I have seen these combined pressure/slow cookers mentioned quite a lot recently. so as my current slow cooker may be heading towards its use-by date, I am considering buying one.
I slow-cook quite a lot, usually in batches so there are future meals for the freezer. Some recipes need 6 to 8 hours, but that’s not a real problem for me. So I am looking for advice:
Are they a worthwhile investment compared to a Crockpot at half the price?
Making yoghurt is an option - will that work with skimmed milk?
I know that they are in no way “Instant”, but are they any quicker or better? And if so - for what in particular?
Most things I cook are made with raw ingredients, not canned (except tomatoes) or frozen - does this make any difference?
Is there anything else that I need to consider?
I don’t need an answer fast, but I will decide sometime in February.
I have an Instant Pot, like it a lot, and use it at least once a week.
Things to note:
The parent company filed for bankruptcy last year (private equity assholes bought in and fucked up the outlook). They claim to want to reorganize and stay in business, but take this into consideration for the future (warranty, replacement parts, etc).
There are many different models with different features. Consider carefully which is right for you. If you’ve got a big house and might need to monitor the device or fiddle with it from another room, then wifi connectivity might be useful; if not, then probably don’t spend the money.
Personally, I find the slow-cooker option the least useful mode. I use it for pressure cooking and sous vide mostly, and the fact that the insert pot is induction-capable means it’s useful for making soup and pasta on the stovetop. In my experience, the slow-cooker mode has been finicky and unreliable. But pressure cooking gets me 90% of what I would have been slow cooking, in a fraction of the time, with similar results.
Cleanup is a snap. The lid is dishwasher safe (with a bit of easy disassembly) and the body wipes down quickly.
I succumbed to the hype years ago and bought an Instant Pot before I even knew what I’d do with it… and to be honest I still make VERY LIMITED use of it. I never use the slow cook feature but the pressure cook is really fantastic for cooking the juiciest darn meat you’ll ever have… perfect pulled pork in like 20 minutes, can’t be beat!
I don’t know how many people you’re cooking for, but if it’s just one or two, I’d recommend still getting the “standard” 6 qt size and not the “mini.” The mini is 3 qts capacity, but the unit itself isn’t really that much smaller than the 6.
I bought the mini because it’s just me and my wife, and it’s mostly perfectly fine for the two of us, but sometimes I want to make a bigger batch of whatever and I can’t.
We use ours about once a week. Soup, beans, hard-boiled eggs, etc. It’s also very good for taco meat - toss-in a couple of chicken breasts, half cup of chicken broth, a cup of your favorite salsa, a packet of taco seasoning if you are lazy (alternatively, you can also find recipes for taco spices online if you prefer). 17 minutes later, and we use a hand blender to shred the chicken. If you are really lazy, just do the two chicken breasts, broth, and a couple cans of El Pato.
I use mine for slow cooking and pressure cooking. It works fine for both. I also have a crockpot, and the instant pot is somewhat smaller, so unless I’m going to make lots of stuff, I use the instant pot for slow cooking.
The slow cooking part isn’t magical or anything. It has low or high, and on mine I can program it to start at a certain time, and then run for a length of time. My crockpot just has an off-high-low-warm dial and nothing else.
Being able to saute directly in the instant pot, and then toss the rest of the slow cook ingredients on top is convenient, but only saves as much time as it takes to wash an extra pan.
Do not expect to take a slow cooker recipe and turn it from 6 hours into 1 by using the pressure cooker. Some recipes may translate, but for many things, like chicken breasts, I find slow cooking works better. Beans, stock, and some other things work great in the pressure cooker.
My recommendation is to get an instant pot instead of just another crock pot; multitasker and stuff. Don’t pay extra for features unless you plan to use them. If the bankruptcy is concerning, there are brands other than Instant Pot that make countertop versatile pressure cooking appliances. I’ve never investigated any of them, though.
I use mine at least once a week. It’s great in pressure cooking mode, but it’s only so-so for the slow cooking option. I really only use the slow cooking function for something like french dips, where you want to brown the meat before you slow cook it.
Pressure cooking is fantastic for making stocks and broths. I wowed my MIL last Thanksgiving by having a stock ready for gravy before the turkey was finished cooking. I have two quarts of chicken stock in my fridge that I whipped up last night from Sunday’s chicken carcass. I’ll be using it tomorrow to make a chicken soup.
Oh, and I find a good general rule of thumb is that a pressure cooker takes about a third of the time of a conventional recipe, maybe a little more. So if that stovetop braise is 2-3 hours, you’re looking at setting about 45 min - 1 hr cooking time in the pressure cooker. This does not include coming up to temperature time and release time. That adds probably another 20-30 min for a cook like that. When adapting recipes, I find it helpful to decrease liquid as you will not lose much to evaporation as you would stewing on a stovetop or in the oven. In the other thread I mention cutting liquid by as much as half.
They are best for stuff like soups and stews. If you like making your own stocks and broths, they are a must in my opinion. They make it very easy and much quicker to get a rich, flavorful broth with very little effort. I know even chefs at high-falutin’ restaurants sing the praises of pressure cookers for this particular use.
If it’s any reassurance, part of the reason for the bankruptcy was they were too successful; they built a reliable product that worked, so once everyone bought one for themselves and gave one as a gift, people stopped buying them because everyone already had one.
I mentioned in another thread that Goodwill seems to be chock-full of them right now. I think everyone who doesn’t use theirs gave them away when they got their new air-fryers for Christmas.
The vent/seal knob pops off (just pull it up). The little button that pops up when it’s pressurized has a little silicone cap on the underside of the lid. Take the cap off and the button will come out. Then, also on the underside is little ‘basket’ type thing. It’s helps keep stuff out of the vent. It can be tricky, but if you can get a grip on it, it pulls straight off.
With all that removed, it can go in the dishwasher. In fact, the parts can go in there as well if you won’t lose them.
And, honestly, half the time I don’t even take it all apart and it’s always been fine.
Also, if yours is like mine in that it vents really slowly unless you find a way to prop the knob up, you can vent it even faster by just pulling the knob off. Just don’t do that with anything that’s going to spew through the vent hole.
When I bought mine, there were like 20 different major models with a wide range of options and features. Sous vide was available on, I don’t know, maybe a third at the time?
I second this. Or third or whatever. I was gifted a mini a few years ago, and I find I don’t use it all that much simply because many of the things I want to make simply don’t fit in it. When my parents got it for me they just assumed “Oh, WildaBeast lives alone, he doesn’t need the bigger one”. Except actually I do. I don’t want to cook really small batches of stuff every day; I want to cook bigger batches and have leftovers for a few days, so I don’t need to cook literally every day.
