Instant Pot - a modern pressure cooker

[amyFB]

Has anyone acquired an Instant Pot? http://instantpot.com/

I'm interested in user experiences.
Model tried, Pros, Cons,

A friend is raving about her experience, but I'd like more input before leaping (if I leap at all)

thanks

[mattbn73]

We love ours and bought a second when we found them on sale. Basically a crockpot for people who aren't really planners or who are procrastinators. :-) We kind of switch to Paleo cooking/diet, and it has been a godsend. Convenience of a crockpot with far less cook time.

[David Eastwood]

It's basically an electric pressure cooker, with several other functions added. Ours is a 6-quart model - I believe there's also an 8-quart. We got ours from Amazon - but Target (among others) carries them now, as does Williams-Sonoma

My wife absolutely loves ours, and I love the food that comes out of it. In fact, we're having a chicken saag cooked in it tonight

[TNO]

Yep. Great for making bone broth.

[Larry Pattis]

Originally Posted by TNO

Yep. Great for making bone broth.

...followed by a batch of meat stew, as per the ketogenic diet I've been on.

So, yes, we have an Instant Pot, and have used it regularly for the past 6 months.

[Scootch]

I have considered one, but since I am alone, cooking for one, and can do most of my cooking in a skillet, wok, microwave or toaster oven, I wonder if it will migrate to the shelf with the dohicky that turns veggies into sphaghetti like curly cues.

[GHS]

Just a glorified electric powered pressure cooker. I have a stove top one forever. Best thing ever invented for the house. Meat comes out fork tender in no time. Skillet brown it before or after, depends on what you have and your done in no time. Costco sells them now.

[cmd612]

We've had one for a couple of years. My better half thinks ours is great, and I enjoy the food that comes out of it. I just asked for a few comments, and here's what I'm told:

It takes the place of both a slow cooker and a pressure cooker. You can brown food in it. You can make yogurt. It's great for beans, stocks, soups, mashed potatoes. It'll automatically keep food warm after pressure cooking, which makes it incredibly easy to make really good stock - put in your leftover bones/chicken carcass/whatever, cover with water, hit the button and go to bed.

[PerryE]

Hmm.... looks interesting although it does have quite a lot of fancy electronics which I am not sure will hold up over time. We use a heavy stainless WMF pressure cooker regularly - believe it is around 5 liters - and after about 6 years it is still going strong and expect it will last many more years. Before that we had a teflon-coated pressure-cooker that "bulged" after I was careless with too high pressure. Something to consider is how you control the pressure - on our WMF we have a mechanical valve that indicates pressure. Absolutely fool-proof.

My grandmother used a pressure cooker for many years and it is great for cheap meat (with bone and marrow) and black beans - 20-30 minutes is usually enough instead of many hours. Expect that one of our kids will inherit our pressure-cooker

Slow-cooking however is something I have been considering and maybe this is a way to start doing that?

[JCave]

I've been looking for ways to get my wife to take over kitchen chores... Maybe one of these would help?

[amyFB]

Originally Posted by JCave

I've been looking for ways to get my wife to take over kitchen chores... Maybe one of these would help?

You may not have heard the rule " do a job twice, and it's yours!" Good luck giving that chore away!!

Maybe it will help free up more of your time in the kitchen!

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by JCave

I've been looking for ways to get my wife to take over kitchen chores... Maybe one of these would help?

It depends what chores you'd like her to take over. There's still the chopping, the measuring and the assembly required, regardless of whether you use an Instant Pot, or any other kind of pressure cooker. What's different is the actual cooking - which tends to be more of a single operation than a more typical meal prep.

The Instant Pot is not a miracle device. Functionally, it's pretty much exactly the same as a traditional pressure cooker - except for the other things it brings, like the 'keep warm' facility, the ability to steam, and do slow cooking (among others). For all that, it's earned a place in our kitchen, over the Cuisinart electric pressure cooker it replaced - and believe me, we have a Museum of Questionable Kitchen Devices in our basement. We've tried 'em all.

If you want all-day flavour in your food without the hassles of all-day cooking, a pressure cooker delivers. The Instant Pot delivers, in an economical, easy to manage package.

Last night's Chicken Saag

[Steve DeRosa]

Thanks for clearing that up, folks - at first I thought it was Colorado's answer to Starbuck's Via Ready-Brew...