I don't care to pressure cook anything. I know that it's much quicker, but you don't get that carmelization of meats and vegetables that you get with longer stovetop or oven cooking. And, as you mentioned, you won't get a houseful of delicious aromas as the food cooks.

I don't use a slow-cooker for the same reason... no carmelization. Once upon a time both my girls used slow-cookers for meals but rarely do now because the food generally lacks flavors they want in their food.

As to the sirloin roast... I have no idea. 😏

I had bought a stovetop pressure cooker several years back. I really don’t see much time savings for what I have cooked. We don’t eat red meat, so any sort of red meat stews, where you might see time savings with tougher cuts of meat, are out for us.

I have tried cooking chicken for use in chicken salad or shredded chicken dishes, but poaching in the micro or stovetop take about the same amount of time. Chicken cacciatore takes quite a while to come to pressure before “cooking” begins. Cheesecake does save time, but it doesn’t taste like real NY cheesecake.

I think there's sort of a deception in the time saving aspect. While cook time is shorter than stovetop, you need to add in time coming up to pressure, which can be quite lengthy and negate the savings.

I've used a pressure cooker for years. Mainly for beans, stews, pot roasts, etc. I got an Instant Pot a few years ago and like it for things like that. I've made beef short ribs, pork shoulder, lamb/pork shanks many times. I even made spareribs in it, and they came out OK.

I don't really use it for vegetables or desserts. My daughter cooks potatoes for mashing in it, but I haven't tried that.

I don't do beans in it simply because I'm at a strange stage in my life when cooking beans requires soaking overnight, rinsing, & pre-cooking, then changing the water before the final cook. If I don't take those steps, I have difficulty digesting beans even with doubling taking Beano.

The Instant Pot has a sauté feature, so you can still brown meats and/or vegetables. You need to add a certain amount of liquid in order to safely use a pressure cooker. But after removing the meat, you can use the sauté feature again, to reduce the liquid and create tasty sauces and gravies.

I really like the Instant Pot for cooking certain cuts of meat. I know some people use it for all sort of things. Just like some folks use air fryers for all sorts of things too.

I've been doing my beans in the crockpot mostly due to the ignoring factor, it seems to be a good use. Gonna at least try them in the pressure cooker. It did well with rice for us. I think I am going out on a limb and trying the shredded beef. Can't hurt. Jacques Pepin is a big pressure cooker fan . . . or at least he said so once in one clip I saw of him doing a roast in one . . . I think it was from his "Jacques Pepin Cooks at Home" series.

Edited to add that is is more likely it was "Fast Food My Way" for Pepin . . .

Not all IP cooks at pressure cooker pressure which is at 15 PSI.

Make sure you check that out.

It makes a difference in the results you get.

dcarch

L, the crockpot was invented for cooking beans!

Do try the pressure cook. I tried a couple of times in my Breville version and didn't like the results as well as the long slow cook, or the hour in a hot oven cook, but you might like it.

If you're making a peasant kind of dish with a filling made from a tough cut of meat that's meant to be braised for a long, low and slow time, the limited pressure cooker part of a multicooker can definitely reduce your time. You can make your empanadas the same day, with your meat done in an hour and a half, start to finish. I'd still rather just make them the next day and slow cook to the meat, but sometimes fast has its own appeal.

I love my Instant Pot. As I type I have 10 lbs of chicken leg quarters in the IP. Under pressure for 25 min. then into the fridge until tomorrow when I prepare it for my cat. After if cooks I am going to make chicken taco soup in the IP using boneless chicken thighs for dinner tonight.

I forgot to add that I make chicken broth in the IP. After roasting a chicken, I save all the bones and skin, and dump it into the pressure cooker. The homemade broth is great for all sorts of things. A single 6 lb bird makes a goodly amount of broth.

My Stock Options:

1. With a pressure cooker, cook all the bones, ADD NO water. You will get a few table spoons of very concentrated liquid gold for making sauces.

2. After step one, add water and make your normal stock. But do not throw away the cooked bones after you get your stock made.

3. Add some more water and make second hand stock with second hand bones. You may be surprised that the watered down second generation stock actually has a lot of favor. Use this second hand watered down stock for step #2 above.

dcarch

Elery has an InstaPot, he used to use it a lot, now it gets mainly used for beans. I prefer beans in the slow cooker, the texture is different, so they only get the InstaPot treatment if Elery is cooking them.

