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How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

bbc.co.uk

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Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#211

Post by dahdum »

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…

Japanese curry (beef or pork) comes out fantastic, it's a simple recipe to start and even easier in the Instant Pot.

Freezes and reheats very well.

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#212

Post by haikuginger »

ska wrote: post #72
imglorp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find some basic knife skills to be a huge labor saver. I've had the same decent (ie, not serrated) $25 chef's knife for decades and can plow through basic veg prep in a few minutes. I don't like all the extra gadgets except a peeler. When I factor in setting up and washing some chopping or slicing machine, I'm way faster with just a knife and board. Two things to wash. And the board is also used to hold stuff on it…

Food processors (proper ones, not hand "choppers" and the like - those are nearly pointless) are a terrible replacement for basic knife skills. What they are mostly great at is a few things that are so labor intensive (ever made hummus by hand?) you otherwise might not bother. Also a good time saver for things like pasta dough.

Great for hummus; great for purees; great for pastry doughs.

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#213

Post by MisterBastahrd »

mynegation wrote: post #12

I 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…

I own an Anova and a Joule and enjoy both. One item I enjoy a lot is a generic vegetable cleaver. I find them to be better at making consistent slices. Cheapest piece of cutlery I own but the one I use the most.

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#214

Post by janfoeh »

literallycancer wrote: post #73
masklinn wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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).

Exactly. "Most people have some concept of urban legends of exploding pressure cookers in their grandmother's kitchens," says Mr Qin. Am in Europe, literally everyone has a pressure cooker, never heard about them actually exploding.

Happened to my parents and me, back in the mid-90s. Luckily, nobody was in the kitchen the moment it happened. All I remember is that it left a decent dent in the vent hood above the stove, and Gulasz... Gulasz everywhere.

Then again, I was also right next to an exploding Mokka / Espresso stovetop cooker, so maybe I am simply unlucky :)

I still own a pressure cooker and use it regularly - a cheap one from IKEA at that.

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#215

Post by deegles »

koolba wrote: post #22
AlexB138 wrote: post #2

This is pretty funny for me to read. As the article mentions many people apparently did, I picked up an Instant Pot on Prime Day last year. I had no idea there was such a following around it until reading this, I just wanted a pressure cooker. I received it, and stuck it in my closet expecting to pull it out when I needed to pressure cook something. My wife discovered it pretty soon after and began using it for sever…

What's an example of a task you didn't think it was capable of?

The newer models have a yogurt setting!

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#216

Post by huphtur »

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…

You can't just mention how it makes great oatmeal without providing us the recipe!

Please?

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#218

Post by Terribledactyl »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #192
AtheistOfFail wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but people tend to exclude that since you're not watching the pot.

So despite all those buttons it's too cheap to have a 7 minute timer? Or are we excluding one unwatched time but including another unwatched time for some reason?

Most home pressure cooking is sensitive to your local air pressure. You already have to adjust for that. And the kinetics of pressure cooking mean that structural changes that happen while getting up to temp will be a rounding error compared to full temp, for all but the shortest cook times.

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#219

Post by Dove »

huphtur wrote: post #216
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…

You can't just mention how it makes great oatmeal without providing us the recipe! Please?

Courtesy of my dad. This is good stuff, and makes 4 servings.

    1 cup steel cut oats
    4 cups water
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    Cook in Instapot, 5 min at 'Manual' pressure
    Let cool in Instapot for 20 minutes or until pressure relief button pops
    (if you don't let it depressurize slowly it will foam up inside and mess the lid)

    Add the following:
    2 Tablespoons of chunky peanut butter (heaping)
    2-3 heaping tablespoons of sugar (brown is better)
    5 shakes of Pensy's Chinese 5-spice powder
    4 shakes of Pensy's Star Anise powder

Re: How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following

#220

Post by djhworld »

spacehunt wrote: post #40
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a gray area - where do you draw the line between reporting on a cult and advertising a product? Is http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-39158975 an advert for that site? Is http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170303-we-should-thank-bu... an advert for Buffy? Is http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39188826 an advert for the arms industry?

I got a full screen ad that couldn't be closed when trying to visit the link in Firefox for Android.

Do you live outside the UK?

The BBC is publicly funded, visitors to BBC news from outside the UK will get served ads.

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