It's strange. I was in the market for a pressure cooker that could double as a slow cooker, and saw the recommendation for Instant Pot over and over. I eventually went with a Power brand pressure cooker (it was pretty much the same price at Costco, and I've had much better luck with Costco's warranties than Amazon's), which as best I can figure looks nearly identical, has the exact same functionality sans maybe a yog…
Biggest difference between the two is the cooking vessel (Teflon-coated vs. Stainless). Also, the fact that the Power Pressure Cooker XL is "As Seen on TV!" turns me off personally, but I that may not be a universal reaction.
How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
191–200 of 311 posts
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay I have a question here, because I own an instant pot and I don't know if I'm understanding pressure cooking correctly or if I'm doing something wrong. When you say you pressure cook a chicken in 7 minutes, it's 10-15 minutes for the heat and pressure to buildup, plus 7 minutes once pressure is at max, then 1-2 minutes to release the vapor (or wait 20-30 minutes until the pressure subsidies by itself). Am I corre…
Yes, but people tend to exclude that since you're not watching the pot.
Or are we excluding one unwatched time but including another unwatched time for some reason?
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indian here. Glad to see your comment. I bought one during prime day (because I was curious about electric pressure cooker and needed a replacement for the desi cooker soon). And it is still in the sealed box :) Now I want to use it asap! Never realized it had a cult following (article looks like a PR material though)
Ya you should. I think many of us think it is similar to regular electric cooker but forgot to note it is "electric PRESSURE" cooker.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/pressure-cooker-recipes.h... is a great resource. The Texas chili is incredible: it's about ~10 mins of prep (saute beef; prep chilis), 30 mins under pressure and ~10 mins to boil off the excess liquid at the end and thicken. When compared to the hours it'd take in a dutch oven or slow cooker, it turns "weekend meals" into weekday ones.
Some of the instructions seem unsafe--how do you "heat oil in a pressure cooker until it's smoking"? You're generally supposed to only heat stuff with the lid closed , and at that point you leave it closed until it's done.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#195I think we just don't mind if we have to wait for something to finish cooking; plus she likes "active cooking" - the prep work, the attention to cooking, etc. I understand the desire for "set and forget" - which is why I have my own such appliance (if you will) - a Traeger smoker. I got tired of always having to attend to my gas smoker (checking water levels, wood chips, temperature and gas settings). I just wanted to put the meat in, turn on the temp, and let it run for however many hours needed.
For other things, though, we like to use either a slow cooker, or for smaller amounts of things, our set of "ancient" Sunbeam/Rival Bean Pots (we typically find them at antique stores). Sure, either way takes hours to cook something, but we just set them, go to work, and come back home and they're done. We've never had an issue or reason to think this a problem (our house is worth more in insurance money, tbh), even using the 40-50 year old Bean Pots.
That said, what I wish could be sold/made available would be a modern and "safe" (I put that in quotes because one of these could never be perfectly safe) consumer-model pressure fryer. Think of combining a pressure-cooker with a deep-fat fryer (and realize just how dangerous that sounds). At one time (back in the 1970s, IIRC) a company did market such a product, but it didn't last on the market (not sure why - may have been a safety issue for all I know).
Basically, I want to have fried chicken like I can get at KFC and elsewhere (also known as "broasted" - though that's a trademarked term, I think). It could probably be used for other fried foods as well. But I doubt we'll ever see one, because of the safety reasons and because fried foods aren't on the "high up" list of many people today (health reasons).
I've considered a commercial pressure fryer, but the fact that they require 220v (so I'd need a new outlet run), plus require a ton of oil ($$$) - in addition to all the other potential issues with a pressure fryer - has dissuaded me from that route (not to mention that they are pretty expensive to purchase).
Note: Whatever you do - don't try to pressure-fry in a regular pressure-cooker (I doubt the Instant Pot can handle it either) - the seals and such aren't designed for it, and you'll have burnination and other fun on your hands if you attempt it (at best).
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#196Have 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…
I really find I like it best when I've done stews, pork shoulder, red sauces, and stocks. It pretty much works the same for all of them. I get all my aromatics roughly chopped, saute for a couple minutes just to brown them up, then I put them in the blender and transfer to the IP for an hour or so. I just submerge the meat and guess at a time that matches a stove top pressure cooker. So I get what you mean about the…
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/pressure-cooker-recipes.h... is a great resource. The Texas chili is incredible: it's about ~10 mins of prep (saute beef; prep chilis), 30 mins under pressure and ~10 mins to boil off the excess liquid at the end and thicken. When compared to the hours it'd take in a dutch oven or slow cooker, it turns "weekend meals" into weekday ones.
Some of the instructions seem unsafe--how do you "heat oil in a pressure cooker until it's smoking"? You're generally supposed to only heat stuff with the lid closed , and at that point you leave it closed until it's done.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/pressure-cooker-recipes.h... is a great resource. The Texas chili is incredible: it's about ~10 mins of prep (saute beef; prep chilis), 30 mins under pressure and ~10 mins to boil off the excess liquid at the end and thicken. When compared to the hours it'd take in a dutch oven or slow cooker, it turns "weekend meals" into weekday ones.
Some of the instructions seem unsafe--how do you "heat oil in a pressure cooker until it's smoking"? You're generally supposed to only heat stuff with the lid closed , and at that point you leave it closed until it's done.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
If that is how cooking times are my slow cooker can make a mean stew in a few minutes - but you'll need to start it a half day before you want to eat it. If you remove the foil from a lasagna for the last five minutes and set a new timer, did it only take 5 minutes? I don't get the trend in instant pot directions to say it only takes X minutes when it is really warmup + X + cooldown. It really doesn't help anyone kno…
Half a day is a bit of an exaggeration - I've been making the best beef stews of my life in under an hour, including prep, warm up, cook, and steam release. Likewise pulled pork in just a shade over an hour, perhaps 10 minutes actual prep time.
Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ya you should. I think many of us think it is similar to regular electric cooker but forgot to note it is "electric PRESSURE" cooker.
How does it work for different variety of pulses used in Indian cooking? For instance, I use x whistles in a conventional pressure cooker for one kind of daal vs y whistles for another kind. How well does the whistle semantic translate here?
1) Steam is contained inside and not released
2) Steam is released
So rather than x whistles it based on the time.
For example for one cup of Toor dal (Yellow peas / pigeon peas spilt ) we put it for 16minutes with steam valve closed.