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Instant Pots

Postby mistakened » Sun Sep 20, 2020 4:02 pm

I have been reading about Instant Pots and their various copies. I understand that they are pressure cookers with other functions such as a Slow Cooker.
Are they worth it? Bearing in mind that there are only two of us and that we eat a lot of cold stuff at this time of year.

Any advice would be welcome as I would have to import one.

Moira

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Pepper Pig » Sun Sep 20, 2020 5:12 pm

I have one. If nothing else it cleared the space of a rice cooker, a pressure cooker and a slow cooker.

I used it a lot at first but then Josh became a vegan and my husband got very fussy about food. So I batch cook and freeze slow cooked casseroles, ragus and soups mainly. But I don’t mind that because it works so well and one day I will get back to proper cooking. I would definitely replace it if it went wrong.

There are some weirdos on the FB group who only cook with the IP and have several. They bake cakes, all sorts of weird egg concoctions and any number of things you’d never have thought of. :lol:

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby PatsyMFagan » Sun Sep 20, 2020 6:56 pm

thanks to PP, I have one too ... ours must be about the same age. I have responded to Rainbow on the Healthy eating part of 'Other Stuff' about what it can do (or at least the newer ones)

The FB group is called 'Instant Pot UK Community' if you want to have a browse. I think this is supported by the UK distributor - certainly you get lots of help with fault finding and recipes on there

There are similar (cheaper) pots - Pressure King Pro is one that comes to mind, but I don't think the technical support is there.

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Sep 20, 2020 7:16 pm

I am still musing (this may take some time)
I though about just getting a modern pressure cooker, there was a a discussion on Twitter with Catherine Phipps who wrote the Pressure Cooker Book, the 2 makes recommended were Fissler and WMF who both make stainless ones that can go any hob including induction

They are more expensive than Instant Pots

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Rainbow » Mon Sep 21, 2020 8:02 am

Stokey Sue wrote:I am still musing (this may take some time)
I though about just getting a modern pressure cooker, there was a a discussion on Twitter with Catherine Phipps who wrote the Pressure Cooker Book, the 2 makes recommended were Fissler and WMF who both make stainless ones that can go any hob including induction

I'm still thinking about it too. I have a modern Tefal Clipso pressure cooker (Stainless Steel) that works well on my induction hob and cost about the same as the Instant Pot some years ago now!!
Before that I had a Breville electric pressure cooker - I really liked the convenience of the electric type, but it had a non-stick coating on the bowl which was very poor and I threw it out after a few years!! That was expensive back then too - one of the first electric PC's over here. That's why I want the SS bowl that the IP has - they've only recently made it out to Oz!!
So I don't know if I can really justify getting the IP - although I do like the automatic, electric type instead of having to sort out the settings on the hob.
Thinking...................

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Kacey » Mon Sep 21, 2020 11:59 am

Had to look up what an instant pot was! As I already have a WMF pressure cooker (which I can thoroughly recommend) I probably won't bother. i have been wondering about a small deep fat fryer lately though, so I'm looking around at the moment.

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Sep 21, 2020 1:51 pm

I have also thought about an air fryer, but lack of space really is what's holding me back

Kacey, if you get a small deep fryer, get a good one, and check the reviews and the power
I had a cheap one, and the heater was so underpowered adding a single portion of room temperature chips cooled the oil to way below cooking temperature and it took a long time to reheat, stood no chance with anything that was supposed to cook from frozen. It was also difficult to remove the used oil and clean it.

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Kacey » Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:13 pm

Thanks for the tip Sue. I generally avoid deep frying but I've got such a list of recipes I want to try, I think I have to grit my teeth and get one.

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Rainbow » Tue Sep 22, 2020 12:32 am

Stokey Sue wrote:I have also thought about an air fryer, but lack of space really is what's holding me back

Sue - have you seen the 'air-fryer' lids you can get for the Instant Pot? Just a thought!

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:41 am

I have seen the lids, food for thought

Very expensive though

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby halfateabag » Tue Sep 22, 2020 8:56 am

I pondered for a vey long time about a pressure cooker, did not want to kill all the good stuff at high pressure but saw one on eBay local about 18 months ago and took the plunge. It has proved very useful (mainly winter) I can put it on the wood burning stove. Just glad I did not shell out the full price for mine, think it was about £12.

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Rainbow » Tue Sep 22, 2020 11:08 am

halfateabag wrote:I pondered for a vey long time about a pressure cooker, did not want to kill all the good stuff at high pressure but saw one on eBay local about 18 months ago and took the plunge. It has proved very useful (mainly winter) I can put it on the wood burning stove. Just glad I did not shell out the full price for mine, think it was about £12.

Not one of the old fashioned explosive type, I hope?

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby PatsyMFagan » Tue Sep 22, 2020 8:37 pm

Rainbow wrote:
Stokey Sue wrote:I have also thought about an air fryer, but lack of space really is what's holding me back

Sue - have you seen the 'air-fryer' lids you can get for the Instant Pot? Just a thought!


I don't think you can buy these in the UK (US only ?) ... there has been warnings that this lid would invalidate any warranty. That's why everyone in the UK is buying the 'Crisp' (or whatever it is known as :roll: )

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Sep 22, 2020 9:07 pm

You can buy the IP complete with an air fryer lid in the U.K. - from Amazon so presumably legit

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Instant-Pot-Mu ... B088M9QK72

Apart from cost, I’m thinking I might not want all my eggs in one basket

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby Pampy » Tue Sep 22, 2020 11:02 pm


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Re: Instant Pots

Postby halfateabag » Wed Sep 23, 2020 7:55 am

No Rainbow, it's a Tefal and managed to find the instructions online. It has a metal basket with a tripronged divider. Slightly fiddley but it works well when I need to use it.

Funny you mention exploding......I now remember my Dad exploding my Mums PC decades ago.... she was furious.....never forgave him as he never replaced it.... It was the same with her fabric cutting sewing scissors. Because she was very tidy, he always knew where they were and he would use them to cut the bind twine on the hay bales and of course they were then rubbish to try and cut fabric...... what is it with men.......

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby scullion » Wed Sep 23, 2020 10:55 am

me and my scissors.jpg
me and my scissors.jpg (55.82 KiB) Viewed 4529 times

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Re: Instant Pots

Postby PatsyMFagan » Sat Sep 26, 2020 9:12 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:You can buy the IP complete with an air fryer lid in the U.K. - from Amazon so presumably legit

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Instant-Pot-Mu ... B088M9QK72

Apart from cost, I’m thinking I might not want all my eggs in one basket


That is the newest baby on the IP block - known as a Crisp ... what you can't do is just buy the lid to convert the basic IP to an air fryer hybrid...as you can in the US.

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