About a week or so ago Betty, (my 82 year old beer drinking, Orange Is The New Black watching mother) called me to ruminate about gum or cats or ISIS or something - I can't really remember. In the same conversation she told me she needed to borrow my Instant Pot. There was a recipe in the newspaper she wanted to try but it required an Instant Pot. The Instant Pot, if you don't know, is the new "miracle " small appliance that has taken the blogging world by storm. I have no idea if it's taken the world of regular home cooks by storm or not, but according to my nephew who works at Canada Post a plethora of them are being shipped to homes across Canada on a daily basis.
The Instant Pot, which looks like a large slow cooker, used to be a 6 in 1 machine, but the new and improved version is a 7 in 1 machine.
MY REVIEW OF THE INSTANT POT.
WHAT 7 GADGETS DOES THE INSTANT POT REPLACE?
- SLOW COOKER
- PRESSURE COOKER
- RICE COOKER
- STEAMER
- YOGURT MAKER
- SAUTE PAN/OVEN
- WARMING POT
This one machine is capable of doing all of these things. Unfortunately for The Instant Pot, I'm capable of doing all of these things as well, usually without the aid of a special machine. As you may have guessed, this review isn't going to bode well for the Instant Pot.
By the way, it's the yogurt maker that they added to the latest edition of the Instant Pot that turned it from a 6 in 1 to a 7 in 1 machine. And it's a good thing they did because without the addition of that, my review of this thing would have gone from underwhelmed to abysmally underwhelmed. And guess what? They now make a 9 in 1 machine!
I'm Karen. And I'm the only blogger to hate The Instant Pot. Or so I thought but in truth ...
Nope. No, I was not the only person to hate The Instant Pot. I am joined by a long line of people who didn't like the Instant Pot but who aren't quite as vocal about their distain for this thing as the people who are obsessed with it. The obsessed people who will herein be referred to as The Cult of Instant Pot Lovers Who Maybe Don't Actually Love Cooking so Therefore Love That The Instant Pot Allows You to Lock Your Dinner Up And Out Of Sight Like a Kidnapped Baby.
Kaitlin from TheKitchn didn't like it.
Lisa from 100DaysofRealfood didn't like it.
And, and ... well I'm sure I could find more detractors out there if I could just figure out how to make it into the small kitchen appliance section of the dark web.
The Cult of the Instant Pot is the group of people who are willing to do or say anything to prove that this very useable, yet kind of unremarkable gadget is going to change your life. After owning the 7 in 1 Instant Pot for a few months my life has not changed any more than it changed after getting a teeth cleaning and WAY less than it changed after buying a Soda Stream.
But I like cooking. I like the process of cooking. I like stirring, and tasting and adding salt. You do not do these things with an Instant Pot. You put the food in, close it up and hope for the best. Which is my biggest beef with it. Cooking for me is something to be enjoyed and experienced and food is to be nurtured and tasted throughout the cooking process. There is none of that with an Instant Pot.
Imagine you're an artist and you have a blank canvas and all your oil paints and brushes in front of you. You take your time building the perfect painting, adding things and blending them and taking your time lovingly creating it. That's cooking.
Now imagine you whip off a kind of shitty paint by number in 13 minutes. That's cooking with an Instant Pot.
I know The Cult is currently looking for ways to poison me with some sort of Instant Pot concoction (that has gooey, rubbery chicken skin in it) but if that's the case I know I have at least 2 hours because even though the Instant Pot Cult claims they can make "Bone Broth" soup in 20 minutes, what they don't mention is you can't.
Why not? Because of reason #1 I didn't like the Instant Pot.
