Instant Pot: First Time Review

[Anonymous No.18853549]

>wash calrose rice
>dumped in pot set timer for 6min
>jerk off
>whoa it’s done already
>force depressurize, fluff rice and transfer out
>throw a bunch of shit in for a gumbo (andouille, shrimp, garlic, veggies, spices)
>hit ‘soup’ and set time for 20min
>set timer on for 30min
>come back and it’s done and I finish depressurizing

whole thing was really good, rice especially was nice and sticky. very happy with this purchase. I assume by now almost everyone’s used an instant pot, but if not they are fantastic for quick, lazy but good cooking.

[Anonymous No.18853582]

>>18853549
Sounds pretty comfy. I see small instant pots go on sale for like $40-50 all the time but have mever put too much thought into investing into one

[Anonymous No.18853618]

Did you seriously pressure cook shrimp?

[Anonymous No.18853644]

>>18853582
Mine was $30, and I think it’ll be totally worth it with all the stocks and soups I’ll make it should pay for itself doubly by end of year. And it’s good for steaming so I’ve got soup dumplings planned. I think it’ll be really helpful for turning leftovers into a soup too, which cuts down on waste and stretches my dollar further too.

All in all it’s just pretty exciting to cook with this thing imo. Had a really fun night with it. Made a big ass cornbread in the cast iron too that turned out great.

>>18853618
Yes, it was the only thing I was dissatisfied with. Still good, but melted in my mouth a little too much. I think if I only cooked the whole for 10min it would’ve come out better maybe.

[Anonymous No.18853657]

Actually, I imagine it’ll pay itself off within 3-4 months honestly. Soup is so filling so I’ll eat less, and you know what goes good with soup? Bread, which is cheap as shit and I make my own so it’s even cheaper. Having it soup means less butter required too.

Of course I intend to use it for much more than soups, chili and stocks but that was the biggest reason I got it, along with wanting something to make rice easier. All of this helps lower my food bill by a good amount each month, so I’d be surprised if it takes more than 3-4 months to pay for itself. And equally important, it’s fast, low effort and easy clean up so it’s one less reason to go out to eat. Idk in general I’m really digging it, inb4 paid content shill.

[Anonymous No.18853666]

>>18853644
Just sear the shrimp in a pan. It literally takes like 2 minutes.

[Anonymous No.18853674]

>>18853549
luv me instant pot but ended up getting a meme zoji because rice was too inconsistent and so i could still cook with the pot and have a full meal ready

[Anonymous No.18853679]

I’ve been really reluctant to get any extra kitchen appliances btw, prior to this my only means of cooking food was the stove top and oven (I’ve got a microwave too but don’t cook with it). I’d put this right up there with the kitchen aid as an s-tier appliance desu. I’ll probably use it much more than the kitchen aid too.

[Anonymous No.18853681]

>>18853657
>inb4 paid content shill.
always thought it was funny how anons who constantly moan about shills imply that the only people who would interact with them voluntarily have to be paid for the effort, and its grueling work dealing with insane people

[Anonymous No.18853683]

>>18853666
I have no problem with this, but I was just following a recipe. I was particularly curious how the shrimp would turn out.

Part of the appeal of the instant pot is only having one dish to do afterward (you can even eat out of it), and not needing to stand over the stove. Your suggestion removes these benefits. I’d rather just try again but with a lower cook time, 20 minutes seemed a tad too long for the veggies as well imo.

[Anonymous No.18853688]

>>18853683
That's just fucking lazy dude

[Anonymous No.18853695]

>>18853683
Unless the shrimp is frozen you could honestly just drop them in at the end and let the residual heat cook them. It takes almost nothing to cook shrimp.

[Anonymous No.18853700]

>>18853688
>buy appliance
>stop using it
genius
bravo

[Anonymous No.18853707]

>>18853688
There are times when the ability to do that is a blessing. It’s just efficient, you calling it lazy is just projection. Maybe I wanna make my meal between my sets while I work out, is that ‘lazy’?

>>18853695
It was frozen. What’d be hard about adding them in at the end is that you can’t force depressurize soup, or it’ll spew it everywhere.

