The Tuscan chicken is delicious. And so are stuffed peppers. And so easy!
I made a pot roast in mine yesterday. It was very good. I liked that I was able to brown the roast
Yes, that would be the one thing I make often but don’t follow a recipe, pot roast. I love that I can put it in (also recommend browning on saute) with veggies and a little liquid, set the manual for 40 minutes or so, walk away (or go for a walk/run! no need to be near the pot!) and come home to a tender pot roast.
(and if you want you can take out the roast and veggies and hit “saute” again and make your gravy right in the pot)
I never cook pasta on the stove anymore. Even if only doing it for a pasta salad I cook it in the instapot. No watching, no boil overs or foaming. easy formula. Put pasta in pot, add 1 1/2 cups water and 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 Tbl oil or butter per 4 oz pasta. Take 1/2 of package Cook time (round down if odd number) subtract 2 and set manual for that time. Sometimes that is only 1 minute. Open on quick release carefully. Comes out perfect.
The biggest hassle for me with the Instant Pot is the storage/size. In other words I would never leave it out on the counter (takes too much room and I like to limit counter clutter) and it’s a monster to drag out of the cupboard each time! My cupboard space is plentiful but not the best for large items.
@abasket it would be but I have slide out shelves under the cabinets that makes it easy to get out.
I’m making split pea soup in mine today with the Honey Baked ham bone. Another easy thing since you don’t have to fuss with the peas ahead of time.
Accessories? Any “must have” accessories? I admit I haven’t read this entire long thread but have read 2/3s of it.
My model is the 6 quart duo 60, version 3. It came with a steamer basket and I already had a more substantial previously acquired steamer basket that fits into the pot nicely as well. Both are stainless steel.
My BIL has a spare inner pot and glass lid he got from his D because she was gifted these in 6 qt size (which he has), while she has 8 qt size.
So far I’ve briefly looked online at the things being sold for the pots and don’t see anything I MUST have and am trying to minimize silicone and plastics in my life. Anyway, I welcome suggestions.
My suggestion is don’t buy MORE to learn/worry about until you learn and like what you have and know that this is going to be a tool that you use with some regularity.
That said the only real extras I have bought are the glass lid mentioned a couple posts ago for slow cooking, an extra rubber ring (some suggest one for savory, one for sweet (yogurt for me). I did buy egg cup thingys but only used them once.
I personally am not looking to make giant cheesecakes in my Instant Pot or anything like that. I just wanted faster, hands off dinner options and the yogurt just happens to be a side perk.
Good idea, @abasket. I think I have enough already for my current needs with my ancient steamer and assorted oven safe bowls & ramekins. Will play with it and see how things evolve.
Do folks use manual only or does anyone use the preset settings labeled on the pot? So far, I’ve only used manual settings and most of the recipes I’ve viewed call for manual settings.
I use manual only.
I make yogurt a lot, so obviously use that preset. I also use presets for other things, but only because for most of the buttons the preset is only setting time – so clicking the “poultry” button for example is not any different than manually setting the exact same time. It may be tied to the older model DUO I have, but if I know I want a certain amount of time it’s faster to hit the preset button that gets me to that time than to push the manual button and have to increment the time up or down to where I want it. (Same deal with the microwave).
As to accessories I got silicon mitts for handling the hot stuff like pulling out a bowl after steaming something – I find them less cumbersome and easier to keep clean than regular oven mitts – but if you are avoiding silicon then that’s not a problem.
At some point I bought some extra triviets with different heights to give me the a little leeway on how I stack things if cooking more than one thing at a time – but also not necessary.
And I got a second liner pot which I absolutely adore having, but also one of those things that you will know when you need it. I just don’t like being without use of the IP because the liner is sitting in the frig full of yogurt or sitting in the dishwasher. Also I found from experience that is never a good idea for me to have the unit without a liner inside of it, because it is a real pain when you get up in the morning and dump a cup of water in so you can steam some eggs, when the liner is NOT on the unit.
It’s a good idea to have extra sealing rings – as the ring can pick up a funky smell and I’ve found that it’s best to have a very long soak to fix that – so it’s nice to have a replacement seal on hand. Some people also swap them out depending on what is being cooked, so your curry-smelly-ring isn’t on the IP while you are making a cheesecake.
I have a glass lid, an extra gasket, and a second stainless insert. Like calmom, I use presets and adjust the time up or down. “Beans” preset is my favorite for high heat, high pressure setting.
I’ve tried three different yogurt recipes in my instantpot and all were huge failures. And expensive ones.
But I love the one pot meals I can make…so quickly.
Just made beef herb soup today in the instant pot. I am using the soup setting.
I have the glass lid. It’s very handy when something is done and you just want to use the warm setting.
I’ve never had a yogurt fail – but what I do is pretty simple:
- Dump about half a gallon of milk (lowfat, either 1% or 2%) in & set to "boil".
- When it beeps that it is at the "boil" point, I reset it to keep it at that temp -- I like to keep it there roughly 10 min,
- Then I take it off the heat and put the liner with the hot milk to sit in a pan with ice & water in the sink for about 30 min.
- In the meantime I thaw out the starter (I use frozen whey from a previous batch - if I had no whey, I'd use fresh starter from plain Fage yogurt)
- Once the heated milk has cooled I check it with a thermometer & then stir in the whey, and put it back on, usually for about 11-12 hours. (This is always overnight for me -- I time it so that I am ready to start the yogurt before I go to bed, so it will be ready in the morning).
I know there are some recipes that call for extra ingredients, like powdered milk – but I never do anything other than milk & whey. (If I want flavoring of any kind, that goes in later).
If there are repeated fails the first thing I’d check would be the temp at the time the whey is added – I like to get the temp down to 105 degrees or less – if it’s too warm (over 115 degrees) it will kill the bacteria – but I don’t think there’s any problem if it gets a little too cool because the pot will heat it up to where it needs to be to incubate with the yogurt setting.
Yeah, knowing the difference between all the Instant Pots is hard. Amazon’s no help, and seriously, how am I expected to know what the Lux does vs the Duo Plus? Couldn’t they use more straightforward names?
I found this and it helped break down the different models:
https://happyfoodgeek.com/2019/12/26/top-10-instant-pot-questions-and-answers/
One reason I like that Instant Pot Bible is that it gives directions for the variety of instant pots that were available when they published the book.
Hmmm, I have the duo. It seems to be fine (but according to chart can’t make cake or sterilize or can). H doesn’t like all the books and crannies that he has to clean on the instant pot. Any shortcuts?