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How the Instant Pot cooker developed a cult following
- kriro 10y agoHow open and hackable/interfacable is the Instant Pot? I own a Thermomix which is pretty locked down and closed. I'd love a machine with that functionality (good blade+heating pot in one basically) and the ability to build my own tools to interact with it. The guided cooking of the Thermomix is pretty neat (essentially a touchscreen with instructions and preloaded recipes). I'd love that in open (use my own recipes etc.).
- AlexB138 10y agoThis 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?
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- 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.
- 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.
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- 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
- cjg 10y agoI didn't think the BBC did advertising.
- Cthulhu_ 10y agoIt's a gray area - where do you draw the line between reporting on a cult and advertising a product? Is http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-39158975 http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-39158975 an advert for that site? Is http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170303-we-should-thank-buffy-for-todays-golden-age-of-television http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170303-we-should-thank-bu... an advert for Buffy? Is http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39188826 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39188826 an advert for the arms industry?
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- Pigo 10y agoMaybe it's sad, but my immediate reaction was all of this is staged. Maybe I've just been on /r/hailcorporate too many times.
- jeromenerf 10y agoDon't be sad, it's just an electronic pressure cooker, not a magical device. You still need skills, accessories and good taste to produce good food :)
- clarkevans 10y agoWhen you've got a great product, your users become your extended sales force: I've bought this for my relatives for the holiday season and have recommended it to my friends. I think Amazon recommendation system opens new product avenues like this that didn't exist before. It is easy to praise this product -- it combines a rice cooker with a pressure cooker and stew simmer (and, I guess, a yogurt maker) all in one device that saves kitchen storage and counter top space. They've thought of lots of stuff: making the seal easily replaceable, and allowing you to buy extra tin cans with lids (from cooking right to refrigerator). The cans are perfect size for the dish washer, etc. It's well designed, solves an urgent need, solidly built and just works.
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- rajadigopula 10y agoI have been using one for more than a year. It makes cooking so easy and quick and the flavor stays inside and food turns out really delicious. Best part is it doesn't even make slightest of the sound or smoke.One of my best buys.
- iambateman 10y agoI'm having dinner tonight from an instant pot but it hasn't lived up to the hype for me. What do you cook in there that you've really enjoyed?
- refset 10y agoI cook the majority of my meals using only a WMF Perfect Plus. (Veggie) risotto, curry, soup ...it's all so quick & easy!
- gervase 10y agoMy go-to recipes are pot roast, chicken soup, phở, and bolognese sauce. Basically, any recipe that requires boiling or simmering for a long time (and/or can be made in a slow cooker) can be made faster and (more importantly to me) tastier by the Instant Pot.
- clbrook 10y agoSalmon from frozen to perfectly cooked.
- rajadigopula 10y agoI make indian dishes mostly, Dal comes out perfect. I cook veg, like green beans - only takes 3 min (5 if you add warm-up time) which otherwise will take 20-30 min. I also cook pasta - low pressure for 6 min gives perfect la dante!
- ashark 10y ago> I also cook pasta - low pressure for 6 min gives perfect la dante! That's... about the same amount of time it takes on the stovetop, no?
- miguelrochefort 10y agoI got one for Christmas. I've been cooking more than half of my meals with it. It's great. Here's a few things I tried: - Mississippi pot roast - Carnitas - Pulled pork - Cilantro lime basmati rice - Butter chicken - Chili - Chicken breast - Crack slaw - Pulled chicken - Chinese hot pot - Hard boiled eggs - Soft boiled eggs - Steamed broccoli - Steamed cauliflower - Kale and bacon - Mussels - Cheese cake - Meatloaf - Italian sausages - Beef curry - Poached salmon - Pork ribs - Swedish meatballs - Taco meat - Chicken fajitas - Black beans
- wyldfire 10y agoMy wife has prepared a lot of these dishes in the past, but without a pressure cooker. So, what's different with the pressure cooker is that the cooking time for these dishes is much lower?
- smanatstpete 10y agoI would not even categorize the cooking time to be lower for many dishes (Because you will need the pressure to vent slowly for 20 mins unless you manually vent it). It is more of once things are inside the pot, you do not have to tend to it till it is done. The cooking time certainly helps for dishes like pot roast and it tenderizes tough cuts of meat much better without dehydrating them. Having said that, the above holds true for any well built electric pressure cooker. Instant pot is just a well built electric pressure cooker.
