Instant Pot Advice


 

JayHeyl

TVWBB Pro
I got an Instant Pot 8 Quart Duo model for Christmas. I had really wanted the Ultra model because I find the dial your own temperature feature intriguing. I've never done sous vide so this looked like a way to get into that plus get all the other Instant Pot capabilities. Unfortunately, the Ultra was out of stock so I ended up with the Duo. I imagine more Ultras will start showing up any day now, so I'm wondering if I should exchange the Duo for an Ultra. I know it will be 6 qt. vs 8 qt., but I don't think the extra capacity will really buy me all that much.

If any of you have experience with both, I could use some guidance. Should I exchange the Duo for the Ultra or am I likely to get just as much use from the Duo?

I should mention that I have no specific purpose in mind other than a vague notion of wanting to try sous vide. I was looking at something in the book section in Costco right before Christmas and there right in front of me was an Instant Pot cookbook that immediately jumped into my cart. I've not had much time to look at that yet, but at least I have a source for some ideas.
 
Just got my Ultra at Christmas but not used it yet so can't advise on Ultra vs anything else. I liked the sous vide method using it but the primary reason I got it was it was half price on cyber Monday ;)

Re: the cookbook, I would wait on that. Before I got the pot, I started collecting recipes online for it. There are literally hundreds out there, waiting to be "bookmarked". I got an I.P. cookbook out of the library and the only advantage (and it is a temporary one) is it's a book that you can keep open on/near your workspace. I find that a better way is to try one recipe while using it online and if it turns out well, then I'll print it for posterity.

Wait on the book.

And on 8qt vs 6qt: depending on what's in it, usable space is no more tnan 75% of the capacity, sometimes only 50%. Too much in it will plug up the steam escape which is not a good thing to do. Several sites I've found discuss that very issue of size. One said that with their family of 5, the 6qt is great.

Do a search for "tips on using an Instant Pot for beginners" or something similar...It'll give you do's and don'ts.
 
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In the world of pressure cookers you're better off going bigger than you think you need simply because of the fill issue. IOW the pot may say it's an 8qt but you might only be able to use about 50 to 60% of that. I'm a huge pressure cooker advocate I own 3 of them. but I use the Fagor stove top type. I simply don't like all kinds of electric appliances and also I find the stove top type more controllable
 
Wait on the book.
Too late. It jumped in the cart as soon as I spotted it. It was only $12 so I can't imagine it not being worth it.


LMichaels said:
I simply don't like all kinds of electric appliances and also I find the stove top type more controllable

Assuming the capabilities of the Instant Pot have been accurately portrayed, it's hard to imagine the stove top type being more controllable. The Ultra model I was asking about lets you dial in a specific temperature and allegedly maintains that +/- one degree F. The lesser models don't have the user-settable specific temperature but I imagine they have the same level of control for the pre-programmed settings. Not saying one is clearly better than the other but it seems electric pressure cookers have come a long way in the last few years.
 
specific temperature and allegedly maintains that +/- one degree F

You miss the point in how a "pressure cooker" works. Once it's up to steam it stays one temp internally (unless or until) the liquid goes away. Then temps will rise rapidly out of control. So I guess these "insta pots" can also act as slow cookers so if you're into them I guess that would be handy. Most pressure cookers operate at 15 PSI which means the temps of the steam doing the cooking is set at 250 deg F. If you have a dual pressure unit i.e. my Fagor professional it has a 10 PSI setting or 240 deg F. These are physics steam is steam so even if I turned the gas burner to full tilt the relief valve simply regulates pressure and therein temperature. For other things as you said with temps. Yeah those are great if you want to do slow cooker stuff but even there I gave ours away as I find using a heavy LeCruset cast iron dutch oven in a slow oven works FAR better than a stand alone appliance. So the only stand alone electrics I use are my food processors and our large KitchenAid standing mixer. And my little Braun hand blender.
 
I understand how pressure cookers work. The Instant Pot can cook with pressure, high or low, or without pressure. It apparently has very good temperature control so its utility as a slow cooker should be very good. One of the problems with many slow cookers is the heating element is only on one side. This can result in uneven cooking. I have a mac & cheese recipe that requires lining one side of the bowl with aluminum foil so that side doesn't get toasty while the other side is still coming up to temp. It's a mess having to deal with that. If the IP has even bottom heat, that alone would probably make it worth the money. The IP can also act as a rice cooker.

One of the reasons I was interested in the IP was that it replaces the other appliances. I have very little room for storage so one appliance that takes the place of three or four is an attractive proposition.
 
