Fri Aug 30, 2019, 01:46 PM

Goodheart (4,595 posts)

Not in love with my Instant Pot

Aside from the blatant lies about cooking times, and the blind SURPRISES you get, I find the menu system really confusing and unintuitive.

For example, I just tried to cook some plain white rice... put the hard rice in with the appopriate amount of water, closed it up, and pressed the "Rice" button. Sure sounds simple enough, right? But then the LED flashed 12:00 minutes... OK, I can deal with that... it's going to take 12 minutes once the pot is pressurized.... BUT THEN...

The led changes its display word to AUTO and a panel button marked "Keep Warm" lights up..... well short of the pressure time + 12 minutes. It's certainly not cooked, so why is it "Keeping my stuff Warm"? What sort of nonsense is that?

Either I have a defective pot or somebody needs to go back to the drawing board. With this much guess work I might as just use a regular pressure cooker.

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11 replies	Author	Time	Post
Not in love with my Instant Pot (Original post)	Goodheart	Aug 2019	OP
Auto indicates it is getting up to temp and	Phoenix61	Aug 2019	#1
LOL	Goodheart	Aug 2019	#2
Shame!	MissB	Aug 2019	#3
Hit manual? Why am I hitting the manual? I thought this was supposed to be simple.	Goodheart	Aug 2019	#5
The manual button. I think the newer versions say pressure cook	MissB	Aug 2019	#6
Oh. I don't have a "manual" button... mine says "Pressure cook".	Goodheart	Aug 2019	#7
True!	MissB	Aug 2019	#8
My son in law has one..he's the chef. His sits in the cupboard a lot. Glad I didn't invest	Thekaspervote	Aug 2019	#4
I love mine but yes I agree with you, it took me a while.	MuseRider	Aug 2019	#9
Still on a learning curve with mine.	peacefreak2.0	Aug 2019	#10
I used to prepare rice in a rice cooker. You put the rice and amount of water called for	abqtommy	Aug 2019	#11

Response to Goodheart (Original post)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 01:50 PM

Phoenix61 (15,513 posts)

1. Auto indicates it is getting up to temp and

pressure. When it gets there the timer will start counting.

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Response to Phoenix61 (Reply #1)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 01:51 PM

Goodheart (4,595 posts)

2. LOL

My, that's so OBVIOUS!

/sarcasm

Thanks for the info, though.

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Response to Goodheart (Original post)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 01:55 PM

MissB (15,506 posts)

3. Shame!

Kidding.

Anyway. Use 1 cup rice (dry measuring cups) and 1 cup water (wet measuring cups) plus just a tad bit of your favorite oil. I use canola. Just a tad- maybe 1/2 tsp or so. Just drop a small glug in there.

Close it up, turn the knob to seal. Hit manual, adjust the time to 6 minutes. Walk away because you don’t need to touch anything else.

Once it’s done, wait until the cycle ends and the display reads L012 (so let it go for 12 minutes of rest time after the cycle ends.) Release any remaining pressure using your left hand and open it up. Should be perfect.

I never use the presets unless I’m making yogurt. The rest of the time, I just use manual.

I highly recommend the Facebook instant pot page. It’s a gem full of advice, tips, amazing recipes and some nice innovations.

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Response to MissB (Reply #3)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 01:57 PM

Goodheart (4,595 posts)

5. Hit manual? Why am I hitting the manual? I thought this was supposed to be simple.

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Response to Goodheart (Reply #5)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 01:58 PM

MissB (15,506 posts)

6. The manual button. I think the newer versions say pressure cook

instead of manual. I have a version 1.

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Response to MissB (Reply #6)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 02:00 PM

Goodheart (4,595 posts)

7. Oh. I don't have a "manual" button... mine says "Pressure cook".

Thanks for the advice.

The paper manual that came with this pot, by the way, is not worth the paper it's printed on. LOL

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Response to Goodheart (Reply #7)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 02:04 PM

MissB (15,506 posts)

8. True!

I never even looked at it.

If you’re into black beans, I throw them in dry, cover with water and throw in a bay leaf. Pressure cook for 32 minutes then let the pressure release naturally (let the pin drop on its own.)

Rinse then use.

Magical if, like me, work and plan for dinner at the last moment.

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Response to Goodheart (Original post)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 01:57 PM

Thekaspervote (29,133 posts)

4. My son in law has one..he's the chef. His sits in the cupboard a lot. Glad I didn't invest

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Response to Goodheart (Original post)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 02:15 PM

MuseRider (33,281 posts)

9. I love mine but yes I agree with you, it took me a while.

I wrecked a couple of things until I figured out. Mine is not an Instant Pot. It is an off brand but the same couple of problems right at first. I do not use it all the time but when I do I am very happy with the results. I have not mastered rice or pasta in it, it is always wrong but I will keep trying.

I do agree that it is a little bit hard to figure out at first.

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Response to Goodheart (Original post)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 02:53 PM

peacefreak2.0 (922 posts)

10. Still on a learning curve with mine.

Enough success (country style ribs) to have me try more things. Still trying to figure out how to make pasta that's not too soft😄

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Response to Goodheart (Original post)

Fri Aug 30, 2019, 06:35 PM

abqtommy (14,118 posts)

11. I used to prepare rice in a rice cooker. You put the rice and amount of water called for

in the cooker and fire it up. It was ready in about 5 minutes. It was a low-tech cooker, no led display, just perfect rice!

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