I have a few questions about instant pots, because people love them, but I just can't figure out why I'd want to use one. Maybe someone reading this can help!
So, ok, instant pots can cook beans quicker. But I have no idea how you decide how long to put the beans in for! And every time I've tried I've ended up with crunchy beans, so I have to restart the whole instant pot process and basically cook the beans twice, which ends up not being that much quicker than just doing them in a pot on the stove. How do you get the time right the first time so you don't have to cook the beans twice? Do you just way overestimate the time since beans can't really get overcooked?
Second, I recently tried to make some rice in the instant pot, using the usual ratio of rice to water that I normally would. It was terrible! Just wet and mushy and awful. What is the correct grain to water ratio for an instant pot? Not just rice, but like, say I wanted to make barley, or any other grain. In a rice cooker you want to do 3 to 1 water to barley. How do you adjust water to grain ratios for an instant pot?
And third, this picture has me confused. Why would anyone ever cook pasta in an instant pot? Isn't that going to be way slower than on the stove? Because the instant pot has to pressurize and then de-pressurize? What am I missing?
Basically, someone who likes instant pots, please instant-pot-pill me. People swear by these things, but in my mind they're entirely useless to downright worse than other cooking methods. What is it about instant pots that makes them good, because I literally do not understand.
These are all good questions and it really depends how much time you have and how many people you are cooking for. I think if you are cooking for one person it probably won't ever make sense over a pot, but 2 or more it starts to add up. The time savings are incremental and efficiency based. I have multiple inserts and sometimes serially cook things in the IP. I also use it to bulk prepare certain things.
So, ok, instant pots can cook beans quicker.
Time savings are like 20 - 30% not magic. Dry beans is 1 cup beans, 3 cups water and 1 hour at pressure. Dry beans is the same but 30 minutes. The real benefit for me is I set this up in the morning and I don't come back until lunch. Because I work from home what I do is set my beans in the morning before my work day starts and maybe chop some veggies, but not always. Around 2 hours later I open it and turn it into saute mode on low and add in either frozen veg mixes or something I cut up, tomato paste or whatever and a seasoning blend and I leave it on low saute for 20 minutes. When I come back about an hour later its how I like it and done, my only efforts were setting the beans, dumping things and stirring and when I used to do this on a pot I'd spill it all the time and have issues.
Second, I recently tried to make some rice in the instant pot
To be honest I use a rice cooker, often while my IP is running
And third, this picture has me confused. Why would anyone ever cook pasta in an instant pot?
Time constraints. Yesterday was a global disaster at work and I didn't have time to do anything. This pasta was made by dumping pasta, vegetables, sauce, beans all in at the same time and cooking it for 1 min timer under pressure. It takes a while to heat up but I wasn't present or monitoring it.
Ok, I think I see. For people who use it frequently, an instant pot is actually easier than other options. For me it's very much an arcane piece of equipment that makes me nervous every time I touch it. I think I'll stick to pots and rice cookers. I've never had beans boil over (I use a giant pot) and my rice cooker is amazing. For setting and forgetting reasons I can just use a crock pot (which takes forever, sure, but I'm fine with that).
Thanks for answering my questions! And for posting your delicious looking meals all the time, I love looking at them!
I forgot one major use case of the instant pot for me. When I have to travel for work I bring it with me to cook in hotel rooms if I'm able to drive lol
For making beans, it’s not the time savings, but the mental energy reduction. Dump beans, dump water, spices? Sure. Then turn on, and come back to eat beans whenever. No worrying about the stove boiling over, no hot pan, no burner occupied when you need to cook other shit. Just dump and go.
Otherwise I agree with you. I pretty much use my IP for beans exclusively. Chickpeas for hummus- every other week. Canned beans aren’t expensive, but the amount of beans I’m eating adds up.
Ah ok, that makes some sense. I really enjoy the process of cooking beans, I like having a pot simmering on the stove for hours, so I'm probably not about to switch to instant pot for beans. The whole set it and go thing is pretty cool in some contexts I'm sure. I use a crock pot sometimes for similar reasons.
