, I'll quarter the onion so that it fits down the chute) - Quit peeling! I've got…
With both of these, it seems that improving your skills may significantly reduce your perceived time expenditure. If you are proficient with a vegetable peeler it doesn't take much time at all to use, and depending on what you're doing will improve your results.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#98Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#99It's great to see the Instant Pot on Hacker News. A couple of key takeaways: - There's no marketing magic here, this is just a great product. - It's ugly, and the interface is weird. Doesn't matter, it gets the job done. - Pressure cookers have been around for a long time, they're a really great cooking technology marred by some serious safety and inconvenience issues. There are a bunch of companies competing in Sous…
One thing I also notice is that the silicone seal inherits past smells of things you've cooked. Seems to be hard to get rid of the smell too.
Yeah, that's a definite issue I've had in dealing with mine. Fortunately, they're easy to swap in/out and are mostly affordable to buy new ones ($11 for a two pack on amazon right now).
I have one I use for the chilis, bbq, ribs, etc I do. One for soups and such, etc. It's a slight pain I guess, but the ease of use of the Instant Pot in general outweighs swapping out the silicone seal occasionally.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#100> the official Instant Pot Facebook group
Well, that's a potentially clickbaity-sounding headline justified!