Oh wait, I see what you mean. Yeah that’s a great idea actually, thanks. I’ll probably try that next time instead of a shorter cook.

[Anonymous No.18853713]

>Maybe I wanna make my meal between my sets while I work out, is that ‘lazy’?
And it’ll be done by the time I’m done lifting/showering too, with only a single dish to clean. Nothing lazy about being efficient.

[Anonymous No.18853736]

>>18853644
Melt in your mouth shrimp actually sounds delicious. I have an instant pot and I want to try this.

So you pressure cooked the shrimp in all the soup ingredients? And how did you keep the rice warm in the 30 minutes while the soup cooked?

Link recipe too if you can.

[Anonymous No.18853761]

>>18853707
Instead of relying on just the residual heat of the hot soup, you can put the raw or frozen shrimp in the hot soup and turn on the boil/simmer/saute mode just to bring the soup to a simmer for long enough just to ensure the shrimp is cooked through. With only the residual heat, there may not be enough heat to thaw and cook the shrimp and make it safe to eat.

[Anonymous No.18853765]

>>18853657
>inb4 paid content shill

Uh thats ok bud it seems like you really need the money

[Anonymous No.18853776]

>>18853674
I plan on getting a zoji as well, but this seemed like a better first choice. If I don't even end up using this for rice, no sense in getting a good rice cooker, let alone one at all. I've heard these instant pots are unsatisfactory for ricechads, and not only that but it'd be nice to cook rice along side whatever else I'm cooking, so they're both done at once. Today made me wish I had two instant pots, but then I recalled I'll be buying a zoji later.

>>18853681
Yeah it's really gay, like Wendy's or whatever is really paying people to post on a Peruvian shrimp farming forum.

>>18853736
>Melt in your mouth shrimp actually sounds delicious
It actually was! But it didn't offer the textural constrast I wanted in the soup. When the shrimp was similar to the celery and onions it was kinda meh, but it was definitely interesting and good.

>So you pressure cooked the shrimp in all the soup ingredients?
Yes, I'll phonepost a pic of the recipe in a second. It's from the book 'I love my Instant Pot' or something like that.

>>18853761
Thanks, that's another good idea. Sounds like I can figure it out well enough in any situation now.

[Anonymous No.18853777]

>>18853657
You can also bake bread, cook, eggs, and steam vegetables in an instant pot. But I wouldnt use the pressure cook settings for these applications.

[Anonymous No.18853779]

Recipe, came with the second hand instant pot I bought, not an official book.

[Anonymous No.18853791]

rotated, i couldn't find the book on libgen (the 'i love my instant pot' seems to be a series) but it's this one https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-i-love-my-instant-pot-recipe-book-from-trail-mix-oatmeal-to-mongolian-beef-bbq-175-easy-and-delicious-recipes_michelle-fagone/13527862/item/48116871/?gclid=CjwKCAiAoL6eBhA3EiwAXDom5pj6tbaoaaYN_rc_pEorpeoL8-Kvo11rz3i9r6PRl2lwSxshOCYdzhoCxM8QAvD_BwE#idiq=48116871&edition=13193791

[Anonymous No.18853795]

>>18853791
oh, and i skipped the chicken, bell pepper and okra. just didn't have any and the point of this thing is to save me money and time. was still delicious though.

[Anonymous No.18853799]

with corn bread

[Anonymous No.18853802]

>>18853795 Add some spinach to be strong like popeye and defeat your enemies

[Anonymous No.18853803]

>>18853736
oh, and I just kept it in a bowl wrapped with a towel.... :s figured the gumbo would be piping hot and heat it back up. but yeah i intend to get a rice cooker to use them together, would be very powerful

[Anonymous No.18853804]

>>18853795
10/10 for proppa sloppa

[Anonymous No.18853806]

>>18853777
checked, but why not? i was gonna try making some super moist corn bread and was looking forward to doing hard boiled eggs and steamed veggies actually, maybe even some sort of quiche.