- scrrr 10y agoIs this different from any of the other similar cooking devices?
- mynegation 10y agoI am part of the cult. We bought after the recommendation of a friend. What I liked: nice set of presets, comes with a cookbook with quite a few recipes, very easy to operate. Some time ago, when Apple bailed out of self-driving car business, my friend and I discussed what would be the good category for Apple to try next and I suggested advanced kitchen devices. Seriously though: instant pot with Nespresso machine are close to best damn money I spent. Currently I am investigating Anova devices and dreaming about something that would cut down (hehe) my peeling and chopping time.
- tonyarkles 10y agoAs a fellow lazy kitchen-er, I've got a decent recommendation: - small food processor to significantly reduce the chopping time. I picked one up cheap on a whim (I think for making hummus) and now most of the time I just coarsely chop veggies and throw it in with a slicer blade or grater, depending on what I'm making. (By coarse, I mean, I'll quarter the onion so that it fits down the chute) - Quit peeling! I've got a vegetable peeler that is sitting very sad in the drawer because it hasn't been used in a long long time.
- freehunter 10y agoI always find that dismantling, washing, and rebuilding the food processor takes more time than just chopping on a board and then washing the board.
- canes123456 10y agoYep, serious eats has a few videos on cutting that are useful. It only takes a couple minutes to dice an onion or shallot. Much less time than cleaning a food processor.
- tonyarkles 10y agoFor sure. For small things, I'll definitely just use a good knife. For making things like stews, I'll probably fill the food processor 5 or 6 times with vegetables (it's on the smaller side), and then just spray down the hopper and the lid with the sink sprayer.
- closed 10y agoWhen I was looking for a pressure cooker, I dropped into the subreddit r/pressurecooking and was surprised to see it was basically devoted to the Instant Pot!
- bryanlarsen 10y agoThe Instant Pot came on the market with perfect timing, just as the pressure cooker started to go from "geek" to "mainstream" in its adoption curve. The fawning press articles claim that it was Instant Pot that took pressure cooking from niche to mainstream, but I don't buy that -- I think it would have happened anyways. It's a good pressure cooker. A good stovetop one will be faster, but it's only significant if you've got a gas or induction range. And of course the stovetop models don't have any automation. And it's half the price of a good stovetop model.
- SideburnsOfDoom 10y ago> just as the pressure cooker started to go from "geek" to "mainstream" in its adoption curve. Pressure cookers have been around for a long time: first manufactured in 1864 according to wikipedia (1). It's just that they have been out of fashion for few decades - possibly supplanted by the microwave oven in the 1970s and 80s. So maybe the time was right for a better design to come back. The older designs had a reputation for very occasionally exploding, or the lid flying off and getting embedded in the ceiling. Not common, but it did happen and that puts people off. 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_cooking#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_cooking#History
- mcguire 10y agoThe lids on older models like my mother's were physically capable[1] of being removed while under pressure, which would be entertaining. Still use it, though. [1] The amount of force required is large, though. I'm not sure I could do it without tools.
- GrinningFool 10y agoI think that it wasn't so much a 'geek' thing as it was that a complete generation or perhaps two forgot that they existed - and now the next generation is [re]discovering them.
- soylentcola 10y agoI bought an old-school pressure cooker last year when my rooftop garden unexpectedly produced way more tomatoes and hot peppers than I had expected. Started to get into canning and pickling as a result. Sadly, I no longer live there thanks to a breakup but I'm looking forward to buying my next place with gardening space so I can pick up where I left off. Do these things work for canning or is it mostly just a matter of available volume?
- technological 10y agoIndian here living in US. We used always get pressure cookers from india since they used to last longer and it's hard to find good ones here. But last prime day I brought one and I feel this is better than one which we use in India . Better - Cleaning this is a easy , ease of use and safety
- calvinbhai 10y agoIndian here. Glad to see your comment. I bought one during prime day (because I was curious about electric pressure cooker and needed a replacement for the desi cooker soon). And it is still in the sealed box :) Now I want to use it asap! Never realized it had a cult following (article looks like a PR material though)
- technological 10y agoYa you should. I think many of us think it is similar to regular electric cooker but forgot to note it is "electric PRESSURE" cooker.
- 0xcafecafe 10y agoHow does it work for different variety of pulses used in Indian cooking? For instance, I use x whistles in a conventional pressure cooker for one kind of daal vs y whistles for another kind. How well does the whistle semantic translate here?
