Is Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Worth It?

Have you been thinking before how you can have great meals at home without spending much time in kitchen?

Most importantly, without compromising the quality of food?

After days of research and a bit of discussion among with other station chefs I’m working with, I found the answer.

The Instant Pot Pressure Cooker.

Since this pressure cooker got tons of five stars review from Amazon buyers , I took a shot and asked my wife to buy our very first pressure cooker online,

The Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Model IP DUO60 7-IN-1

And see how far it goes.

Life’s getting busier! Let’s try this new toy. Introducing my Sous Chef #InstantPot #KitchenGadget

A video posted by Bernard Burce (@bernardburce) on Feb 18, 2016 at 8:15pm PST

Our Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Story

Now as of this writing, I have been using this programmable pressure cooker for a couple of weeks and this product is absolutely amazing.

In my opinion, I think even those who CANNOT cook;

CAN now make Basic Beef Stew Recipes with this electric pressure cooker.

The most important is, it has made our cooking more flexible in terms of our schedule with satisfying flavor and consistency.

I am really impressed and I will recommend this to everyone I know.

WHAT I LIKE BEST ABOUT THIS INSTANT POT PRESSURE COOKER

• It is program to do 7 functions (down below is my detailed explanations of each).
• It is a pressure cooker and a slow cooker as well, it can cook rice, steam, saute, can make yogurt, and can also keep food warm.
• It does not take so much space in my counter because it’s just 13 x 12.6 x 12.2 inches.
• It is portable and unchallenging to carry.
• This comes with a stainless steel inner pot that is so easy to clean and a dishwasher safe.  
• It is made of stainless 18/10 (Food Grade 304)  material that passes FDA standards. Meaning, it is rust resistant and you don’t have to worry about the pot flaking into your food as in the case of some non stick pots which the coating peels off.  
• It has buttons that are easy to operate.
• There is the meat/stew, porridge, steam, soup, multigrain, bean/chili, and poultry buttons.
• So you push one button and it automatically prepares for you. That’s it!

This instant pot pressure cooker stainless steel pot  I’m saying is the heart and soul of this cooker because the moment you feel and touch it, you know that this is not a cheap type of product that you can see in dollar store.

You can also use the pressure cooker stainless steel pot as food storage and put inside the fridge if there’s a lot of leftover cooked food like stew.

Even if this product is electronic, it is very user friendly. It is so practical because you can cook two meals in one pot or you can sauté ingredients first and finish the cooking at the same pot too.

This saves you time from cleaning in the kitchen.

The front panel of this pressure cooker is digital. It has a LED display in the middle that works as a timer and tells whether it is on or off, or if the lid is closed properly.

It has a microprocessor just under the LED display  that allows you to set the time. You can either increase or lessen the time depending on how the meal is supposed to be cooked.  

Now, if you’re the person who doesn’t like much involvement in the kitchen, this feature would become your favorite.

This timer counts backwards as the food is about to cook and once it goes down to zero, the pressure cooker automatically switches to keep warm and it stays that way up to 10 hours.

So, you no longer have to worry about having cold meals because this model will keep them freshly cooked for you.

I also find the delayed cooking setting great!

It’s like you can toss everything in it at 6 PM and set the timer to start cooking food at 7 PM.

By 8:00, wife comes home.

Boom! Foods up.

It is practically allowing you to schedule when you want your food to start cooking, so you can do non cooking stuff simultaneously.

The best thing is you don’t have to worry about getting it overcooked. It switches off or keeps warm and its fuse switches off power if the device detects that the temperature exceeds limits.

Now, to guide you accordingly, here’s the use of every function keys:

Keep Warm/Cancel

• This is the most important key because when Instant Pot is being programmed or any program that is in effect, by pressing this “Keep Warm/Cancel” Instant Pot Pressure Cooker will cancel the program and take the cooker to standby rate.
• When the cooker is in standby state, pressing this key activates the keep-warm program.

Soup  

• This key is for making soups and broth.
• If you want to have a nice hot soup waiting for you on your breakfast, you can use the “Adjust key” to select for a cooking duration.
• You can put all your favorite soup recipe at night time, set it and just forget it.
• You don’t have to worry about overflowing because Instant Pot pressure cooker controls the pressure and temperature to a level that the liquid never goes into the heavy boiling state.

Meat/Stew

• This is for cooking meat and stew.
• Again, the “Adjust” key can be used to change the cooking time to get the achieved texture of the meat.
• If you want to have a bone stripping effect on your meat, you can use the “More” button key and adjust the duration.

Bean/Chili – is use for cooking beans and making chili. Now if you want the beans well cooked, use the “Adjust” key to select “More” duration.

