Originally published at: Corned beef and cabbage in the Instant Pot is so easy | Boing Boing
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I always do mine in a crock pot, mainly cause I"m too lazy to go out a buy an insta-pot. Maybe one day I’ll ask for one for x-mas or my birthday…
Just got mine (along with a chicken version for the non-beef eater in my family in a second crock pot) in and will throw together some soda bread this evening, too.
If we’re talking of recipes with corned beef and cabbage, though, this looks like something I might do with the leftovers…
I love chef John!
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I love the crockpot for corned beef on the warm setting for like 8 hrs – but I picked the 8qt Instant Pot over the Slow Cooker when I started making space in my far overloaded kitchen last year. I believe I can use the IP as a crock pot too, heat but not pressurize or something.
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Oh and I should make some of this too…
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One of my favorite parts about a crock pot is how the smell builds over the day, too. Makes the house smell awesome!
Hm! Might be worth upgrading at some point, then. I hear they are good for making rice, too.
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I got an instapot to replace my broken crockpot. If you only have room or desire for one device, the instapot is better since the steaming makes a lot of meals faster (beans from dry to cooked in 40 minutes). But I find its slow cooker to be less enjoyable than the crockpot. It’s a tiny bit over hot at the base, and the lid is more complicated to remove for a stir. But still does the job.
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Cool! Thanks for the info!
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Corned beef in 90 minutes?
I brine mine for 5 days before cooking for hours. Maybe I’ll try this and do a taste test. I do love the smell of the brining brisket though. It builds up the anticipation for the deliciousness that is to come.
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Corning beef at home is one of the superpowers I acquired in the past few years. I’ve done it twice with whole briskets cut where I get one tip and two flats.
The process is pretty easy: cover brisket piece with a rub that consists of a blend of spices and Morton’s Tender Quick, seal in vacuum bag, put in fridge, and flip over every other day for two weeks. Presto, you’ve got corned beef.
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I used prague powder! I used Prague Powder to make corned beef | Boing Boing
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I mean it’s not particularly hard without the instant pot.
Takes longer sure. I’d keep the cabbage out of there though. Cabbage is awful when over cooked and prone enough to it that it’s hard to avoid. We usually toss the cabbage on top of the rest to steam during the last 15 minutes of cooking. I don’t want to see what a pressure cooker might do to it.
My grandmother used to use a pressure cooker for her corned beef, always kept the cabbage out there.
It’s not the steaming. It’s the pressure (which is technically steam driven). An instant pot is just an electric pressure cooker, though it is a pretty damn good electric pressure cooked.
Slow cookers are in general pretty trash. They just don’t get hot enough to do most of the jobs we throw them well. We mostly use ours as a sorta chafing dish. Keep things cooked elsewhere (including a pressure cooker) warm for serving at parties. Or for certain hokey entertaining dishes like jelly meatballs and cheese dips.
I am a big Instant Pot user, but my biggest complaint is the vast difference in cooking times for the same recipe. I like to look at several recipes before deciding on one - and here’s what I notice:
Hard boiled eggs? Only 4 minutes! Orrr only 8 minutes! Corned beef? 90 minutes! Orrr 45 Minutes!
Depends on who you ask, I guess.
Nothing is more frustrating to see nearly double the time from one recipe to the next for the same item. And corned beef, just like hard boiled eggs are REALLY gross if not cooked properly…
TIL corned beef refers to salt, not peppercorns.
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An excellent run down of the history! Thanks!
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It is impressive that they found an unexpected new use for plastic.
Our ancient aluminum Presto pressure cooker has become a constant companion this past year after decades sitting in the back of the pantry. The fact that you can still buy consumables (gaskets and overpressure plugs) for something from the 1960s is a testament to its quality. Though probably today I’d buy a stainless one, so I could chuck it in the dishwasher.
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Electric pressure cookers have been mostly plastic like that since the 90’s at least. Which is about when they first appeared. They started as tweaked version of electric rice cookers, which were already mostly plastic by then.
Mostly run at lower pressure than metal stove top units as a result. Typical electric units are 8psi for low, 11psi for high. Stove top models tend to be 10psi/25psi.
It’s more down to the fact that they basically stopped making them after the 60’s. Fears about first gen pressure cookers exploding killed the home market everywhere but Asia. So second gen units like old prestos that were initially designed to address safety problems just stayed in production forever for that Asian market. The niche market in rest of the world was primarily working with vintage units so there was a easy to serve market for parts.
3rd gen and electrics didn’t start until the 90’s and finally got over the fears and started to proliferate.
But there’s not a lot to a pressure cooker, so the newer designs just use the same parts as the old ones. If you buy a brand new presto, you can use all the same gaskets and blow off valves.
I wouldn’t. Stainless will still rust in the dishwasher and all the bits and bobs, especially valves, aren’t ok with that. A lot of that’s removable. But the handles with all their built in latches and shit aren’t.
I definitely damaged a gasket the one time I did that when I was in a rush.
I expect the stainless that Fissler uses will be fine. After all, the interior of my dishwasher is also German stainless steel, I run it through the dishwasher all the time and it doesn’t rust. As for the rest, I think probably the lid would still need to be washed by hand.
Mostly the old Presto cleans completely with a wipe of the sponge, but every so often the dishwasher would be a plus.
of electric rice cookers, which were already mostly plastic by then.
Fortunately not ours. Every kitchen item we’ve owned that was made of plastic and gets exposed to heat as part of its functionality has started to deteriorate after 10 years, sometimes less.
Back to the topic, we would probably be using the pressure cooker to do corned beef today, but all the local restaurants are having take-away specials, so this seemed like
a good time to support one of the restaurants we like and buy out.
your statements easily run up to the edge of ableism and really, i think, go over the edge of it. if you were to go into any discussion about cooking with adhd you will find those who have instapots recommending them specifically because of auto-shutoff/keep warm in the case of an instapot while the fact that you can let crock pots cook for hours without losing moisture means that if you forget you’re cooking, you’re less likely to destroy your meal and/or burn the house down. they also allow for cooking of large batches in a controlled fashion, which can then be parceled out and frozen for when you forget to cook at all.
i will also mention that the biggest problem i’ve had with the two crockpots i own has been getting the temperature low enough so that i don’t overcook the food if i leave it for most of the day. the older model i have, one of the original rival crockpots, is less of a problem with that. it may be that the reason you feel that slow cookers “are generally trash” reflects the choices you’ve made in purchasing them. still, your comments about safe, slow, cooking methods show a serious amount of unexamined privilege with respect to people who have a variety of deficits and disabilities for whom these objects represent being able to continue cooking regardless.
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