
Inside the Home of Instant Pot - greeneggs
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/business/instant-pot.html
======
spodek
I use a Cuisinart pressure cooker like a chain smoker. I cook a vegetable stew
that lasts 4 or 5 meals, then cook my next vegetable stew for the next 4 or 5
meals, and so on.

No recipes. Basically what's fresh and in season from the farmers market with
legumes (lentils, beans, peas, et), nutritional yeast, herbs or flavoring
(usually ginger or jalepenos) and water. Then salt to taste, topped with nuts,
and crispy vegetables like onion or pepper.

Actually, here's a video of it -- [http://joshuaspodek.com/20-minute-
vegetable-stew](http://joshuaspodek.com/20-minute-vegetable-stew). It's 20
minutes and not that exciting, but it shows how to make a delicious stew from
entirely fresh ingredients with zero planning.

I make bread starting with wheat berries in it (grinding them into flour in
the blender first). Also fruit stews that are incredible desserts.

Total life changer. Restaurants are disappointing in comparison and I live in
Manhattan. It paid for itself in the first use.

~~~
EADGBE
> I cook a vegetable stew that lasts 4 or 5 meals, then cook my next vegetable
> stew for the next 4 or 5 meals, and so on.

I hope you change it up more often than that. Do you get sick of stew all day
every day?

~~~
bluesroo
I'm fairly utilitarian about cooking and I see where OP is coming from...
After working a full day I don't want to take more time to cook and clean. I
want to relax or do something fun, and cooking isn't that for me. Being able
to make a meal that lasts 2ish days is pretty excellent way of not having to
spend time on cooking while still getting a good (if repetitive) set of meals.

On the other hand my wife enjoys cooking so she'll end up doing most of that
and it's my job to clean up afterwards. Time-wise it works out to about what
it would take for me to make something simple. When she leaves town for a few
days I go back to my utilitarian ways.

------
Rezo
Lots of people seem to be wondering why Instant Pot has become a hit while
electronic pressure cookers have existed as a category for quite some time.

I personally think it's a great case of tipping points, networking effects and
branding all working together.

The Instant Pot is a genuinely good product, so it didn't have a trouble
finding early users. These people then produced recipes, books and videos not
for pressure cookers, but for the Instant Pot specifically. There's 1600+
books for Instant Pot on Amazon, everything from how to cook Keto meals to
Indian food. If you have a Breville Fast Slow, and I have a Cuisinart CPC-600
pressure cooker, the cooking times, settings and pressure levels aren't
transferable between the two, and may produce quite different results. Hence
the networking effect of everyone having the same brand and model of cooker,
combined with the tipping point of reaching a certain mass of Instant Pot
users, causing an explosion of recipes and guides, which again drives further
adoption.

So why don't people create "Breville Fast Slow Pressure Cooker" recipes in the
first place? I think it's because of the branding. The Instant Pot name itself
is already fun and self-describing, and the marketing downplays the pressure
cooking aspects. Pressure cooking has a negative association historically from
a safety point of view. So while everyone tries to sell electronic pressure
cookers, I think most people who buy this product aren't interested in
pressure cookers at all, instead they're specifically getting an Instant Pot.
And while technically they may be the same, the customers don't necessarily
perceive it that way.

~~~
ghaff
>I think most people who buy this product aren't interested in pressure
cookers at all, instead they're specifically getting an Instant Pot. And while
technically they may be the same, the customers don't necessarily perceive it
that way.

I don't know how deliberate it was but de-emphasizing its pressure cookerness
was a smart move. A lot of people still associate "pressure cooker" with
"explosions" and, even if they know intellectually they're not really
dangerous, they'll still move on to the next item.

As others have said, the price is also quite reasonable--in fact, a lot of
stovetop pressure cookers cost more. $100-ish is around the point where a lot
of people will take a flyer on something and won't be too put out if it starts
gathering dust after a few months.

~~~
akgerber
I have read an interview with the owner where he said he deliberately added &
marketed a bunch of redundant safety features because Americans are afraid of
pressure cookers.

~~~
Bromskloss
I wonder how one properly make a safety valve that works even when smeared by
food, or prevent the smearing from happening. Should the valve be really large
in cross-sectional area, so that the force a food clot would have to withstand
becomes large?