WHY I DIDN'T LIKE THE INSTANT POT
- The Instant Pot isn't as fast as its cooking time. Even though it works great and really did create the most delicious chili I've ever made in my life, the Instant Pot takes a really long time to come up to pressure before you can start cooking in it. At least 20 minutes. So you spend all your time prepping, doing whatever you need to do to make soup or chili (just like you would if you were doing it on the stove) and then you have to sit and wait for 20 minutes while it comes up to pressure. Once it does you really do have a reduced cooking time for a lot of things. My chili cooked in the Instant Pot in 10 minutes. You heard me. I pressure cooked it for TEN minutes. Normally I'd simmer that sucker for 3 hours. But then after it's insanely quick cooking time you need to let it depressurize. Another 20 minutes in most cases. For chili or other slow simmering dishes the Instant Pot excels. It really and truly does. The pressure cooking blends and melds all the flavours right into the meat (just like any pressure cooker would). But if that's all you want to do with the Instant Pot you'd be better off getting a better, stronger pressure cooker that comes up to pressure faster.
- The Instant Pot doesn't allow you to taste your food as you go. Or even check on it. Want to cook some chicken or duck or other meat that might dry out and get rubbery if it's overdone? You throw it in The Instant Pot and hope for the best. Ditto for seasoning which I always do at the beginning, middle and end of making almost any recipe. The good news is, because the Instant Pot does such a good job of bringing out the flavours of most ingredients, underseasoned food usually isn't an issue.
- The saute function isn't hot enough. I guess hot enough isn't maybe the right choice of words. The pot gets hot enough for sauteing but the second you add any food to it, the Instant Pot isn't strong enough to keep it hot so you have to wait for it to heat back up again before anything can brown. So it takes 3X as long to saute or brown meat in an Instant Pot as it would in a pan on the stove.
- You can't do big batches. I was really excited about making broth in The Instant Pot because everyone who has done so said it's fast and it's great. Sign me up. Then I started thinking ... that's not a lot of broth. When I do chicken or beef broth/stock I do a LOT of it, and then I can it all. I do this maybe 3 times a year. The Instant Pot comes in 3 sizes: 5, 6 or 8 quarts. By the time I got my ingredients into the Instant Pot and accounting for the fact that you can't fill it up completely because it's a pressure cooker, that wasn't going to leave me with very many quarts of broth. So in the end I didn't even try making broth in it.
- There's no temperature gauge. I mentioned the yogurt maker was the saving grace of this thing and as someone who makes homemade yogurt on a regular basis it really is a feature I liked. BUT ... there is not temperature gauge and with yogurt (as with a lot of other things) you need to know what temperature your food is at. To test the yogurt to make sure it's at 180 degrees you need to use a manual thermometer. The first time I made yogurt it didn't turn out at all. The second and third times it turned out perfectly. I attribute this to the fact that the later times I checked the temperature with a thermometer.
- Most things I did with it I could do better and easier without The Instant Pot. The Oatmeal I made with the Instant Pot was fine but using my method for Overnight Oatmeal is easier and faster. Plus there's something in me that thinks an old fashioned dish is better when cooked the old fashioned way. If I'm making a dinner that includes rice it's easier to just put some rice and water in a pot on the stove than to drag out the Instant Pot. If I'm cooking a whole chicken the only reason I'm doing that is so I can either stuff it or get a nice crispy skin. Neither of which is possible with the Instant Pot.
Over the course of my review I made Cherry Cheesecake, Yogurt, Oatmeal, Chili, Chicken and rice, Hard Boiled eggs and a bunch of other things in my Instant Pot. Some turned out great, some turned out terrible. Some cooked quicker than normal and some took longer to cook than my regular way of cooking them.
Believe it or not I do have some good things to say about the Instant Pot. Really I do. Although I still overwhelmingly hate it for my own cooking needs for the most part, I would say ...
WHY I LIKED THE INSTANT POT
- It's easy to clean. If you don't consider you can't get the stink out of the rubber gasket no matter what you do. I know this is going to get the other two Instant Pot haters riled up but I really didn't find cleaning this thing to be difficult at all. It's stainless steel which means it cleans really easily with just a sponge. The only issue is the rubber gasket which takes on the scent of each and every thing you cook in your Instant Pot. Mine currently smells like ground beef cheesecake. I haven't noticed that the smell of the gasket translates into flavour mingling in the dishes. The gasket itself just doesn't smell good and HOLDS the smells. True Instant Pot enthusiasts order extra gaskets online so they have one for sweet and one for savoury cooking.
