instant pot v. slow cooker

[Anonymous]

I know there are tons of instant pot threads, and I've looked at many of them.

Here's my question: does the instant pot produce noticeably better food than the slow cooker? I bought a slow cooker a few years ago and tried a lot of recipes (mostly from the America's Test Kitchen people). The food was basically ok, but rarely better than that. The flavors were often kind of bland and not well incorporated. A lot of slow cooker recipes involve fatty cuts of meat (like chuck roasts) and the end result is kind of greasy.

I understand there are trade offs with week night cooking. I can make something in a dutch oven over the weekend that's going to be better than what I can do on a Wednesday night. Given that I don't have tons of time during the week, does the instant pot do better than the slow cooker?

Please note -- this is not a question about convenience or multi function. I can often get my act together to get the slow cooker started before work, and I understand the benefits of the instant pot for situations where you haven't planned ahead, or for replacing other appliances. What I want to know is how the food tastes.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you regarding traditional slow cooker recipes. They often taste bland and overcooked, and it take a lot of extra effort to make it palatable. It's definitely not the "set it and forget it" miracle that people make it out to be.

I have a slow cooker and instant pot, and the Instant Pot is notorious for having a terrible slow cooker function. The saute + pressure cooker is the best feature of the instant pot, but I've NEVER had success with it as a slow cooker.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PressureCooking/comments/5hhkl3/anyone_have_problems_using_instant_pot_as_slow/

[Anonymous]

This is PP (10:02) - I wanted to add that a slow cooker is great for certain things (shredded meats, bean soups, etc.) but I mainly use it to keep previously cooked things warm when serving a large group (like holiday parties.)

The best luck I've had is with a traditional Dutch Oven (I like Le Creuset brand), set low and slow overnight in the oven or on a lazy Sunday.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks. I should have been clearer. This isn't about using the instant pot as a slow cooker. It's about whether pressure cooking results in tastier food than slow cooking.

[Anonymous]

I think you'd probably do better looking at reviews from sources online (vaguely remember NYTimes covered this) than from DCUM. That said:

- I've found the instant pot generally allows for more versatile recipes, which results in tastier food. I'm just not a huge fan of stewed meats, and that's primarily what we get from our crockpot.
- The saute function on the instant pot also lends itself to tastier recipes. When using my slow cooker, I often either avoid recipes that require searing the meat, skip that step, or do it but don't get a good browning on my stove, and the result is less tasty food (and more dishes to clean). The saute function on the instant pot browns meat extremely well and really quickly, and is also great for things thing sauteing aromatics before starting the slow cooking -- also reducing sauces at the end of the cooking cycle. All that makes for much tastier food, and the fact that it can be done in a single pot is, at least for me, a game changer.
- I actually did a taste test earlier this week with a batch of pulled port in the instant pot, and another batch in the slow cooker (cooking for a crowd). The slow cooker batch was more tender, but I probably would not have noticed if I wasn't doing a side-by-side comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you regarding traditional slow cooker recipes. They often taste bland and overcooked, and it take a lot of extra effort to make it palatable. It's definitely not the "set it and forget it" miracle that people make it out to be.

I have a slow cooker and instant pot, and the Instant Pot is notorious for having a terrible slow cooker function. The saute + pressure cooker is the best feature of the instant pot, but I've NEVER had success with it as a slow cooker.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PressureCooking/comments/5hhkl3/anyone_have_problems_using_instant_pot_as_slow/

YMMV. I have an Instant Pot, and use the slow cooker function often. I love that I can saute in the insert, which allows me to add a lot of flavor without a lot of mess.

I think that a pressure cooker tends to produce more flavorful dishes--it's a staple of Indian cooking, after all--because it cooks faster. It's not as good for things that are meant to be cooked low and slow, but for everything else, it's better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks. I should have been clearer. This isn't about using the instant pot as a slow cooker. It's about whether pressure cooking results in tastier food than slow cooking.

No. It does not. Do not buy into the hype.

