Why have more than one Instapot??
 

Seriously, we know a few women/mothers who own multiple Instapots. It’s like some sort of status symbol. I don’t get it. We have one that was a gift and it’s gathering dust. Maybe we just need a better cookbook because the last dish we made in it wasn’t very good. Lots of leftovers that ended up in the trash. Also, what have more than one Instapot going? That’s just weird I think.

We have one and it’s awesome - we use it all the time - but we don’t need two.

We got rid of ours in short order too. Slow cooker is better and never found a good use for the Instapot.

No clue why you would need more than one. I thought the whole point of them was to reduce the number pots/pans/etc needed to cook a meal.

I don’t really see the need for more than one unless those people you know with more than one are also the ones who are prepping a whole week of meals on Sunday.

I think of ours like an electric pressure cooker. If it’s something you’d do in a pressure cooker, you can do it in an instapot

Which reminds me. Time for some stuffed cabbage. Which was the impetus for the instapot in the first place.

I like my Instapot, but want a bigger one to make Hawaiian food. Mine is a CrockPot brand and is out of action because of a recall on the lid. Just waiting for the new lid to arrive.

It primarily is a pressure cooker with added sear and slow cook functions. We use it to make stew, carbonada, chili, chicken soup. When we roast a chicken we throw the bones in the insta pot and pressure cook them for 30 minutes. It makes great chicken stock.
Anything you can do in a slow cooker in 4 hours can be done in 20 minutes in an insta pot.

It is great for corned beef. Throw it in the pot, set for a little over an hour and it is done. No need to watch it like on a stove.

We use ours a lot. You can do some great slow cooked meat dishes, pressure cook beans, stews, etc.

We cooked beef stew in ours and it tasted bloody. I don’t know what I did wrong so maybe I’ll find another recipe and give it a second go.

Elevation might matter - we're at ~7300' and things take forever without pressure. Heck, I'd still be waiting on Saturday's brown rice if all I had was a sauce pan.

We're old school though and have two pressure cookers. One old rattletop and a Kuhn Rikon springtop. We don't need no stinking bluetooth in our cookers!

(shakes his walking cane at the clouds...)

But hey, if it gets people cooking better, it's worth it I guess.

Did you brown the meat first? How long did you cook it?

IDK how far down the instapot hole they go, but of course seriouseats.com is always recommended. I do know that they do some pressure cooker stews. Pro tip from them is to brown the slab of meat, then pull it to cube it. That ensures a proper browning on at least a few surfaces and development of a good fond in the pan. Starting with cubes usually just makes grey steamed cubes.

And fish sauce in everything!

We use ours a lot as well. Well - my wife uses ours a lot!

Our most common use - take a pot roast - 3 lbs or so - a can of onion soup and a can of golden mushroom. Add some garlic, onion, pepper and cook for about 2 hrs or so. The pot roast will fall apart. We usually have one dinner meal out of it - adding mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, and rolls. Then we take the left over roast and have sandwiches for another meal or two. Also - we don't through out the gravy sauce/juice from the original meal. We will save it in the freezer and use it as the base for the next roast we cook - maybe adding just 1 can of either the onion soup or the golden mushroom soup.

Take a look at my post above. We used to brown (sear) the roast first - and then tried it without that step. We couldn't tell one bit of difference.

We use ours and I could see needing two depending on how many folk you have to feed and what you are cooking in it.

Wife has a VERY good coq au vin recipe

Are all your friends Mormon or something?

Insta pot makes the best hard boiled eggs, the shells ALWAYS just peel right off and the yoke is always done perfect.

What is an instapot? Is that a crockpot that directly posts your dishes on Instagram?

That sounds about right.

We have a crock pot, and a pressure cooker. It is weird to cook chicken in 22 minutes, but the pressure sure makes it tender. The crock pot sure is better for beans or chili.

I don't have an Instagram account, so no need of an instapot. Just do NOT get a Facebookpot, those are really out of date and old fashioned.

I was thinking more a CO2 charged self inflating toilet. Stuck in crowded airport with sudden urge and no way to get to bathroom without losing your place in line?

Instapot.

I always pressure cook hard "boiled" eggs in the Insta Pot. Five minutes at high pressure and they come out perfect. The shell still sticks to the egg if the eggs are fresh, so we still age the eggs for 10 days before we try to hard cook them. I used to get blow-outs all the time when I was boiling them, but never with the Insta Pot.

For beef stew I put some olive oil in the bottom of the pot and sear the chunks of meat well, then add a couple of cups of water and cook under pressure for 30 minutes. Then add the vegetables and simmer until they're done. The meat is fork-tender.

Are you supposed the sear chicken first too?

My wife uses ours mainly to make yogurt. She has that down. Hard boiled eggs as well. Soups, etc. are done in the slow cooker.

I at first couldn't see the need for it and it gathered dust in the pantry for almost a year. Took it out during winter to cook soup, and it has never gone back. Other than soup I also use it for bolognaise, curries, stews, even pot-roasts. Great for cooking potatoes for mash, as well as doing rice in 11 minutes. Couldn't imagine a kitchen without it.

We have one. It does a few things well, but we use the Ninja Foodie air fryer/air bake oven (convection) or sous vide and/or grill more than the instapot. Steel cut oats and rice are good. We have not had a meat come out good. Or refried beans.

We do. We like a little brown crust on chicken, beef, or pork. The maillard reaction adds some flavor, and gray meat just doesn't look very appetizing.
Maillard Reaction: https://www.scienceofcooking.com/maillard_reaction.htm

I was gifted an Instapot two years ago at a time when I was trying to downsize all the crap in my kitchen.. I now find it very useful, and use it a few times a month..

One recipe I found that is great is Chicken Tikka masala, or butter chicken... its really good and ingenious.. you cook the rice at the same time, In the same pot, but separately from the chicken mixture..

I've made this recipe a number of times.. and I think its awesome....

https://food52.com/recipes/74991-urvashi-pitre-s-now-later-instant-pot-butter-chicken


The-butter-chicken-lady-who-made-indian-cooks-love-the-instant-pot

This is a simple reason for two Instapots. Main and side.

Thanks for this. I made it a few nights ago and it is outstanding! It's definitely going into the rotation.

I bought this book a few months ago and have been very happy with the recipes.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08C6P692W/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

A lot of instant pot recipes i tried before just turned all the veggies to mush, or were watery and unappetizing.

Did I stumble upon an alternate universe ?

Pelican Pots

We got one for Christmas from my parents. I tried. It'll be on the curb if she can't find something it does well. 8qt.

It ruins a whole chicken, the pork loin and sauerkraut might have turned out mediocre. Maybe we are using it wrong.

I figured this instant pot was just another fad that I wasn't interested in, but I 'member mom using a pressure cooker when I was a kid and she was a really good cook so maybe there's something to it.
She make swiss steak with it that I really liked. If I could come up with a similar result I'd be sold.

So a while back I got a catalog in the mail for a retirement gift to go with the gold watch ;)
I gave it to the wife and she (eventually) picked out an instant pot which showed up last week.
Gonna give it a try tonight with some pork tenderloin, we'll see how it goes.

We have not had much luck with any meats turning out nearly as good as on the grill, smoker or sous vide. But it does really good with steel cut oats and some veggies. We really could get rid of ours and not miss it.