[Anonymous No.18853809]

>>18853777
oh nvm, i see you particularly were referring to the pressure cook setting. yeah, agree

[Anonymous No.18853824]

>>18853804
that's actually a good way to put it, just toss shit in there, blast it with steam at 11PSI and grub out so you can go to bed and get ready for waging again in the morning ASAP.

>You VILL cook in ze pressurized pod!

[Anonymous No.18854773]

>>18853644
>Mine was $30, and I think it’ll be totally worth it with all the stocks and soups I’ll make it should pay for itself doubly by end of year
Appreciate the feedback, I'll look into one next time I see them on sale at any of the stores near me

[Anonymous No.18855843]

>>18854773
Good luck, it's made cooking really fun. My hope is that it turns stove top cooking into something more like baking, where you can engineer the meal (cook times, starting temp, weight of ingredients) to come out consistently with minimal effort vs hovering over the stove and being housebound.

Being able to skip the preboiling of pasta is also really cool.

[Anonymous No.18855853]

>>18853779
>>18853791
Almost forgot to say thanks for the recipe my dude! I want to try making this sometime soon, and other things in the future in my own instant pot.

[Anonymous No.18855923]

>>18855853
No problem, IP bro. Another thing I really look forward too is making batches of carmelized onions. Admittedly they'll be more like a paste, but that's fine. Normally they're so much to work make. Wish I had gotten one of these years ago but I was being too much a meme-inamlist.

[Anonymous No.18856964]

>>18855923
I never knew instant pots could be used to caramelize onions. I usually cover my regular pan with a lid to allow the onions to soften and cook via steam which gets them release their water quicker and soften which assists in the browning stage, but instant pot carmalized onions sounds like a game changer

[Anonymous No.18857066]

>>18856964
>I usually cover my regular pan with a lid to allow the onions to soften and cook via steam which gets them release their water quicker and soften which assists in the browning stage,
This is how I do it too, or did, now that I have my instant pot. I haven't actually carmelized onions with it yet, but have seen videos and recipes from reputable cooks and this was another big seller for me since they're such a PITA yet so delicious, I'd love to incorporate them more but it's usually too much work. And if you don't want it to end up as a paste, just cut thicker than normal is what I've read.

There's a lot of things that struck me as super clutch with it, like steam buns/baking, yogurt or even just reheating leftovers quickly without moisture loss. They can do just about anything aside from roasting or smoking it seems. Can't believe I lived without one for so long.

[Anonymous No.18857189]

nice gumbo where is the roux?

[Anonymous No.18857198]

>>18857189
The recipe is here >>18853791, I think I kinda fucked it up because I just added everything to the pot before reading the directions, so I had to try and seperate the broth and flour etc and somewhat restart. I'm not sure if what this recipe calls for is considered a roux or not though, but it kinda seemed like it.

[Anonymous No.18857211]

>>18857198
I'm just breaking your balls. It seems like a nifty toy but I'd rather just spend the time to actually cook and relax

[Anonymous No.18857218]

>>18857211
Oh, well I was kinda curious about that when making it too. It seemed like the recipe was trying to get you to suggest you make a roux without really saying it. Anyhow, the point of the device to me is to cook and eat well when I don't feel like spending the time doing so. This makes me less likely to go out to eat or need to stock shitty freezer food, which both save me money. Many more reasons outlined in this thread.

[Anonymous No.18857233]

>>18857211
Also, I think calling it a toy is misrepresenting it. It often makes a plainly superior product, in a fraction of the time. For certain applications, it just can't be beat.

[Anonymous No.18857246]

>>18857211
Here, look:
https://www.seriouseats.com/ask-the-food-lab-can-i-make-stock-in-a-pressure-cooker-slow-cooker
>Both the standard stock and the pressure cooker stock received high marks across the board, with the pressure cooked version taking a very slight lead over the standard version in the body department (flavor scores were within 1% of each other). The slow cooker broth fared considerably worse than either, with a paler color, thinner texture, and less flavor.
It accomplishes this in a fraction of the time without keeping you tethered to your stove for hours. I think it's fair enough to extrapolate from these results and assume perform similarly when doing soups and stews too. This alone makes it an amazing tool, and it's got quite a small footprint, overall size and can be had second hand very affordably. When considering that it can reduce time doing other labor intensive tasks, such as carmelizing onions, it becomes an instant buy, imo.