When he first got it he used it a lot, but that tapered off as the "new" wore off. Now he'll use it occasionally to cook a batch of meat for dog food and for an occasional pot of beans.

I never use it, I find it fiddly and it needs too much tending. I think those InstaPot recipes were made by people who are trying to use every single function in a recipe. If there's a button on the machine, it'll need to be pushed at some point. Plus, his daughter bought it for him for Christmas a couple of years ago and I know if I even touch the darned thing, it's going to break.

I do have a big All American pressure canner that I use for canning and a stove top Presto that I used to make Chop Suey in when Ashley was still home. I seldom use it now, but I am comfortable with pressure cookers, I just don't like fiddling with the InstaPot and don't find that it saves a lot of time. It does do good things for tough cuts of meat, though.

I'm sure you've already done the sirloin roast, I hope it turned out well. I usually use chuck for shredded beef and roast the sirloin at high heat until rare then slice it into paper thin slices for French Dip sandwiches.

Annie

I don't have one but if i did, thisnis the kind of quick recipe I would try.

https://www.happyfoodstube.com/instant-pot-chicken-chasseur/

30 minutes sounds good to me.

I was gifted with an insta-pot a couple years ago, and I love it. I make all sorts of stuff in it, an do the pot in pot cooking, and have an air fryer lid for it. It can be a handy portable stove/oven with the stuff I have for it. It's extra nice in the summer when it's hot out and the kitchen does not need to get hotter with cooking. I have a bit of a summer kitchen out on my enclosed porch and it's right handy to help keep the house cooler without the cooking heats.

Some veggies are more suitable than others for it. Like root vegetables and whole winter squashes. We don't really like sweets in general, so haven't tried it for baked sweets.

Caramelizing can be easy using the saute functions prior to doing other stuff. Since I have the fryer lid I can also do end of cooking browning off. It's great for dry beans, either from dry or pre-soaked. Perfect rice in larger batches, I freeze some for "90 second rice". It's my preferred method for perfect sauna eggs. It can be a bit of a learning curve, just like most other cooking appliances.

I also love my slow-cookers. They are still better than the slow cooker function on the insta-pot IMO. I just used my 6 quart to make a big batch of caramelized onions on Friday and into the fridge yesterday. This morning I'll put them into the dehydrator :) I had some sprouters in my storage onion bin to use up.

I didn't do the roast, and I was wrong about the cut, it is an eye round roast and it is still in the freezer.

I made shredded beef in the Instapot out of cubed chuck roast. Hubs and my Dad liked it, I did not. But that was more of a function of the fact I don't much care for beef, and I did NOT like the sauce I put on it. It was a recipe from my Mom's recipe file, using hickory barbecue sauce and cranberry sauce. I just didn't like it. I have another one using cranberry sauce and french dressing which I do like, so I dunno, it just seemed too sweet with a bitter aftertaste to me . . . And also oddly dried out as the the actual meat, but I think that was because we didn't really understand the "saute" function so possibly overcooked a bit on the outside, and I could not find any reliable directions online on timing and how to set the pressure cooker. But I did like that it took less time, and the fact that the whole area around the cooker didn't heat up would be a good function for the summer.

beesneeds, my daughter has one that she uses when they are camping or traveling. They have a 5th wheel camper/trailer, but stovetop space and counter space is limited. She often places it on a table outside and cooks there. She never uses it in her house, just when she's camping, but it works well for that. She says in the winter here she WANTS to heat up the house, LOL.

I have a Zojirushi rice cooker for rice, so I use that if I'm going to haul out an appliance, but usually I find it easier to just grab a pan and cook rice on the stove. I also have an air fryer, which needs to be hauled out for use, and I haven't found many things I like cooked in the air fryer. Elery did use the InstaPot for hard boiled eggs once, but again, the stove top is just as easy as dragging out the InstaPot.

Annie

I have an Instant Pot. When I first bought it I dived into the online IP fan community and quickly retreated. While I will still go there to ask a specific question I am not very interested in most of the recipes on those sites. I use it to make beans, yogurt, stocks, stews and soups. Rice and barley... It took me a bit to figure out the timing on things. It is weird to not check on things midway.

agmss.. how do you do barley? I got quick and slow and haven't tried them yet.

