8 ms·
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
by AlexB138 10y ago
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 several tasks I didn't even realize it was capable of. She absolutely loves the thing, to the point I was joking with her about it. It's funny to me to see that our experience is far from unique.
- koolba 10y agoWhat's an example of a task you didn't think it was capable of?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- SideburnsOfDoom 10y agoI have a different rice cooker / multi-function electric cooker which doesn't sell itself as a pressure cooker, though I think it does build up a slight steam pressure when in use. If you buy a pressure cooker for "when I needed to pressure cook" you might not notice that it's also capable of being a multi-function electric cooker.
- briffle 10y agoMy wife made pulled pork in 1 hour this weekend. I have made several batches of yogurt 1 gallon at a time.
- alexc05 10y agoMy girlfriend bought me a sous-vide stick for christmas https://anovaculinary.com/ https://anovaculinary.com/ I'm loving it, and was just trying to figure out how to make yoghurt in it. I was thinking a pot inside a cambro container or a bunch of mason jars in the cambro. An instant pot is an interesting choice. We have an old-fashioned pressure cooker at home, which doesn't get nearly enough use.
- dvcc 10y agoChefSteps has a ton of helpful sous-vide recipes that really help build out a skill-set. They also have a yogurt one! (https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/easy-delicious-sous-vide-yogurt https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/easy-delicious-sous-vid...)
- criddell 10y agoI bought a sous vide set up a couple of years ago and I've been very underwhelmed with it. Are there any recipes that you think are especially good? I think my favorite is probably turkey breast just because it doesn't get dry. Everything else I've made in it (mostly different meats) has been okay, but nothing special. My family and I generally prefer things cooked on our grill.
- Afton 10y agoI have to admit that I don't like the texture of poultry breast meat done sous vide. Maybe I should experiment with not vacuum sealing it (just leave it with minimal air). But if you have an instant read thermometer (or a stick-in-and-wires-out continuous monitoring kind), the key is temperature. Just use a low oven (225 say) and pull it out when its ~135-140. My favourite thing to sous vide is steaks, which I finish on a steal plate on my grill. But I just use the beer-cooler sous-vide trick, so I can't really do e.g. 72 hour short-ribs.
- criddell 10y agoNow that you mention ribs, I cooked some St. Louis style ribs that came out pretty good.
- dvcc 10y agoThe actual temperature you choose is really dependent on taste, but some, specifically meats, that shine are salmon, short ribs, steak and smokerless smoked meats like brisket and pork shoulder (hey we can't all have a smoker in our apartment). But getting the taste and texture you like takes some trials. If I had to pick one in particular, it would be short ribs at 185F for 24 hours. Most cooks, outside of seafood, that I enjoy tend to take >12 hours. I barely use it for something like chicken thighs or pork chops.
- michaelmior 10y agoMaking cheesecake is one I certainly didn't expect. I still haven't tried it, but I've heard you can get great results because of the moist environment.
- Itaxpica 10y agoEven just focusing on the pressure cooking aspect, it turns out you can pressure cook all sorts of things you might not expect until you own one. For example, I've made incredible cheesecake in my Instant Pot.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- swalsh 10y agoCarnitas in 30 minutes. Pulled chicken in 7 minutes (which is actually really good!). Rice in minutes. There's always another way to do any of these things, but the instant pot does all of them. My wife has 2 of them, we throw together whole dinners in minutes, the primary one never leaves the counter because it's become a daily tool. Our microwave stopped working about 6 months ago, and instead of replacing it, we just gave the microwaves spot on our counter to the instant pot.
- monsieurbanana 10y agoOkay I have a question here, because I own an instant pot and I don't know if I'm understanding pressure cooking correctly or if I'm doing something wrong. When you say you pressure cook a chicken in 7 minutes, it's 10-15 minutes for the heat and pressure to buildup, plus 7 minutes once pressure is at max, then 1-2 minutes to release the vapor (or wait 20-30 minutes until the pressure subsidies by itself). Am I correct?
- AtheistOfFail 10y agoYes, but people tend to exclude that since you're not watching the pot.
- vasco 10y agoThen it should be more like 30 seconds, 15 to put things in and 15 to take things out, or are you watching it for those 7 minutes? Just trying to point out that you should quote the actual time it takes.
