YMMV, but if the instant pot gets more people able to try a dish (either because it makes the recipe accessible, or because the time savings / attention savings makes them more confident or able to make it in the first place), then it has value, even if to a “skilled cook” with sufficient resources and time, doing it in a more traditional fashion is “not particularly hard”.
Time is finite, if an instant pot allows you to focus on things you find more important while also allowing you to have acceptable results, have at it. For example, I have a really great, incredibly effective zojirushi induction rice cooker. It makes rice that angels would weep over. I have used it 0 times since moving to Austin because the instant pot is “good enough”, waaaaaaay faster, and doesn’t involve pulling out another appliance.
As the author of @anon61221983’s video above, Chef John, is fond of saying, “Perfect is the enemy of good in the kitchen”.
In olden times we were warned not to cook things that expand when they cook (like rice) in pressure cookers because it can jam or clog the vents at the top if you’re not careful with the dose. I don’t know if that applies to instapots. Our rice cooker is of the antediluvian type where the lid is not latched down, so no danger there.
Oh it’s absolutely worth doing in a pressure cooker.
Faster without reduction of quality is a phenomenal thing. One the biggest reasons to get a pressure cooker is how straight up magic changing these slow cooked dishes into sub 2 hour weeknight meals is.
It’s not easier per se. Same amount of prep and active cooking time. Exactly the same process. And I’m really not into describing inherently easy things as difficult. There’s not too many dishes that are easier or more bullet proof than a simple boiled dinner. Whether it’s corned beef and cabbage or something else.
Maybe a fair point, and I didn’t quite think of that.
But my contention is more that the dish, and most dishes, cooked “properly” in a slow cooker are worse than the the dish “ruined” by conventional means.
And if it didn’t come through clearly I think pressure cookers are amazing. And the Instant Pot is a particularly good one. I have a stove top model myself but I frequently buy Instant Pots as gifts.
I just think it is important that people know it is a pressure cooker.
I also think it is a much, much better solution for what most people use slow cookers for.
Instead of doing a bad job cooking something for 6 hours. Just do a very good job doing it in 90 minutes.
Electric models in particular are excellent for accessibility reasons. I recently bought one for my grandmother. Who can’t quite wrangle a stove top pressure cooker thanks to chronic arthritis. She can’t really use slow cookers either, due to the weight of the ceramic insert.
That’s a common issue with newer ones. Manufacturers had to juice up the temps starting in the mid 90’s as the lower settings were often a food safety issue.
I’d say take a look at sous vide crock pot mods. Before home circulators were common it was popular to connect a temperature controller to crock pots. It lets you run them at lower temps but keep them stable.
