Instant Pot vs Pressure Cooker

[TdeV]

I know there are many threads on egullet about Instant Pot and read many of them some time ago. Some threads are quite old–there's a sense of delight and discovery about the new device (toy).

 

What's harder to determine is the comparison between Instant Pot and a true pressure cooker. Is there anything which a pressure cooker can do which the Instant Pot cannot? I know the Instant Pot Ultra model can cook at high pressure as well as low pressure.

 

Also I'm interested to know how many features are used by experienced owners? (Everyone on Instant Pot's website has owned the device for 2 weeks). I'm concerned that the Instant Pot has a whole lot of buttons which I may never use. How many different cooking methods do you use? Do you customize any of the settings?

 

I'm wondering why one is focussed on migrating away from the stove; is there a reason to prefer an Instant Pot?

 

[kayb]

I like the IP because it let me get rid of two appliances -- my slow cooker and my rice cooker. I did not have a stovetop pressure cooker, so I use the IP a good deal. I particularly like it when I'm cooking a big dinner; it frees up stovetop space that is usually at a premium.

 

[gfweb]

I have an IP and don't use it. I don't pressure cook much other than stock and my old school PC is faster to temp and bigger. 

 

OTOH the IP you can ignore and it'll stop itself at the appointed time. 

 

I do find all the options on the IP daunting. Kind of like an "over engineered" digital camera. But we won't go there.  

[Okanagancook]

I have a good quality stove top pressure cooker and an IP.

Before the IP I would use the pressure cooker for stocks and stews.  It requires watching until it reaches pressure and a few adjustments to keep the pressure on point.

I find I use the IP a lot mainly because it is so user friendly and convenient.  I do prefer to use my gas range for everything else.

Things I use the IP for and the features involved are manual high pressure, sautéed, rice, stew, low pressure, steam.  I have made a few stews and curries in there too but for me ii is much cheaper to cook with gas around here.

boiled eggs

steamed potatoes

winter squash

stock

soup

rice

 

I keep it in an easy to get at spot in the kitchen so it is quick to set it up.

it requires next to no babysitting so you can get on with other things and not worry.

Easy to clean

Hope that helps.

Edited October 19, 2018 by Okanagancook (log)

[JAZ]

I've written one book for both stove top and electric pressure cookers, and one (with another in the works) specifically for the Instant Pot, so I have a fair amount of experience with both. First, an Instant Pot is a "true" pressure cooker. That is, it cooks under pressure. And most Instant Pot models have low and high pressure settings (only the LUX has only high). It's true that in most cases, stove top PCs cook at a higher pressure than electric pressure cookers. When I was researching my first book, I found that the difference in psi didn't translate into much difference in cooking, with a few exceptions. There is less oversight required with an electric pressure cooker, since you don't have to regulate the heat. On the other hand, they do take longer to come to pressure. And they do take up more room than a stove top cooker.

 

As for the settings I use regularly, I stick mostly with the Manual (in older models) or Pressure Cook function. I do sometimes use the Steam setting, since it heats faster, and sometimes that's helpful. There are several reasons I don't use the preset functions. First, the preset times never seem to correspond with the cooking times I want, so I'd have to change the time anyway, so it's not a time saver. Second, Instant Pot keeps changing the preset functions on different models, and since I don't know what models my readers have, I don't want to give directions that they might not be able to follow. And even though my books are written for Instant Pots, I know that owners of other brands of cookers buy the books, so I want to make them useful for those readers too.

 

As for how often I use an Instant Pot, that depends on whether I'm researching recipes for a book or not. Some Instant Pot devotees want to cook everything in one, and so I try to come up with a wide variety of recipes that use them. When I'm not working on book recipes, I use an Instant Pot regularly for several dishes -- pork shoulder and chuck roast, beans, dense root vegetables like beets. If I didn't have the Instant Pots, I'd probably use my stove top pressure cookers, but I like the convenience of the electric ones.

[Okanagancook]

Dried beans..I forgot about them in the IP.  It cooks them beautifully.

[TdeV]

24 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Dried beans..I forgot about them in the IP.  It cooks them beautifully.

 

Better and better!

[weinoo]

On 10/18/2018 at 4:44 PM, kayb said:

I like the IP because it let me get rid of two appliances -- my slow cooker and my rice cooker. I did not have a stovetop pressure cooker, so I use the IP a good deal. I particularly like it when I'm cooking a big dinner; it frees up stovetop space that is usually at a premium.

 

Well actually 3 appliances become one, no?  Rice cooker, slow cooker, pressure cooker = IP.

 

I just find it some much more convenient and easy to use than my Fagor Duo - which I gifted to a friend. 

 

Then there's this, from the NY Times this past week...

 

 

 

 

[rotuts]

I have a Fagor 6 qt.

 

I used it once on a gas burner.

 

it required too much attention from me.

 

when the iPot came out , I was doubtful

 

but following an really thread here converted me to give a try.

 

V₂ with the handles that also serve as a lid holder

 

I was converted immediately 

 

is a no-fuss spectacular appliance for me.

 

I do mostly pressure-steaming

 

eggs , root veg and the like.

 

I now save chicken/turkey carcass and make stock whenever I have one iPot unit of bones, or I freeze them until I get more.

 

I chill and freeze the stock , and use it as a base for the next stock session , thus avoiding reducing the stock to get to a concentrated ' broth'

 

I then freeze this concentrated stock   in  ' bricks ' , then vaccumseal and freeze

 

( I sometimes add aromatics to the last stock-session , if I remember )

 

I now make soup from the stock depending on what's in the refrigerator that i want to use up.

 

Ive even purchased Fz mixed veg for soup.

 

I am now a member of the RonchoGordo  bean club and the iPot is going to get a work out with these.

 

the only meat dish I use the pressure cooker for is a Turkey Ragu  that I like and is very easy to make using ground 93 % fat free ground turkey

 

that's always conning up on sale.

 

foe me it a vital tool in my kitchen.

 

you can do everything w a regular PC , but it takes your attention and the iPot does not

[Martin Fisher]

I prefer a real pressure cooker.

I've never had a problem regulating heat.

When the cooker reaches the vent stage, I set the temperature to 3 on my 'stove.'

It's faster than an IP.

It requires very little attention.

I can tell what it's doing by the sound.

 

From a previous review:

 

"The insert is easy to clean.

It requires about as much cleaning time as the entire stove-top pressure cooker.

Then there's the lid. The four piece lid.

Then the pressure cooker body, the cord and the counter-top.

 

Something else that I found irritating.

When it came time to pour the PC'd chiles and some of the other ingredients into the blender, it required fiddling with pot-holders to handle the insert, where the stove-up PC requires simply grabbing the handles and pouring.

 

The clean-up and fiddling around as well as other differences required an additional 15-20 minutes compared to using the stove-top PC.

 

Anyway, just my honest assessment at this point."

Edited October 22, 2018 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[MelissaH]

We have both a Fagor Duo pressure cooker and a 6-quart IP. Since getting the IP a couple of years ago, I think we've used the Fagor once, when we needed to do two things under pressure at the same time. I love that I can set the IP to go, and then walk out of the kitchen. The beep of the IP is loud enough that I can hear it from downstairs.