- technological 10y agoBecause here you have two settings/ways 1) Steam is contained inside and not released 2) Steam is released So rather than x whistles it based on the time. For example for one cup of Toor dal (Yellow peas / pigeon peas spilt ) we put it for 16minutes with steam valve closed.
- calvinbhai 10y ago
- oh_sigh 10y agoI see so many articles like these. Honestly they all read like one of those pages that is advertised at the bottom of a CNN article.
- losteverything 10y agoAfter reading 'add HN to cart' I really wonder why this is #1
- rashkov 10y agoI was heartened by how poorly "add hn to cart" would actually do on this site. Most of those articles are instantly killed by various filters. Maybe I should go back and have another read through the comments, but that was my takeaway and also something I've noticed when browsing /new. That said, it doesn't surprise me to see this at the top of HN. It is a geeky cooking tool with a cult following. I'm certainly intrigued.
- losteverything 10y agoCoincidentally we joked about the name ("pot") in both my jobs. It's featured on an endcap and does not sell one bit. This was a surprise.
- zhte415 10y agoThis is amazing. I am serious. An electric pressure cooker brand (I've never heard of, but I don't like in Canada/US which seems to be the prime market) took over the electric pressure cooker market by adding buttons instead of a twist-dial timer where you manually set the desired time (my electric pressure cooker, which came free with by fridge years ago, and may be part of the reference to scaring people about exploding... they don't... they have cut-off devices if the wrong time is dialed) and a bunch of links and given some Googling what appears to be discount codes to incentivise bloggers. Quite an amazing success. Smart targeting of an old-tech.
- Sean1708 10y agoI've got an ancient steel one that you have to put on the hob, and even that has pressure release valve.
- mrob 10y agoThe Instant Pot does not run for a fixed time. It has a pressure sensor and only starts the timer when it has reached sufficient pressure. This means you can do things like cook frozen vegetables perfectly without weighing them, because they will condense the steam and keep the pressure below the starting threshold until they are defrosted. I'm not aware of any previous pressure cooker that had Instant Pot level automation.
- zhte415 10y ago> The Instant Pot does not run for a fixed time. It has a pressure sensor and only starts the timer when it has reached sufficient pressure. Yes, this is exactly what my pressure cooker does. There's a dial, which has indicative minutes, and a picture of what's cooked under certain minutes around the dial, for example a small icon of a bunch of beans appears under the 40 minute dial, similar for other items. But total cooking time rarely ends up at 40 minutes (for beans, indicated at 40 minutes for example when starting from cold water and unsoaked beans) because it pre-heats to starting temperature and then kicks-off. The heating plate heats pretty quickly, which also makes sense when seeing recipe examples for browning meat before starting the pressure cooking. Seems identical, just analogue control. Just a standard modern pressure cooker without a bit of marketing a dial in-place of buttons. I also have a pressure cooker for the gas stove, significantly larger, and while that takes manual timing it has a release valve if steam pressure gets too high.
- jeromenerf 10y agoI bought one to replace a rice cooker which had (aging) teflon coating. The instantpot is a bit slower but it has a stainless steel pot and can do a lot more than just cooking rice and steam vegetables. Moreover, it's actually cheaper and sturdier than the alternatives I considered. Good product, would recommend. I try to stay away from pressure cooking, coffee brewing and knife sharpening communities though, maybe do I watch those swedish steel axes benchmarks, for some reason ;)
- fr0sty 10y ago> The instantpot is a bit slower Are you pressure cooking your rice or using the "rice" setting? I've found rice to cook faster in this vs. my old Aroma rice cooker...
- Dowwie 10y agoMy instant pot was my second pressure cooker. The first was a cuisinart, which was a nightmare to use -- it wouldn't secure the pressure valve without.. encouragement. I'd love to know what your favorite meal is to cook with the pot. Mine is chicken tagine.
- _JamesA_ 10y agoI had the exact same experience. I gave up on pressure cooking after having the Cuisinart fail to seal way too many times. It defeats the purpose if you have to baby-sit and fiddle with the lid for an hour hoping to get a seal. I have only had that issue once with the Instant Pot so far and it was solved with a quick re-seating of the sealing ring.
