The Instant Pot

Before getting into my first Instant Pot cooking experience (well, my second I guess), I need to preface this with a story.  Getting an Instant Pot has been on my mind since last October/November, particularly when they were on sale around Black Friday.  A couple friends have them, one swears by it, and I just had a hard time rationalizing:  would I use it?  Is it worth it?  Is it the miracle appliance?  Is it hard to clean?  Am I cheating on my Le Creuset?  Does everything taste like Crock Pot food?  So, for 3+ months I had been waffling on this.  I finally decided that for no other reason than maintaining my sanity, I should just give it a try.  I can always send it back if it doesn't work out.  So, I did and here's what happened.

For starters, if you are thinking about getting one - just get the real one.  There are some time management functions on it, that make the whole thing work.  It became clear that the only way to understand this phenomenon was to really embrace it - getting a knock off seems like getting an in-ground pool, without a deep end.

Personally, I landed on the Instant Pot 6-Qt Ultra.  Great size for 4-6 people (or 1 if you're me and like to vacuum seal / freeze things).  The Ultra works for me, because I can't stand it when you read an article or recipe or something and think "oh I wish I got the one that did that".  I also like the blue color on the display better than the red :-).  The stainless steel inner portion is great - you can use metal in it (unlike enamel / coated) and I don't worry about weird stuff leaching into food.  Probably the best value is the Instant Pot 6-Qt Duo.

The first thing I did was cook some eggs in it - they came out great.  It was a test run to make sure it didn't blow up or catch on fire.  OK.  Great - now we need a friend to come over and witness this miracle.  So, I ring up one of my buddies and now we're on for pot roast.

I very intentionally found the toughest cheapest cut of meat to try - a bottom round.  It's lean and inexpensive, but I wanted to really put this kitchen bomb to the test.  Here goes - we got all the ingredients rounded up and got to the pot.  The recipe and method is pretty basic - assortment of veggies, meat, stock, and herbs/seasoning.

Everything in the pot, except the veggies - I just know, from experience, pressure and high temp will obliterate them.  The basic method here:

Cut meat into large chunks,
 so it fit right.

15 minutes high pressure
Quick pressure release
Add veggies
10 minutes high pressure
Quick pressure release
Take everything out
Saute function to make gravy

(add veggies after 15 minutes,
then 10 minutes high pressure again)

Everything in the Pot - no mess!!!

The final product (and conclusion) -

For only cooking for 25 minutes, the meat was fine.  Next time, I'll cook it a little longer, because I really like pot roast just to fall apart when you eat it.  Impressive that it could tackle this cut of meat in that amount of time though!  The veggies came out great - retained nice color and the flavor was good.

In the end, no one got hurt and it didn't blow up or catch on any kind of fire.  It's easy to clean and seems to live up to it's fame.  Time will tell - the best part about it, something that motivates me to cook or just do anything - it was actually fun to use!  My friend and I hung around and chatted, which is also the very first experience I had when a long time colleague invited me over for Instant Pot chili one night.  There's something meaningful about the whole experience and, for whatever reason, this little guy added that element of charm to cooking something that a slow cooker just doesn't have.  Is it the same as cooking in enameled cast iron?  Nope.  But that's a story for a different time.  I'm not ready to send this guy back yet.