Anyone have one of these> Thoughts on it?
Danny
Wow I broke down and bought one. $99 for the large size, 8Qt, at Best Buy. Arrives this week.
I'm getting a bit tired of cooking elaborate recipes, which I enjoy, but sometimes it's too much work and time for a bit more flavor that I don't really need at every meal.
Hoping this IP will help with things like pulled pork, bone broth, stew. I doubt I can do pasta sauce or roast with it, but maybe. Mostly I'm hoping I can sometimes cook something on a weeknight in an hour that would take 4 hours normally.
I'm getting a bit tired of cooking elaborate recipes, which I enjoy, but sometimes it's too much work and time for a bit more flavor that I don't really need at every meal.
Hoping this IP will help with things like pulled pork, bone broth, stew. I doubt I can do pasta sauce or roast with it, but maybe. Mostly I'm hoping I can sometimes cook something on a weeknight in an hour that would take 4 hours normally.
For chicken, potato and carrots I'd just try generous salt (not unhealthy like they say - look it up), a generous amount of garlic (powder if you want but real tastes better), a tiny bit of Thyme, butter, and white wine. Black pepper after it's on the plate. But there I go again with elaborate meals lol. I think maybe the single package item you might want for that dish is called "poultry seasoning", along with butter.
Also, for me, cooking has always been an excuse to not do the work I need to be doing... I gotta cook... for health, taste, culture, the soul, etc. So I'm trying to break that mindset. Sometimes you just gotta eat something, and hopefully it doesn't taste too terrible.
First recipe: Baby potatoes and carrots, to go along with some leftover roast beef from last weekend.
Disaster. Put the potatoes in first (1.5lbs) with a cup of water, both fridge-cold. It took 15 minutes to get up to full temp, then the pressure cooker timer on for 6 minutes. Peeled the carrots during this time. After 6 minutes I vented the steam and opened. The potatoes were almost done. Put in the carrots and represurized (only 5 minutes this time) and cooked for 4 more minutes.
The potatoes were over-done and the carrots way underdone. Then I threw them in a pan with garlic, oil, sugar, and S&P and steamed another 5+ minutes to get the carrots reasonably soft. Overall the whole thing took 45 minutes, marginally quicker than the "boil then sautee" method overall.
Next time I'm going to have to cook them all together and avoid a mid-cook venting. But I'll have to get the potatoes hot first. I think I'll do this by:
-Wash the potatoes in the IP sleeve in the sink, letting the potatoes and IP heat up for 5 minutes under scalding hot tap water.
-Peel and chop the carrots while the potatoes and IP are sitting in the hot water
-Drain potatoes
-Add carrots to IP and 1-2 cups scalding hot tap water
-Pressure cook for ~7 minutes
-Sautee in hot pan for 2-3 minutes with oil, garlic, butter, salt, etc.
Disaster. Put the potatoes in first (1.5lbs) with a cup of water, both fridge-cold. It took 15 minutes to get up to full temp, then the pressure cooker timer on for 6 minutes. Peeled the carrots during this time. After 6 minutes I vented the steam and opened. The potatoes were almost done. Put in the carrots and represurized (only 5 minutes this time) and cooked for 4 more minutes.
The potatoes were over-done and the carrots way underdone. Then I threw them in a pan with garlic, oil, sugar, and S&P and steamed another 5+ minutes to get the carrots reasonably soft. Overall the whole thing took 45 minutes, marginally quicker than the "boil then sautee" method overall.
Next time I'm going to have to cook them all together and avoid a mid-cook venting. But I'll have to get the potatoes hot first. I think I'll do this by:
-Wash the potatoes in the IP sleeve in the sink, letting the potatoes and IP heat up for 5 minutes under scalding hot tap water.
-Peel and chop the carrots while the potatoes and IP are sitting in the hot water
-Drain potatoes
-Add carrots to IP and 1-2 cups scalding hot tap water
-Pressure cook for ~7 minutes
-Sautee in hot pan for 2-3 minutes with oil, garlic, butter, salt, etc.
