Intantpot pressure cooker- kitchen gadget disease

Something like beef stew meat that takes three hours to get tender in a regular pot or eight hours in the crock pot is ready in 20 minutes in the pressure cooker.  I use it for roasts, chicken, soups, and stews.  I rarely cook any other way.

Are they hard to clean? I loathe the soaking and scrubbing of crusty pots and pans and will do almost anything to avoid it. 

My son asked for and received a pressure cooker from me for Christmas, but I haven't yet got a report from him as to its performance. Can't remember the brand. I'm getting interested in one because on a boat in the middle of a Maryland summer, the shorter the cooking time of anything, the better. It would have to be electric, because our electric cast-iron burners take forever to heat up and would cancel out the speed of cooking and the reduction of cooking heat. I can run the generator to provide power during cooking.

psychoticparrot

The instant pot has a stainless insert "pot" you can toss in the dishwasher.  Well.  I toss mine in the dishwasher... perhaps you aren't supposed to?  Cleaning it is far easier than a traditional pressure cooker, however.  It is nice because it is a slow cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, pressure cooker all in one.  You can also brown and saute food in it and then slow cook/pressure cook/etc it, which saves time and further dishes.

Hmmm. I do have a dishwasher aboard my boat -- me! Must ponder this pressure-cooker idea a little longer.

psychoticparrot

Don't ponder, just get it. Imagine awesome piping hot home cooked meals without heating up the boat cabin or whatever it is called! Then, only 1 pot to clean. 

Well, I just bought one. I went to Amazon and watched the little video, and since it's marked down from $234.95 to $118.68, I went ahead and and ordered it to be sent to my son's house in Virginia. I won't be able to use it until the end of April when I come back to the States from Nicaragua. It'll replace three appliances I already have on board (slow cooker, rice cooker, and yogurt maker), so there will be plenty of space to store it in my tiny galley on the boat.

And, it turns out the pot I ordered is the exact same one I gave my son for Christmas. I hope he's enjoying it as much as all of you here do.  

Thanks, happyteacher! I never got excited about a pressure cooker before. 

psychoticparrot

I truly hope you love it! If you don't have a cookbook or are new to using one, it is worth picking up one decent one to get you started. I would have lost my mind if I ordered it then sent it out of state!!!!

The sautee function works surprisingly well by the way. I found out after I purchased it that the botton of the pan has aluminum or something inside of the stainless steel for the bottom- very even and very fast browning!

I made a couple of very thick recipes in it, which was a mess for the bottom of the pan. I didn't know about Hala's trick, but I still had no problem cleaning it up. I just used a wood spoon to scrape it off, then an easy wash. 

I love mine so much!  I am surprised I haven't broken mine from use, ha.  It was great when I cooked all my meals for January in one day.  I saved so much time.

I make my own greek yogurt with it from organic milk - I strain it after I make it in the instant pot to get the greek yogurty stuff.  I use organic milk and it has no fillers or other crap.