~~~
derekp7
Pressure sensor that cuts off the electricity if pressure gets too high. No
more electricity, no more heating, pressure drops. Another one I've seen on my
mom's pressure cooker that she's had for probably 40 years or more, is a
physical plug that will shoot out if the pressure gets too high and the
release valve gets stuck. Of course, not sure what the potential damage from
this plug would be (I've only ever seen it shoot into the pot when it was
removed from the stove, and cooled too quickly). But better than the whole
thing popping.

~~~
akgerber
The Instant Pot claims to have some sort of mechanism that will lower the
cooking pot and break the seal in an overpressure situation:
[http://instantpot.us/benefits/safety-
features/](http://instantpot.us/benefits/safety-features/)

------
TheRealPomax
If you actually read this article, there's barely any information in it that
warrants that many words. It's basically just an advertisement that goes "lots
of people have bought this thing!" with the automatic effect that readers will
then go "wow sounds popular I should think about getting one".

~~~
baldfat
When anything doubles in sales for 6 straight years I think this kind of
article is warranted. When it is a top 5 item across stores on Black Friday.
The story is how a small Canadian company has such religiously loyal customers
and evangelist. I think it is a far article.

I bought myself one in September. I love to cook and cook 70% of meals. Almost
everything is from scratch and takes over an hour. I now use this Instant Pot
3 or 4 days a week. I owned a non-electric pressure cooker my whole life and
find this makes it so convenient to just get good tasting food done quickly
and with much less prep work.

Also this is about Tech Startup inventor making such a strong impact on
appliances. No advertising just Amazon and Internet Word of Mouth.

Edit: Also it is virtually sold out across the internet. Bought one for my
parents and it was only found by stopping in at stores and looking for the
last one not inventories.

~~~
mattmaroon
I think to OPs point, is not that articles in general aren't warranted. It's
just that this one was useless. It doesn't tell me what instant pot did to
make it beat out rivals other than some nonsense about sensors.

And sending units to reviewers is paid advertising. I'd like to hear more
about that. Was that his plan from the beginning? Make the same device
everyone else does at the same price but get blog reviews?

~~~
ghaff
The article does get into the viral marketing etc. but, like you, I would like
to hear more. I'm honestly not sure why the Instant Pot took off when
(admittedly mostly much more expensive) electric pressure cookers have been
around for ages. Though, reading the article, it's also not clear to me if the
founder really knows why it became so successful either.

~~~
mattmaroon
Yeah, I'd love to know if it was intentional.

~~~
jasonlotito
FTA:

> In 2010, after several months of sluggish sales in and around Ontario, Mr.
> Wang listed the Instant Pot on Amazon, where a community of food writers
> eventually took notice. Vegetarians and paleo dieters, in particular, were
> drawn to the device’s pressure-cooking function, which shaved hours off the
> time needed to cook pots of beans or large cuts of meat.

> Sensing viral potential, Instant Pot sent test units to about 200
> influential chefs, cooking instructors and food bloggers. Reviews and
> recipes appeared online, and sales began to climb.

I really don't know what you are talking about. It spells out exactly what
they did, and why they did it.

It also talks about taking advantage of "Fulfilled by Amazon" back in 2010,
still early in the program, and credits Amazon with over 90% of it's sales at
one point.

~~~
ghaff
Yes, but it seems as if it was starting to gather a fair bit of attention on
Amazon before they sent out the test units. I suspect that the initial answer
was some combination of Amazon + good product + smart positioning + good luck.

Overall, it's an interesting story about a product that succeeded largely
through viral marketing but I'd have liked more detail than you're likely to
get from a general interest article.

~~~
soundwave106
There's not _that_ much more detail, but a University of Waterloo article on
them ([https://smbp.uwaterloo.ca/2017/03/instant-pot-climbs-the-
soc...](https://smbp.uwaterloo.ca/2017/03/instant-pot-climbs-the-social-media-
ladder-to-success/)) describes the name of the tactic described above:
influencer marketing. It's interesting that they align the fact that cooking
is often a social phenomenon, with the fact that influencer marketing seemed
to work well for Instant Pot.