Poultry – this button key is programmed in making poultry dishes. You may use the “Adjust” key to change the poultry cooking time from “Normal” to “More” or “Less” depending on your preference of the texture and the amount of poultry you put into the pot. Poultry meat is generally easier to cook than pork, lamb and beef. The poultry cooking time is adjusted within a shorter time range when using this function key.

Rice – this key is a fully automated smart program for cooking regular rice or parboiled rice. The cooking duration is adjusted automatically depending on the amount of food content. To make it clear, let’s say you’re about to cook 2 cups of rice, it takes about 12 minute pressure keeping time; for 3 – 5 cups of rice, it takes about 14 minute pressure keeping time; more cups will take longer time accordingly. Though total cooking time is not displayed here, but the pressure cooking time will be shown when working pressure is reached. Take note that “Adjust” key has no effect on this program.

Multigrain – is a program to cook mixed grains of wild rice, hard brown rice, mung beans and other grains. There are 3 “Adjust” options for multigrain rice cooking. The “Normal” setting has 40 minutes of pressure cooking time. The “Less” setting has 20 minutes of pressure cooking time. The “More” setting has 45 minutes of warm water soaking time and 60 minutes of pressure cooking time. The “More” setting is suitable for harder grains such as dry split corn.

Porridge – this key is for making porridge of various grains. You can use the “Adjust” key to select a cooking duration. The “Normal” duration is for rice porridge. For a mixture of different grains and beans, you choose the “More” duration. It is important to stir the porridge before serving. Remember and take note of this that after the “Porridge” program is finished, do not put steam release handle in venting position; otherwise the porridge will splatter through the steam release and use Natural Release.  

Steam – this is designed for steaming vegetables, seafood or even reheating with the enclosed steam rack. When steaming vegetables and seafood, don’t use the “Natural Release” method for releasing the steam because it will likely overcook the food. You need to release the steam as soon as the cooking time has expired using the “Quick Release” method.

• If you’re steaming fresh or frozen vegetables, 1-2 cups of water is enough with 1-2 minutes of pressure cooking time.
• You can use “+” or “-” keys to change the steaming time.

Unlike other pressure cooking functions, the “Steam” function heats at full power continuously. This may burn food in direct contact with the bottom of the inner pot. There is a trivet provided in the package so better use it to elevate the food above the water. Use metal basket or (oven safe) glass/ceramic container that fits into the inner pot to contain the food.

Yogurt – this instant pot 7 in 1 can make yogurt either with the inner pot or using glass bottles. The process to make yogurt involves 2 steps. The first step is to pasteurize the milk by heating it to 180°F / 83°C. This serves 2 purposes:

1. killing pathogens and harmful bacteria which can grow during the fermentation period
2. denaturation of milk proteins, which prevents curdling of milk and makes the proteins easier to absorb.

Instant pot pressure cooker provides 2 convenient ways to heat the milk. If you use the inner pot to make yogurt, press “Yogurt” then “Adjust” to “More” mode when you see the word “boil” on the display. Instant pot will then coil the milk to 180°F/83°C. When it is done, it beeps and display “”yogt”.

If you use a container or bottles to make yogurt, you can steam the milk by:

1. adding 1 cup of water in the inner pot
2. putting in the steam rack and placing your container or bottles on top of the rack.
3. select the “Steam” function
4. and set the time for 1 minute.
5. once the process is over, use the “Natural Release” method to release the steam.

The second step after heating the milk is to let it cool to below 115°F/46°C, then add an adequate amount of yogurt starter or fresh yogurt. If you use a container or bottles, you can place them in the inner pot without adding any additional water.

If you use a bottles, you can place them in the inner pot without adding any additional water.

1. Press the “Yogurt” function key, and adjust the time using “+” and “-” keys based on the instructions of the yogurt starter.
2. The program automatically starts in 10 seconds.
3. When the program completes, instant pot pressure cooker beeps, display “yogt” and goes to standby state.

The yogurt can be served plain together with the other dishes and can be mixed with jam to make it a fruit yogurt.

Manual – I love this key and I use it every time I’m writing at home and not in a rush. You can control the time and mode. The time set in this mode is pressure cooking time which will begin to count down when working pressure is reached. The maximum pressure cooking time is 240 minutes.

Saute – Another feature of instant pot pressure cooker that I frequently use. You can use this for open lid sauteing, browning of meat, or even simmering inside the pot. Do not close the lid even partially because sauteing can cause the pressure to build up in the cooker. The “Saute” program can cancelled anytime by pressing “Keep Warm/Cancel” button.

