Crock pot has now come out with their own version of the Instant Pot, and it is cheaper. Over at mashupmom, Rachael just posted yesterday an article that appeared recently in Comsumer Reports where they tried the seven functions of the Instant Pot, and compared the functions to their stand alone competitor. For instance they tried doing pressure cooking with the Instant Pot, and with a machine that only does pressure cooking, and compared the two machines. I will have to see if I can find the article. Hope this helps, Nancy

Thanks Nancy, looks like it is this article: https://www.consumerreports.org/instant ... -face-off/

I love constantly stumbling upon stories that sing the praises of the Instant Pot, especially because they're coming from all segments of the cooking world . . .

The “Butter-Chicken Lady” Who Made Indian Cooks Love the Instant Pot

at newyorker.com, Priya Krishna wrote:Within a few months of posting her viral chicken recipe, Pitre had landed a book deal for the “Indian Instant Pot Cookbook,” which was released in September, 2017, by Rockridge Press, the publisher of the best-selling “The Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook.” Pitre’s book, which is officially endorsed by Instant Pot, includes recipes for making dal without pre-soaking the legumes; homemade paneer, an Indian cheese, in about fourteen minutes; and biryani, a complex rice dish that’s typically reserved for special occasions, in just five minutes (the secret is adding the rice in a thin, even layer on top of the vegetables, and then using the manual setting to cook the biryani on high pressure). Pitre is not the only food blogger to exploit the Instant Pot’s potential for Indian cooking. According to a representative from the company, India is among the most active countries on the Instant Pot Community Facebook group; at least twelve other cookbooks are devoted to I.P. Indian. But Pitre, who writes with wonky approachability and a droll willingness to answer just about any question (Q: “My family hates curry. Should we still try this?” A: “If all else fails, lie to your family and say this is an Italian . . . dish and see if they notice.”) has gained the most mainstream appeal. Her book has more than a hundred thousand copies in print.

=R=

I would consider one but the Bluetooth model is discontinued and the 1 * ratings on Amazon lead me to believe the product and quality control is still in it’s infancy.
I will wait.-Richard

ronnie_suburban wrote:The “Butter-Chicken Lady” Who Made Indian Cooks Love the Instant Pot

I ended up trying this recipe the other day and it was very good. Right out of the box I'd give it a solid B-. However, by paying attention to my own cooking instincts and making a few minor, corresponding adjustments, I think the final product could have been greatly improved.

First, I should have bloomed the spices before just adding them raw to the pot. The recipe advises to add raw spices, undrained tomatoes and cut up chicken to the instant pot, per the recipe. The recipe also calls for quite a bit of butter that gets added in near the end. Some of this butter would have been easy enough to divert to the start of the recipe, which is what I should have done. I should first set the pot to Saute' mode, melted some of the butter (maybe 25% of it) and then added the spices to bloom them. Or, I should have seasoned the chicken with the spices and sauteed it in some of the butter before adding the tomatoes.

Secondly, the recipe calls for the cut-up chicken to be cooked in the IP for 10 minutes on High Pressure, after which it should be removed so you can use a stick blender to smooth out the sauce. This would have been much easier to accomplish had I not followed the instructions to the letter and cubed the chicken before cooking it (fwiw, I used boneless skinless thighs). Removing so many small pieces of cooked chicken from the IP was tedious and time-consuming, somewhat defeating the purpose of using the IP to begin with. Since the chicken eventually gets added back into the blended sauce anyway, I should have cooked those pieces whole and waited until after the initial 10-minutes on High Pressure to to cut it up.

I think that with these changes the recipe could be elevated from a B-, possibly even to somewhere in A territory. As it was, the dish fell somewhere in the upper-middle of versions I've had. It was very good; respectable but lacking some nuance that more careful cooking technique -- while still only using the IP -- would have almost certainly imparted.

