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Inside the Home of Instant Pot

nytimes.com

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Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#51

Post by pjc50 »

lighttower wrote: post #8
hirundo wrote: post #3

Nomnompaleo clued me into the Instant Pot about 3 years ago and I've used it at least weekly since. Most appliances go to the graveyard cabinet, not this. Just polished off a turkey stew: Pepper, onion, garlic, mushrooms, bacon & 4 turkey drumsticks. 1 hour to cook 40min to cool 20m prep yields 4 or five great meals. Umpteen substitutions and variations of the above keep bringing me back. The device is still working…

Why do you need two lids and pots? I understand the pot, you can store it in the fridge. But why the lid?

I'm guessing one in the fridge and one in the cooker, so once you've cooked multiple days of meals you don't have to have the same thing continuously.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#52

Post by [deleted] »

thisisit wrote: post #43

> It is also a testament to the enormous power of Amazon, and its ability to turn small businesses into major empires nearly overnight. Lot of people say that Amazon tends to move in on a product which they think has been doing well and start selling Amazon branded stuff. Is there a reason why Amazon hasn't done the same to Instant Pot? > Sensing viral potential, Instant Pot sent test units to about 200 influential c…

[deleted]

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#53

Post by mythrwy »

TwelveNights wrote: post #29
mythrwy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once tried to pressure cook a large pot of habanero peppers (to make hot sauce). (While doing this I was drinking with friends... bad idea) I wanted to open the pot and so put it in the sink and ran a little cold water on it until I could just get it open. The resulting steam hit me in the face and hands. My face turned all red and hands swelled up and I could barely see. No real damage but it was very intense pain…

When you do something with the pot in a way it wasn't meant to be used, I guess all bets are off.

This was actually a normal pressure cooker (early 90's in college, there were no Instant Pots way back in those primitive days).

Not sure it was necessarily contrary to "how it was meant to be used".

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#54

Post by icebraining »

shostack wrote: post #13

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 eas…

Pressure cookers are pretty great, but I don't get why Americans got hooked on the Instant Pot specifically. We just use a stove-top model.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#55

Post by icebraining »

wglass wrote: post #33
ggg9990 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because if a pressure cooker explodes in America (or more generally, the West) and kills someone it's a national news item: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/mum-... You haven't heard about Indians killed by pressure cookers because it simply doesn't make the news.

Speaking as one who is American born married to a woman from the subcontinent ... We’ve had accidents involving traditional pressure cookers 2 or 3 times. It’s not really an explosion though we’ve called it that. There’s a rubber emergency valve that pops out and a jet of high pressure steam rockets up. Usually our ceiling gets coated with gravy or orange colored lentils. Once this happened 5 minutes before dinner gu…

Interesting. My family cooks lentils on a pressure cooker quite frequently, and that never happened to us. Maybe you were filling it too much?

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#56

Post by TheRealPomax »

If you actually read this article, there's barely any information in it that warrants that many words. It's basically just an advertisement that goes "lots of people have bought this thing!" with the automatic effect that readers will then go "wow sounds popular I should think about getting one".

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#57

Post by tecleandor »

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

Pressure cookers are quite common in Spain, and most fear from exploding pressure cookers comes from the 70s and 80s, when they had less security features, valves could get stuck, and people were careless ( i.e: opening the lid before pressure venting, forced cooling under the water tap...)

I've checked on Google News for accidents in Spain, and haven't found anything more recent than 2012.

Using modern pressure cookers is quite safe. Just check your valve works, that your ring seal is in proper condition, and close the lid properly.

AND NEVER TRY TO OPEN IT IF PRESSURE HASN'T VENTED

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#58

Post by TheRealPomax »

jaytaylor wrote: post #17

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?

That's a typical description for "set it to run for way too long" that comes with using any make/model pressure cooker.

Remember that the time it takes to pressurize the vessel is not dead time, if you tell it to run for 5 minutes, it's going to run for 5 minutes plus the several minutes it needs to reach pressure, plus however long you leave it before releasing the pressure valve.

Halve the time you typically use (seriously) and see whether that results in better texture for you.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#59

Post by mrarjen »

Been using a rice cooker for some years now, it's already a huge step up from cooking it in a pot. And it seems almost nobody uses rice cookers here (NL). Fun fact, people from Asian countries are rather unlikely to know how to cook rice in a pan.

I'll very likely get one of the IP's, as cooking ribs and other slow cooked meats do take a lot of time now, and pressure cookers are like playing with a bomb.

Re: Inside the Home of Instant Pot

#60

Post by gambiting »

mrarjen wrote: post #59

Been using a rice cooker for some years now, it's already a huge step up from cooking it in a pot. And it seems almost nobody uses rice cookers here (NL). Fun fact, people from Asian countries are rather unlikely to know how to cook rice in a pan. I'll very likely get one of the IP's, as cooking ribs and other slow cooked meats do take a lot of time now, and pressure cookers are like playing with a bomb.

I just don't understand the point of a rice cooker, I really really don't. Cooking rice is the simplest thing in the world - throw rice in a pan with water and some salt, turn the gas on, wait 10-15 minutes. Done. Why would I buy a separate device taking precious space in my kitchen for what has to be the easiest cooking task imaginable? When you say "people [..] are rather unlikely to know how to cook rice in a pan" I just don't understand. It's like saying that someone doesn't understand how to make a cup of instant coffee. The only way to fuck it up is to put it on gas and then forget, but that would ruin any dish.
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