I gather from some of the articles linked ([http://refineandfocus.com/when-
brand-communities-become-cult...](http://refineandfocus.com/when-brand-
communities-become-cults-lessons-from-instant-pots-social-media-success/) and
[https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/from-ottawa-to-world-
domina...](https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/from-ottawa-to-world-domination-
the-story-of-the-instant-pot-1.3319793)) that unlike other past influencer
marketed products, Instant Pot largely utilized Internet space: big platform
social media word-of-mouth to achieve their affects. Given that Internet
social media space is growing, I would expect more of these type of marketing
stories in the future.

Some of it's probably the product for sure. If I remember right, rice cookers
like the Zojirushi models had pretty much everything Instant Pot has, _except_
the pressure cooking part. But that's a pretty big "except", given the dodgy
past of traditional stove-top pressure cookers.

~~~
ghaff
Modern stovetop pressure cookers are pretty safe these days but some people
certainly worry and, as others have said, they can be a bit fiddly. You
certainly don't fire them up and leave the house.

Influencer marketing is a big deal in many product categories these days. The
details vary by B2B or B2C, product/service area, etc. But reviews by people
who may not be full-time writers and reviewers can be very important,
especially for product categories that don't have a lot of trusted expert
review sources.

With money and goods often changing hands there can be a whiff of payola about
the whole process. But most people who have a trusted following really are
giving honest opinions. You may be able to get me to write a review if you
send me something I'm interested and qualified to have an opinion on. I'm not
going to be positive just because because I got some freebie though.

~~~
baldfat
I owned a stove top and my wife refused to use it. My wife uses the Instant
Pot all the time and the dreaded slow cooker is gone for good.

I still like the stove top 8 qt model for when we have company for dinner and
I am making a roast, (I always try to eat a roast all the time so good
excuse).

------
kitcar
I was under the impression that instant pot was not the inventor of the
electric slow cooker / rice maker / pressure cooker hybrid, they were just the
ones to import the concept from China and market it to North American
audiences. Can anyone who lived in China in the late 90s confirm - was the
instant pot style of pressure cooker popular back then, or is the instant pot
brand truly the original I nventor of the hybrid pressure cooker concept?

Speaking As a (very satisfied) owner of an instant pot, when I first received
it I recall noticing it looked very similar to devices I would see for sale at
my local east Asian grocery store

~~~
nichtich
It's pretty weird when you consider how food trends go. In China, back in the
90s, my parents use a pressure cooker and a wok for everything. And it's the
norm as for most families I know both parent work and they have to come home
at 5:30 and put food on the table at 6:30, with no easy option like frozen
pizza. Now with supermarkets and food delivery you don't need to cook if you
don't want to, and if you do choose to cook it becomes much more fancy(and
western) with more time consuming steps.

It seems the reverse in happening in us?

~~~
dogruck
I really liked this comparison. You might be right!

Can you say more? For example:

1\. Back in the day, in the US, easy pre-made home meals were the rage. Frozen
meals. Microwave dinners. Meals from a can. I don’t mean, “yeah, sure, we
still have those today.” I mean, “This is the new society, this is the future,
and this food is delicious and amazing!!!”

Was that ever a trend in China?

2\. Is there a “Blue Apron China?” I don’t use Blue Apron, and personally
think it’s silly — just wondering if there is something similar in China.

~~~
nichtich
So i think in both places cooking has become more of a hobby/status signaling
thing.

In China there's something similar to blue apron in late 90s or early 2000s.
But it kinda die out because it's offered more on the convenience side instead
of healthy side.

Baking stuff becomes quite popular in recent years, because it's a western
thing, and it's time consuming, good for share with friends in itself or as
photos:good showoff material. Whereas the old method of finding whatever is
fresh today at wet market and do a quick stir-fry becomes more and more
reserved for older genration, and thus is not a fancy thing todo. Pressure
cooking also is something you do when you don't have time and worry about fuel
bill, not sexy.

Preprepared food is looked down upon in both us and china , it seems. In US i
think people feel empowering by the idea of feeding your family in a healthy
way without a stay at home mom; in China a stayed at home mom just recently
becomes a thing to brag about, and cooking seems to be a important tool to do
it.

------
mattmaroon
This article glosses over the real story which is how did Instant Pot win when
their product is functional similar to ones that have existed for a long time?
(And no, it's isn't sensors, they all regulate heat and have a valve that
prevents explosion.)

This is the same as when people write articles about AirBnB and act as if they
invented the space when VRBO was there for years.

I have no problem with stories about an upstart toppling the existing players
(in fact I love em) just tell me how it happened.

