Do I want an instant pot?

[Anonymous]

Do you have one? Do you like it? Do you find it useful? MIL gave me some clothes from kohl’s for Christmas that just aren’t me and I’m thinking an instant pot might be a good thing to consider with my store credit from the returned clothes.

[Anonymous]

I have one and use it all the time. Just know that the name is a misnomer and it isn’t always faster than another way of cooking, but it is really convenient. I hate watching the stove and worrying about burning or bubbling over and you don’t have that with this. You can start a meal and leave your house and it keeps warm when it’s done. You can cook meat from frozen. I make soups, stews, roasts, rice, hard boiled eggs, pasta and meatballs, ribs, potatoes. I have friends who don’t like it but love their air fryer because they bake or fry most foods. You have to think about what your family likes to eat and then decide.

[Anonymous]

Mine is mostly a waste of counter space, but I am vegetarian. I think Instant Pots are most useful for cooking meat and meat-based stews. Most veggie dishes are better (and more quickly) done on the stove or in the oven. I hate not being able to taste and adjust as I cook, or know when something is done before it turns into a soggy mess. I pretty much only use my Instant Pot for chickpeas (for hummus) and boiling eggs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have one and use it all the time. Just know that the name is a misnomer and it isn’t always faster than another way of cooking, but it is really convenient. I hate watching the stove and worrying about burning or bubbling over and you don’t have that with this. You can start a meal and leave your house and it keeps warm when it’s done. You can cook meat from frozen. I make soups, stews, roasts, rice, hard boiled eggs, pasta and meatballs, ribs, potatoes. I have friends who don’t like it but love their air fryer because they bake or fry most foods. You have to think about what your family likes to eat and then decide.

I could have written this! I really like mine for the things the PP noted. I've also made cheesecake, all sorts of grains/legumes and egg bites. I've never used the slow-cook feature, though. Not a big fan of slow cookers except for tougher cuts of meat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have one and use it all the time. Just know that the name is a misnomer and it isn’t always faster than another way of cooking, but it is really convenient. I hate watching the stove and worrying about burning or bubbling over and you don’t have that with this. You can start a meal and leave your house and it keeps warm when it’s done. You can cook meat from frozen. I make soups, stews, roasts, rice, hard boiled eggs, pasta and meatballs, ribs, potatoes. I have friends who don’t like it but love their air fryer because they bake or fry most foods. You have to think about what your family likes to eat and then decide.

I could have written this! I really like mine for the things the PP noted. I've also made cheesecake, all sorts of grains/legumes and egg bites. I've never used the slow-cook feature, though. Not a big fan of slow cookers except for tougher cuts of meat.

^^PP here. Forgot to mention that if I were going off to college, I would have loved one of these. I also make tea in it for iced tea concentrate (4 cups of water to 1 cup loose tea and 4 minutes at high pressure, let release naturally, strain and then 'bottle'.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have one and use it all the time. Just know that the name is a misnomer and it isn’t always faster than another way of cooking, but it is really convenient. I hate watching the stove and worrying about burning or bubbling over and you don’t have that with this. You can start a meal and leave your house and it keeps warm when it’s done. You can cook meat from frozen. I make soups, stews, roasts, rice, hard boiled eggs, pasta and meatballs, ribs, potatoes. I have friends who don’t like it but love their air fryer because they bake or fry most foods. You have to think about what your family likes to eat and then decide.

I could have written this! I really like mine for the things the PP noted. I've also made cheesecake, all sorts of grains/legumes and egg bites. I've never used the slow-cook feature, though. Not a big fan of slow cookers except for tougher cuts of meat.

Love mine. It’s best for tough meats like Chuck roast or pork should. I use it for Indian dishes and stew type meals.

[Anonymous]

I love it for making chicken soup/stock. It does in 2-3 hours what would take 6-8 on the stovetop, and does it better. I make this several times a year so it's worth it just for that, to me. I don't really use it for a lot else, but if I had room to keep it out on the counter I probably would use it more. I have tested it with other foods and I find it doesn't really cut down on time or greatly improve the other types of stews or simmered dishes I like to make. Nor is it worth it for hard-boiling eggs unless i'm making them in a great quantity, which is very infrequent.