Ya I guess I'm just trying to figure it out as best I can, now with IP cooker timing. Though even in the oven or pot I often screw up the timing/doneness of things... Normally I'd say with the same size chunk of potato and carrot that the potato will cook slower than the carrot in the oven. Seems like in the IP with all the steam it might be opposite. I'll have to play and dial it in for the right size/shape/timing with the IP.
Definitely excited to be able to whip up "roasted" vegetables or beef stew in <30 minutes.
Did I do something wrong? I do have the 8 qt. I had about 2lbs of cold potatoes and 1-2 cups of cold water in there, and it took a full 15 minutes for it to come up to pressure and the timer to start... It was as long as bringing a large pot of water to boil... That's why next time I was planning on soaking the potatoes and IP liner in hot tap water for a few minutes first, while I'm getting the carrots ready, to hopefully jump start the heating up process.
Made mushroom and scallop risotto tonight. Fridge to plate in about 35 minutes! Still, after sauteeing the onions and rice, and adding 1.5L of hot broth, it took 15 full minutes on high to get up to pressure and the 5 minute counter to begin. I wish the burner was stronger to get it up to full heat faster.
That being said, I don't think I'd do risotto again in the IP. It was pretty good... but didn't have quite the right texture and smoothness I was looking for, and it only was moderately faster and easier than the regular method (which takes 50-60 minutes).
Thanks Plug. I will try to get things to a boil on the sautee mode first. You'd think high sautee and high pressure modes would equally have the burner set to max, though, eh?
Thanks Plug. I will try to get things to a boil on the sautee mode first. You'd think high sautee and high pressure modes would equally have the burner set to max, though, eh?
Ya it was the standard Arborio risotto rice. I'm not sure if it's the best authentic Italian short grain risotto rice, but that's what all the standard American recipes ask for.
Does it really only take 15 minutes of stirring? It takes me 30+minutes of stirring and broth adding to make it by scratch, and that's just the stirring part that comes after the sauteeing and broth heating. I've heard that you can speed this up by just adding the broth in larger batches, stirring less often and boiling harder and the creaminess is not compromised. I'm not so sure though. I like the constant stir, barely wet rice method.
The point was people were saying you can even make risotto in the IP. A finicky recipe. I suppose it wasn't bad but it wasn't that great. I'l probably sick with things like speeding up the cooking of large vegetables, stews, and softening tough meats.
Getting to the point in life where I think I should be working harder at value added things like exercise, working more, socializing more, reading, and not trying to distract myself with things like elaborate food planning & preparation, which I've used as a pretty reliable excuse for the last 10 years whenever I should've been doing something more important.
Does it really only take 15 minutes of stirring? It takes me 30+minutes of stirring and broth adding to make it by scratch, and that's just the stirring part that comes after the sauteeing and broth heating. I've heard that you can speed this up by just adding the broth in larger batches, stirring less often and boiling harder and the creaminess is not compromised. I'm not so sure though. I like the constant stir, barely wet rice method.
The point was people were saying you can even make risotto in the IP. A finicky recipe. I suppose it wasn't bad but it wasn't that great. I'l probably sick with things like speeding up the cooking of large vegetables, stews, and softening tough meats.
Getting to the point in life where I think I should be working harder at value added things like exercise, working more, socializing more, reading, and not trying to distract myself with things like elaborate food planning & preparation, which I've used as a pretty reliable excuse for the last 10 years whenever I should've been doing something more important.
This thing is friggen awesome for soup stocks!
Chicken carcass, bay leaf, pinch of salt, 1.5hrs and natural release, produces clear deep yellow stock with a thin film of fat on top. Perfect. My in-pot recipe is inferior, and I always had problems getting the simmer right and the stock to come out clear. Once refrigerated it is thick like jello as well.
Beef stock took 3hrs, and again produced nice brown clear liquid which jello-ified in the fridge. Extracting the collage/gelatin from large beef bones (Prime rib) on the stove took me 12+ of simmering at a bare minimum - once I cooked beef stock for 48hrs and it was not as good as the Instant Pot.