- mrob 10y agoI bought an Instant Pot after reading a recommendation on obesity researcher Stephan Guyenet's blog: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/instant-pot-electronic-pressure-cooker.html http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/instant-pot-... I've been using it regularly since then and I highly recommend it. I had a manual pressure cooker many years ago but I rarely used it because it was too much hassle. The automation and easy cleaning of the Instant Pot makes a big difference. I rate it second only to the microwave oven as most useful cooking technology.
- neonnoodle 10y agoSame here! I'd never considered buying one until I saw Guyenet's endorsement. He's loath to recommend specific products so I knew it was a genuine endorsement.
- Gravityloss 10y agoThere's so little innovation and so much to improve in home appliances it's ridiculous
- nommm-nommm 10y agoSuch as?
- AdmiralAsshat 10y agoIt's strange. I was in the market for a pressure cooker that could double as a slow cooker, and saw the recommendation for Instant Pot over and over. I eventually went with a Power brand pressure cooker (it was pretty much the same price at Costco, and I've had much better luck with Costco's warranties than Amazon's), which as best I can figure looks nearly identical, has the exact same functionality sans maybe a yogurt option, and should in theory be able to cook the same stuff in the same time. But whenever I ask for recipes, all I get is, "No man, you've gotta have an Instant Pot for this."
- fr0sty 10y agoBiggest difference between the two is the cooking vessel (Teflon-coated vs. Stainless). Also, the fact that the Power Pressure Cooker XL is "As Seen on TV!" turns me off personally, but I that may not be a universal reaction.
- anthony_romeo 10y agoI have the same aversion to such products, but sometimes those "As Seen On TV" things aren't so bad. My parents' Ronco Rotisserie Oven is still kicking after well over a decade and makes some boss kabobs and roasts.
- edwinnathaniel 10y agoI seconded fr0sty comment: Teflon vs Stainless Steel. Stainless Steel is better for health than Teflon.
- agumonkey 10y agoI thought it was a pressure cooker turned into cannabinoid extracting machine ...
- rnernento 10y agoIt's great to see the Instant Pot on Hacker News. A couple of key takeaways: - There's no marketing magic here, this is just a great product. - It's ugly, and the interface is weird. Doesn't matter, it gets the job done. - Pressure cookers have been around for a long time, they're a really great cooking technology marred by some serious safety and inconvenience issues. There are a bunch of companies competing in Sous Vide right now (the hot new cooking trend) but the Instant Pot guys just took old technology and made it slightly better. edit: formatting
- alphakappa 10y agoUse the Breville version, and you will not complain about the user interface. The whole thing is gorgeous.
- slantyyz 10y agoOne thing I also notice is that the silicone seal inherits past smells of things you've cooked. Seems to be hard to get rid of the smell too.
- smanatstpete 10y agoThree things Instant Pot does that my older non-electric pressure cookers could not do: 1. Preserve the shape of the food being cooked. The older non-electric cooker would mush all the garbanzo beans or vegetables into a mash. When I cooked with the instant pot for the first time, I thought nothing was cooked fully because every vegetable and bean still were mostly in its original shape. 2. No noise. Non-electric cookers have the steam whistle to vent out excess steam which is noisy and annoying. Instant pot does not have that. 3. It has two pressure settings - lo and high pressure. When I bought it, very few of them offered this option. Most electric pressure cookers come with a coated aluminum pot. Instant Pot was one of the first ones to offer a stainless steel container. This was the original reason I bought an Instant Pot.
- ajmurmann 10y agoI'm not sure if you are using your regular pressure cooker correctly. Your vegetables should come out similar as if you steamed them. You are probably cooking them too long. The pressure cooker also shouldn't have to vent all the time. At least with my Kuhn Rikkon you have to carefully adjust the temperature to ensure the food is at the right temperature and then very little venting should happen. Of course that also requires constant monitoring and adjusting. But most things only need pressure cooking for 5-10 minutes anyways.
- smanatstpete 10y agoMaybe I was cooking them too long. I used to have a $90 cooker (I think it was T-Fal), but I could never get it to cook correctly. With Instant pot, the cooking time does not seem to matter. Same thing with venting. I could never get it to vent without much noise.
