Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 311 posts

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#121

Post by Thimothy »

masklinn wrote: post #30
bryanlarsen wrote: post #16

The Instant Pot came on the market with perfect timing, just as the pressure cooker started to go from "geek" to "mainstream" in its adoption curve. The fawning press articles claim that it was Instant Pot that took pressure cooking from niche to mainstream, but I don't buy that -- I think it would have happened anyways. It's a good pressure cooker. A good stovetop one will be faster, but it's only significant if you…

> just as the pressure cooker started to go from "geek" to "mainstream" in its adoption curve. It's really really weird to read that, in europe pressure cookers have been mainstays of most every kitchen for decades, especially after SEB's "super cocotte" (released in '53, they'd sold 10 million by '69).

Was thinking about writing the very same thing, a pressure coocker has always been a common implement in every kitchen I've seen. I realize that there is much more to the marketing, final implementation and other details of these Instant Pots, but all these comments read to me like everybody just discovered that eggs are awesome and you can use them for so many things.

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#122

Post by smanatstpete »

wyldfire wrote: post #87
miguelrochefort wrote: post #9

I got one for Christmas. I've been cooking more than half of my meals with it. It's great. Here's a few things I tried: - Mississippi pot roast - Carnitas - Pulled pork - Cilantro lime basmati rice - Butter chicken - Chili - Chicken breast - Crack slaw - Pulled chicken - Chinese hot pot - Hard boiled eggs - Soft boiled eggs - Steamed broccoli - Steamed cauliflower - Kale and bacon - Mussels - Cheese cake - Meatloaf -…

My wife has prepared a lot of these dishes in the past, but without a pressure cooker. So, what's different with the pressure cooker is that the cooking time for these dishes is much lower?

I would not even categorize the cooking time to be lower for many dishes (Because you will need the pressure to vent slowly for 20 mins unless you manually vent it). It is more of once things are inside the pot, you do not have to tend to it till it is done. The cooking time certainly helps for dishes like pot roast and it tenderizes tough cuts of meat much better without dehydrating them. Having said that, the above holds true for any well built electric pressure cooker. Instant pot is just a well built electric pressure cooker.

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#123

Post by manmal »

lenkite wrote: post #108

It appears that Americans have simply re-discovered what the much of the world (Europe+Asia) have known for a long time - pressure cookers are safe and make cooking simpler.

My family has been using those for 30+ years, and of course I bought one when I moved out. Apart from the occasional failing sealing ring (every 4 years or so), they are low maintenance and consistently produce good meals. You have to watch that you don't burn the bottom though when you are cooking for 2+ hours - just don't turn up the heat too much.

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#124

Post by _JamesA_ »

Dowwie wrote: post #43

My instant pot was my second pressure cooker. The first was a cuisinart, which was a nightmare to use -- it wouldn't secure the pressure valve without.. encouragement. I'd love to know what your favorite meal is to cook with the pot. Mine is chicken tagine.

I had the exact same experience. I gave up on pressure cooking after having the Cuisinart fail to seal way too many times.

It defeats the purpose if you have to baby-sit and fiddle with the lid for an hour hoping to get a seal.

I have only had that issue once with the Instant Pot so far and it was solved with a quick re-seating of the sealing ring.

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#127

Post by mywittyname »

lenkite wrote: post #108

It appears that Americans have simply re-discovered what the much of the world (Europe+Asia) have known for a long time - pressure cookers are safe and make cooking simpler.

It's not so much a rediscovery. American's just feel that pressure cookers are unsafe, so they are scared to use them. I've been a long-time pressure cooker user and I've had tons of people say something about them blowing up or "making crazy noises".

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#128

Post by Dowwie »

_JamesA_ wrote: post #124
Dowwie wrote: post #43

My instant pot was my second pressure cooker. The first was a cuisinart, which was a nightmare to use -- it wouldn't secure the pressure valve without.. encouragement. I'd love to know what your favorite meal is to cook with the pot. Mine is chicken tagine.

I had the exact same experience. I gave up on pressure cooking after having the Cuisinart fail to seal way too many times. It defeats the purpose if you have to baby-sit and fiddle with the lid for an hour hoping to get a seal. I have only had that issue once with the Instant Pot so far and it was solved with a quick re-seating of the sealing ring.

favorite recipe?

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#129

Post by fr0sty »

mrob wrote: post #70
smanatstpete wrote: post #67

Three things Instant Pot does that my older non-electric pressure cookers could not do: 1. Preserve the shape of the food being cooked. The older non-electric cooker would mush all the garbanzo beans or vegetables into a mash. When I cooked with the instant pot for the first time, I thought nothing was cooked fully because every vegetable and bean still were mostly in its original shape. 2. No noise. Non-electric coo…

>No noise. Only once it has reached full pressure. Steam escapes noisily through the lid locking mechanism for about a minute first (escaping steam is used to engage the mechanism, which makes it fail-safe because without the mechanism engaged it will never reach full pressure). >It has two pressure settings Only on the more expensive model. Cheaper version only has the higher pressure mode. But I have the cheaper ve…

> Steam escapes noisily through the lid locking mechanism for about a minute first

FWIW, I've found that if you push down on the lid firmly once it starts venting steam in any quantity it will lock instantly.

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#130

Post by alexose »

shostack wrote: post #115

Have had one since Black Friday. I feel generally competent in the kitchen to the point where assembling a nice meal (dare I say gourmet?) from scratch without a recipe is relatively easy for me. That said, I've found the Instant Pot to have a steep learning curve. For starters, you can't easily check on the food while it cooks, so if you are experimenting with large batch sizes and timing you are kind of gambling an…

It definitely takes some experimentation! The window between undercooked and overcooked is extremely narrow for certain things.

My policy is that I won't try anything new if I'm cooking for others. I only make recipes that I've tried before and iterated on. When I have a winner, I print it out and stick it on the back of the cupboard door where I normally store the pressure cooker.

Post reply on HN