Chicken carcass, bay leaf, pinch of salt, 1.5hrs and natural release, produces clear deep yellow stock with a thin film of fat on top. Perfect. My in-pot recipe is inferior, and I always had problems getting the simmer right and the stock to come out clear. Once refrigerated it is thick like jello as well.
Beef stock took 3hrs, and again produced nice brown clear liquid which jello-ified in the fridge. Extracting the collage/gelatin from large beef bones (Prime rib) on the stove took me 12+ of simmering at a bare minimum - once I cooked beef stock for 48hrs and it was not as good as the Instant Pot.
jello-ified is most certainly the proper verbiage! :biggrin:
I have no idea what is going on in that pot that it is not agitating the chicken bits into oblivion, like boiling does (that's why we simmer). It seems to me that the only conclusion that I can draw is that the IP is holding the pressure and temp at precisely the right place so that the fluid is at high temperature (due to high vapour pressured of the sealed pot), but is not infact boiling or moving the parts of food around the pot at all, as I was envisioning. In hindsight, this makes sense, as the IP needs to prevent excess steam buildup and over pressuring, lest it explodes.
For reference, after draining out the clear broth I picked up one of the chicken leg bones, and it crushed easily between my fingers - a good sign that the stock is fully and completely "done".
I have no idea what is going on in that pot that it is not agitating the chicken bits into oblivion, like boiling does (that's why we simmer). It seems to me that the only conclusion that I can draw is that the IP is holding the pressure and temp at precisely the right place so that the fluid is at high temperature (due to high vapour pressured of the sealed pot), but is not infact boiling or moving the parts of food around the pot at all, as I was envisioning. In hindsight, this makes sense, as the IP needs to prevent excess steam buildup and over pressuring, lest it explodes.
For reference, after draining out the clear broth I picked up one of the chicken leg bones, and it crushed easily between my fingers - a good sign that the stock is fully and completely "done".
Well since you won't let it go... yes I think "gelled" is probably the correct verb. Though my Jello-ified is clearly the more fun variation. 
I don't really like being a meticulous "food engineer" - I enjoy just tossing things together and not following recipes. But sometimes I just can't help it, and get upset when I see people doing things clearly wrong in the kitchen! In school I'd often find myself looking at charts of beef cuts instead of rock cuts... perhaps that's why it took so long to finish university...
I don't really like being a meticulous "food engineer" - I enjoy just tossing things together and not following recipes. But sometimes I just can't help it, and get upset when I see people doing things clearly wrong in the kitchen! In school I'd often find myself looking at charts of beef cuts instead of rock cuts... perhaps that's why it took so long to finish university...
Chicken takes like < 1 hour to roast in the oven... I don't know why anyone would want to instapot it.
Problem with instant pot is there is no preheating stage available, so you have to do all your work preparing the food, and then as the very last step load it all into the cooker, and then press start, waiting 15-20 minutes to preheat.
Problem with instant pot is there is no preheating stage available, so you have to do all your work preparing the food, and then as the very last step load it all into the cooker, and then press start, waiting 15-20 minutes to preheat.
I usually stock up on stocks of stock in the summer when there's more stock of bones during bbq season for stocking. Which leads to overstocking, and my stock of containers for stock become out of stock from my stocks of stock container stock.Or start using the stock...
I'm guilty of overstocking the freezer too...I stock up when things are on sale but I'm not eating as fast as I'm buying.
Tried that Doesn't work well for me for some reason... I have these bags all over the damn freezer with cubes flying around. and if I want to thaw them I need another bowl which makes a mess... and the little cubes get freezer burned really easily compared to in tupperware.
Since you're into that though, what I found by far the best for freezing was to do it in these bendy silicone mini-loaf or muffin tray moulds. Once frozen, you literally peel back the silicone and the broth blocks pop right out.
Since you're into that though, what I found by far the best for freezing was to do it in these bendy silicone mini-loaf or muffin tray moulds. Once frozen, you literally peel back the silicone and the broth blocks pop right out.
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
