Instant Cooker

LOL! I call it pork chile verde. I made some two days ago!

Anything made with pork shoulder does very very well in the instant pot.
 
Received my IP yesterday so I decided to break it in with steel cut oats for breakfast. I found a recipe on somebody’s food blog (do they really think I want to read the drivel preceding the actual recipe?). The method worked fine and I was impressed with the speed, but the seasonings they had were way out of balance. My gut told me it was far too much cinnamon when I put it in but I didn’t listen.

So, a big success as a test run, but a failure as a meal.

BTW, I have learned with these food blogs not to pay attention to the reviews. It seems as if at least half of the five-star ratings are people saying “Gee, that looks great. I should buy an IP and try making it some time.”
 
GalaxyBoy said:
BTW, I have learned with these food blogs not to pay attention to the reviews. It seems as if at least half of the five-star ratings are people saying “Gee, that looks great. I should buy an IP and try making it some time.”
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And the other half are people saying "Great recipe! Loved it! I modified it a bit, by subbing motor oil for butter and sawdust for flour, and I only used 1/100th of the eggs called for, and it was even better!"
 
I have used my instant pot so much over the past week to make soups, chili, curry, rice, etc.. I have just finished a big batch of pulled pork. Outstanding!
 
Excellent! We may need a "what did you make in your I.P. this week" thread. ;-) Our last dish in the IP was 2 whole sweet potatoes. So moist and so good.
 
Carpediem said:
Excellent! We may need a "what did you make in your I.P. this week" thread. ;-) Our last dish in the IP was 2 whole sweet potatoes. So moist and so good.
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Great idea! I do something at least once a week. I have stock several recipes now.

OMG - lamb shanks to die for! But you need to get ones that are small enough to fit the pot. Or have your butcher cut them in half for you.
 
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FIREd said:
I have used my instant pot so much over the past week to make soups, chili, curry, rice, etc.. I have just finished a big batch of pulled pork. Outstanding!
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I just made a pork butt on my pellet grill which took 11 hours. The smoke ring was magnificent. How was your smoke ring in the IP:confused: I have one but it seems like a short cut to really good food. Not sure why I bought one since I'm rather a fan of "slow cooking" food.
 
dtbach said:
I just made a pork butt on my pellet grill which took 11 hours. The smoke ring was magnificent. How was your smoke ring in the IP:confused: I have one but it seems like a short cut to really good food. Not sure why I bought one since I'm rather a fan of "slow cooking" food.
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I would rather think that we obtained two very different products. I was not shooting for a traditional slow-cooked pulled pork product here.

This is the recipe that I was following:
https://www.budgetbytes.com/2016/09/slow-cooker-5-spice-pulled-pork/
 
Tonight I threw together potato soup. First I sautéed celery and onions in butter. Added about four cups of ham broth and about two pounds of potatoes cut into bite-sized pieces. Set to "soup", cooked for four minutes. Released the pressure and removed about 3/4 the potatoes. Used the immersion blender to make a smooth base, then added a splash of half & half and one cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Return the potatoes to the broth.

Served topped with crumbled bacon and croutons. It hit the spot on this cool evening.
 
If anyone is kicking themselves like I was for missing the Amazon sale on one of these, if you are a Kohl's credit card holder, you can get it for $62.99 + tax.

So I paid a total of $69.29 (and I will get $15 Kohl's cash when I pick it up at the store close to me which I can use for more socks !! ).

Use coupon codes: HOME10 for $10 off, and UPGRADE30 for $30% off (or FALL30 works too)
code FREE4MVC is for free shipping but I didn't use it.
 
Sunset said:
If anyone is kicking themselves like I was for missing the Amazon sale on one of these, if you are a Kohl's credit card holder, you can get it for $62.99 + tax.

So I paid a total of $69.29 (and I will get $15 Kohl's cash when I pick it up at the store close to me which I can use for more socks !! ).

Use coupon codes: HOME10 for $10 off, and UPGRADE30 for $30% off (or FALL30 works too)
code FREE4MVC is for free shipping but I didn't use it.
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Yes I was kicking myself so thanks for the reminder. I just ordered and paid $75.05 with free shipping.
 
KB said:
I use mine mostly to cook dried beans, but I have also made beef stew and mushroom risotto in it. It's much easier than a stove top pressure cooker, And you can use it as a slow cooker too. The sautée feature is great to brown meat or vegetable before pressure cooking.

There is a Facebook page where you can get lots and lots of suggestions of recipes or items to cook in it. They also provide links to recipes and sites with recipes. That has given me lots of suggestions of other items to cook.
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How long does it take to cook dried beans and how well do they come out?

Beans and the occasional chunk o' meat is why I am thinking of getting it (or at least an olde fashioned pressure cooker). It really doesn't seem cost effective just for beans but I don't like the way they turn out when I cooked them the way grandma used to. And I think I'd enjoy them more if I didn't have to spend hours cooking.
 
