Instant Pot. Multi-function cooker (Part 1)

[Shelby]

I swear I will be joining soon.  Had plans to start today and life got in the way again.  I am very interested in the yogurt making.  I want to make some too.  Need to find out what to buy for that.....

[rotuts]

If one makes yogurt in the IP Im interested in finding the times it takes to 

 

1 ) get the milk to the 'denaturing' temp

 

2 ) the time it them takes to let the milk cool to get to the inoculating tenp

 

and how are you notified when 2 ) is to do the inoculating.

 

I made a lot of yogurt 'manually' doing each of these steps.

 

i made a crude heavy cardboard box with a heat source for the last phase, the culture's grown.

 

this might be a much simpler method.

Edited September 8, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Shelby]

My first question is what do you use?  A yogurt starter or do you use store bought yogurt with live cultures?  If you use store bought, what brand do you buy?

 

I am a yogurt newbie.  

[rotuts]

I looked over commercial yogurts.  at the store.   I ended up with three brands that have overlapping strains ( so they claimed ) of live culture

 

so i had the maximum number of strains.

 

I stopped there and went to work.

 

now some strains are 'patented'   so you see where this might go

 

I wanted yogurt for the Humans and the Labradors .  1.99 for 4 quarts.  that's the price of the milk.

 

but there is a lot of ( possible ) hocus-pocus on what various strains might do for you health wise., esp. if they want your $$$.

 

the ive gotten starters from the company you mentioned. for Keffir.  they seemed on the level.

 

once you start, and as long as your cultures stay alive  your are set and use that ti inoculate the future cultures.

 

i was not that interested in health claims at that time, just volume.

Edited September 8, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Anna N]

I swear I will be joining soon.  Had plans to start today and life got in the way again.  I am very interested in the yogurt making.  I want to make some too.  Need to find out what to buy for that.....

Sheesh. Patience, Grasshopper! All you need is some milk and either live yogurt starter from the health food store or yogurt from the grocery store which contains live cultures. I use Astro Balkan Style yogurt which I know has live cultures and no gelatin for most of my Indian cooking so that is what I will use.

[Anna N]

If one makes yogurt in the IP Im interested in finding the times it takes to 

 

1 ) get the milk to the 'denaturing' temp

 

2 ) the time it them takes to let the milk cool to get to the inoculating tenp

 

and how are you notified when 2 ) is to do the inoculating.

 

I made a lot of yogurt 'manually' doing each of these steps.

 

i made a crude heavy cardboard box with a heat source for the last phase, the culture's grown.

 

this might be a much simpler method.

I will do my best to give you the documentation you are requesting. I will make a lab note in my special notebook to record those things you're asking me to record. But only if I can remember. The system looks so simple I absolutely have to try it.

[rotuts]

go for as many live strains as you can find, at the grocery.

 

its educational to read the labels in the stores.

 

one brand i used in my 3-yog concoction seems to have disappeared , as they vastly exaggerated the health claims of their strains.

[rotuts]

I plan to get there at some point my self.

 

after I stop waddling about.  I didn't see in the manual the cooling time from the end of 'denaturing' to 'inoculating'

 

and unless you do the 'individual' jar method, Im guessing you scoop the stuff out when its done and add it

 

to your containers for eating later.

 

making yogurt is fun, just remember to keep everything 'very clean' after the yogurt reaches the culture end point you are after

 

longer = more sour.

 

its a whole new world.

Edited September 8, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Anna N]

go for as many live strains as you can find, at the grocery.

 

its educational to read the labels in the stores.

 

one brand i used in my 3-yog concoction seems to have disappeared , as they vastly exaggerated the health claims of their strains.

Not a connoisseur of yogurt so unlikely to spend much time or money on multiple brands. What I am hugely interested in is:

Will shelf-stable milk make decent yogourt? So it is claimed.

[rotuts]

AnnaN, always with interesting points.

 

what makes it shelf stable ?  irradiation ?

 

it if has milk proteins it will make yogurt.

 

does shelf stable milk taste like refrigerated ordinary milk from the store ? Ive never tired it.

 

it will taste like th milk you started with but tart and firmed up.

[Anna N]

AnnaN, always with interesting points.

 

what makes it shelf stable ?  irradiation ?

 

it if has milk proteins it will make yogurt.

 

does shelf stable milk taste like refrigerated ordinary milk from the store ? Ive never tired it.

 

it will taste like th milk you started with but tart and firmed up.

We, that is Kerry Beal and I buy organic shelf stable milk from Trader Joe's. It comes in 8 ounce tetra packs and means there is always milk here for Kerry's tea! I have never tasted it! But if it will make yogourt to be used when I want chicken tikka masala .......

It is ultra high temperature pasteurized to keep it shelf stable. It doesn't last forever. My current batch has a best before date of November 2, 2015.

[rotuts]

even more interesting.  maybe you can skip the first step is you use this stuff.

 

just keep every thing very clean.  buy any yogurt with live culture. add a fresh box to a very clean IP .

 

look on pp 16 of the IP manual and decided if there is a way to go directly to step 2 bypassing step 1 which is the 180 F step

 

your shelf-stable milk might have already had that done to it at the box-producers.

 

just a guess.

