Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
My Thoughts on my Instant Pot
Every meal that I have made using my Instant Pot has turned out very well. The device is easy to use and extremely versatile. I've made everything from yogurt to shrimp and so many in between.
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I do not have the "smart" pressure cooker, which means that I cannot connect to it via my smartphone, although that would be very nice (see section on crock pots). I have one of the newest models, to my knowledge, the only difference is the lack of smart phone connectivity.
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Included: ___
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Support: Instant Pot's website is a great resource for fining "how to" guides, cooking times, recipes (although I would use these more for a starting point to edit rather than sticking to them rigidly).
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Access to Recipes: There are a lot of recipes out there, Pinterest is a great place to start looking for recipe ideas. The Instant Pot comes with a few recipes, their website has a few, and Google is always your friend.
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Device: The Instant Pot has 13 individual settings, all of which can be edited to change from low to high pressure and have the time uniquely adjusted.​
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Manual- What should be the most used function, but can actually be very aggravating because it doesn't always work.
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Keep Warm/Cancel- This is a good way for keeping your food warm, it keeps the heat on very low, even while releasing the pressure.
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Sautee- This is an awesome function for keeping your dirty dishes to a minimum, talk about one-pot meals!
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Soup- While Kyle gets more use out of the other functions, I use the soup function all of the time for making my (creamy & healthy) tomato soup, french onion soup, and more!
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Meat/Stew- I'm dying to make some stew! We did use it for our chicken tortilla soup though, it turned out amazing.
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Bean/Chili- One of our most used functions! I use this one very frequently, not just because chili is one of my favorite meals, but also because it operates essentially the same as "manual," so when the manual button is giving us some trouble, we switch to this mode.
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Poultry- *I have not used this function
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Slow Cook- *I have not used this function, but now I'm considering putting my crock pot in storage and only using it for keeping dips warm.
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Rice- just as easy as using a rice cooker. This function definitely gets used a lot, and we were able to get rid of our cheaper and smaller rice cooker, which means that we freed up some space!
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Multigrain- *I have not used this function
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Porridge- *I have not used this function
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Yogurt- This is a very cool function that does create a whole day activity! I used this recipe that I found on Tidbits, an awesome website for DIY projects. Be aware that a few other supplies and 8+ hours are needed to make the yogurt. Read your recipe very carefully and plan a day or so in advance if you decide to make homemade yogurt.
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Steam- *I have not used this function
Pros:
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Vanilla Bean Yogurt- Tidbits Recipe
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Creamy Tomato Soup
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Healthy Tomato Soup
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Arrabiatta (Spicy) Sauce
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Beefy Spaghetti Sauce
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Hearty Chili
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Mongolian Beef
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Rice
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Shrimp
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Finish off your meatballs in it!
Recipes to Try Using Your Pressure Cooker
Get Some Pinspiration
I love it and if you're a person who is pressed for time, you should definitely click on this Amazon link!
Cons:
Personally, I think that the pros far outweigh the cons. I've had the Instnat Pot for about 6 months and use it at least twice a week, which seems like a lot, but there is still so much that I have to learn from it! I'm sure some of my cons are beginners issues, so I will continue to update with my experiences.
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Not Included:---
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Access to Recipes: Unfortunately, because the Instant Pot is a newer pressure cooker, and the notion of an electric pressure cooker is also newer, there is not a wide variety of recipes.
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Need to Update Old Recipes: Keep in mind that an electric pressure cooker is different than a stove top one, be careful when looking at recipes to accommodate for the change because cooking times will be different.
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Device: The Instant Pot is a little finicky about sealing sometimes. If there is already too much steam in the inner pot, if you used the inner pot on the stove top and then put it in the Instant Pot, it may not seal.
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Maintenance: Be sure to dry the device thoroughly, wash the inside and outside of the inner pot, and keep the steam catcher dry and clean, this will help ensure acheiving a seal.
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Troubleshooting: It can get quite frustrating on the occasion that it fails to seal on manual mode. Typically this can be solved by switching modes, swiping a paper towel around the lid and pots to dry the seal area, emptying the steam catcher, and restarting the device. But because a good use for the Instant Pot is when you want to make a delicious dinner on a time crunch, it can be tough battling the machine and hunger at the same time.
But Why Can't I Just Use My Crock Pot?
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt wrote a comprehensive article, entitled "Why Anything Slow Cookers Can Do, Others Can Do Better." Click here for the in-depth version.
My personal opinion on it is the timing. For me to start the crock pot, I'd have to wake up extra early, and be okay with my meal sitting at the same temperature for several hours, up to 8. To use the pressure cooker for the same meal, I could do it in about an hour when I get home from work. Much more conducive to a busy schedule. Additionally, the Instant Pot has a "slow cook" button, which I'm honestly a little eager to try!