- namdnay 10y agothe standard SEB pressure cooker that every household owns in France constantly vents when under pressure - there's a kind of spinning valve on the top that make a choo-choo train noise :) usually you turn the hob to full until it starts spinning, then you reduce to low for the duration of the cooking
- jasonellis 10y agoI bought an Instant Pot about 5 years ago because I saw some good recipes and a suggestion on a Paleo blog. The price on Amazon seemed reasonable at the time, so I figured "why not." It turned out to be an incredible purchase. I've grown to hate single use devices that take up space in my kitchen (ugh, blenders, crock pots), but the Instant Pot is so versatile that it earns its keep. I've long since abandoned that whole Paleo thing, but the Instant Pot still makes great meals. I don't need a crock pot in addition to this. It makes amazing pulled pork and carnitas. I can throw a whole chicken in there and have it falling off of the bone in less than an hour. I can brown beef in it before adding other ingredients for a good stew or chili. It makes really good hard-boiled eggs (though I've recently discovered eggs in my sous-vide and will never cook them another way). I don't know how the Instant Pot brand compares to other electric pressure cookers, but I'm 100% satisfied with mine. I liked it so much that I bought my parents one for Christmas two years ago and upgraded mine from the previous model to the newer model on last year's Prime Day mentioned in the article. The newer model solved my one gripe with the previous model (setting the lid on the counter was awkward when taking it off). I recommend these things to everybody. Whether you enjoy cooking or not, the Instant Pot makes cooking meals easier.
- canes123456 10y agoAhh blenders are not single use. I make mayo, soups, sauces, ice, hummus
- giarc 10y agoYou make ice with a blender? :)
- mafro 10y agoI must be the only person unconvinced by the Instant Pot! I don't like having to braise/sear meat and caramelise onions directing in the IP on "Saute" mode - it's always either too hot or too cool. This process is much easier on the hob with a frying pan.. Which is fine, but then I have two things to clean. If I want the benefits of a pressure cooker, I'll just buy one of those. Oh and the UX on the IP is horrific! I needed the manual every time I used it (about five times).
- droopyEyelids 10y agoMy tip for the UX is to ignore all the special buttons, and just use high and low pressure for a specific amount of time. The cheaper pots don't even bother with all the magic setting buttons.
- QuercusMax 10y agoCould you just put the pot directly on your stove to sear stuff? I haven't tried this, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
- neonnoodle 10y agoThe thing is terrific and I too have recommended it to anyone who will listen. I just hope they keep their quality control standards high as the popularity increases. It's a huge money/time saver. I think it's already paid for itself for me as a yogurt maker.
- EGreg 10y agoIs it basically a pressure cooker? What makes it "instant"?
- sosborn 10y agoThe brand name.
- OJFord 10y ago> the official Instant Pot Facebook group Well, that's a potentially clickbaity-sounding headline justified!
- lenkite 10y agoIt appears that Americans have simply re-discovered what the much of the world (Europe+Asia) have known for a long time - pressure cookers are safe and make cooking simpler.
- manmal 10y agoMy family has been using those for 30+ years, and of course I bought one when I moved out. Apart from the occasional failing sealing ring (every 4 years or so), they are low maintenance and consistently produce good meals. You have to watch that you don't burn the bottom though when you are cooking for 2+ hours - just don't turn up the heat too much.
- mywittyname 10y agoIt's not so much a rediscovery. American's just feel that pressure cookers are unsafe, so they are scared to use them. I've been a long-time pressure cooker user and I've had tons of people say something about them blowing up or "making crazy noises".
- srean 10y agoIndeed, pressure cookers are such a no-brainer in India. Every household have had them over more than a couple of generations. I for sure have not heard of accidents. A typical Indian reaction to this story would be, "what's all this fuss about, its a pressure cooker for god's sake, you add the ingredients and you cook."
- shostack 10y agoHave had one since Black Friday. I feel generally competent in the kitchen to the point where assembling a nice meal (dare I say gourmet?) from scratch without a recipe is relatively easy for me. That said, I've found the Instant Pot to have a steep learning curve. For starters, you can't easily check on the food while it cooks, so if you are experimenting with large batch sizes and timing you are kind of gambling and have to wait till it is done (sometimes an hour) to see if you ruined something. It is hard to find consistent info on how long to cook certain things, and it is easy to overcook things into mush. And for anyone citing cooking time of a couple minutes... That's just misleading. Most recipes quote how many minutes to set it for. They do not tell you it takes upwards of 15 minutes to come up to pressure in some cases, and depending on the release instructions, some things can take another 20-30 minutes to release pressure if it is a large volume of liquid. That said, it makes amazing steel cut oatmeal and we've had a couple other successes. I'd love more recipes that were purely easy quick prep, toss it all in, no extra cooking steps (like finishing in the oven), and good for making easily freezable and quick to reheat one pot meals. Many recipes I've found are overly involved to the point where the IP seems unnecessary. I desperately want to use it more, but so many recipes fail to meet the above criteria. Hopefully that improves. Maybe my expectations are just too high?