=R=

Not sure how long it will last but the 6 quart Ceramic Coated Non-Stick Inner Cooking Pot is currently available

https://store.instantpot.com/products/i ... er-pot-6qt

I bought 2 so I should be set for a good long time

The ceramic coated pots came this week and I'm happy to say the rice I made is every bit as good as I used to make in my old Zojirushi.

ronnie_suburban wrote:. . .by paying attention to my own cooking instincts and making a few minor, corresponding adjustments, I think the final product could have been greatly improved . . .

I went at this again tonight, incorporating the changes I described upthread. They worked beautifully. The final product was noticeably improved and I'm almost completely satisfied with it. Next time, however, I'm going to reduce the amount of cream by 25% and that should do the trick. This was a very satisfying and relatively easy weeknight dinner that will definitely become part of my regular rotation - at least during colder months.

=R=

Thank you for the update, Ronnie! I know what's on the menu later this week now.

zoid wrote:The ceramic coated pots came this week and I'm happy to say the rice I made is every bit as good as I used to make in my old Zojirushi.

"Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter."

Would love to know some details about your prep. I'm still struggling to make long grain white rice that's on par with my old Panasonic. Either I don't add enough water and the rice comes out undercooked and hard, or I add what I think is enough water (~1:1.25 ratio) and the rice comes out very dense. FWIW I'm using the default "rice" program and have the ceramic/nonstick bowl with my 8 qt. model.

By comparison, both stovetop and rice-cooker produce acceptably fluffy results.

Sherman wrote:I'm still struggling to make long grain white rice that's on par with my old Panasonic. Either I don't add enough water and the rice comes out undercooked and hard, or I add what I think is enough water (~1:1.25 ratio) and the rice comes out very dense.

Since you are trying different approaches, have you considered letting the rice soak for 30 minutes before cooking commences? I started doing this for Basmati rice after reading about it here or elsewhere. It did improve the quality of the rice.

Regards,
Cathy2

Ronnie, did you use the sweet or the hot paprika in the butter chicken recipe? Thanks!

mamagotcha wrote:Ronnie, did you use the sweet or the hot paprika in the butter chicken recipe? Thanks!

I used standard Hungarian sweet paprika from The Spice House but I suppose you could use either. That said, the recipe also calls for cayenne pepper, so you could up that quantity instead.

=R=

I went at this again tonight, incorporating the changes I described upthread. They worked beautifully. The final product was noticeably improved and I'm almost completely satisfied with it. Next time, however, I'm going to reduce the amount of cream by 25% and that should do the trick. This was a very satisfying and relatively easy weeknight dinner that will definitely become part of my regular rotation - at least during colder months.

Hi Ronnie, want to try this using your changes. I am confused by #6 in the original recipe:
Remove half of the sauce and freeze it for later, or refrigerate for as long as three days.

Could you keep all and double the chicken and spices?
Thanks for explaining.

janeyb wrote:

I went at this again tonight, incorporating the changes I described upthread. They worked beautifully. The final product was noticeably improved and I'm almost completely satisfied with it. Next time, however, I'm going to reduce the amount of cream by 25% and that should do the trick. This was a very satisfying and relatively easy weeknight dinner that will definitely become part of my regular rotation - at least during colder months.

Hi Ronnie, want to try this using your changes. I am confused by #6 in the original recipe:
Remove half of the sauce and freeze it for later, or refrigerate for as long as three days.

Could you keep all and double the chicken and spices?
Thanks for explaining.

I'm sorry. I should have been more clear. I completely ignored that part of the instructions. In actuality, doubled the recipe and used 3 pounds of chicken instead of 1. I have the 8-quart Instant Pot and this was not a problem at all. But I didn't set aside any of the sauce. We just ate what we wanted and refrigerated the rest (sauce and chicken) for eating as leftovers. The leftover sauce is great over rice, tofu or riced cauliflower. Hell, it's so good it could even make my mom's cooking edible!

