I don’t know what in the loving hell that contraption is but, no, that’s nothing like an Instant Pot. An Instant Pot is just a pressure cooker. The main advantage of it is that you don’t need a stovetop for it and you don’t have to pay attention closely to it like a traditional pressure cooker. The fact that it can slow cook and do rice and stuff like this is simply a function of, well, you already got this pot with a heating element on it, it’s pretty easy to add a couple more heat settings to it so it can function like the other things. You can do all those things with a stovetop pressure cooker, should you desire.
that’s not an instant pot, but they’re hilarious and now I have to watch all of their videos.
It definitely is not, but that was a great video.
I like how McLennan works such dry, biting wit into an overly cheery persona.
I about lost it, though, at “throw some shit in, some more shit… I fucking hate cooking.”
Just made my first instant pot meal. I threw a pound of ground beef into the pot, set it to saute’, and browned the beef. Drained it, then added a bottle of spaghetti sauce, a can of diced tomatoes, a pound of spaghetti, and 24 oz of water. Then I added a bit of spice and some garlic, and sealed it up. I set the pressure cooker for 8 minutes, and when it was done I had perfect spaghetti and meat sauce, ready to serve. The noodles were perfect.
My wife made an awesome soup with it the other day as well. One thing I really like is that instead of a kitchen full of dirty dishes, baked-on foods in pans, etc, I had one steel pot to clean, and it cleaned very easily.
The instant pot is awesome.
The Katering thing was pretty funny. When I was reading about the Instantpot, I kept hearing about the Thermomix but never read up on it. So far as I can tell, it’s just a blender that you can also cook in plus a few other bells and whistles. And they weren’t kidding about the price, it really is about $2k.
When I first got a pressure cooker, that’s one of the things I learned very quickly about the difference between it and a slow cooker. You have to drastically reduce how much liquid you use since almost none of it evaporates.
This was one of the things that sold me. With a regular pressure cooker you have to get the heat just right. Too low and it does nothing, too high and you boil out the liquid. With this, it does all the work. Plus, since 8 billion people have a standard piece of equipment, there’s no shortage of recipes.
Also, the other day I tossed an entire (5ish lb) chicken in there, it was done a half hour later.
It’s also a whole lot easier to clean than my stove top pressure cooker. My traditional pressure cooker is heavy and has a big awkward handle and these sharp metal flanges, and I really don’t like maneuvering it around the sink. This has a lightweight steel insert that is the only part that needs heavy cleaning, plus you have to wash the gasket, of course, and rinse off the inside of the lid. But the only part that needs to be scrubbed is just easier to deal with than either the pot or the lid of my pressure cooker.
Oh, and it does seem to make good rice with very little effort.
This is actually what I like about it. When I cook meats they stay moist. 
The crockpot meats can really dry out.
So, to me, even cooking “boring tender cooked chicken breasts” requires a recipe; even if there’s not very many ingredients. Just yesterday I found about the simplest ‘recipe’ online for chicken breasts. I put 2 Costco frozen breasts in the Instant Pot with 1 cup of chicken broth (or it said you can use 1 cup of pineapple juice), 1 tablespoon of minced garlic; and 1 tablespoon of butter. Sprinkled w/ salt and pepper. I Pressure cooked it for 10 minutes and I thought they came out awesome. I think the recipe said if you’re cooking fresh chicken breasts to only cook them 6 minutes. I thought they were awesome. I know it’s a recipe, but it was so freaking simple. OTOH, I would like to know “how to reliably do [del]chicken breasts[/del] hard boiled eggs. Does anybody know?”
I haven’t experienced overcooked chicken breasts yet; or else I didn’t recognize it; but I’ll definitely be reading that article after I post this. Thanks.
A little over 10 minutes from beginning to end; set it and forget it cooking; all with one pot cleanup.
I like the idea of cooking beans and ham in the cooker. I need to learn more about where to use natural release versus quick release. I mostly wander into the kitchen and see if the timer is done; and then slowly, manually, release the pressure.
Super easy! Put them on the trivet with 2 cups of water, use the Steam setting for 6 minutes, quick-vent, then put them in cold water.
I’ve done it several times and they’ve come out perfect every time!
No idea what the gasket is made out of on an Instant Pot, but most common gasket materials that would pick up off-odors will degrade from repeated freezing. Would not recommend storing in the freezer.
FYI A recent “The Splendid Table” had a short segment on these. Well, they interview the test Kitchen folks, and they actually recomended a different multi-cooker.
I belive the ATC folks are doing a book and/or episode on multi-cooker recipes.
Brian
This must be what you’re talking about. Seems like all the multicookers are good at the pressure cooking part, but they find the Instant Pot lacking in the slow cooker part. I wouldn’t know, as I’ve never used it that way. For me, it’s not really a “multicooker” so much as an electric pressure cooker, though I have been using it for rice, admittedly. But the only reason I bought it was for pressure cooking.
Boiled eggs are a surprisingly personal dish. For me, I don’t mind if there is still a bit of gel at the center, but I hate when it gets the green ring on the yolk. Here’s my method:
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Put 2-3 cups water in the microwave to boil.
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Gently add a dozen or so eggs and a small pinch of salt to the multi-pot.
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Pour boiling water over eggs and close lid. Set to 1 minute at high pressure
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Release valve as soon as it beeps
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Open lid and douse eggs with ice as soon as possible.
Which brings me to your other question. Basically a natural release is the same as leaving something in the oven with the door shut to cool. It’s going to do a good bit more cooking in the meantime. So if the food might overcook, release the valve. If it will benefit from “resting” in the heat, let it sit.
I used to make a dozen eggs at a time in the IP. I used a rack to keep the eggs above the water. I put 2 cups of water in the pot. For regular HB eggs, set the manual time to 0. This will make it come up to pressure and turn off. The eggs come out perfect and easy to peel.
For something different, set the time to 50 minutes. The whites of the egg will “brown” slightly, which I think is the same Maillard reaction that happens when you roast meat. It gives the egg a more savory and deeper flavor.
I never tried with the eggs actually in the water, so I’m not sure what difference that would make.
Do you let it come down slow or open the valve?
I unplug it and let the pressure come down on its own. As soon as it releases, I put the eggs in cold water. If I forget about the eggs and they sit in the pot until it cools, the yolks will darken a bit. If I get them as soon as the pressure is released, the yolks are a perfect, bright yellow.
Oddly enough, I first learned of the Instant Pot in an episode of Disjointed.
I’m visiting my daughter who has one, and they used it to make last night and stew a few days ago. It might be worth it for the rice alone.
I used to have a combined rice cooker/vegetable steamer which worked great, but which seems to be no longer made. Traditional rice cookers are too bulky and seemed to want to make too much rice. We used to make green beans in the pressure cooker, but haven’t used it in years, and the slow cooker gets used every so often. It would be nice to have one think to replace all of these.
So, guess what I got for my birthday? Different brand, but it’s a digital pressure cooker. So now I need to find decent recipes. I’m not a cook, really, so looking for easy stuff.
I thought I might try the baby back ribs. Or are there any good recipes for pasta sauce with cream and sun dried tomatoes (had one of those I cooked in a skillet once - much better the second day). Nothing with lots of ingredients, anyway.
Ribs are one of my favorite things to cook in the instant pot- I think they come out great though you have to be careful not to over cook, especially if you finish them in the oven like I do.