The big draw for me though, aside from the time savings, is that it'll help me eat cheap and lower my food bill by encouraging me to eat cheaper and not go out to eat. Rice, soups and stews are all very cheap and filling, and I've been meaning to eat more of them but they're normally a good bit of work. And the latter two pair very well with bread, which I make myself and it's so cheap it's basically free. This brings my meal cost average down a ton, while making meal prep and clean up nearly non-existant. Suck my balls, slow-potter.

[Anonymous No.18857511]

>>18853761
Reminder that you can take the metal inner pot and put it on a stove burner for more precise control.

[Anonymous No.18857913]

>>18857511
I’m not OP but I don’t know about it “more” precise since many instant pots (at least mine) have a temperature control setting so you can dial in the exact temperature in C or F that you want to saute or boil your food.
And regardless of specific temperature control, instant pots still have their usual “high, medium, and low” heat or pressure settings as well as the timers to automatically shut off (or switch to warm mode) when time is up.

[Anonymous No.18857920]

>>18853549
WHO THE FUCK IN 2023 WRITES IN GREEN TEXT AND EXPECTS OTHER TO READ THAT SHIT?
ARE YOU STILL IN GRADE SCHOOL OR SOMETHING?

[Anonymous No.18857940]

>>18857913
Yeah, I'm not arguing otherwise. i'm just saying, if you need precise temperature control, and you are experienced in doing so on your stovetop (for example, I've been cooking on my gas range for nearly a decade now), then just pull the stainless steel pot and put it on your range. In my experience the nuance of the instantpot is limited and sometimes I want crazy searing heat and sometimes I want a barely simmer with maybe some cornstarch slurry in, and in neither situation I thought "maybe the middlewit instant pot settng is best". In fact, every time I tried, I thought, fuck this pressure cooker, I'll finish shit how I like it, and while I don't have proof, I've never been wrong.

[Anonymous No.18857997]

>>18853695
The heat of the rice cooks the shrimp

[Anonymous No.18858574]

>>18857940
If you want to use the instant pot’s stainless steel inner pot to cook on the stove, at that point why not just use a regular stainless steel pan?

[Anonymous No.18858600]

>>18853549
I have one, I live alone and if I miss anything about having a homewife mom are all those slow as fuck ingredients, like chickpeas, beans, ect.

Now I just have already frozen coocked bags of everything just to warm an eat.

No, canned ones taste like shit in comparation.

[Anonymous No.18859443]

>>18857920
Go back.

>>18858574
One less dish or transfer I'd guess.

>>18858600
That's lame, and you can just make your own frozen stuff too.

[Anonymous No.18860558]

>>18853549
going off OP's experience with making a satisfying meal in his instant pot, i wonder what other similar recipes can be done in an instant pot?

And by similar I don't mean just like any soup or stew, but a meal that is actually a full meal and comes together easily and quickly for the lazy.

[Anonymous No.18860657]

>>18857198
>I'm not sure if what this recipe calls for is considered a roux or not though, but it kinda seemed like it.
Im far from an expert in cajun/creole, but I do know a roux is when you cook flour and fat together until they change color and thicken. If you add the flour after the liquid, you get some thickening but you miss out on the flavor of roux, which is surprisingly good for something so simple.

[Anonymous No.18860909]

>>18853549
My Parents in Law got me a Crockpot Express (Crockpot's version of the Instapot) 2 years ago and I've used it quite a bit. But I wanted a Stainless Steel interior bowl instead of their non-stick one which is shitty and got scratched and shit despite me babying it, fastforward to InstaPot being way more popular for pressure cooking than Crockpot, so Crockpot doesn't sell replacement bowls really because no demand. So I do my research and find an instapot bowl that will supposedly fit my Crockpot Express. Tfw everytime I use it as a pressure cooker instead of a slow cooker I just hide inside my bedroom on the 1 in a million chance I accidentally just made my Crockpot into a ticking pipebomb in my kitchen.