- YOGURT! I know how to make yogurt with my eyes closed, my hands tied behind my back and a gag ball in my mouth. This is the method I have used for years and it's served me well, but the Instant Pot really does make it easier. And as long as you check your temperatures the results are perfect.
- Flavour enhancing qualities. Stews, chilis and other meat or bean based dishes will taste better because of the pressure cooking. Pressure cooking not only cooks meals faster because it raises the temperature inside the pot, but because it pulls liquid into the meats and beans making them softer and full of whatever flavour your sauce/liquid has. It took me years to perfect this chili recipe of mine and with God and all the Instant Pot nerds as witness, I will never cook it on the stove again. Instant Pot all the way.
So what about that newspaper recipe my mom wanted to borrow my Instant Pot for? After explaining the Syrian conflict in a nutshell to her and asking her if she had any white thread, I asked her to read me the recipe over the phone. Turns out the recipe said you needed an Instant Pot but ... you didn't. Not even a little bit. In fact, they were just using it to cook the chicken for a stir fry which would be 10 gazillion times faster to just cook in a pan.
And therein lies my true distain for The Instant Pot and it's gurgling cult of followers. They want you to think you can and should cook EVERYTHING in the Instant Pot. Just because you *can* do something doesn't mean you should.
I'll fully admit that I kind of had my back up about this whole Instant Pot craze right from the beginning but I truly kept an open mind throughout my review.
I do not recommend the Instant Pot to anyone who enjoys the art of cooking.
I don't even recommend it to people who want to be able to make cooking easier. It doesn't really do that.
It's not like The Instant Pot chops and measures out your ingredients for you. If you're looking for something to make cooking easier, I'd recommend Blue Apron or another food delivery service that pre-portions meals and ingredients and delivers them to your door before I recommended an Instant Pot. Yes, I've worked with Blue Apron before on posts and no they aren't paying me to mention them in this post. It just truly makes more sense to me.
But ... I like cooking. I like stirring and tasting and seasoning. I like the smell of something simmering on the stove all day long. I like the take my time with the painting.
If you don't by all means ... buy an Instant Pot this instant.
This post was paid for by Instant Pot.
Just kidding.
Hayden
I think you're conflating 2 things: 1) is pressure cooking a good thing, and 2) is the instant pot a good pressure cooker. Also, the hype that it will "change your life" vs be a useful tool in your culinary toolkit may have raised your expectations unreasonably.
Stovetop pressure cookers (like a Fagor https://goo.gl/JXscCh) don't have some of the annoying problems you mentioned. They're essentially a pot you put on your stove with a fancy lid, so they sear quite well. Since there's no electronics, you can depressurize them in a minute or so by putting it in your sink and running water from the faucet on it.
Countertop pressure cookers like the instant pot have one very nice advantage over stovetop pressure cookers: you stick the food in it, set the time, and turn it on. You don't have to watch it while it comes up to pressure and then lower the heat. And it turns off when it's done (although you may want to manually depressurize it). That's a very nice convenience when you want to do something else while it's cooking.
And as far as is pressure cooking a good thing, I've found that it can make many recipes fit into my weeknight schedule that would otherwise take too long.
Searing in the instant pot is annoying. I feel like I'm back in college cooking over a hot plate. I have had better results taking the insert out and putting it on my stove. But mostly, I just sear in a traditional pan and put the results in the instant pot.
You mentioned that you didn't try making stock. I find that making very high quality stock with my pressure cooker is so easy, I don't make huge amounts anymore and make it on demand. If I neglected to soak some beans overnight, I can still make very good beans fairly quickly.
Here's 2 recipes that make delicious soups very easily (although the carrot prep is a bit annoying):
http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/at-home-caramelized-carrot-soup
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/08/pressure-cooker-corn-soup-recipe.html
Carlene
I have a countertop (electric) pressure cooker and it's one of my favorite kitchen appliances, especially in the winter. I can't tell if the IP is similar to what I have or if it's a whole different appliance altogether. It seems like the IP might be a weaker version of what I have? Which would be annoying for sure.