- alexose 10y agoIt definitely takes some experimentation! The window between undercooked and overcooked is extremely narrow for certain things. My policy is that I won't try anything new if I'm cooking for others. I only make recipes that I've tried before and iterated on. When I have a winner, I print it out and stick it on the back of the cupboard door where I normally store the pressure cooker.
- smanatstpete 10y agoIt works well with dishes dealing with tough cuts of meat, soups and bean based dishes. Yes, you cannot check the progress. But that has been the nature of any pressure based cooking. They key benefit in electric pressure cooking imo is that once the dish is in with spices, you can forget about it till it is done. Most electric pressure cookers have a saute mode, so you can quarter cook the dish, taste for spices and then switch to pressure mode.
- alexose 10y agoThere's a "smart" version of the Instant Pot that has its own scripting language! http://instantpot.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/How-to-write-recipe-script-for-Instant-Pot-Smart-v1.0.pdf http://instantpot.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/How-to-writ...
- abledon 10y agoWhat a great tool to get my non-techie instant-pot-using-relatives to understand what I do at my day job... but on a larger scale.
- dbg31415 10y agoHow does anything pick up a cult following? By being awesome. I love that I can take frozen chicken and throw it in the pot, dump in like 2 other things, and presto less than half an hour later I have delicious taco meat.
- Emc2fma 10y agoThere was an AMA yesterday on Reddit by the founder of Camelcamelcamel. He said that the Instant Pot was tied with the Amazon Echo for having the most people tracking it. Pretty impressive.
- Emc2fma 10y agoThere was an AMA yesterday on Reddit by the founder of Camelcamelcamel. He said that the Instant Pot was tied with the Amazon Echo for having the most people tracking it. Pretty impressive.
- cseelus 10y agoReminds me of the ThermoMix: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermomix https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermomix From Wikipedia: 'The functions can be accessed simultaneously to provide what the manufacturer calls "12 functions": steaming, emulsifying, blending, precise heating, mixing, milling, whipping, kneading, chopping, weighing, grinding and stirring. Several of these differ only by the speed of the motor.'
- krzat 10y agoWhat is the difference between Instant Pot and similiar, cheaper devices? They look like one company makes them all.
- erikb 10y agoWhat's the difference to the decades old Rice cooker you can find in any Chinese home at least once? Really weird that this doesn't seem to get mentioned anywhere in the comments or article. It Looks so much more like a Rice cooker than a pressure cooker.
- LeifCarrotson 10y agoIt has multiple power settings, rather than just heat-to-boil until the water has steamed off and the temperature jumps like in a rice cooker (which, admittedly, is a simple enough profile to be useful when cooking a lot more than rice - I lived on my rice cooker through college). These power settings can be controlled electronically by a timer. And, regardless of what it looks like, it can be set up as a pressure cooker. This makes it an all-in-one rice cooker, pressure cooker, and crock pot/slow cooker.
- cr0sh 10y agoNeither my wife nor I have ever had the want or need for a pressure cooker, but if we ever do, this particular one might be worth looking into, given all the good things people have said about it. I think we just don't mind if we have to wait for something to finish cooking; plus she likes "active cooking" - the prep work, the attention to cooking, etc. I understand the desire for "set and forget" - which is why I have my own such appliance (if you will) - a Traeger smoker. I got tired of always having to attend to my gas smoker (checking water levels, wood chips, temperature and gas settings). I just wanted to put the meat in, turn on the temp, and let it run for however many hours needed. For other things, though, we like to use either a slow cooker, or for smaller amounts of things, our set of "ancient" Sunbeam/Rival Bean Pots (we typically find them at antique stores). Sure, either way takes hours to cook something, but we just set them, go to work, and come back home and they're done. We've never had an issue or reason to think this a problem (our house is worth more in insurance money, tbh), even using the 40-50 year old Bean Pots. That said, what I wish could be sold/made available would be a modern and "safe" (I put that in quotes because one of these could never be perfectly safe) consumer-model pressure fryer. Think of combining a pressure-cooker with a deep-fat fryer (and realize just how dangerous that sounds). At one time (back in the 1970s, IIRC) a company did market such a product, but it didn't last on the market (not sure why - may have been a safety issue for all I know). Basically, I want to have fried chicken like I can get at KFC and elsewhere (also known as "broasted" - though that's a trademarked term, I think). It could probably be used for other fried foods as well. But I doubt we'll ever see one, because of the safety reasons and because fried foods aren't on the "high up" list of many people today (health reasons). I've considered a commercial pressure fryer, but the fact that they require 220v (so I'd need a new outlet run), plus require a ton of oil ($$$) - in addition to all the other potential issues with a pressure fryer - has dissuaded me from that route (not to mention that they are pretty expensive to purchase). Note: Whatever you do - don't try to pressure-fry in a regular pressure-cooker (I doubt the Instant Pot can handle it either) - the seals and such aren't designed for it, and you'll have burnination and other fun on your hands if you attempt it (at best).