- apathy 10y agoThe soul of marketing is getting people to overlook stuff like the laws of physics, the arrow of time, and compound interest. Any time you find yourself resorting to the word "should," it's a good idea to ask: 1) why would the universe naturally favor order? 2) why would the order it favors please my sensibilities? Questioning the above premises will often yield opportunities that a rigid attention to preconceived notions would not.
- pbnjay 10y agoHard boiled eggs are a lot easier - you barely even have to think about it.
- miguelrochefort 10y agoAnd the pressure makes them very easy to peel.
- finnh 10y agoReally? Now I'm wishing I hadn't given away our unused pressure cooker in our most recent housing move.
- awjr 10y agoHonestly, for eggs I've found this to work a treat: Take a small pot with a lid, add 1cm (1/2 inch) of water, put eggs in, throw on cooker (up to boiling very quickly). 5 minutes later, soft boiled, 7+ minutes for hard boiled. Usually find 5 minutes is just enough time to make toast and a coffee. ;)
- Angostura 10y agoWhat? How hard is it to boil an egg?
- fr0sty 10y agoUsing the pressure cooker for eggs, aside from making the shells easier to peel, skips the "wait for water to boil" step and gives you several minutes of flexibility at the end of cooking since the heat shuts off when the timer runs out. You can also do large batches of eggs while only heating 1 cup of water.
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoSquash in a few minutes - pretty much just up-to-pressure then back down and done!
- AlexB138 10y agoMy wife has made hard boiled eggs, risotto (kinda) and yogurt in it. Didn't expect any of those. It advertised yogurt, but I didn't expect it to turn out as well as it did.
- Angostura 10y agoWhat's the benefit over boiling some eggs?
- HelloMcFly 10y agoMuch, much easier to peel.
- GrandTheftR 10y agoMy son and I had lots of fun making Yogurt with it. Cooking hard "boiled" egg is another unexpected finding after googling cook time for boiled egg
- deegles 10y agoThe newer models have a yogurt setting!
- mmanfrin 10y agoHard or soft boiled eggs -- bonus is that when you pressure cook them, it makes the shell stupid easy to get off (crack a ring around the middle, then pull the shell off). 5mins for hard, 4 mins for softer yolk, 1 min for runny (like for eggs benedict), quick release pressure + put in to an ice bath when done.
- emcq 10y agoI've never tried pressure cooking my eggs, but in minimizing prep my favorite way is to steam them. Put a little water in a pot (maybe half an inch), cover, bring to a boil, then reduce to low for 7 minutes and you have a perfect hardboiled egg. You should still have a bit of water in the pot when done, but not too much to delay boiling. End to end in about 8 minutes you have a cooked egg! The boiling is almost instant in a small aluminum pot, unlike bringing my pressure cooker up to temp, and you dont have to depressurize. Seems cooks illustrated also found these nicer for peeling: https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/168-easy-peel-hard-cooked-eggs https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/168-easy-peel-hard...
- fencepost 10y agoUnless you're using much smaller eggs than I do, 7 minutes must leave you with almost wet yolks. With standard US "Extra Large" eggs, 13 minutes is a fully-opaque yolk, down to around 9-10 minutes where the center of the yolk is much darker. It's been a while, but I think US "Large" eggs maybe only subtract about a minute from those times.
- criddell 10y agoHow much are they on Prime Day? I just looked and they are $70, $100, or $180. I want the $100 one but if it's significantly cheaper on Prime Day, I'll just wait.
- nanodeath 10y ago$57.99. But they were also pretty cheap in December, I think -- see https://camelcamelcamel.com/Instant-Pot-IP-DUO60-Multi-Functional-Pressure/product/B00FLYWNYQ https://camelcamelcamel.com/Instant-Pot-IP-DUO60-Multi-Funct... .
- connor4312 10y agoThe 7-in-1 six quart cooker (currently $100) was just under $70: https://camelcamelcamel.com/Instant-Pot-IP-DUO60-Multi-Functional-Pressure/product/B00FLYWNYQ https://camelcamelcamel.com/Instant-Pot-IP-DUO60-Multi-Funct...
- AlexB138 10y agoChecked my receipt, I paid $69.99 for the 7-in-1 6qt