~~~
bunderbunder
I only skimmed, but I don't think it does.

As an owner of an Instant Pot that gets regular use, and another pressure
cooker that lives in storage now, I think I can take a stab at it:

Compared to stove top pressure cookers, it's just easier. Stove top ones
require constant attention and fiddling to manage the heat an pressure
properly. With the Instant Pot, put food in, close lid, set time, go watch One
Life to Live reruns until you hear beeping.

Compared to other electric models, it's either cheaper, or easier to use, or
both. Many comparable models are prohibitively expensive, while the Instant
Pot is $100. And the interface is dead simple. Push button, adjust time, walk
away. I haven't used another electric model, but a couple friends have them,
and, to hear them talk, theirs aren't quite as simple to operate.

(That first step might be more confusing before, probably by the 3rd usage,
you realize that all the buttons labeled 'bean', 'soup', 'veggies', etc. all
do basically the same thing and are really just there for show.)

~~~
mattmaroon
Idk, my grandma has a similar unit she got a couple decades ago. It was cheap
though I don't know how cheap. (I do know my grandma though.) Lots of
competition that's similarly priced.

The main benefit of the stovetop units (I have both) is speed. The heating
element on the cheaper electric is drastically underpowered and can't even get
a good Mailliard. The higher end ones can but they're still much slower than a
gas stove, especially when full of liquid. I pretty much go back and forth
between the two based on what I am cooking.

~~~
rbobby
> much slower than a gas stove

There ya go right there! Electric stoves are "slow" to heat up and "slow" to
change temperatures. You're used to the gold standard :)

~~~
EADGBE
So many people are afraid of gas ranges. It's ridiculous. My wife is literally
terrified she'll burn the house down.

Yet we use a giant gas-powered pressure cooker in the basement to take warm
showers and somehow that's okay.

We used our gas range even when the power was out, to toast tortillas (that's
a bit tricky though, but worked well), and even in a pinch during a multi-day
blizzard as an emergency heat source (though it didn't run all night, and was
relatively safely monitored, you know, the "don't try this at home, kids").

~~~
saosebastiao
I’m not afraid of them, but I won’t ever get one. Induction ranges are
superior in every possible way :)

~~~
tonyarkles
Every possible way except being able to take the pan off the heat temporarily
without having the range freak out. At least that's my experience with the
induction hob that I have (and generally just ignore the electric range).

I'm with you though. Induction is absolutely amazing. But I'd love to be able
to lift the pan off to spread my crepe batter around without the hob beeping
at me angrily (and shutting itself off if I take too long before putting the
pan back on)

~~~
EADGBE
Wow, wasn't aware of that issue. Perhaps that's why it isn't as mainstream.

~~~
dagw
I think that's an implementation detail, not a standard feature. Certainly in
Sweden induction is basically standard in any kitchen done up in the past 3-4
years or so, and I've never seen that problem.

One problem that is real is that they all insist on using resistive touch
controls on the cooking surface instead of physical knobs. Which means if you
spill liquid on your cooking surface or accidentally slide your pot onto the
buttons all the controls freak out.

~~~
tonyarkles
Heh, yes. I've definitely had a pot boil over and had double chaos when the
controls started flipping at random too.

------
hirundo
Nomnompaleo clued me into the Instant Pot about 3 years ago and I've used it
at least weekly since. Most appliances go to the graveyard cabinet, not this.
Just polished off a turkey stew: Pepper, onion, garlic, mushrooms, bacon & 4
turkey drumsticks. 1 hour to cook 40min to cool 20m prep yields 4 or five
great meals. Umpteen substitutions and variations of the above keep bringing
me back. The device is still working flawlessly. Glad I bought a second pot
and lid.

~~~
lighttower
Why do you need two lids and pots? I understand the pot, you can store it in
the fridge. But why the lid?

~~~
pjc50
I'm guessing one in the fridge and one in the cooker, so once you've cooked
multiple days of meals you don't have to have _the same thing_ continuously.

~~~
hirundo
Just so.

------
jaytaylor
Great in theory, but I've just been reminded that I haven't liked anything
that comes out of it. Things turn out kind of weird imho.

For example, carrots we're too soft, spinach was completely crushed and an
ugly green. The texture always put me off.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

~~~
runj__
I'd argue that's just how stews are. It's quite rare that they have an
interesting mouthfeel or look particularly appetizing. I can understand making
a stew out of tough beef but I'd rather rather spend money on a nice cut of
meat or just eat chicken.