- awwstn 10y ago[perhaps related] The late, great Roger Ebert wrote a book about rice cookers: "The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker". Like pretty much everything Ebert ever wrote, it's excellent: https://www.amazon.com/Pot-How-Use-Mystery-Romance/dp/0740791427 https://www.amazon.com/Pot-How-Use-Mystery-Romance/dp/074079...
- et-al 10y ago(And this is the original blog post that inspired the book: http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/the-pot-and-how-to-use-it http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/the-pot-and-how-to-...)
- darkstar999 10y agoI already have a (great) rice cooker and a (not so great) slow cooker. Does the instant pot _actually_ replace those two appliances? Does it sous vide?
- fr0sty 10y agoDoes not do sous vide, but it certainly can replace your rice cooker and slow cooker. Only trouble is having only one appliance prevents you from cooking parallel (making curry _and_ the rice to serve it over, for instance, would be a problem).
- jm547ster 10y agoNot purpose built for sous vide but the keep warm setting hovers ~70C which is nice for well cooked but still moist chicken. I believe the smart model has adjustable keep warm settings and is more fit to purpose for sous vide. Instant pot also sell an affordable immersion circulator.
- pmoriarty 10y agoSorry, I just don't buy that these things can never explode, since defects in manufacturing and design do happen. The potential for exploding in my cookware is just not worth the risk when I can use conventional pots and pans that don't have this risk.
- wwweston 10y ago>"Cooking is a social and emotional practice that creates a lot of meaning in our lives...So a product that takes centre stage in cooking practices also creates a sense of attachment by being an agent in our social and emotional lives." Note that this is the opposite of Soylent, which treats cooking and eating as a distraction from the central problem of nutrition. (I suppose you could alternatively say it's a complement to Soylent, which you could characterize as unhitching nutrition from cooking and eating rather than banning them from the process, letting people choose whether they want to pick up all the activities together or separately.)
- Dove 10y agoI am Instant Pot patient zero in my social circles. I have infected almost everyone I know, and they have infected almost everyone they know. It's just that good.
- djhworld 10y agoNever heard of it before this article came out. Is this just a US/Canada thing? I remember my parents having an old-school pressure cooker 20 years or so ago.
- agentgt 10y agoI find meat cooked by pressure cookers and especially slow cookers sort of disgusting. Mainly it boils down (pun intended) to the texture and the meat is lacking in caramelization (maillard reaction). But I haven't tried the Instant Pot so maybe it has a solution for that. If I could grill all the time I would. I almost can as I have a kamado style grill which has its own cult following as well (see Kamado Guru [1]). There isn't much you can't cook on one of those grills. [1]: https://www.kamadoguru.com/ https://www.kamadoguru.com/
- moftz 10y agoI usually try to sear the outside of the meat before I throw it into a slow cooker. I use cheap, tougher meats that wouldn't really be desirable cooked any other way.
- QuercusMax 10y agoDefinitely this. Sear your meat, then slow-cook it, then, if you want, broil it to crisp it up. I do this when making carnitas and they turn out amazing.
- deftnerd 10y agoDoes anyone know what the energy usage of the Instant Pot is overall compared to other methods of cooking? I've explored various off-grid methods of living and the energy requirements involving food (both storage and preparation) can be surprisingly high. I'm curious to see if the efficiency gained by using a pressure vessel results in substantial energy savings.