[Anonymous]

I liked this Serious Eats look at slow cookers vs. pressure cookers vs. dutch ovens, which concludes that slow cookers are not usually the best option if you care about the best results: https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-cookers.html

Mostly though, this will come down to user preferences and convenience. I haven't used my slow cooker since I got a pressure cooker a couple of years ago, but I have friends who still swear by theirs even after getting an Instant Pot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I liked this Serious Eats look at slow cookers vs. pressure cookers vs. dutch ovens, which concludes that slow cookers are not usually the best option if you care about the best results: https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-cookers.html

OP here. Very informative! Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I have both and here are my thoughts:

I have a slow cooker that has a brown/saute feature built-in. Cardinal rule of slow cooking: ALWAYS saute onions and garlic before you slow cook. Otherwise the dish gets a weird, tinny taste. Ignore recipes that say to throw the onions in raw. Trust me - saute them first! I only use the slow cooker for soups, stews, chili (both veg or meat), bolognese sauce, and Indian dishes such as daal, chole, keema, pork vindaloo, etc. Meats you're going to shred such as pulled pork or carnitas are really good too. I never make chicken in a slow cooker because I like to leave it all day while we're out of the house and chicken just gets obliterated when you leave it in there that long. The food only tastes bland if you cook bland food. We use a lot of herbs, strong masalas, and spices in our cooking and we like things spicy! The slow cooker is best for foods that taste better the longer they cook, or taste better the next day.

Instant Pot: DH is Indian and we've been cooking in a stove top pressure cooker for years (we have two of them that we brought from India). We got an Instant Pot about 6 months ago and I don't like it because I feel I have much more control over the cooking time with the stove top cooker. First, it takes 10-20 minutes to heat up before it starts pressure cooking, so when it says "ten minute cook time" it's really 20-30. Maybe it's me, but I seem to overcook everything in it - even when I follow instructions perfectly. With the stove top pressure cooker, it heats up very quickly and cooks much faster. I also find the food doesn't taste that great in the Instant Pot - I'd rather do it in my Dutch Oven on the stove. But I must confess, we never cooked meat in the pressure cooker before we got the Instant Pot.

So I guess I'm still getting the hang of it but sill prefer cooking on the stove. I just don't see where the IP saves any time if I have to start cooking after I come home from work. But I know a lot of people love it - maybe because the concept of pressure cooking is new to them. I just like my stove top pressure cooker better.

[Anonymous]

No op. Pressure cooker does not result in tastier food than slow cooking or stove cooking. It’s much faster.

[Anonymous]

No it’s not tastier. Texture is similar. However I use instapot for things I wouldn’t use a slow cooker. Hardboiled eggs, quick chicken broth, beans from dry done in time for dinner, perfectly steamed through beets, beef ribs etc.
I only make stew like whole recipes and no chicken and do sauteenonions etc. so for what I’m using it it’s worth it to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks. I should have been clearer. This isn't about using the instant pot as a slow cooker. It's about whether pressure cooking results in tastier food than slow cooking.

I do not think so. We got the Breville fast slow pro and I do not notice a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks. I should have been clearer. This isn't about using the instant pot as a slow cooker. It's about whether pressure cooking results in tastier food than slow cooking.

No. I make the same chicken recipe in both and I think it tastes the same. But I make hardboiled eggs in the instant pot, which is worth the price of admission.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP on this thread and I have an update.

After dithering for months, I bought an Instant Pot about 10 days ago (the ultra, because I wanted the snazzier interface). I decided I was willing to plunk down the money to satisfy my curiosity, and I did not have super high expectations. Contrary to some of the opinions expressed on this thread, my assessment so far is that it DOES make tastier food than the slow cooker.

So far I have made several recipes from twosleevers.com -- butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, basic dal, and a rice/dal/peanuts thing. All were excellent. I was particularly surprised with the flavor of the lamb rogan josh, because the recipe calls for dumping everything in at once -- no sauteeing onions or browning meat. And I've cooked plenty of Indian food before so I feel like I had some basis for comparison.

I've also made a chicken noodle soup, bbq brisket (outstanding!), and spare ribs. All good.

Meat turns out tender, and the flavor seems to penetrate the meat rather than just coat the surface, like the slow cooker. Also, food doesn't have that greasy or "overcooked" taste/texture. Slow cooker has been banished to the basement.

The main issue to work out is timing. It is not entirely clear how long the pot will take to come up to pressure, or to come down again if a natural pressure release is called for.

I don't think this thing will be a time saver, per se, but it will make certain things (beans, soups, briskets, Indian food) feasible without having started the day before and without significant babysitting as they cook. That's worthwhile to me.

Thanks to everyone who opined.