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razztazz said:
How long does it take to cook dried beans and how well do they come out?
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I use a cookbook called The New Fast Food by Jill Nussinow to determine how long to cook beans. There is a chart on how long to cook about twenty types of beans, both soaked or unsoaked. I cook mine unsoaked. Also you can either quick release the pressure which the cookbook says is not recommended, or natural release, which I do. So that adds some time at the end of the cooking.

Black beans take 22 - 24 minutes, pinto 20 - 25 and chickpeas 22 - 25 minutes. I prefer mine fully cooked, so I always cook to the middle or higher number. The beans are fully soft and a bit on the mushy side.

Cannellini, Fava beans and Great northern have a longer time. Lentils ae 4 - 6 minutes, depending on the type. Let me know if you need a specific bean time and I can look it up.
 
KB said:
I use a cookbook called The New Fast Food by Jill Nussinow to determine how long to cook beans. There is a chart on how long to cook about twenty types of beans, both soaked or unsoaked. I cook mine unsoaked. Also you can either quick release the pressure which the cookbook says is not recommended, or natural release, which I do. So that adds some time at the end of the cooking.

Black beans take 22 - 24 minutes, pinto 20 - 25 and chickpeas 22 - 25 minutes. I prefer mine fully cooked, so I always cook to the middle or higher number. The beans are fully soft and a bit on the mushy side.

Cannellini, Fava beans and Great northern have a longer time. Lentils ae 4 - 6 minutes, depending on the type. Let me know if you need a specific bean time and I can look it up.
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Thank you. Very helpful. These are all way way way shorter cooking times than slow simmer even using the "Quick soak" method.

How about kidney beans? Those and chickpeas are the biggest ones I'd probably look. Those times listed above are all OK with me

What I was thinking was, for normal cooking, the bag says 1 cup beans+4 cups water. I'd dump all that into a pressure cooker then just cook till it stopped blowing steam.

But I know little about pressure cookers. Perhaps it's vastly different?
 
Unsoaked Kidney beans take 12 - 15 minutes with natural release or 20 - 25 with quick release. Water to bean ratio is 2:1 for unsoaked. A pound of beans is generally 2 cups, so I would use 4 cups of water. Soaked beans are 1 cup beans to 1/2 cup water.

If you are talking about using a stovetop pressure cooker, you need to start the timer once the pressure is reached and shut off the heat when the time is done. Then do whichever type of release you want.

The Instant pot is an electric pressure cooker, which takes much of the guesswork out. The timer is set before turning it on and it shuts off when the time is done. A manual pressure cooker needs a human to determine when the pressure is set, turn down the heat until the pressure is retained and shut off the burner when the time is done. Not rocket science, just more human involved.
 
audreyh1 said:
I'll try this. The one time I tried my artichokes were too big for the instant pot unless I just did one!
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Do you have a 3QT instant pot? Mine is a 6QT one and it can take two big artichokes, or an average size spaghetti squash sliced in half, both with a steamer. If you have a 6QT pot, maybe your steamer is bigger than mine...

Here is my silicon steamer...
https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Silicone-Steamer-Green/dp/B00A2KD8IY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1508505552&sr=8-2&keywords=steamer+silicon
 
A study showed daily intake of cinnamon (between one and six grams, or up to three teaspoons) lowered insulin resistance, thus lowering blood sugars in type 2 diabetics. Sadly, other studies have failed to duplicate that result. Part of the problem is that there are many kinds of "cinnamon." Most is from cassia, very little comes from the original Cinnamomum verum plant.
 
GalaxyBoy said:
Received my IP yesterday so I decided to break it in with steel cut oats for breakfast. I found a recipe on somebody’s food blog (do they really think I want to read the drivel preceding the actual recipe?). The method worked fine and I was impressed with the speed, but the seasonings they had were way out of balance. My gut told me it was far too much cinnamon when I put it in but I didn’t listen.

So, a big success as a test run, but a failure as a meal.

BTW, I have learned with these food blogs not to pay attention to the reviews. It seems as if at least half of the five-star ratings are people saying “Gee, that looks great. I should buy an IP and try making it some time.”
Click to expand...

There was a study that showed consumption of between one and six grams of cinnamon (up to three teaspoons) daily improved insulin resistance, thus lowering blood sugars in type 2 diabetics. Other studies have failed to duplicate this result. This is probably due in part to the wide variety of plants that produce "cinnamon." Very little is from *Cinnamomum verum* bark.

But that hasn't stopped the usual gang of food faddists from declaring cinnamon a miracle food and overusing the heck out of it.
 
I've used mine a couple of times to cook roasts and chickens. Yummy!
 
Cooking our turkey breast in the IP today. Can't wait.
 
Don't see that price now. The 3 quart mini is $49 right now, which is a little bit less than what I paid a couple of weeks ago.
 
Carpediem said:
Cooking our turkey breast in the IP today. Can't wait.
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Curious about how to do that without the meat becoming tough or overcooked. The fattier chicken parts such as the boneless thighs do well, and chicken breasts in liquid are fine, but have not had luck doing chicken breasts for chicken salad and the like.
 
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