Yeah I know about all those things. I am more of a simple kind of person. If I want to make rice I get a pan and make rice, if I want to slow cook my cast iron dutch oven(s) come out. They get the meat seared and all the browning done on the veg portion and meat, then go in the oven and everything is done in one pot.
I used to have all these different appliances i.e. bread maker, crock pots/slow cooker, deep fryer and so on. I was over loaded with appliances so I gave all the stuff away and invested in high quality multi use cookware. Again this is MY way of doing things that I find convenient and easy. I fully understand someone else's obsession with push button types of cooking (set and forget). I guess neither is "wrong" as long as it feeds you and makes you happy. I just find I no longer find stand alone electric appliances useful.
 
I was looking at a 6 qt Duo, haven't bought one yet as they are out of stock everywhere that has a decent price. What are the differences worth considering the Ultra over the Duo?
 
Honestly there is not that much difference. I will tell you as a standalone (IOW the only one you'd own) I would not recommend the 6qt. I own one but it's only as a secondary to my 10qt. If it's the only one you'd own I would not recommend smaller than 8qt.. Since a pressure cooker can only use about 75% or less of available space you're gonna find that gets used up REAL quick. I use mine a lot. They make a mean risotto, I have been known to cheat with spare ribs and par cook them in the pressure cooker (not boiled but steamed as I do not submerge them in the liquid). Anyway once par cooked in there I hit them with rub, heat, smoke and sauce and you'd be VERY hard pressed to know I cheated. Unlike when they're boiled and there's no flavor these retain their porky goodness.
Anyway I do so many things in them I sometimes have 2 of them going at once on the stove LOL
 
I was looking at a 6 qt Duo, haven't bought one yet as they are out of stock everywhere that has a decent price. What are the differences worth considering the Ultra over the Duo?

From what I remember ultra is said to be able to sous vide (duo can't as the temp control is not as precise).

here is a comparison ignore the price comparisons in that one. There are others. Just google for "ultra vs duo comparison" .

As for 6 or 8 qt, one reviewer found the 6 qt feeds their family of 5 nicely. I wouldn't go smaller (3qt) other than for a single person/university student.

The 6 wiĺl do a 4-5 lb butt or 5 lb chicken :D so how much more do you need? ;)
 
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I was looking at a 6 qt Duo, haven't bought one yet as they are out of stock everywhere that has a decent price. What are the differences worth considering the Ultra over the Duo?
The one difference that had me leaning heavily toward the Ultra was being able to dial in your own temperature. As Len mentioned, this make sous vide possible, though I think it would go well beyond that. I've not used the IP yet so I don't know if it suffers from this same issue, but I know a lot of slow cookers have a "low" setting that's not very low. When slow cookers first became popular, "low" was quite low. Then product safety people decided you might be brewing a big batch of bacteria if you took the food out too early when cooked on "low", so the manufacturers bumped the "low" temperature way up to be sure the food got out of the danger zone quickly. This made it so there's almost no difference between "low" and "high" on most slow cookers. I tried doing a pork shoulder in my slow cooker and the shoulder that should have taken at least 8 hours was seriously over-done in less than 4 hours. Anyway, this is a long way of getting to my point that being able to set your own temperature gives you complete control over how "slow" the food is going to cook, regardless of what the manufacturer has done with the "slow cook" setting.

My 8 qt. Duo is still in the box. I'm debating whether I should keep it or return it and get the Ultra. The larger capacity is a bit of a plus on the Duo. They say don't go beyond 2/3 capacity for pressure cooking, which leaves you at 4 qts. pressure capacity on the 6 qt. model. The 8 qt. would get you to slightly over 5qts, which probably would work better for things like chili.

I downloaded a copy of the manual and will have to read through it before I make a final decision.
 
From what I remember ultra is said to be able to sous vide (duo can't as the temp control is not as precise).

here is a comparison ignore the price comparisons in that one. There are others. Just google for "ultra vs duo comparison" .

As for 6 or 8 qt, one reviewer found the 6 qt feeds their family of 5 nicely. I wouldn't go smaller (3qt) other than for a single person/university student.

The 6 wiĺl do a 4-5 lb butt or 5 lb chicken :D so how much more do you need? ;)

I thought you were asking about the Fagor products
 
I decided to keep the 8 qt. Duo. It was likely a wise decision because first use would have exceeded the capacity of the 6 qt. I made carnitas with a Cuban flair following a recipe I got from a link here at TVWBB. If I make it again I'll definitely be kicking up the spice level quite a lot, but I have to say it was quite good, and the fastest I've ever seen a pork shoulder cook to fall apart tenderness. I had two giant soft tacos and then found myself going back for a third. Fortunately I split that one with my nephew or I'd likely been in pain later.

