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The secret to the Instant Pot, I've found, is using it for things it does well. Beans and bean-based dishes are a home run every time. Chicken broth and beef bone broth are great, too. Slow cooker favorites like pot roast and pulled pork? Not so much, in my opinion. These dishes need more time to break down the collagen slowly without destroying the meat and veggies. I much prefer them in the slow cooker. Oatmeal is great but I can make it faster and better on the stovetop.

I've been working on adapting family favorite recipes to the IP. My favorites so far:

My Cajun mother-in-law's real deal red beans and rice recipe: https://gist.github.com/chrissnell/2ee0a820b7ba7c25a12d1b253...

My grandmother's refried beans from her regionally famous 1960s-era Tex-Mex cookbook: https://gist.github.com/chrissnell/c87a98b7ee3239065737eaf14...

> Oatmeal is great but I can make it faster and better on the stovetop.

Just curious: The OP mentioned steel cut oats rather than traditional oatmeal. Did you mean the same as well?

The reason I ask is because, while I love steel cut oats, cooking a nice sized batch on the stove can be time consuming, and I don't like the 3-5 minute oats (precooked and/or steamed; lacks the same texture IMO, same reason I don't like standard oatmeal). I'm not sure I'd go so far as to use them in an Instant Pot, but it'd be interesting to read a second opinion of how they turn out.

I posted the 3 Minute Oatmeal recipe straight from the recipe book that comes with the IP below if you're interested [1].

I too am wondering if the parent was talking about precooked/steamed. The recipe that comes with the IP is definitely steel cut and has that great springy bite to it--almost al dente in a way (or QQ as my Chinese friends might say).

And my version is 3 minutes of cook time, but there's several minutes of getting up to pressure time, and then 10 minutes of natural release when it finishes. Still largely "set it and forget it" though.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13816579

That sounds perfect, actually. I love steel cut for the simple reason that their texture is fantastic and the earthier flavor versus regular oats has more complexity and depth. But stove top usually requires persistent attentiveness to avoid boiling over (first 5 minutes) or burning (remaining 15-20). Your post makes me want to buy an IP to try it out, because a mostly hands off cooking process for something like that would be great!

Thanks a bunch!

It really is hands off once you start it going such that you can start it, go about your morning routine, and go grab it when you're ready. Takes a couple minutes prep to toss everything in it, and then it can sit for quite some time on the warming mode.

According to seriouseats, the only thing a slow cooker is best at is keeping food warm, carmelized onions and bread pudding. http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/why-pressure-cookers-are-...

I certainly getter results doing pot roast & pulled pork in a pressure cooker than a slow cooker.

The main problem with slow cookers are that the liquid is not reduced properly which have to be done as a separate step using an ordinary sauce pan.

If you do a 7-hour lamb in a pot in an oven, you have the opposite problem, as it's a bit warmer, and might have to glue together the lid with dough. I think the taste will be better though, as I think there is more caramelisation going on at higher temperatures.

What temp are you doing the pulled pork at?

I get amazing results with a crock pot and pork shoulder with honey and a nice rub. Start it in the morning and it's ready when I get back from work.

Interested in the pressure cooker though for some more versatility. What's the main difference btw your pulled pork in PC vs SC?

Chicken and ribs are awesome in the pressure cooker. It only takes about 15 minutes to make really good BBQ ribs.

Care to share your ribs recipe? The issue with things like that which I noted in my original comment is that they seem to require steps like finishing under the broiler. At that point I'm not sure the IP adds much to the dish and I'm inclined to just grill or broil them to begin with and save myself some cleanup with the IP.

I'll have to ask my wife. As far as I know it's basically fatty beef ribs covered in BBQ sauce. We don't broil them afterwards. I suppose it just depends on if you want that caramelized flavor or not.

I really find I like it best when I've done stews, pork shoulder, red sauces, and stocks.

It pretty much works the same for all of them. I get all my aromatics roughly chopped, saute for a couple minutes just to brown them up, then I put them in the blender and transfer to the IP for an hour or so. I just submerge the meat and guess at a time that matches a stove top pressure cooker.

So I get what you mean about the hassle of multiple steps. I feel like I save time on the prep and stove managing. I only chop roughly and I'm not obsessing over doneness on the stove.

I mostly do it, because the results are just better. Stews really are better under pressure imo.

Pork shoulder and pulled pork are fantastic in a pressure cooker. I don't really use mine for anything else.

Better than in a slow cooker?

I'd say yes simply because you can achieve similar results in far less time.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/pressure-cooker-recipes.h... is a great resource. The Texas chili is incredible: it's about ~10 mins of prep (saute beef; prep chilis), 30 mins under pressure and ~10 mins to boil off the excess liquid at the end and thicken. When compared to the hours it'd take in a dutch oven or slow cooker, it turns "weekend meals" into weekday ones.

