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Inside the Home of Instant Pot

nytimes.com

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Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#11

Post by kitcar »

I was under the impression that instant pot was not the inventor of the electric slow cooker / rice maker / pressure cooker hybrid, they were just the ones to import the concept from China and market it to North American audiences. Can anyone who lived in China in the late 90s confirm - was the instant pot style of pressure cooker popular back then, or is the instant pot brand truly the original I nventor of the hybrid pressure cooker concept?

Speaking As a (very satisfied) owner of an instant pot, when I first received it I recall noticing it looked very similar to devices I would see for sale at my local east Asian grocery store

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#13

Post by shostack »

I'm a massive fan of things that improve my quality of living, save me time, and save me money. This little hunk of magic does all three.

I had no patience for my slow cooker, and this lets me experiment with foods I normally would have avoided. Beans? 90 minutes from dry. Real steel cut oats? 20 min. roughly. It has saved countless hours of cooking by letting me make awesome meals for the freezer. Lastly, it has easily paid for itself in the first year of owning it by letting me cook in bulk.

The one thing that throws me is it is hard to experiment with when dialing in a recipe. Between pressure build-up time, and figuring out quantities, etc., it can be challenging to say, toss something in for a few more minutes, because you can't watch the food while it cooks, so you don't really know when it is fully done short of cooking it more, testing it, cooking it more, testing it, etc. And that can take a good 10 minutes per test.

Now I just need to find better recipes.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#15

Post by forkLding »

kitcar wrote: post #11

I was under the impression that instant pot was not the inventor of the electric slow cooker / rice maker / pressure cooker hybrid, they were just the ones to import the concept from China and market it to North American audiences. Can anyone who lived in China in the late 90s confirm - was the instant pot style of pressure cooker popular back then, or is the instant pot brand truly the original I nventor of the hybr…

The makers are Chinese Canadian, I would say they were inspired by Asian designs but probably have a better product in terms of internals and externals as is normally expected.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#16

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

unmole wrote: post #9
pmoriarty wrote: post #4

I wonder what the statistics for Instant Pot explosions are. Are those independently tracked in any way? I've considered getting one of those, but have serious concerns about their safety.

This fear of exploding pressure cookers seems to be a uniquely American phenomenon. Pressure cookers are used by pretty much every middle class Indian household and I have never heard of an explosion. They all come fitted with a 'safety valve' that pops to let out the pressure before it can reach a dangerous point. It also reminds me if this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

As an American, I've heard that this can happen but have never heard of a specific example of it happening accidentally (sadly, there are multiple examples of them being deliberately used as weapons). I suspect it's an old wives' tale, possibly an exaggeration of poorly-made or damaged cookers somehow being opened at pressure and the "explosion" actually being rapidly venting steam.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#17

Post by jaytaylor »

Great in theory, but I've just been reminded that I haven't liked anything that comes out of it. Things turn out kind of weird imho.

For example, carrots we're too soft, spinach was completely crushed and an ugly green. The texture always put me off.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#18

Post by hobaak »

kitcar wrote: post #11

I was under the impression that instant pot was not the inventor of the electric slow cooker / rice maker / pressure cooker hybrid, they were just the ones to import the concept from China and market it to North American audiences. Can anyone who lived in China in the late 90s confirm - was the instant pot style of pressure cooker popular back then, or is the instant pot brand truly the original I nventor of the hybr…

I think you are talking about Korean electric pressure rice cooker. They have various cooking mode but more geared for rice. But people found a way to make cakes etc. This is North America version of them.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#19

Post by swimfar »

unmole wrote: post #9
pmoriarty wrote: post #4

I wonder what the statistics for Instant Pot explosions are. Are those independently tracked in any way? I've considered getting one of those, but have serious concerns about their safety.

This fear of exploding pressure cookers seems to be a uniquely American phenomenon. Pressure cookers are used by pretty much every middle class Indian household and I have never heard of an explosion. They all come fitted with a 'safety valve' that pops to let out the pressure before it can reach a dangerous point. It also reminds me if this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

Western, maybe. But not uniquely American. I've seen references/jokes about it in Europe as well.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#20

Post by avtar »

tdburn wrote: post #12

Does anyone else think the instant pot puts out weird smelling food sometimes? Like almost sour

I had to soak the silicone ring in white vinegar for a couple hours to make it lose its awful out-of-box odour. I also ran it on the two minute steam setting with white vinegar. It's been great since then.
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