Slow Cook – this key is great if you want your instant pot pressure cooker becomes a common slow cooker. This is very easy to use:

1. You can change the cooking duration by pressing the “+” or “-” key between 0.5 hours and 20 hours.
2. The “Adjust” key allows you to adjust the level of heating as in traditional slow cookers.
3. By pushing the “Adjust” key repeatedly, you can adjust the cooking mode to “Normal”, “More” and “Less” modes – which stands for medium, high and low in a common slow cooker.
4. Now the cooking starts automatically in 10 seconds after the last key is pressed.
5. When the cooking finishes, the cooker beeps and goes into the Auto “Keep Warm” cycle for 10 hours.

Timer – the timer is intended for delayed cooking. I use this when I want a fresh hot soup ready for our early morning breakfast, especially cold season.

1. Select first the desired cooking program (except Saute and Yogurt)
2. Press the “Timer” key.
3. Use “+” and “-” to set the delayed hours.
4. Press “Timer” again to change the minutes.

• Note 1: The time you are setting is the delayed time before your desired cooking program starts.
• Note 2: I highly discourage you not to use this “Timer” function for perishable goods like meat and fish which may go bad when left at room temperature for hours.
• Note 3: This is also not recommended for porridge, oatmeal or other foamy and sticky foods because these foods may gummed up the float valve causing it to never seal and leading to overflowing of food content.

The Initial Test Run and My First Instant Pot Recipe

The user manual is recommending to make an initial test run in your new Instant Pot Duo. Though it’s optional, I will recommend to do it because this will help you familiarize with your new pressure cooker and will make sure that your electronic pressure cooker is working perfectly and clean of possible residues.

These are the simple steps for your initial test run:

1. make sure the steam release handle and float valve are unobstructed and that the sealing ring is properly align with the lid.
2. add water to your instant pot stainless inner pot up to the inner mark “3”
3. close the lid and make sure that the steam release handle is pointing to “Sealing”
4. Press “Steam” Button
5. Press “-” or the “the minus sign” to change the time to 2 minutes.
6. Around 10 seconds, the Instant Pot pressure cooker will be in a preheating cycle. Within minutes, steam comes out until the float valve pops up and seals the cooker.
7. Once the countdown is finished, the instant pot will beep and automatically go into “Keep Warm” mode.

Just like that.

Then you can start trying your favorite recipe.

The first recipe I cooked with Instant Pot was Mac and Cheese.

I chose this pasta recipe because I want to know how long will it takes for our new pressure cooker to cook the pasta, since pasta is my kids favorite.

I will make a separate post for this recipe.

Fast and Tasteful Outputs

And unlike traditional cooking methods or the on-stove-top units, this instant pot pressure cooker can cook full meals as fast as 20 minutes!

Even beans cooked straight from the freezer softens at this period as well.

So I no longer marinate food because anything I cook in it, even meat, comes out perfectly.

They are juicy, tender and flavourful. Steaks… whoa, melt off the bone! This unit cooks at 11 PSI, that is 4 PSI less than usual BUT this model is as cost efficient as others.

That amount of pressure only increased cooking time by about 3 minutes compared to others but it makes use of less electricity.

So, high energy consumption can never be an issue here especially when you can cook a week’s worth of meal in a few hours! Keep them in the fridge then reheat.

Assured Safety

Since this cooks using steam and pressure, it could be normal that first time users would be a bit skeptical when old models pop and squeal while being used.

With IP DUO60 7-in-1, I can assure that this never happens.

It has UL and ULC  certified 10 safety mechanisms. The lid has a pressure release valve and has a support tool that helps to tell if there is already pressure inside.

Just beside the pressure release valve is what I call a pressure indicator that pops up and locks in place as pressure builds up. Once the food is cooked and the pressure release valve is vent, this pressure indicator drops.

Once this happens, it means that the pressure has been released and it is already safe to open.

The lid also has solid steel locks that hold in place when you close it. Just underneath is a silicone ring you can snap out and in once you have finished cleaning.

And this model also alerts the users if the lid is not closed properly. It has some sort of an alarm that goes off when you take off the lid and when you snap it back.

The LED display also shows “Lid” when it is not closed properly. And the condensation from the lids also drains out to the condensation cup at the back so you don’t have to worry about water spilling and these vent and indicator in the lid are also protected by a covering that prevents food from blocking them.

Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Warranty

The product is also covered under warranty for 1 year of residential use however this is valid to the original purchaser in the USA or Canada only.  

This includes repair and/or replacements of defective units. And since this product has several safety features, being tampered will voids the warranty.

A proof purchase must also be presented in cases when warranty is applicable.

So if you are looking for the ideal pressure cooker, I can say that this is what you need and what can work best for you.

It is quiet, safe, simple, fast and cost and energy efficient.

It will revolutionize the way you experience cooking and home made food. And you can expect that it will always deliver the same delicious results every time!

SEE ALSO: The Best Instant Pot Cookbook Recipes for 2017

DON’T MISS: 76 Amazing Cookbook Recipes To Try Right Now

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