Some of the instructions seem unsafe--how do you "heat oil in a pressure cooker until it's smoking"? You're generally supposed to only heat stuff with the lid closed, and at that point you leave it closed until it's done.

I have a stovetop one and without the lid on it's just a big pot. You can brown meat and cook normally in it. The electric ones may have restrictions on that.

There's a sauté button and you just use that.

The IP has a saute function that you use with the lid open

We have three IPs, because my wife loves them. Pretty much everything she makes is a one pot meal that is easily freezable. She gets most of the recipes from various IP groups on Facebook. Perhaps you'll want to find those to get what you want.

She ends up not having to do a lot of experiments because the other people in the group do it and report back. She's actually started doing some reporting back too.

You do have to experiment, but I love mine. Some of my go-to recipes:

* 4-5 chicken breast, frozen. Add a half can of green enchilada sauce, or a cup of BBQ sauce, or a half cup of taco seasoning, plus 1/4 cup water. Cook on the "poultry" setting for 24 minutes. Quick release, remove chicken, set pot to saute, shred chicken and return to broth, boil off some of the excess liquid. Can serve by itself, or on hamburger buns (for the BBQ variant) or in tortillas/taco shells (for the enchilada and taco variants), or over rice. This has become a go-to because it's so quick and easy and we don't have to defrost anything ahead of time.

* 4-5lb chuck roast. Sear all sides (I do this on the stove for convenience), then coat in a seasoning of brown gravy mix, powdered ranch dressing, and italian seasoning. Add a half cup of water, and pressure cook on high for 38 (4lb) to 45 (5lb) minutes. While it's cooking, dice some carrots, onions, celery, and garlic. Once it's done, quick release, add veggies, cook for another 11 minutes. Remove meat and veggies from pot, sautee, boil down the remaining liquid for a few minutes until it reaches a thick gravy-like consistency. Slice the roast, serve with veggies and gravy. Making a roast like this takes 8+ hours in the slow-cooker, and it's done in <90 minutes this way.

* Brown 1lb of beef or ground sausage on "sautee" with half an onion, diced. Throw in several tablespoons of italian seasoning. Once browned, add 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 1 can of tomato paste, 1 can of chicken broth, 1 can of water, some garlic powder, salt, pepper, and a box of smallish pasta (macaroni and garden rotini are our favorites), pressure cook on high for 8 minutes.

* Throw a cup of dried mixed beans, 1 beef boullion cube, and any other seasonings you'd like (garlic, pepper, the usual suspects) and enough water to cover the beans by a couple of inches to the instant pot on the "warm" setting to soak for ~45 minutes, then pressure cook for 45 minutes. Makes a fantastic mixed bean soup. Probably even better if you have a hambone to throw in there, though I haven't tried this yet.

It works well with dishes dealing with tough cuts of meat, soups and bean based dishes. Yes, you cannot check the progress. But that has been the nature of any pressure based cooking. They key benefit in electric pressure cooking imo is that once the dish is in with spices, you can forget about it till it is done. Most electric pressure cookers have a saute mode, so you can quarter cook the dish, taste for spices and then switch to pressure mode.

Weird, I found it exactly the opposite. Everything we've made in it has turned out pretty much perfect every time, just by googling for "how long to pressure cook XYZ"

You can't just mention how it makes great oatmeal without providing us the recipe!

Please?

Courtesy of my dad. This is good stuff, and makes 4 servings.

    1 cup steel cut oats
    4 cups water
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    Cook in Instapot, 5 min at 'Manual' pressure
    Let cool in Instapot for 20 minutes or until pressure relief button pops
    (if you don't let it depressurize slowly it will foam up inside and mess the lid)

    Add the following:
    2 Tablespoons of chunky peanut butter (heaping)
    2-3 heaping tablespoons of sugar (brown is better)
    5 shakes of Pensy's Chinese 5-spice powder
    4 shakes of Pensy's Star Anise powder

Or place ingredients in bowl, microwave for 3 minutes.

3 minutes in the microwave isn't going to cook steel-cut oats...

Wow, seriously? I know this sort of thing is the fashion these days on the internet, but dude. I'm standing right here.

Anyway. To take the comment seriously -- if only it were that easy! Perhaps one of the biggest selling points of the Instant Pot, at least around my house, is its ability to cook steel cut oats quickly, efficiently, and without needing to be watched.

On a further note -- what I've written here is what I received from my dad, but I've always just thrown everything in the pot at the start.

    1 cup steel cut oats
    4 cups water

That's as far as I get, I then cook it on the hob with a timer (7 minutes when cooking a single portion). I might occasionally add some sugar.

Clearly you and many other people are getting some benefit from the device, I'm really doubtful that I would.

It's the "3 Minute Oatmeal" recipe straight out of the recipe book that comes with the IP.