=R=

I cubed some chuck roast, added a bit of chicken broth, a glob of Gochujang, some sliced sweet potatoes and daikon, a couple of shakes of fish sauce and piled on a liberal amount of aging kimchi. Cooked at high pressure for 20 minutes. Not sure how authentic this stew was, but it was tasty and we devoured it while watching the opening ceremonies last night.

made Ronnie's recipe with mods tonight... BIG UPS... really good... I added a couple handfuls of mushrooms....

Binko wrote:

WillG wrote:I have only used mine twice so far, and i loved the chuck roast and short ribs that I made. Quinoa was very good too but not sure it really saved much time between the heating up and cooling down. There is an interesting measuring mistake on my inner pot......whoever designed it thinks that there are 3 cups in a liter.....the liter measurement seems to be the correct one.

-Will

It's confusing, but the cup markings on the left are supposed to be for the little rice cup scoop that came with the Instant Pot. So, if you use 3 scoops of rice using the little rice cup, you're supposed to fill it with water to the "3" level.

Yep - that's what I do and I let it sit 10 minutes before opening it like the instructions say and it works every time.

Haven't gotten one myself -- yet!

https://thenib.com/what-are-you-making-in-your-instant-pot

Instant Pot recalled for fire hazard: popular cooking device can melt

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... l#nws=true

Dave148 wrote:

Instant Pot recalled for fire hazard: popular cooking device can melt

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... l#nws=true

This headline is misleading (click bait?) and once I read the story (earlier today), I learned that this is not a recall for the Instant Pot per se, but for an entirely different device made by Instant Pot and sold exclusively at WalMart:

The issue is with the Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicooker, a device similar to a slow cooker, but with more functions, including roasting, stewing, baking, steaming, and searing, according to the company’s website.

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Trying to find tried and true recipe for sticky rice in this contraption. I'm all ears (eyes?) if anyone can point me to one. I'll be trying several and reporting back. From a few methods I've read, NO. SOAKING. NEEDED. If this is true, this thing might actually be worth the price we (she) paid for it.

My first attempt was absolutely miserable, but it was 100% my fault.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Dave148 wrote:

Instant Pot recalled for fire hazard: popular cooking device can melt

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... l#nws=true

This headline is misleading (click bait?) and once I read the story (earlier today), I learned that this is not a recall for the Instant Pot per se, but for an entirely different device made by Instant Pot and sold exclusively at WalMart:

The issue is with the Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicooker, a device similar to a slow cooker, but with more functions, including roasting, stewing, baking, steaming, and searing, according to the company’s website.

=R=

Interesting read on this topic
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/sh ... p?t=838513

zoid wrote:Interesting read on this topic
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/sh ... p?t=838513

WOW - that was an amazing thread. I learned a lot, and the discussion was really good.

Hainanese Chicken Rice- Cooked chicken thighs with the rice using the preset rice button. The thighs were fully cooked using this setting. Used a spice package from Asian Home Gourmet (apparently popular in Singapore) which helped flavor the rice very well. This company, Asian Home Gourmet, has a fairly large line of spice packages for Indonesian, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Korean and Indian dishes. I think many of them could be used well in the Instant Pot. These do not seem to be available locally. I ordered from Amazon.

Exciting day --- the Instant Pot Fairy left a fabulous present on my doorstep this evening! It is a present that I was certainly not expecting. It's the 9-in-1 mini (3 qt), which is perfect for me. Time to start paying attention to all the tips and recipes I see being posted here and elsewhere online.

Hi,

At the Housewares show, they presented an Instant Pot which can do sous-vide and pressure can. I must admit the addition of a sous-vide feature may just tip me into buying one sometime.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:they presented an Instant Pot which can do sous-vide

Ooooh. News I can use. I gave away my slow cooker [never used] and have a stove-top pressure cooker. Been pondering an Instant Pot; now I know to wait for a while for this feature to become common.

Giovanna

The newest model "Max" is supposed to support pressure canning

JoelF wrote:The newest model "Max" is supposed to support pressure canning

When it microwaves, washes my car and gets FM radio I plan on buying one. Or, should I wait two iterations down the line for the Instant Pot with a web browser?