Stews, soups, and chili are amazing when I make them in my electric pressure cooker. I also really like cooking in the oven with my Lodge cast-iron Dutch oven when it's cold outside. I'd say the Dutch oven tastes better in terms of browning meats and sauces while they cook, while the pressure cooker is great for infusing flavor directly into meats and cooking things SO QUICKLY (and is great year-round for warm days when I want the oven OFF).
I also make small batches of stock and bone broth in my pressure cooker, like Hayden said. Takes less than an hour to have nearly perfect stock/broth, and I tend to make it with any bone/chicken carcass leftovers from recent meals if the pressure cooker is still out on the counter. I can get a good amount of liquid which gels amazingly well -- in fact, I like the quality of broth so much that I haven't made larger stovetop batches in at least two years.
My pressure cooker also heats up fast, usually reaches pressure in just a few minutes, and has the "scary valve" at the top for instant release if I want it. I just wear an oven mitt to avoid hot steam, try to scooch it out from under my cabinets so they avoid a steam bath, and I'm fine.
Not sure if this makes me Team Inferior InstaPot or Team Basic B*tch... seems like there's no winning side when kitchen appliances cause this much excitement :-)
Carlene
I'm also not sure how or why I managed to upload a photo of myself here, my apologies!
Karen
LOL! I'd love to know how you did that. And I've left you abandoned I just remembered! Email me so we can get back on the secret project of ours! ~ karen
Stephbo
I grew up in a home where my mom only has a few cooking tricks, and they're the type that come inside a Cracker Jack box. Therefore, pressure cooking is a mystery to me. I don't understand what it is, how it works, or what to cook with it. Since you panned the IP in favour of regular appliances and cooking methods, I'd love a tutorial on pressure cooking.
Gina-Lee Glass
I'm not a bandwagon kind of girl. I'm more inclined to sit in my lawn chair with a Guinness and watch as the bandwagoneers all start jumping ship. Like rats. Because the ship didn't really have the delightful cargo of cheese that they were promised. I have pots and fingers and brains. Even with my five daughters, I can cook many things without a fancy schmancy pot. I think it's great if you like gadgets but I have pots and fingers and brains. Just sayin'. Yogurt? I'm lactose intolerant.
Amy
I have an instant pot and I really like it, but let me explain why and how I use it.
First, I'm a graduate student and I'm really busy. So it's nice to do some meal prep on the weekends, then have a couple of meals with leftovers that can cook while I'm working all day.
Second, I live in a crappy apartment with almost no cooling abilities. Even turning on the stove for 10-20 minutes will bring up the temperature of the room several degrees. I seriously don't even want to boil noodles in the summer. You can forget about the oven completely. The instant pot gives me more cooking options than a microwave.
Third, my crappy apartment is also really small. So I have very limited kitchen cabinet and counter space. The instant pot has several functions and is compact. I don't have space for each, or even a few of the individual gadgets.
I'm also confused about two complaints- I will open it and add things to it, or check on the food sometimes when it's slow cooking. For the pressure cooking function, while it does take a while to get up to pressure, you can depressurize it in about a minute.
Yes, the instant pot has limitations, but it can be very useful for some people!
Sondra
I love my iPot! Here's the reasons why: Set it and forget it or quick release and use immediately. Once you learn the correct timing for a dish or item then you know every time it will be the same unlike stove top models of which I've owned many over the years and used them consistently but cautiously. I NEVER cooked veggies in a stove top - fast road to ruin but I do now cook many vegetables in the iPot! The iPot is consistent, predictable, safe and sits on my counter being used many times per week unlike the expensive Kuhn Rikon babies in the cabinet.
Not everything should be cooked in a PC for the best outcomes. "Practice makes perfect" is also necessary to turn out just right beans, veggies, etc. Keep a record. Most recipes over cook everything for my taste so I've learned through trial and error. Only like the pressure and saute modes on the iPot, the rest I don't care about or use.