  Add the following to the IP:
  - 1 cup almond milk (they warn regular milk with curdle but not sure about that)
  - 2 cups water
  - 1 cup steel cut oats
  - 1 cinnamon stick
  - pinch of salt
  - 1/4 cup of raisins
  - They call for vanilla extract but I use vanilla flavored almond milk

Stir and cook for 3 min. on Manual in the IP. Let it naturally release for 10 minutes and then quick release the rest. You might see what looks like a ton of liquid still on the top--just stir it all up.

Then I portion out what I want for myself, add a Tbsp give or take of light brown sugar, and any other toppings. My favorites now are chopped walnuts, chopped dates, banana, berries, diced granny smith apple, etc.

That recipe makes several servings and is great for brunch with an oatmeal bar. You can also refrigerate leftovers for several days and if you let it chill a bit, you can then wrap it in plastic wrap and shape it into bricks which freeze nicely.

I have a WMF stovetop pressure cooker and love it. Haven't tried an IP before, so YMMV. I make oatmeal for the week on Sundays using Apple/Cinnamon or dried fruits:

Ingredients

  1 tablespoon butter
  1 cup steel cut oats
  3 1/2 cups water
  1/4 cup sliced raw almonds
  1/4 teaspoon salt

For Apple/Cinnamon:

  1 large apple, peeled, cored and diced
  1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For Cranberry/Cherry:

  1/3 cup dried cranberries
  1/8 cup dried cherries
  2 tablespoons light brown sugar

Directions

Add butter to pressure cooker and set to sauté. When butter is melted add the oats and toast, stirring constantly, until they start to darken and smell nutty, about 3 minutes.

Add water and rest of ingredients.

Cook at high pressure for 7 minutes (stovetop) or 10 minutes (electric).

Turn off pressure cooker and use a natural pressure release for 10 minutes, then release any remaining pressure.

Stir, cover and let thicken for 5 to 10 minutes.

Top with milk, nuts and additional brown sugar, if desired.

Adapted from: http://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-cinnamon...

I'm surprised at your experience, as mine has been the opposite. I use my pressure cooker as for probably 80% of my meals at home (not always for the main dish). I've never had a sub-par experience. I find the pressure cooker is the better bet for soups, anything bean-related, most things with chicken, ribs, hard-boiled eggs, and vegetable medleys.

You are right that the timing involved on many sites is misleading, yet I find that without fail the "active time" when using the pressure cooker is WAY lower while the total time is roughly the same or slightly shorter than a normal recipe (much shorter if making something with beans). That's the big win for me.

You can experiment all you want, but I don't. I just take recipes from others and use them, with some adaptation. There's a lot of resources, and most people have already workshopped anything I'm interesting in making.

It definitely takes some experimentation! The window between undercooked and overcooked is extremely narrow for certain things.

My policy is that I won't try anything new if I'm cooking for others. I only make recipes that I've tried before and iterated on. When I have a winner, I print it out and stick it on the back of the cupboard door where I normally store the pressure cooker.

Japanese curry (beef or pork) comes out fantastic, it's a simple recipe to start and even easier in the Instant Pot.

Freezes and reheats very well.

Do you have a favorite Japanese curry pressure cooker recipe that you'd like to share?

The store-bought semi-dry curry seasoning cubes ("Golden Curry") work great for this if you're ok with less "recipe" and more "combine a couple of ingredients".

A box of these:

https://www.wegmans.com/products/international-foods/asian-f...

Add about 6lbs of de-boned / de-skinned thighs, a few pounds of cubed potatoes, and and some onions chopped coarsely. You might want to add some salt.

Brown the chicken first, or don't - it'll be good.

Saute the onions first, or don't - it'll be good.

~20 minutes of pressure (40 minutes total) later and you'll have an excellent meal of quick and easy curry.

Most of the family-sized instant-pot meals we make are like this - one pre-made sauce or spice pack, chicken thighs, some simple vegetables and 20-30 minutes under pressure then served over rice. Pretty much any bottle of "Asian" sauce or small jar/can of curry paste (Thai, Indian, Japanese) works great.

The main variations are in the sauce, and the preparation of the thighs - the texture / experience difference between adding the chicken in pre-cubed / whole / whole then shredded is pretty significant.

We use the curry cubes too, and usually buy the "beef for curry" packages from the market, so it's doubly easy.

It's pretty fantastic for making stock/bone broth - just chuck everything in and turn it on for 2 hrs.

Same for stews: Just add all the ingredients (meat, veg, stock, herbs) then press the 'Stew' button.

The slow cooking function is also great for this: Pork shoulder/butt, sauerkraut, pepper, maybe peas/carrots - 8 hrs on med.

I've never heard of the instant pot before now. Seems like your complaints are normal issues people have with pressure cookers.

I'd love to know how this fares vs. a normal pressure cooker, as far a learning curves go.

Very likely. This is the first time I've used a Pressure Cooker, and TBH, I never did that much with slow cookers before either besides a few dishes.

I'm sure once I get more experience with it that eyeballing things will become easier.

Presumably you aren't going to use it for ingredients with different cooking times?