- csnewb 10y agoInstant Pots are AWESOME for meal prep especially for those who are bulking/cutting weight. In under one hour on a Sunday night, I prepared enough chicken, brown rice, and veggies to eat for lunch every day for a week (I don't eat breakfast and generally eat salad for dinner). The food tasted decent, but the amount of time spent on preparation can't be beat.
- jefurii 10y agoLots and lots of marketing?
- hokkos 10y agoWhat will happens when american discover Thermomix and Cookeo ?
- paulrpotts 10y agoI just got one of these a week ago and I've used it for brown rice, steel cut oats, rolled oats, and black beans. It did a great job on all these. It is especially nice on making a really quick oatmeal with dates and nuts thrown in. It does brown rice really well without burning it. You throw it in and start if. If you forget to come back to it, it just keeps the food warm without noticeably overcooking it. I like the fact that the innards in contact with food are stainless steel and silicone instead of some non-stick or aluminum surface. I like the build quality. It is enameled steel inside, with a big heat sink that presumably smooths out the temperature changes as the heater cycles. It feels like it actually cost something to build as opposed to the flimsy feel of other rice cookers. I have not tried anything too challenging yet... am curious about odder things to cook in a pressure cooker (cheesecake, really?) My only complaint so far is that the user interface is a little bit opaque. Why does it play a jaunty little tune when you seal it up, but not when it is done cooking? Why does it just say "ON" while pre-heating? I'd like it more if it would more clearly differentiate between the various modes and states. It seems like the UX could be a little better. But I do like the fact that if you do the same thing over and over, it would be extremely quick to do that, just push one button, it recalls the last cooking time, and starts automatically.
- pkamb 10y agoSome enterprising Hacker News-type should source/market a nice sealable silicone lid for the Instant Pot pot. So weird that the company doesn't sell them. I'd buy 3 for my 3 pots. Easy storage in the fridge, all in the same pot, then reheat tomorrow.
- lotharbot 10y agohttps://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-Silicone-Cover-Models/dp/B011HLNE1M https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-Silicone-Cover-Models/dp/... this is the exact product you're asking for ("Creates an air-tight and water-tight seal on the Instant Pot stainless steel inner pot.")
- pkamb 10y agoThat one appears to be an old model and is out of stock everywhere. And from the reviews, it does not seem to actually seal the lid of the pot. No better than the cutting board I currently place on top of the pot to "seal" the lid. - "Lid is too big, not even close to sealing." - "very loose fit" - "This cover just rests on top of the Instant Pot liner. I was expecting it to "snap" on, similar to Tupperware, or something. I'm very disappointed."
- lotharbot 10y agohttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K082HI4?psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K082HI4?psc=1 some reviews complain of fit, but a lot more say it's perfect. YMMV of course.
- pkamb 10y agoGood find; I don't think that product existed a couple months ago when I was looking. Purchased and fingers crossed that it snaps on tight!
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- hx87 10y agoI just wish the Instant Pot (and really, all electric pressure cookers) had a fast-response PID controller so that it could keep 15 psi like a stovetop pressure cooker instead of maxing at 15 psi and averaging 10 psi.
- andkon 10y agoOne thing I'll say — it doesn't just make things faster. It makes things so much tastier. Any stewing or braising dish gets done much quicker, and the meat retains so much more moisture while still getting its connective tissues broken down. I have never failed to make a tasty meal in mine.
- vit05 10y agoCamelCamelCamel founder said on his AMA that instant pot is the number one or 2 as the most monitoring product
- delbel 10y agoCan I use the Instant Pot as an autoclave? I've been using a pressure cooker with a propane turkey burner for my tissue culture experiments.
- seesomesense 10y agoAldi sells a clone for around $40. I have had one for some years.
- tambarskjelve 10y agoI seriously believed the article was about a pot smoking cook making instant meals.
- eddiecalzone 10y agoSurprised no one has mentioned the HIP Pressure Cooking website or book, both fantastic. Their buyers guide is a must if you're new to the cult: https://www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooker-buying-guide/ https://www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooker-buying-gu...
- lightlyused 10y agoCult member here. When I got mine after black friday, I made an chicken curry (my own spice blend) and it was fantastic. Total time from start to finish was about 30 minutes and only 10 of that was prep time, cutting onions/meat, blending spices, sautéing and roasting the spices. I think I did 8 minutes on high pressure, then natural pressure release. I've also made steel cut oats, jambalaya, rice, chili, and bean soup from dried beans. Clean up is easy which is a big plus in my book.