If you have space for it and it would essentially be free or cheap due to your store credit, I'd go for it. I have other gadgets I only use 3-4 times a year as well (bread machine for challah and pizza dough, food processor which I mainly use for gazpacho and latkes), and the instant pot certainly ranks up there with those, for me. But all of them have to live in a cabinet in the dining room in my house, which sucks. I'm sure I'd use all of them more if they lived in the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Love mine.

I use it for rice, split pea soup, cooking chicken that is still frozen and making a quick meat sauce.

I have experimented with caramelized onions and made onion mush but it is a tasty mush that mixes in with other dishes for intense onion flavor so it isn’t a total loss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine is mostly a waste of counter space, but I am vegetarian. I think Instant Pots are most useful for cooking meat and meat-based stews. Most veggie dishes are better (and more quickly) done on the stove or in the oven. I hate not being able to taste and adjust as I cook, or know when something is done before it turns into a soggy mess. I pretty much only use my Instant Pot for chickpeas (for hummus) and boiling eggs.

It's great for beans and lentils too. I'm not a vegetarian but I use it for that and also rice and eggs. I roast a chicken each week and use it to make stock.

[Anonymous]

No. Another useless tool where a normal post does the trick just fine and often more easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is mostly a waste of counter space, but I am vegetarian. I think Instant Pots are most useful for cooking meat and meat-based stews. Most veggie dishes are better (and more quickly) done on the stove or in the oven. I hate not being able to taste and adjust as I cook, or know when something is done before it turns into a soggy mess. I pretty much only use my Instant Pot for chickpeas (for hummus) and boiling eggs.

It's great for beans and lentils too. I'm not a vegetarian but I use it for that and also rice and eggs. I roast a chicken each week and use it to make stock.

Ok, but you don't need that pot for any of those dishes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have one and use it all the time. Just know that the name is a misnomer and it isn’t always faster than another way of cooking, but it is really convenient. I hate watching the stove and worrying about burning or bubbling over and you don’t have that with this. You can start a meal and leave your house and it keeps warm when it’s done. You can cook meat from frozen. I make soups, stews, roasts, rice, hard boiled eggs, pasta and meatballs, ribs, potatoes. I have friends who don’t like it but love their air fryer because they bake or fry most foods. You have to think about what your family likes to eat and then decide.

I could have written this! I really like mine for the things the PP noted. I've also made cheesecake, all sorts of grains/legumes and egg bites. I've never used the slow-cook feature, though. Not a big fan of slow cookers except for tougher cuts of meat.

^^PP here. Forgot to mention that if I were going off to college, I would have loved one of these. I also make tea in it for iced tea concentrate (4 cups of water to 1 cup loose tea and 4 minutes at high pressure, let release naturally, strain and then 'bottle'.)

Or, put tea bags and water in a normal pot of simmering water, steep, strain and bottle.

[Anonymous]

I'm not a cook but others in the family use the Instant Pot all the time. Making soups, rice, etc. It seems very versatile, and not hard to get good results with.

[Anonymous]

Makes great clotted cream (if you buy the right cream). Thus far, that’s pretty much all I’ve used mine for. Prefer the oven for slow cooked/braised meat.

Made a chicken and rice dish in it that DH really liked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is mostly a waste of counter space, but I am vegetarian. I think Instant Pots are most useful for cooking meat and meat-based stews. Most veggie dishes are better (and more quickly) done on the stove or in the oven. I hate not being able to taste and adjust as I cook, or know when something is done before it turns into a soggy mess. I pretty much only use my Instant Pot for chickpeas (for hummus) and boiling eggs.

It's great for beans and lentils too. I'm not a vegetarian but I use it for that and also rice and eggs. I roast a chicken each week and use it to make stock.

Ok, but you don't need that pot for any of those dishes.

No, but those things are faster and easier with an instant pot. I wouldn’t recommend buying one necessarily but if you have store credit it’s a nice thing to have