This is of course 100% subjective, sautéing is to me a much more interesting
way to cook food (boiling things that needs to be boiled beforehand), I'll
probably get cancer before the stew-heads though.

~~~
ghaff
This is probably the reason I don't use my stovetop pressure cooker all that
much. I just don't make a lot of the one pot stews and such that they
especially excel at. I have a few recipes that I make now and then but it
isn't a go to appliance for me. It's also the case that I work from home a
fair bit of the time so getting a meal on the table with a short cooking time
isn't major consideration.

------
wheresmyusern
another cool kitchen appliance with a cult following is the panasonic
flashxpress. its a toaster oven that uses ir light instead of typical heating
elements and convection. there are really good, cult-worthy toaster ovens and
pressure cookers but unfortunately there are no such bread makers. we really
need a better bread maker on the market.

~~~
DanBC
What features would turn a bread maker from an ordinary appliance to an extra-
ordinary appliance?

~~~
wheresmyusern
automatic ingredient dispensing is the biggest one. the second biggest is
automatic removal of the bread from the pan.

the other comments are wrong, bread machines make very good bread. ive been
basically living off of bread machine bread for months so i happen to know.

the idea of a bread machine is to render bread-making easy. so you can set a
timer on the machine and have it start the mixing and baking process whenever
you want. however, the bread must be removed from the pan as soon as its done
baking or else it will become soggy. this is a pain and almost completely
nullifies the overall convenience of the machine because yes you can set a
timer but you have to make sure to be around when its done -- this is highly,
extremely annoying and also dramatically reduces your ability to make bread
spontaneously. automatic removal would be very easy to implement, i have a few
ideas myself on how to do it. but nobody does it.

the automatic dispensing of ingredients would be the final key stone is the
whole arch of bread making convenience. for simple whole wheat bread, like the
bread i make, there arent very many ingredients and all but one are dry. so
automatic dispensing is conceivable. i would love to be able to fill a few
hoppers with cheap, healthy ingredients and then be able to simply push a
button and later on find a fresh loaf of bread waiting for me. but apparently
im the only one.

also a bread machine with a nice display and ui would be nice. nobody seems to
be able to do it.

------
AdmiralAsshat
My only complaint about my Instant Pot is the plastic sealing ring's tendency
to retain smells.

At this point I gave up on trying to clean it and just bought a second sealing
ring that I use only for Indian food.

~~~
Zelphyr
We read that this is a common problem when we bought our Instant Pot so we
went ahead and bought a couple of extra rings. One thing I've noticed though
is that the black ring tends to not seal as well as the semi-clear ring that
comes with the IP for some reason. I suspect other colored rings may have the
same problem.

That said, it's nice to have different colored rings so that you know "red
ring for spicy", etc...

------
shostack
I'm a massive fan of things that improve my quality of living, save me time,
and save me money. This little hunk of magic does all three.

I had no patience for my slow cooker, and this lets me experiment with foods I
normally would have avoided. Beans? 90 minutes from dry. Real steel cut oats?
20 min. roughly. It has saved countless hours of cooking by letting me make
awesome meals for the freezer. Lastly, it has easily paid for itself in the
first year of owning it by letting me cook in bulk.

The one thing that throws me is it is hard to experiment with when dialing in
a recipe. Between pressure build-up time, and figuring out quantities, etc.,
it can be challenging to say, toss something in for a few more minutes,
because you can't watch the food while it cooks, so you don't really know when
it is fully done short of cooking it more, testing it, cooking it more,
testing it, etc. And that can take a good 10 minutes per test.

Now I just need to find better recipes.

~~~
sliverstorm
_Real steel cut oats? 20 min. roughly._

They're only 20 min on the stove in a pot. What does this do differently?

~~~
balazer
You throw the food in the cooker, press a button, walk away, and it will be
ready and hot for you whenever you decide you are hungry. There's no
temperature adjustment, no watching, and no stirring. When I cook grains in
the Instant Pot, I pressure steam them in a bowl, which means the pot doesn't
need to be cleaned (and the bowl is easy to clean). The Instant Pot isn't much
faster than a pot on the stove for many grains, but it's a heck of a lot
easier and more consistent.