I think what impressed me most was that the IP did a better job of browning the pork than my 100-year-old cast iron skillet. No hots spots, no cold spots, just nice even heat with very fast recovery time. Still early days but this looks promising.
 
I decided to keep the 8 qt. Duo. It was likely a wise decision because first use would have exceeded the capacity of the 6 qt. I made carnitas with a Cuban flair following a recipe I got from a link here at TVWBB. If I make it again I'll definitely be kicking up the spice level quite a lot, but I have to say it was quite good, and the fastest I've ever seen a pork shoulder cook to fall apart tenderness. I had two giant soft tacos and then found myself going back for a third. Fortunately I split that one with my nephew or I'd likely been in pain later.

I think what impressed me most was that the IP did a better job of browning the pork than my 100-year-old cast iron skillet. No hots spots, no cold spots, just nice even heat with very fast recovery time. Still early days but this looks promising.

I did carnitas again on Monday to take to a game, it worked easy and I put an 8# pork shoulder in it, cut into ~2" chunks, along with the bone that still had meat attached. (8 quart duo)
 
Sealing Ring: do not bother trying to get the stink of old "cooks" out of it. Gone through turkey soup, ribs and beef stew. Pheww, it smells.

Tried washing HA! Tried outside for a day HA! Tried water and lemon peels and steam it HA! Not going to waste any more time on it.

I've two "coloured" rings I'll use for sweet (desserts, etc) and this clear one for savoury (ribs, stews, etc).

If you're ordering an IP, get an extra clear silicone ring AND a coloured (or two) ring for non-spicy stuff. You'll need them.
 
If you're ordering an IP, get an extra clear silicone ring AND a coloured (or two) ring for non-spicy stuff. You'll need them.
Do you think this is something that will actually affect the flavor of the food or is it mostly an aesthetic issue? My first cook was pork shoulder and I didn't notice any smell at all from the ring after that. Last night I made meat sauce for pasta and the ring now has a very distinct pasta sauce smell. But it's hard to imagine the little bit of ring at the very top that's exposed to the contents when the IP is closed will actually impact the flavor of a dish.

I should add the pasta sauce was satisfactory. Perhaps it was just suggestion from an episode of Good Eats where Alton mentioned flavors in pressure cooked meals can be a bit muted, but the sauce seemed not quite as bright as I would have liked. Next time maybe I'll add a bit of lemon juice or a hit of red wine vinegar before serving. I used a 50/50 mix of Italian sausage and ground beef. I don't normally like using ground beef in pasta sauce unless I have the time to simmer the sauce for several hours. Less than that and it just seems like tasteless blobs of meat floating in a tasty sauce. With the pressure cooker, 10 minutes of pressure cooking and a natural cool down accomplished much the same result as hours of simmering. Same with the sausage. Simmered for 3 or 4 hours the sausage becomes velvety soft, I assume because the collagen has rendered. The pressure cooker results weren't exactly the same, but they were pretty close. Certainly a major improvement over normal browning in a pan and then adding to the sauce. So, all told, very happy with how the meat came out and okay with the rest of the sauce but will probably try to brighten it up a bit next time.

Returning to my concerns for using the IP as a slow cooker, I've been reading that the IP is kind of so-so in the slow cooker department. It's okay for very liquidy dishes but leaves something to be desired with thicker, meatier things. Apparently the problem is with the heat coming almost entirely from the bottom of the pot and not from all around as it will when using a ceramic crock. I would think a fully clad pot would solve this issue, though it would significantly drive up the cost of the IP. This left me wondering if there might be a Rube Goldberg approach to at least partially solving this. Has anyone tried wrapping the outside of the IP insert with heavy duty aluminum foil? Given the light weight I wouldn't expect it to help much, but it might carry more of the heat to the sides of the pot and improve the performance as a slow cooker.
 
I have read both sides (of the dual ring issue). I'd rather not take a chance on having my $12 cheesecake tasting like yesterdays ribs ;)

You could try it, see how it turns out and let us know :D
 
I like that idea of ordering different colored rings, need to borrow that.:)

I've had good luck just washing and air drying mine, but I don't seal the lid when storing and I also put a small Tupperware container of baking soda ( 1/2 cup ) on the bottom. I figured a box absorbs odor's in a fridge, and it seems to work ok in the IP.

I used mine 4 times this weekend. Ham bone broth.. Cubed potatoes, carrots, celery.. Rice.. Guinness Brats W/ Peppers onions .

Tim
 
I thought I read elsewhere that baking soda in that manner was a waste of time??

I know this is a WSM site and appreciate everything Chris does (by himself) BUT maybe we should have a dedicated IP sub forum. It would be nice :D

Put it under the Kitchen Appliance main forum :confused:
 

 

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