|
Post by Jockscrap on May 26, 2020 18:33:58 GMT
It is which is why I chose it because it also lets you saute and do other things. I think he actually asked for a slow cooker. I really don't know what any of them really do. I just went with the insta pot because peas. It can also be a slow cooker you just need a different lid. ( and I prefer the non stick pot ) I just use the lid the IP comes with for slow cooking - no need for another one. You just have the knob turned to venting.
|
|
luvnlifelady
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,421
Jun 26, 2014 2:34:35 GMT
|
Post by luvnlifelady on May 26, 2020 21:33:06 GMT
Best damn hard boiled eggs ever. Period. I’m still trying to do these and cannot get it right! I watched a video that recommended the 5, 5, 5, 5 rule. 5 minutes to pressurize, 5 minutes to pressure cook, 5 minutes natural release and 5 minutes in an ice bath. Works like a charm so far.
|
|
|
Post by tenacious on May 27, 2020 0:39:13 GMT
I think the difference with waiting for an oven to preheat and a IP to come to temp is that the oven can preheat while I am prepping ingredients, it is not adding on to the cooking time. I swear there are recipes that by the time you add pressure time on both ends, it is not much quicker than cooking the food in the traditional method. Which is fine...but, it is not always the great time saver some might think.
|
|
|
Post by JoP on May 28, 2020 14:39:43 GMT
I love my IP and use it a lot, but even more so in lockdown as I’m making soups several times a week as well as lots of evening meals. I am a huge fan. That said, I still scratch my head when I see what some folk use theirs for as it can appear to me to be an over engineered, more time consuming way of cooking - broccoli and rice come to mind. Each to their own though. I cook brown rice in mine - but in my defence Jockscrap I do use it for other things
|
|
|
Post by elaine on May 28, 2020 14:48:14 GMT
I have yogurt going in mine this morning.
|
|
|
Post by MsChiff on May 28, 2020 15:13:25 GMT
elaine while you’re here help me please! We tried the cranberry chicken recipe and killed it. Not in the good way. It was only the second or third time we used the instant pot, so obviously user error. But the chicken was dry and the sauce was bland. With those ingredients no way should that have been the case! Any ideas what we might have done wrong? Oh no! Did you use thighs or white meat? White meat can dry out if you cook it as long as dark meat. Feel free to add more of the spices that you like. I don’t find the recipe bland and I like my food well seasoned, so I’m not sure what happened. The Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker. There are also non-electric pressure cookers that you use on a stove. I love my IP. My favorites so far are ground beef stroganoff and chicken tikka masala. I also made a really good cajun pasta in it. Eggs are the best. I don't use it every night, but when I do, the meals are easy and good. I love that I prep the ingredients and walk away; no babysitting it. And there's only one pot to clean. I've always found crock pot food to all taste the same, and not in a good way. The only crock pot food I can recall being palatable was Pioneer Woman's crock pot lasagne which was very good. If anyone has any really good crock pot recipes, I'd appreciate it if you could share. I'd love to up my crock pot game!
|
|
oh yvonne
Prolific Pea
Posts: 7,996
Jun 26, 2014 0:45:23 GMT
|
Post by oh yvonne on May 28, 2020 15:42:13 GMT
I find mine indispensible for what I use it for. I don't generally care for 'mash up' type recipes where you combine a starch/meat/veggies all in one, I find one ingredient suffers from over cooking, esp the starch. Plus I don't care for the texture.
That being said it makes excellent chicken dishes in sauce, but I only use thighs. The only exception is if I buy a bag of those flash frozen breasts that the inject with water solution. But fresh, I never put in the IP it comes out rubbery on me.
Mississippi Pot Roast and generally any pot roast are perfect in the IP because you can brown and cook all in the same pan.
I have a rice cooker but it takes 45 minutes, if I'm pressed for time I will use the IP but only for long grain rice, I don't like how basmati or short grain rice cooks in it. Its too hard for me to get perfect.
Chile comes out great, of course beans. Any braise recipe.
Veggies I don't bother, I either roast my veggies in the oven or steam them in the microwave if I have to. I prefer roasted veggies over any other method.
As for hard boiled eggs, we don't eat them daily, maybe once or twice a week to add to tuna salad or potato salad so I only need 3-4 at a time. I have a little mini egg steamer that is about the footprint of a corn tortilla and cooks the hb eggs in no time and stores easily. This little gadget is awesome and can cook as many as 6 hb eggs at one time, I've never needed to cook more than that at a time. I suppose if I were hb a bunch for dyeing at Easter the IP would be great, but so far I haven't had the need to.
|
|
|
Post by Susie_Homemaker on May 28, 2020 16:04:58 GMT
I have a cookbook I bought at Costco (Instant Pot Miracle) that I like Now the name of that cookbook is funny because it has two words in it that the IP can not live up to- instant and miracle! As someone pointed out, I can prep food while an oven pre-heats but you can't do that with the IP. I do like it but definitely don't love it. It's convenient when I have some frozen chicken to cook or I want to cook a whole chicken. I've made some good beef stew in it too. It's the best way to make hard boiled eggs because the shells never stick.
|
|
iluvpink
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,281
Location: Michigan
Jul 13, 2014 12:40:31 GMT
|
Post by iluvpink on May 28, 2020 16:27:34 GMT
I love it for making large amounts of boiled eggs. They are SO easy to peel.
But I don't love it for anything else. For one thing by the time I got my model, they had changed the buttons and they are different from all the ones the YouTube and bloggers are showing for tutorials. Plus I am just a dunce with anything like this. So I'm never sure if I'm doing the right thing or not.
The only other thing I've tried it for is soups. And I don't find it any easier or time saving than on the stove. Faster maybe, but once you have sauteed/browned the ingredients and add them, you can just simmer on the stove and do other things. I guess for after work maybe, but I generally only make soup on days I'm home or working at home so the stove is fine.
|
|
|
Post by Jockscrap on May 28, 2020 21:46:59 GMT
It’s really good for making stock from meat bones. It is definitely quicker and is no-contact and no-steam so ideal for leaving to get on with it for a couple of hours. Also excellent for then using that stock to make broth with dried peas and barley. No pre-soaking required and perfectly tender in 90 mins. I never made chicken broth before I had an IP as I was never organised enough to remember to soak the broth mix. I always made stock by browning the bones in one pan then transferring to the slow cooker for 5-6 hours, so two pots to clean and it took much longer. Stock and soup making alone makes the IP worth having for me, but I use it loads for making batches of tomato sauce, and I’m using it more and more for pressure cooking joints of meat although I often slow cook them too if more convenient.
|
|
|
Post by gale w on May 28, 2020 22:27:57 GMT
I love it for rice. Even though I have a rice cooker, the IP is much faster, especially for brown rice. I don't want to make it on the stove. I have before but the IP is much easier. I also love it for mashed potatoes. I don't like boiling potatoes for mashing-they get too watery. It's great for dried beans. Takes way less time than the stove, and it doesn't heat up my whole kitchen. I also love it for cooking pasta for the same reason. Plus, we used bottled water for everything and the IP uses much less water for most dishes. IP mac and cheese is a staple here. It's great for soup-makes it taste like it cooked for hours. I love it for cheesecake. They don't crack as much as in the oven, and they don't heat up the whole house like the oven does. I don't use it as much for meat. Mostly in the summer when I don't want to turn on the oven or cook on the stove. We do have a gas grill but I'm not a big fan of grilling.
|
|