------
syntaxing
I think the best part of the instant pot is how affordable it is. My mom had a
pressure cooker for about 10 years now. It finally broke and we saw these huge
sales during black Friday so we couldn't resist. It's crazy how useful these
things are. We use it for soup, congee, and yogurt on top of the standard
pressure cooking functions! Making your own yogurt is great because you can
change the consistency and taste to your liking! You save a couple bucks too.
We prefer the stainless pot rather than the non-stick pots that most pressure
cooker have.

------
jstewartmobile
We received one last Christmas. Use it regularly for beans and pot roast. The
suggested cook times in the manual were a little too long though--and that
matters in a pressure cooker. A couple minutes can make the difference between
success and slop.

25 minutes for dry beans and 30 minutes for a decent-sized roast is more than
enough time to get the job done.

Fantastic job, Mr. Wang!

edit: I'm just doing black beans. Larger ones may need more time.

~~~
dd36
Also depends on altitude.

~~~
jemfinch
Why would it depend on the altitude? It's a sealed vessel that holds (iirc) 7
psi on low, and 11 psi on high. It seems like these pressures should remain
the same regardless of altitude, unless the outside atmosphere is somehow
involved in the pressure release valve, which is hard to imagine.

~~~
jstewartmobile
Traditional pressure cookers with weighted regulators would need different
weights for different altitudes for consistent cook times.

The sensors/mechanics of the InstantPot are a black box to me, so I'll just
have to assume that it makes some kind of difference since they added an
altitude setting to one of the models.

------
bigtex
If you get the bluetooth enabled version, you can have delicious steel cut
oats ready for breakfast. You just set the time you want it finished and
wallah! [https://instantpot.com/portfolio-item/smart-
bluetooth/](https://instantpot.com/portfolio-item/smart-bluetooth/)

~~~
berberous
Pet peeve: it’s voilà (a French word), not wallah.

------
b1gtuna
I don't know why Instant Pot became such a sensation when pressure cookers
have been around for ages....

~~~
felipeerias
While you can't leave a traditional pressure cooker unattended, with the IP
you just put the ingredients in, select the time, and forget about it. Once
the timer goes off, the IP will lower the temperature and keep the food warm.

I often prepare stews right before I leave the house, so I can come back to a
hearty lunch/dinner a few hours later.

------
thisisit
> It is also a testament to the enormous power of Amazon, and its ability to
> turn small businesses into major empires nearly overnight.

Lot of people say that Amazon tends to move in on a product which they think
has been doing well and start selling Amazon branded stuff. Is there a reason
why Amazon hasn't done the same to Instant Pot?

> Sensing viral potential, Instant Pot sent test units to about 200
> influential chefs, cooking instructors and food bloggers. Reviews and
> recipes appeared online, and sales began to climb.

I wonder why does the article keeps framing the company's growth as something
which _spent almost nothing on advertising, and achieved enormous size
primarily through online word-of-mouth_?

~~~
sageabilly
Question #2: Because they didn't spend any money buying ads, and instead sent
test units out to influencers?

------
brunoqc
I own an Instant Pot and I wasn't impressed. The rice sticks unlike a real
rice cooker and the pressure cooking was slow. I followed some normal pressure
cooker recipes and I had to double or triple the time.

~~~
slantyyz
>> The rice sticks unlike a real rice cooker

Rice doesn't stick only in rice cookers that don't have a non-stick interior
pot. My parents have some older generation rice cookers that still work, and
they have aluminum interior pots and the rice sticks to them.

The only problem is that the stuck rice doesn't burn a little at the bottom.
That is the best part of the rice when mixed with soup.

------
tdburn
Does anyone else think the instant pot puts out weird smelling food sometimes?

Like almost sour

~~~
avtar
I had to soak the silicone ring in white vinegar for a couple hours to make it
lose its awful out-of-box odour. I also ran it on the two minute steam setting
with white vinegar. It's been great since then.

~~~
contingencies
High pressure and heat capable seals in either rubbers or silicones do leach
chemicals when new. Once 'cured' they are OK.

------
baxtr
I love this thing. I feel like the whole family is eating healthier since we
have it. My favorite food is Risotto, which comes out really great. Has anyone
a very good resource for some other great recipes?

------
poulsbohemian
Help the uninitiated out here -- what's the difference between an Instant Pot
and a generic slow cooker? Looks like this thing just has more heat settings?

