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Thread: Anybody Have Experience With A Multi-function Pressure Cooker?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    10-21-01
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    Anybody Have Experience With A Multi-function Pressure Cooker?

    I ordered one of these things after reading about what you can do with them and wanting a good pressure cooker for beans and chili anyway.

    Looks like these are the latest thing in cooking devices and there are numerous websites and YouTube videos on recipes.

    https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-M...SIN=B01NBKTPTS
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  2. #2
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    You will have to give us a report.

    I haven't pulled that plug as yet--primarily based on the amount of counter space they take up and I am running out of "garage" space for all my gadgets
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  3. #3
    Wannabe is offline Nov 5, 1946 - Nov 19, 2018
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    If you lose your electrical service can you use it on a coleman stove, kerosene stove, or on a good bed of coals? Otherwise, it sounds nifty when you have elect. power which is almost always.
    Bob

  4. #4
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    No bad. Only use it every once in a while now. Does take up room. Less heat in kitchen.
    IMHO a great way to cook different things. One neg is if you want it done in a hour expect to spend more waiting for it to build up pressure, cook and release the pressure. Have made spareribs, lasagna, and cooked vegs with the usual learning curve of not enough or too much liquid. Only a few times did I mess it up so bad that some wasn't edible. LOL

    Using the Air Fryer, slow cooker or micro much more this time of year though. No need to add heat in Phoenix when you don't have too.
    Fred

    "Everyday I beat my own previous record for number of consecutive days I've
    stayed alive."

    'Take care of yourself, and each other.'

  5. #5
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    Got my wife one a couple years ago for Christmas. She loves it and it does take the cake for cooking many things. I found a great side effect that is not found in any of their commercials and I use it save some money. There are many specialty Mexican places in west texas that make excellent tamales. One Thanksgiving we had a tamale fest, I came home with 11 dozen of them already cooked and we had to freeze them and reheat. I can now buy the frozen ones from the restaurant at a cheaper price and keep them in the ice chest for the 2 hour ride home. When we are ready I just pop them in the pressure cooker and cook and steam them at the same time. I think I have loaded 4 dozen or so at a time, possibly more and presto, hot fresh tamales.

    Hers in a 10 quart. We have a large family, so it is good for stews and stuff as well.

  6. #6
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    An aside: before buying the thing, I was directed by comments to check YouTube for recipes and tips. I naturally started with chili recipe videos as I am a chilihead and plan to start with that. It was a revelation. The god-awful concoctions the preveyors were trying to pass off for chili made me alternately want to gag and look for a rope! Mushrooms in chili??? I even saw one guy from Arkansas who claimed to have won numerous chili cook-off competitions who put sliced up little Smokie sausages in his. Kidney beans thrown in were everywhere for God's sake, and beer...please, please, please never put beer in chili. Most of 'em turned out to be some species of browned ground meat tomato stew. They used chili powder like they were afraid it contained nitroglycerin.

    This is the national dish of Texas they are desecrating. There ought to be a law.

    I found one guy making a batch who was obviously from Texas and claimed to be a restaurant chef showing the proper knife skills, who was on track until he tossed in kidney beans to ruin it. At least he did not start with ground beef like 90% did, starting with a hand chunked chuck roast. He also chopped up a dozen Serrano peppers after dumping in about two tablespoons of Cayenne pepper. Zowie! I think I am going to have to learn how to make a video after I get a few pots under me with the pressure cooking feature.
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  7. #7
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    My first recipe was a rip-off of the famous Senate Bean Soup from the Internet site below. No soaking, just throw the navy beans in the pot with the sweated onions as per recipe, then some ham hock (not the 1 1/2 lbs. it calls for though) with some boxed chicken stock as part of the liquid. Took about an hour on high pressure including the heat up time and the cool down time.

    The beans turned out perfect texture and flavor was terrific. Served mine over cornbread.

    https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/press...#comment-46793

    My corn bread recipe —

    1 1/2 cup white corn meal
    1/3 cup all-purpose flour
    2 extra large eggs
    1 3/4 cup buttermilk
    1/2 t. baking soda
    1T. baking powder
    1t. salt
    2 T. bacon fat

    Mix all the ingredients throughly but lightly adding the warm bacon fat from a heated, well-seasoned 8" cast iron skillet at the end. Pour the mix in the skillet which has been rewarmed and bake ~25 minutes in a 450 degree oven. Remove upside down onto a plate and slice in two to let steam escape.
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  8. #8
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    Sounds wonderful but not for me , too much of a carb bomb!
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  9. #9
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    Whipped up a fine pot of chili today in my Instapot. Did not bother with a recipe, but cobbled together a hodgepodge of ingredients and ideas. Worked excellently with the help of my mate whose taste buds are several degrees above my own. I collected the pieces, got them going and she finished off.