I hate to cook! I used to love it but I've been doing it for 50+ years making almost everything from scratch including grinding my grains and baking all my own bread - I'm tired, so therefore these days any way I can short circuit a task, reduce electricity costs and/or heat in my kitchen then I'm all for it. Hooray for great meals from the iPot!
Those are many reasons to love an iPot for me.
LibrarianNancy
Thanks for the honest review about the instant pot, Karen! I was hoping that the IP would replace some of my kitchen appliances. But while it does a lot of stuff, it sounds like it doesn't do them well enough to warrant the expense. Guess I'll hang onto my pressure cooker and slow cooker. I do have an air fryer - while I sometimes make frozen breaded chicken tenders or fish fillets in it, I look upon it more like a little convection oven. It heats in just a few minutes. Since it's just me and the dogs now, it's a good size to throw in a boneless chicken breast and some veggies when I get home from work, then go about the business of getting the dogs fed, going through the mail, and pouring a glass of wine. Dinner is ready just about the time I'm ready for a second glass of wine. And you're absolutely right - French fries should be fried in oil, and eggs made on the stovetop come out perfect every time. :-)
awesomesauciness
I'm not and Instant Pot cult member, but when you spend 14-15 hrs per day away from home (commuting and job), by the time you drag your ass in the house to deal with the inevitable cat puke, the dog MUST GO OUT RIGHT NOW, and your grumbling tummy, the Instant Pot is a godsend. I can throw the whatevers in there, choose the cook time, and BAM! go clean up the cat puke and take the dog for a walk. The food is ready in what feels like no time, and it'll stay warm until I'm ready to eat it. Now, when I want to savor the experience of cooking I do just that, but for my weekdays I'll take the Instant Pot over everything else.
Karen
See that's what I don't get. I can cook almost any meal as fast or faster without an Instant Pot. :/ I must be missing something. Dunno what, but something, lol. Maybe it's something as simple as the Instant Pot chromosome. ~ karen!
awesomesauciness
Maybe we just cook different things, Karen. I cook a LOT of chicken - boneless, skinless breasts. And LEAN pork, and fish..okay, the fish I haven't done in the pot yet. I'm afraid it'll turn to mush. Anyway, I grow my own herbs, too..so I can get all the flavor out of the herb and meat combos with the pot and I literally don't give it a thought while I'm doing other things.
whitequeen96
While you might be able to cook things the "old way" just as fast as in an IP, you have to BE there. Standing over a hot stove, stirring, seasoning, tasting; just not my thing! I like to put everything in, lock down the top, and walk away until it's done. And I HATE using my oven - heats up the kitchen and is one more thing you have to clean (every 10 yrs. for me, 'cause I use it as little as possible)>
Tena Greear
I love my instant pot! I bought one for my daughter and she is crazy about it too. After a full day I can actually put a good meal on the table before 8 o'clock at night. I agree it doesn't take the place of all cooking but anything that makes cooking easier and quicker has my vote.
Kim from Milwaukee
I agree....it seems to be a glorified crock pot to me. I can make yogurt in my crock pot just as easily, as well as soups, broth, etc. The only thing I like about it is it cooks beans without having to soak them, in about a half hour. If I'm making chili I can do it all in the IP and it turns out great.
Not much for boiled eggs, but if it makes them peelable I might keep it, otherwise it may end up in my sister's kitchen for rice cooking.
I was really hoping it would roast a chicken nicely, but I don't have the patience to brown it and then cook it, rather just rotisserie it in my convection oven.
Karen, thanks for trying it out for everyone...it's fun to see what it does for you, and I know you'll always give it to us straight!
MartiJ
A few more affiliate links and I think you'll have this whole thing down! Hooray!
I was very skeptical when you started this, but you have solidly convinced me. I will not be needing an Instant Pot. Thank you for confirming what we both know: we like cooking.
Karen
Ha! The Blue Apron isn't an affiliate link. Just genuine love for them. No kickback, no payment. :) Because ... I do love and encourage cooking. ~ k!
susang
not really an IP comment but I want the recipes for the butter chicken and the coconut yogurt that was made in the IP.
karen what do you use the whey from the yogurt for other than keeping the chickens happy?