I'm a straight up pick low/med/hi pressure and time if that helps. I tend to natural release.

Anyone have any tips on how to keep rice from sticking? We've been using the rice cooker function the most, and seem to experience a lot of sticking.

"l pinkmountain

Anyone have any tips on how to keep rice from sticking?---"

option #1 - boil water first, add rice later to boiling water.

Option #2 - get a non-stick bowl/inner pot to put inside your Instant Pot rice cooker.

Wash rice first helps a little, depending on what brand of rice you have.

dcarch

I use mine mainly for rice and ham hock broth. The rice is always perfect and I make the ham hock broth when I am making collard greens or purple hull peas and it is a HUGE time saver. I have used it here and there for other things but those 2 things are its main function. I tried a pot roast in it once but I was not as happy with it as i am with my normal way of cooking it, in my pink (or punkin) dutch oven in the oven. I was going to try to make some cube steak in gravy in it this weekend but as i ws going to be in the kitchen anyway I just made it my normal way, simmering on the stove. I need to experiment more with it.

I always add a glob of butter in when I add my rice and water and it does not stick.

@l pinkmountain, I cook rice in the IP using the pot-in-pot (PIP) method. I, for many, many years, used a rice cooker; the current one is the Zojirushi. However, once I figured out how to cook rice the right way in the IP, I prefer using the IP. Haven't used the Zoji in way over a year now. :

Here is what I do for two servings:

6 oz water or chicken/beef/pork/vegetable stock

1/2 c rice – white rice, jasmine rice, basmati rice

1/16 t salt

1 t butter

Use the pot-in-pot method. Rinse rice well in a fine mesh strainer. Put 1 cup water in the 3-quart IP inner pot. Put a trivet in the IP inner pot. In a bowl or pan that will fit in the IP on top of the trivet, put the liquid and add rice and salt and let soak for a few minutes. Add butter, and whatever seasoning(s) you want to use. Put bowl on trivet in IP. Set IP to HP for 12 - 13 minutes. Maybe add a bit more butter when done and fluff with a fork. Rice comes out perfect every time.

The proportions and cook time for brown rice are different from white rices.

1/2 Cup brown basmati rice or brown rice (rinsed)

1/2 + 1/8 Cups Water or Broth

1/4 tsp Salt

3/4 tsp Olive Oil

Use the pot-in-pot method. Rinse rice well in a fine mesh strainer. Put 1 cup water in the 3-quart IP inner pot. Put a trivet in the IP inner pot. In a bowl or pan that will fit in the IP on top of the trivet, put the liquid and add rice and salt and let soak for a few minutes. Add butter, and whatever seasoning(s) you want to use. Put bowl on trivet in IP. Set IP to HP for 22 minutes. I do a NPR for brown rices. Rice comes out perfect every time.

Hope this helps. I cook for one, so that is why the proportions are reduced.

Bees needs - I just found a basic ratio somewhere online. I think it was 1 cup of (rinsed) barley, 2 cups (I think it might have been 2.5 cups) of water or broth, salt, spices etc.... Twenty minutes and natural release.

Thanks agmss, sounds like the kind of standard I've been seeing. Been thinking about making a batch :) But very nice to hear someone here actually doing it and it working well.

I've gotten good at using the insta-pot for regular rices. A couple things are always rinse your rice at least once. Some rices like 2-3 rinses before cooking, and you still do that to those rices. Never leave the warm function on. And always NPR, even let it rest a bit longer for longer cooking rice. I don't use the rice button, even for the basic store white it's meant for. I always time it under pressure.

From there, depends a bit on the rice. Like with regular cooking, the heartier the rice, the greater the ratio of rice to water to get fully done. And times vary a lot from basic white to black pearl. I was able to get a package of black pearl and straight wild long grain rice for good prices recently, and will do pot-in-pot to try out a couple little batches.

Did a batch of refried beans in the insta-pot yesterday.

3c pinto beans, rinsed twice

1 small onion, minced

a bit of jalapeño and manzano peppers- I used 3-4 slices jalapeño and 1/4 manzano from the freezer. Minced. About a teaspoon or so. Think I should have tossed in that half of frozen smoked poblano I was contemplating but didn't because the ones I have right now are huge, lol.