~~~
mikestew
They are kind of the opposite of each other. Slow cookers are just that: set
it in the morning before work, come home to a slow-cooked bit of meat and
veggies. Instant Pot and pressure cookers in general rely on the fact that
water under pressure boils at a higher temperature than at sea level pressure,
so it cooks things faster. For example, lentils might take 45 minutes on the
stove, 10 minutes in a pressure cooker.

In summary, slow cooker->I’ve got time to wait, make the meat fall off the
bone; pressure cooker->45 minutes for lentils? Who’s got that kind of time?

------
mrarjen
Been using a rice cooker for some years now, it's already a huge step up from
cooking it in a pot. And it seems almost nobody uses rice cookers here (NL).
Fun fact, people from Asian countries are rather unlikely to know how to cook
rice in a pan.

I'll very likely get one of the IP's, as cooking ribs and other slow cooked
meats do take a lot of time now, and pressure cookers are like playing with a
bomb.

~~~
gambiting
I just don't understand the point of a rice cooker, I really really don't.
Cooking rice is the simplest thing in the world - throw rice in a pan with
water and some salt, turn the gas on, wait 10-15 minutes. Done. Why would I
buy a separate device taking precious space in my kitchen for what has to be
the easiest cooking task imaginable? When you say "people [..] are rather
unlikely to know how to cook rice in a pan" I just don't understand. It's like
saying that someone doesn't understand how to make a cup of instant coffee.
The only way to fuck it up is to put it on gas and then forget, but that would
ruin any dish.

~~~
leoedin
Your recipe only applies to certain types of robust rice. Basmati rice is not
simple - if you just boil it for 15 minutes, you'll destroy it.

At the very least, good basmati is steamed - you only add enough water to cook
the rice (you don't drain it afterwards), then bring it to the boil before
simmering it at a very low heat. It's pretty hard to reliably get right -
every time I use a new stove or pan or try to cook a quantity I don't often do
is a gamble. If you mess up it's either crunchy or squishy.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
This is so true.

I usually only buy the one type of rice, a short grain brown rice from SunRice
in Australia, and usually only when it's on special.

Anyway, point being: I know I can cook this one particular type of rice to
perfection in a saucepan with 1 volume-unit rice to 1.5 volume-units water.
Bring it to a rapid boil for one minute, then wrap the whole pot in two dry
cotton bath towels (hotbox), leave it for ~45 minutes.

Voila!

Also works with some short grain white rices, with 1:1 ratio and many fewer
minutes in the hotbox.

Personally, I can't stand any long grain rice (Basmati, Jasmine, etc).

~~~
solipsism
People with their crazy rice strategies. I found the secret to perfect rice
_every single time_ and it's as easy as can be. The secret: cook it like
pasta. Plenty of water so it won't evaporate away, test it now and then (you
don't even have to taste it, you can tell by the texture), and when it's ready
strain it. No other strategy has been so consistently perfect, not to mention
stress-free. No ratios. Any variety. No problems.

Side bonus: a lot of that nasty arsenic washes away instead of sticking to the
rice and going in your body.

~~~
slantyyz
>> People with their crazy rice strategies.

You're making assumptions that your definition of "perfect" is the same as
everyone else's. There are cultural differences with respect to the preference
of the actual texture and stickiness of the rice.

For example, my Chinese parents basically don't like the stickiness or texture
of rice made by any other culture. It might be close minded, but it does
illustrate that different cultures have different standards for what makes
rice "perfect".

------
anonu
I thought this was going to be an article about the marijuana industry and the
rise of e-cigs. In fairness, there's an interesting article to write there
too..

EDIT: Great idea to write an article like this right before the holidays.
Sometimes I wonder if the author owns stock in the companies they are
basically promoting...

~~~
mason55
The link is already posted elsewhere in this thread but PG wrote about this a
long time ago.

[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

------
truffle_pig
Also the most recommended pressure cooker on reddit:

[https://redditfavorites.com/products/slow_cookers](https://redditfavorites.com/products/slow_cookers)

When I made that site I remember finding it surprising that it was the top
slow cooker _and_ rice cooker.

------
slantyyz
FWIW, Instant Pot now makes a sous vide circulator too. I bought one on Black
Friday, and it works pretty well (although that's from the perspective of a
n00b). It's cheaper than the Anova and other big names.