I have a few questions about instant pots, because people love them, but I just can't figure out why I'd want to use one. Maybe someone reading this can help!
So, ok, instant pots can cook beans quicker. But I have no idea how you decide how long to put the beans in for! And every time I've tried I've ended up with crunchy beans, so I have to restart the whole instant pot process and basically cook the beans twice, which ends up not being that much quicker than just doing them in a pot on the stove. How do you get the time right the first time so you don't have to cook the beans twice? Do you just way overestimate the time since beans can't really get overcooked?
Second, I recently tried to make some rice in the instant pot, using the usual ratio of rice to water that I normally would. It was terrible! Just wet and mushy and awful. What is the correct grain to water ratio for an instant pot? Not just rice, but like, say I wanted to make barley, or any other grain. In a rice cooker you want to do 3 to 1 water to barley. How do you adjust water to grain ratios for an instant pot?
And third, this picture has me confused. Why would anyone ever cook pasta in an instant pot? Isn't that going to be way slower than on the stove? Because the instant pot has to pressurize and then de-pressurize? What am I missing?
Basically, someone who likes instant pots, please instant-pot-pill me. People swear by these things, but in my mind they're entirely useless to downright worse than other cooking methods. What is it about instant pots that makes them good, because I literally do not understand.
Thanks!
These are all good questions and it really depends how much time you have and how many people you are cooking for. I think if you are cooking for one person it probably won't ever make sense over a pot, but 2 or more it starts to add up. The time savings are incremental and efficiency based. I have multiple inserts and sometimes serially cook things in the IP. I also use it to bulk prepare certain things.
Time savings are like 20 - 30% not magic. Dry beans is 1 cup beans, 3 cups water and 1 hour at pressure. Dry beans is the same but 30 minutes. The real benefit for me is I set this up in the morning and I don't come back until lunch. Because I work from home what I do is set my beans in the morning before my work day starts and maybe chop some veggies, but not always. Around 2 hours later I open it and turn it into saute mode on low and add in either frozen veg mixes or something I cut up, tomato paste or whatever and a seasoning blend and I leave it on low saute for 20 minutes. When I come back about an hour later its how I like it and done, my only efforts were setting the beans, dumping things and stirring and when I used to do this on a pot I'd spill it all the time and have issues.
To be honest I use a rice cooker, often while my IP is running
Time constraints. Yesterday was a global disaster at work and I didn't have time to do anything. This pasta was made by dumping pasta, vegetables, sauce, beans all in at the same time and cooking it for 1 min timer under pressure. It takes a while to heat up but I wasn't present or monitoring it.
Ok, I think I see. For people who use it frequently, an instant pot is actually easier than other options. For me it's very much an arcane piece of equipment that makes me nervous every time I touch it. I think I'll stick to pots and rice cookers. I've never had beans boil over (I use a giant pot) and my rice cooker is amazing. For setting and forgetting reasons I can just use a crock pot (which takes forever, sure, but I'm fine with that).
Thanks for answering my questions! And for posting your delicious looking meals all the time, I love looking at them!
Thanks!
I forgot one major use case of the instant pot for me. When I have to travel for work I bring it with me to cook in hotel rooms if I'm able to drive lol
For making beans, it’s not the time savings, but the mental energy reduction. Dump beans, dump water, spices? Sure. Then turn on, and come back to eat beans whenever. No worrying about the stove boiling over, no hot pan, no burner occupied when you need to cook other shit. Just dump and go.
Otherwise I agree with you. I pretty much use my IP for beans exclusively. Chickpeas for hummus- every other week. Canned beans aren’t expensive, but the amount of beans I’m eating adds up.
Ah ok, that makes some sense. I really enjoy the process of cooking beans, I like having a pot simmering on the stove for hours, so I'm probably not about to switch to instant pot for beans. The whole set it and go thing is pretty cool in some contexts I'm sure. I use a crock pot sometimes for similar reasons.