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 generous teaspoon toasted and ground cumin

2 teaspoons iodized table salt

2-3 bay leaves

water to cover by a couple inches.

Pressure cook on high for 28 minutes. NPR and let rest an additional 15 minutes past NPR.

Drain beans, reserving liquid.

Mash beans with a few fat dabs of clean bacon grease. Add in some bean liquid as needed to get desired consistency.

If you have a lot of and save all your bean liquid, it can make for a great beany broth to make taco/tortilla soup with out of the taco night leftovers :) Thin it with a bit of broth and tomato and toss in other bits and mmmm.

Thanks so much for your recipe for refried beans, @beesneeds. We really like refried beans.

lpink, these are the recipes I use for Shredded Beef. https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a9852/drip-beef-two-ways/ If you make the Italian Beef version, sure you use pepperocinis that match your spicyness tolerance. I didn’t know they came in varying degrees of heat and got the “medium” hot. I usually use ”mild.” Medium heat is too speecy-spicy for us!

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Thanks for the link on the roast beef Nekotish. We bought this big roast on sale last year and I cut it into quarters and froze three of them. I used the 4th to make pot roast in the slow cooker, but I didn't think that cut went well with pot roast--too tough. The second quarter hubs made in the oven, he's a much better meat chef than me. It was OK. He liked it. I'm not a beef fan in general. While eating it I thought--this would be good sliced thin for some kind of sandwich. I'm going to try the 3rd quarter in the instapot.

Also thank for the bean and rice cooking tips.

Today I made whole grain oatmeal (steel cut) on the stovetop, and wondered about doing that in the pressure cooker. Not really worth the trouble for just hubs and I when we are home, but could make a large batch and freeze for quick reheats when there's a time crunch.

As per the shredded beef, the reason I made the recipe I did was because it was in the clipping file I inherited from my Mom. Every once and a while I pull out one of the recipes and make it in honor of her. I happened to have the cranberry sauce on hand so thought, "What the heck, I'll try it." I made the cranberry sauce and it wasn't that good, my bad. Also not a great match IMHO with a hickory smoke flavor . . . so that clipping got tossed. I'm slowly making my way through the file, paring it down . . . Most of Mom's saved recipes are too high calorie with meat or a dessert, none of which hubs and I eat much.

Shredded beef is a common meal for us though, since hubs and Dad like it and it can be frozen. I mostly use chuck roast for it. Gonna try the Italian version Bbstx. On some Italian rolls with some melted provolone--yum! But it might be a while, that would be a treat for us. We had chicken fajitas last night, another treat and favorite meal of my husband . . . Dad doesn't eat onions and peppers so the whole meal is a bit lost on him . . . hubs and I often share our leftovers with Dad, but sometimes we make something spicy or with forbidden ingredients just for ourselves. A bit of both.

This recipe may be easier to follow than wading through all the verbiage on the blog post!

Although the Pioneer Woman appears to use whole pepperocinis, I prefer the buy them sliced. If mistakenly get whole, I slice them before I throw them in. It just makes for easier eating, I think. P.S. leftover beef freezes well.

This post has inspired me to try and make some home baked "hoagie" rolls. The ones in the store are mediocre if I can even find them. Here we call them "submarine" rolls.

I use my Instant Pot for making queso, Greek yogurt, soups, stews, taco meat, rice, pasta, stock, boneless ribs, burnt ends (BBQ), salmon, couscous, beans, peas, potatoes, whole chicken, whole turkey or breast, sweet potatoes, pulled pork, homemade refried beans, chicken mole, London Broil Stroganoff, roasts, crustless chicken pot pie, Mac n Cheese, Chicken Alfredo, pork chops/tenderloin, steaming all kinds of vegies, and boiling eggs. You do have to adjust recipes and that causes many recipes to be bland or overcooked.

The only time something came out flavorless was when I put frozen meat in it. It really needed to be browned first. Chicken and beef. For beans, I use the Instant Pot to presoak/precook the beans for about 5 minutes, drain the beans and rinse, then saute onions and cook the beans again with spices in the Instant Pot.