Karen
I'm sorry to say I do nothing with my whey. NOTHING! Chickens get it, and that's about it. :/ ~ karen!
Cary
hey Karen! I have heard whey is great for the garden!
Sondra
Whey can also be used to ferment veggies! Lots of recipes on the Internet.
JulieD
I second that-lactofermentation. When I make sauerkraut I like to put in whey if I have it.
Sondra
Another yummy quick ferment is fresh tomato salsas that you make with whey. Put everything together in a sealed lock down jar, sit on a plate and then stash in a dark cabinet for a few days. Recipes out there on the Net.
Jenifer
I have not ever used the Instant Pot but my HUSBAND has and likes it...therefore, it works for me. He made numerous roasts in it this winter so we didn't have to eat hot dogs or take out pizza every time I needed to work late. YAY!!
Bon Appetit! :)
Deborah Kimbell
I am so with you on this. I bought it expecting great things. Have used it 3 times and hate it. I like to look at my food. I like to smell it, season as I go, adjust the heat to thicken sauce, etc.
And it seems to take twice as long to do everything!
I found the Instant Pot food bland and overcooked. I suppose I could fiddle with the recipes and make them work, but it's much easier to just cook.
I have tried for three months to give the thing away, complete with Instant Pot cookbooks, but have no takers, which suggests that others are wiser than the dupe that I clearly am. So it sits in the basement until I finally take it to the thrift store.
Thanks for having the patience to test more than I did!
Jody
Will the next version 8 in 1 include an ice cream maker. If that happens I'm in!
Jen TOPP
You have saved me from another appliance purchase that eventually lies dormant in my already-stuffed cabinets. And for that, I thank you.
Alyssa
My crock pot died a couple of weeks ago, and I was hoping this would help me decide if I should get an IP instead. I think I still might- and I do love cooking. I'm spending a small fortune on yogurt right now, so it should pay for itself in two weeks... just kidding. Maybe three. I swear I'll never cook a whole chicken in it and call it "roasted" though. I like the idea of having a multi purpose tool - slow cooker, pressure cooker, yogurt maker.
Cary
funny you should mention it paying for itself! Mine paid for itself in two weeks because it was so much fun playing with it that we didn't get our weekly sushi takeout!
Ellen
I think it might be great for some people - teeny tiny kitchens, non-cookers with no time. As a retired person I have plenty of time to cook and my kitchen, while far from large, has plenty of room for cooking. The only thing that almost tempted me was the pressure cooking function because when we purchased our induction range my much loved aluminum pressure cooker had to go. I think a stainless pressure cooker is going to serve my needs better.
JulieD
Ooh yes, I have a stainless 8 quart. I liked it before, but I loved it once I got an induction range. It comes up to temp so fast, and adjusting it to the correct heat level is a snap.
Elizabeth
I have to admit that I like the IP but not for the reasons most people do. I have 3 kids with food allergies which means that I have to bring food and cooking gear on every vacation we take. I like the IP because, while it might not be the best, I can cook anything I need to with just one tool. Also, I love the ability to cook bone broth quickly. Leaving my stove on for 2 days in the summer is rough. Other then these two circumstances it stays put away.
Tanya
Who knew kitchen appliances and Pulp Fiction had so much in common! Like you Karen, I love the art of cooking. So this appliance will not be added to my arsenal. Thanks for the honest review and saving me some potential frustration!
Laurie
Hi Karen, just a few thoughts. I agree with many of your points. It sometimes does take some time to come to pressure, but there are tricks to cut that time down, and they really work. Also, the time it takes to release the pressure is cut down to just seconds when you use the quick release. I love my pot because like Kat, I am a cook & collapse person during the week. Although I love cooking ribs the authentic way, I also love having fall off the bone ribs ready in less than an hour for a quick weeknight dinner. Traditional pressure cookers have been around for many years, and I always wanted to try one, but I was too scared of having a potential bomb on my stovetop! As far as the stinky gasket, if you store it with the lid inverted, the stinky-ness isn't as much of an issue. That being said, I wouldn't want to do any baking in it, that just seems silly!