Pressure Cooker/Instant Pot TIPS & TRICKS

from elaine (Weekly Pressure Cooker/Ninja 4-1 Thread - 2/6/16 - 2/13/16)

1. Most recipes call for you to sauté the onions a couple of minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients, it makes the onions taste better and heats up the cooker, so, when you add the rest of the ingredients, it will come to pressure faster.

2. I almost never use Natural Release. I use it for beans, which tend explode all over your cooker if you use quick release, but otherwise it is a very rare recipe that calls for Natural Release. Quick Release is the way to go for almost everything. If your food is undercooked, you just put the lid back on and set it for pressure for another couple of minutes and then use quick release again. That is why the carrots were so over cooked.

3. If you are going to use veggies in a dish that you will pressure cook with meat/poultry, leave them in larger chunks. I use whole baby carrots for recipes that call for carrots. Veggies will cook more quickly than meat, so you want to have them in larger pieces that cook more slowly than thin slices.

4. A lot of liquid can be an issue, because none of it escapes/is baked off, so a number of recipes have you remove the main contents of the pot and while you are dishing it out, boiling down the liquid in the cooker with the lid off.

from keesha (Electric Pressure Cooker/Ninja 4-1 Thread - 3/6 - 3/12)

Things I have learned making yogurt: Don't use more than a couple of tablespoons of yogurt as starter or the final product will have a grainy texture
Remove the skin that forms on the top after cooling (or it leaves unappealing pieces in the final product)
And now: Don't skip the boiling step unless you want it to be drinkable!

from elaine (from What kind of pressure cooker should I buy?? 5/19/2016)

The only electric pressure canner is made by Ball and is around $300.

Otherwise, the only way to safely can is to use a pressure canner. You can pressure cook in a pressure canner (but they are huge), but you cannot pressure can in a pressure cooker.

from elaine (Electric Pressure Cooker/Ninja 4-1/Air Fryer Thread 5/9-5/22)

more yogurt making tips:
I don't bother with powdered milk, it is just one more ingredient to have on hand, but some others here do use it. I've been making yogurt for years now - just started using the Instant Pot for it several months ago, though.

If you like Fage, use plain Fage as your starter. That way your yogurt will have the same cultures growing in it as Fage does.

Now, since Fage is Greek yogurt, it has been strained of some of its whey. I always strain mine. It is the key to thick yogurt. I pour the yogurt into a strainer similar to this one that I have lined with a coffee filter (round mr. Coffee type):



I put the strainer+yogurt over a large bowl and the whey drips out to the bottom. I let it sit on the counter straining for 4-6 hours, usually the yogurt amount decreases by 1/3 to 1/2 and you have a large amount of whey - I get over 1 quart of whey each time I make yogurt from a gallon of milk. I then put the yogurt into container and into the fridge. Once it is cold it is nice and thick. All homemade yogurt is creamy, I've found.

The whey can be used in cooking and baking - it is wonderful in soups, beans and even baking bread and adds lots of protein without altering flavor.

from ohyvonne (Pressure Cooker/Ninja 4-1/AirFryer Thread - 6/22 thru 7/6)

tip on cooking pasta:

I find cooking at 1/2 the time the box recommends for pasta is just a skosh over al dente, so I always take away one minute. I like mine al dente. If it doesn't come out soft enough for you, you can always put the lid back on and cook it for one more minute, it won't take long at all.

from elaine (Electric Pressure Cooker/Ninja 4-1/AirFryer Thread 7/7-7/20)

I think that the number 1 mistake all of make when learning pressure cooking is adding too much liquid. For a meat/poultry dish that isn't a stew/soup, generally doesn't need more than 1 to 1.5 cups of liquid. Because you won't lose any while cooking unlike in the oven/stovetop/slow cooker, and your meat/poultry will give up fat and juices that don't evaporate either.

from elaine (Electric Pressure Cooker/Ninja 4-1/AirFryer Thread 7/7-7/20)

while the manual tells you not to, you can put the lid in the top level of your dishwasher. If you'd rather wash it by hand, go ahead and don't worry about submerging it in water - there are no electronics in the lid.

from elaine (Electric Pressure Cooker/Ninja 4-1/AirFryer Thread 7/7-7/20)


PSA for new IP users. If you want to cook using high pressure, just press the "manual" button and then press the + or - button to adjust the time. You do not need to hit the "pressure" button to cook using high pressure. It is counterintuitive, but you just need to press the manual button, that's all.

If you press the "pressure" button after you press "manual" you are switching the level of pressure it is cooking at. High pressure is the default, so if you hit "manual" and then "pressure" you are switching it to low pressure - take a look at the red light on the panel - is it over "High" or "Low"? If it is over low, press the "pressure" button again to switch it to "high."

There are very few recipes that call for low pressure - you won't use it often (if at all). For most things, especially meat and poultry, you definitely want high pressure.

from elaine (Electric Pressure Cooker/Ninja 4-1/AirFryer Thread 7/7-7/20)



amandaa said:
So I did white rice according to the book (grain:water ratio... Just hit the rice button, natural release). The stuff was so darn sticky that I could have sculpted with it! I thought it was a total fail when I opened the pot and saw it. But oddly enough the rice grains were cooked perfectly and weren't mush like I assumed from the sticky mess. So do I need to add some oil to the water or is there something else I need to tweak for nice fluffy rice?
You need to rinse your rice. Thoroughly. Like 5-8 water changes, to get a good portion of the starch off. That will help most. Then you should always add 1 tablespoon of oil when you cook rice to prevent foaming and clogging your valves.