I would rather eat BBQ meats from a smoker in the summer, but in the winter, I use the Instant Pot. I also use it for steaming sweet potatoes and chicken carcasses for my dog.

Desserts? I have no idea why people make cakes and cheesecakes in an Instant Pot. It causes texture problems for me. I make Greek yogurt and Labneh at least once a week using the yogurt button and the slow cook button. Much better tasting yogurt and a whole lot cheaper than buying it.

The main point with the Instant Pot is that it only saves cooking time on some recipes like beans and meats. I like that I can put water and pasta in it, set it for 1 minute or less, then walk away. I don't worry about watching the pasta water so it doesn't boil over or run out of water. I just have to listen for the beep and start timing the natural release before I quick release. I just like being able to walk away to do something else. It saves time that way, but not usually with cooking.

Hubs is going to try some yogurt in it today . . .

How did the yogurt turn out?

Too thin for my taste. We need to get some cheesecloth. Ironically I had a yogurt strainer in a cabinet for decades. My Mom didn't use it, I took it, and then I didn't use it. I finally gave it to Goodwill . . . It's not critical to have that, just ironic. That's why I have so much junk sitting around the house and don't get rid of it. One never knows . . . sigh. Where to draw the line. It has to be drawn!

I haven't had any, but hubs has been eating it and says its ok. Getting a good starter yogurt is key . . . we were limited. Hopefully this is going to save us some money in the long run. Hubs eats a lot of yogurt, more than me. I eat it just once or twice a week . . . hubs almost every day.

I make yogurt in mine all the time, @I pinkmountain. It is thick and I have never had to strain it. What recipe did you use?

When DD first got her Insta-Pot, she made a lot of yogurt. I thought it was too thin, too. More like go-gurt.

I recently got an Instant Pot, and have yet to use it. Some of these ideas sound great.

Nekotish, your Eye of Round came out nicely pink! That's promising. Some other good ideas here as well. Yogurt sounds good, as do sweet potatoes or winter squash.

A friend told me she prefers her slow cooker to the IP slow cooker function. Nowadays I mainly use the slow cooker for bringing to get togethers (well, I went to one last summer that was very socially distanced outdoors). I think the IP would be too heavy to port along.

Tempted to take a bunch of chicken leg quarters and do those. Or, country style pork. We'll see.

Maybe yogurt.

No desserts, at least not yet. I seldom eat them and I haven't exactly been awash in house guesfs for oh, around a year...

If it is runny I would read through a new recipe. I've not had that happen. Multiple available filters without spending money on cheesecloth. I use cotton fabric for lots of straining that can be washed.

LINK

Ran a couple lemon rosemary chickens through the smoker the other day. Processed them one carcass at a time in the instant pot into stock. First time trying it.

Did the first one the low method of 3 hours on low pressure, NPR. Wasn't satisfied, and ended it with an extra 45 min on high pressure, NPR. It was much better.

Second carcass I did on 90 min high pressure, NPR. Wasn't quite satisfied, and did an additional 45 min on high pressure, NPR. Rather good stock this time.

Both times I filled the pot to about 1" below the 2/3 line with water after I had put in the carcass, celery, carrot, and onion. Since I was making a more herbed stock than the usual, I added in some extra rosemary and oregano.

Both batches I think benefitted from doing a cook, getting stirred up well, then a second cook rather than just one whole time at once. I tend to give my oven or stovetop stocks a stir as well.

Also made a big batch of meat and mushroom sauce. Took a frozen pound tube of Italian sausage out of the freezer and used most of a pound can of chopped mushrooms liquid to quick cook it on high pressure for 5 minutes, NPR. It was almost falling apart and still raw in the middle, so I hand broke it up in the mushroom liquid, then on normal saute to finish cooking and browning off. Added in the canned mushrooms, a few cans of tomato stuff, seasonings... and slow cooked it on high for 5 into 6 hours.

I still like my crockpots better for slow cooking. Having the ability to pressure to saute to slow cook in one pot is wonderful... just the slow cooker function isn't quite as good as a crockpot. Not sure why.

The only yogurt recipe I will now use is Frieda's. Frieda's Cold Start Yogurt

We followed the directions just like posted here. So who knows, could be any number of reasons . . .will just have to keep experimenting.