~~~
ghaff
It looks to be about the same price as Anova. They're both in the $120-$130
range. It's amazing how these circulators have come down in price. Wasn't that
long ago your choices were DIY or about $800 for a Polyscience.

~~~
jsight
I think it is amazing that so many are still so expensive. It is just a
heater, a little motor turning a fan, and a thermostat/timer. There seems to
be less involved in most of them than a $30 toaster oven.

~~~
ghaff
I'll not try to justify the pricing, but they're still relatively low volume
niche products. It's also not really accurate to compare the thermostat to a
toaster oven. For many applications, sous vide depends on very accurate (less
than one degree deviation) temperature control. When I bought a PID
temperature controller to do the standard DIY slow cooker thing before the
less expensive circulators existed, I paid close to $100.

------
cabaalis
I love my instant pot. I don't do anything artisanal as I'm not fancy enough
for that. Some chicken breast with some teriyaki sauce and water for 20
minutes comes out great.

------
wheresmyusern
thats so funny, i was just considering buying one of these after learning
about their existence earlier today. these things are great because you can
make rice, beans and baked potatoes. if you buy a nice bread machine too, all
the essentials are covered and you are all set up to save a whole lot of
money. after reading this article and these comments, i will definitely pull
the trigger on one of these. the only problem is that there are so many
models, i dont know which one to get.

------
pmoriarty
I wonder what the statistics for Instant Pot explosions are. Are those
independently tracked in any way?

I've considered getting one of those, but have serious concerns about their
safety.

~~~
unmole
This fear of exploding pressure cookers seems to be a uniquely American
phenomenon. Pressure cookers are used by pretty much every middle class Indian
household and I have never heard of an explosion. They all come fitted with a
'safety valve' that pops to let out the pressure before it can reach a
dangerous point.

It also reminds me if this:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death)

~~~
tecleandor
Pressure cookers are quite common in Spain, and most fear from exploding
pressure cookers comes from the 70s and 80s, when they had less security
features, valves could get stuck, and people were careless ( i.e: opening the
lid before pressure venting, forced cooling under the water tap...)

I've checked on Google News for accidents in Spain, and haven't found anything
more recent than 2012.

Using modern pressure cookers is quite safe. Just check your valve works, that
your ring seal is in proper condition, and close the lid properly.

AND NEVER TRY TO OPEN IT IF PRESSURE HASN'T VENTED

~~~
ferongr
My Fissler pressure cooker recommends forced cooling under a stream of water
for precise control of cooking time, as an alternative to venting steam
through the valve, to prevent loss of flavor.

------
CalChris
This is the complete opposite of _Juicero_.

~~~
fermienrico
I am confused. How so?

~~~
GuiA
One interpretation: Juicero is about making you reliant on them (the machine
is useless without their packets), whereas this is about expanding what you
can do as a home cook.

Technological inventions that fall in this latter category are where the real
value for people is, even though the press and investors are a little too
obsessed with the former at times.

------
exabrial
Just bought my mom one. Timely article!

------
billfruit
Does it deal with power failures, as in it remembers it's state and then
properly adjusts for delayed start and stop considering the duration of power
failure and adjusting process considering the cooking due to already generated
heat when power was gone?

~~~
gamblor956
If your electric power is as flaky as described, this product, and indeed all
other electric pressure cookers, are not for you.

~~~
billfruit
But it only requires a few minor design changes to make it robust against
power failure, and then these could be viable devices in most of the world.

------
ckdarby
Thought the author's name was Kevin Rose.

------
JoeAltmaier
Don't understand. Friend brought theirs over yesterday, we made tamales and
then they cooked them in the pot. Took only 20 minutes! But hey, steaming them
in a double boiler takes 40 minutes so that was a savings I guess. If you
include the time to pack the tub carefully and program it, maybe it was
slower.

And it didn't really 'steam' the tamales. They came out pretty gummy and a
little dry. So no fan here.

I'll stick to actually cooking my food thanks.

