When I first got my Instant Pot (which is a very fancy electric pressure cooker, slow cooker, and more), I was a bit overwhelmed and I am not sure why. I own a traditional pressure cooker and I use it all the time, I own air fryers, advanced convection ovens, and more tools of the trade than one really needs.
Perhaps it was the multitude of buttons I could press to make foods, or maybe it was the disorganization of all my thoughts as to how perfect all my recipes might turn out? I really wish that someone would have provided me with the Best Tips Of Cooking With An Instant Pot so these are my personal insights on it. Cooking was not Instant for me and it took me a few days to get acclimated, but now… I am back baby!
Best Tips Of Cooking With An Instant Pot
The Instant Pot is really quite safe, convenient and reliable for food preparation and it offers 10 safety mechanisms, so it is the perfect way to really learn electric pressure cooking. Lavishly live kitchen appliances out loud and learn my tips and tricks of cooking with an Instant Pot so you can be an instant success when using it!
First things first, whatever you know about the traditional stove pressure cookers, shelf it, because other than knowing that food is going to turn out great, stove pressure cookers versus electric pressure cookers are just polar opposites and I learned that fast.
Tricks of the Trade
These tips may seem obvious but just in case you don’t know them, I am running through them. Trust me, even as an experienced Chef, Cook, and Woman of the Kitchen, I needed a review and some of the pointers in order to make progress with my Instant Pot.
- Do not put your Instant Pot on the stove or stove burners when you are cooking. While I realize the stove-top may seem like the best place for it, remember that when you quick release you need to open that lid and you want to tilt the liquid into the pot. If your hood is right there, you may not clear it, and you might scald yourself with rather a warm condensation.
- Do not put your Instant Pot on the stove as you might have a warm burner which will translate to a burnt and ruined Instant Pot. Trust me, when you start making recipes you get preoccupied so it is better to be safe than to be sorry and forget and ruin one appliance.
- Use a Cutting Board that is heatproof and stable to put the Instant Pot on if your counters can not take any form of heat, however, my base has not heated up to any tremendous amount, rather the lid gets really hot.
- Do not put meats in a pot and set for delayed cooking for up to 24 hours ahead, your meat will go rancid and you will get sick.
- Understand that when you program the pot, the first thing it says is ON, when it actually begins the cooking cycle to the time programmed it will begin the countdown of time then, don’t think it is malfunctioning when you see the word ‘ON’
- Never cook without at least 1/2 C of water in your recipe
- Reduce the water content from any of your recipes to 1/2 the liquid when cooking in the Instant Pot
- Reduce the cooking time of recipes you are converting from traditional stove top pressure cookers to at least 1/3 of what it used to be (and you may need to tweak it from here)
Learn about Pressure Release Methods Here on my website, as there are three methods and you need to know how to use them, in order to not have over-cooked food.
Learn about Foods To Never Cook in the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker, because I have lived and learned for you. Use my mistakes to not have your own, lol!
Foods To NEVER Cook In The Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
So let’s call this live, learn and then tell everyone so they don’t do the same thing. There are foods that just create a bad reaction in the Instant Pot and you want to avoid these at all costs or when the pressure comes out the top, so will the food, debris and sugar mess (sounds like experience talking, ask me about my guacamole and blender experience, totally different subject but trust me on the advice, it’s solid – wink, wink)
Don’t use Applesauce or Cranberry Sauce to coat or cook anything in, as this can clog your venting and trust me when it spews out the top, what a mess!
Food You Can Cook In An Instant Pot That Might Surprise You
You know I kind of thought that pasta might be too starchy to cook in the Instant Pot, but I totally found that you can. Check out my Instant Pot Meat Sauce and Pasta Recipe made in Under 12 minutes! DO adhere to the rule of buying pasta that takes at least 8 minutes to cook under normal conditions. There are plenty of other foods that I will elaborate on, but test pilot pasta, its amazing.
Hopefully, these quick tips and tricks will help you start out and not cook under pressure, lol. Lavishly live food out loud and enjoy my tips and tricks of cooking with an Instant Pot a kitchen tool of the trade no one should be without.
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