    My reading up had led me to a new source of spices from which I ordered a few chili powder mixes and got some ideas from the list of championship recipes on their website. Chili competitions do not allow pressure cooking, so that is a big difference right there, and I found 30 minutes under pressure works great to tenderize the meat and meld the favor. I did use too much liquid (3 1/2 cups combined of beef & chicken stock to 2 3/4 lbs. meat) because the pressure method requires less liquid than normal, but we cooked down and reduced the excess later and also adjusted the spice. That's when the wife kicked in her expertise.

    https://mildbillsspices.com
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  10. #10
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    OK---call me slow--but I just unpacked my Potastic EP-6 It has been sitting here for about 3 weeks while I labored over my taxes--but now that I am ready to sit with my accountant I finally opened the box---and thinking tomorrow might be a good time for a trial run--of something!

    Any good things to share Joe?
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  11. #11
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    Here’s a take-off on the famous Senate Navy Bean Soup we have enjoyed several times and no need to soak the beans first —

    Senate Navy Bean Soup

    • 1 pound dried navy beans, sorted and rinsed
    • 2 tablespoons butter
    • 1 large onion, cut into 1/2 inch dice
    • 2 cloves garlic, sliced
    • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
    • 1 1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks (or a hambone and some leftover ham)
    • 8 cups water or chicken broth (7 1/2 C for thicker soup)
    • 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
    • Salt to taste w/ Lawry’s Seasoning Salt
    • Minced parsley for garnish
    Instructions
    1 Sort and rinse the beans: Sort the navy beans, removing broken beans, stones, or dirt clods. Rinse the beans and set aside.
    2 Saute the aromatics: Heat the butter in the pressure cooker pot over medium-high heat until it stops foaming. Add the onion, garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Saute until the onions are softened and browning around the edges, about 8 minutes.
    3 Pressure cook the beans: Stir the rinsed navy beans into the pressure cooker. Set the ham hocks on top of the beans, and then pour the 8 cups of water over everything. Lock the lid on the pressure cooker, and cook at high pressure for 30 minutes in an electric PC, or 26 minutes in a stovetop PC. Let the pressure release naturally, about 20 minutes. Remove the lid carefully, opening away from you – even when it’s not under pressure, the steam in the cooker is very hot.

    This recipe is truly soup, so I like a bit less liquid and reduce the chicken broth some usually.

    Here is another pedestrian recipe I like when I can find a tri-tip roast (works for about any roast really) —


    TRI-TIP INSTAPOT ROAST

    1 - 2-2.5 lb. Tri-Tip
    2 T. Oil
    2 cups low salt boxed or prepared beef broth
    1 envelope Lipton dry onion soup mix
    3 stalks celery
    Carrots (peeled and cut in chunks)
    Potatoes (I prefer new potatoes w/skins)

    Cut tri-tip into 4 pieces to fit Instapot
    On sauté brown all sides in oil, then cancel
    Pour in 2 cups beef broth and celery. Sprinkle soup mix over meat and return to pressure cook @ 40 min.
    Release pressure manually and put in sectioned carrots & equal sized potatoes on pressure cook for 8 minutes, releasing pressure manually at end.
    Remove meat and veggies, covering with foil, then thicken liquid with 3 T flour mixed in enough hot water to form paste. Bring back to temp. on sauté.

    Garnish: Peel and slice onion, then sauté separately to add. Note: pressure cooking onions will turn them to mush.
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  12. #12
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    Why do recipes call for broken beans to be discarded? I have never done that I just rinse and remove any rocks, dirt and anything else that looks bad. The broken beans get cooked and eaten.
    The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke

  13. #13
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    I only remove the rocks, debris & gnarly, discolored ones. If I soak them, I do not refresh the water.
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by wacojoe View Post
    I only remove the rocks, debris & gnarly, discolored ones. If I soak them, I do not refresh the water.
    Exactly what I do.
    The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke

  15. #15
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    We bought an instant pot at sam's club on sale. We love it. Cooks evenly and QUICK. Nice addition to the kitchen.
    OPINION....a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

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