[Mmmpomps]

Going to pull this away from Yogurt making for just a momento to say....Risotto came out delicious! I made duck breasts with it so I rendered the duck fat and used that to Saute the onion garlic and rice in the Instant Pot...I also added butter and a bit of bacon fat for good measure. Creamy...smooth, flavourful and EASY!

 

[attach]ment=52847:11894438_10153026945127703_3882562789162369563_o.jpg]

Edited September 9, 2015 by Mmmpomps (log)

[gfweb]

Looks great! ( except for the peas)

[Anna N]

Thanks for sharing, Mmmpomps. The duck breasts look especially delicious. I have never quite got the point of rissotto but understand that is my loss! Since many people rave about how good and easy it is in the pressure cooker, I may give it another chance.

[Anna N]

So I have been cooking beets for most of my adult life. I have boiled them on the stove top, I have pressure cooked them and I have roasted them. I have always found them to be all over the place in terms of the length of time they need to become tender.

Do not know why I thought the IP would change this.

I had a total of 12 beets each weighing between 135 and 180 g. I cooked the first four according to the recommendations on the hip pressure cooking site. It called for one cup of water, the steamer basket, four beets and a time of 25 minutes at high-pressure. They still offered some resistance to a paring knife after this amount of time so I gave them an additional five minutes.

One would think this timing would be useful for the second batch of four beets. One would be wrong! The second batch of beets required an extra 10 minutes so that we are now up to 40 minutes.

I cooked the final two beets for 40 minutes and made the following note in my lab book:

Beets are not asparagus! They are almost impossible to cook to mush. Give beets in this size range 45 minutes and be done with it. YMMV.

[Anna N]

even more interesting.  maybe you can skip the first step is you use this stuff.

 

just keep every thing very clean.  buy any yogurt with live culture. add a fresh box to a very clean IP .

 

look on pp 16 of the IP manual and decided if there is a way to go directly to step 2 bypassing step 1 which is the 180 F step

 

your shelf-stable milk might have already had that done to it at the box-producers.

 

just a guess.

Perhaps you could but for this first trial I am going to follow the "rules".

[MelissaH]

AnnaN, always with interesting points.

 

what makes it shelf stable ?  irradiation ?

 

it if has milk proteins it will make yogurt.

 

does shelf stable milk taste like refrigerated ordinary milk from the store ? Ive never tired it.

 

it will taste like th milk you started with but tart and firmed up.

It's very common in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In fact, when we were in Belgium for the spring, it was impossible to find skim milk that wasn't UHT, and all the UHT milk was far less expensive than the refrigerated milk. It has a slightly cooked flavor that I don't particularly care for if (for some reason) I want to drink a glass of milk, but it's fine for cooking, baking, and hot chocolate making. I kept some around because my shoebox-sized fridge didn't give me the luxury of always having a half-gallon container in the fridge.

[Anna N]

So for those of you who are interested here's my lab notes and some photographs from the yogourt making session of yesterday.

Yogurt made from the shelf-stable milk (the jar with the string around it) was considerably less thick than that made from the milk out of the refrigerator. I also thought it was a little less tangy.

I found the process tedious last evening but then I was extremely tired and just wanted to close my eyes not hang around waiting for yogourt to drop in temperature! Now that I have the times that each step in the process takes I think I will find it much easier. The yogourt does firm up considerably after a time in the refrigerator.

[Anna N]

Id like to hear about your Rub.

 

one of the most interesting BBQ books I own is this one :

 

Jeanne Voltz  " BBQ Ribs and other Great Feeds "

 

its out of print and sadly JV has passed on.  look for it in used bookstores.  lots of Florida type RX's

 

lots of citrus.

 

think  : a little tart marmalade for the glaze ?

 

tart lime marmalade w a drop or two of chili oil for a bit of heat.

 

heaven itself.

Here you go.

[rotuts]

thank you for sharing your meticulous notes.

 

mine are scrawl, with as few words as possible.  50 % of the words i can't read later.  Ive notched those tend to be the important ones

 

i concentrate on numbers and graphs and arrows.  sometimes question marks.  those do tend to be added later.

 

thanks again.

[Kerry Beal]

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So for those of you who are interested here's my lab notes and some photographs from the yogourt making session of yesterday.

Yogurt made from the shelf-stable milk (the jar with the string around it) was considerably less thick than that made from the milk out of the refrigerator. I also thought it was a little less tangy.

I found the process tedious last evening but then I was extremely tired and just wanted to close my eyes not hang around waiting for yogourt to drop in temperature! Now that I have the times that each step in the process takes I think I will find it much easier. The yogourt does firm up considerably after a time in the refrigerator.

I like to add some milk powder to the milk I make yogurt with to make it thicker.

[Anna N]

I like to add some milk powder to the milk I make yogurt with to make it thicker.

Now that I have made it once relatively successfully I would certainly be willing to experiment further but I needed to do it simply when I did it the first time. It thickened up nicely in the fridge.

[Anna N]

Lamb Keema and potatoes done a la Mmmmpomps in the Instant Pot because when you have a hammer then everything's a nail.

[Mmmpomps]

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Lamb Keema and potatoes done a la Mmmmpomps in the Instant Pot because when you have a hammer then everything's a nail.

 

MMMM that looks so good! Those spuds looks very creamy!