Instant Pot, why the hype & cult are justified
TL;DR: Instant pots offer time-saving, unique advantages and new cooking possibilities that no other pots or appliances offer. People get very into them for good reasons.
Some people already have a large amount of not cheap, take-up-plenty-of space really nice kitchen gear. For instance a stove-top pressure cooker + rice cooker + Dutch oven.
Not everyone is that lucky, for those who either can't have all that, or don't want to use many items at once and have less dishes or spend far less time in kitchen with same or better results, the instant pot is great.
I have never had a regular stove-top pressure cooker, because I fear them. I have seen too many horrible videos, pictures and accidents. The traditional kind is more complex to use, more possibility for serious operator error than an instant pot. You generally can't just leave them alone for long after you put on them on fire. They also do not keep your food warm electrically after the pressure cooking is done.
Additionally, any good, safer, non-electric pressure cooker is easily €35 to €120 and they are big, have a huge handle. For all those reasons, I never bought one, despite that cutting cooking times by half or even two-thirds, being a very appealing feature of all pressure cookers.
I have read and watched for an hour or two, every thing I read stated that the Instant pot is one of the safest, if not the safest, pressure cookers.
The reason for that is the electric part. It has a lot of sensors and safety features. It is very easy to use. €65. And you absolutely can walk away or do other things as soon as pressure cooking starts and it will keep your food gently warm for hours after. Excellent, safe pressure cooking is just one of it's functions.
It can do so much, so fast. All dried beans, all the soups and stews, cooking tons of meat or vegan stuff, pastas, lasagnas, makes great rice, some people also do eggs, some models can make yoghurt.
The best cheese cake I ever made was heavily based on the one below. It is New York style. I only added a reduced frozen berry topping and left out the icing, for the rest I followed this recipe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qwhQZqbVn0
I can't begin to explain how good it was. I am picky about my cheesecakes, tried tons, made quite a few back in the day. I've only this recipe once and used the instant pot, brought the cake to a potluck. A bunch of people, including Americans, came up to me unprompted to say it was (one of) the very best they'd ever had as well. That is high praise to me.
It was a very similar story with a making Minestrone soup in the Instant pot, I was so surprised about how quick and easy it was, despite never making one before. It results in up to eight meals. Only thing I would suggest -totally unrelated to pot or cooking method is that if you will freeze portions, make the pasta separate and fresh, anything very starchy never freezes well.
Some things the instant pot does not do as well as the oven you already have, say a Cherry or Apple Pie (although I am guessing some have managed it).
Dutch ovens are nice but they easily costs €80 to €300, I have researched them often. This appliance can absolutely do vast majority of what a Lodge or Le Creuset Dutch oven can do,. and much more.
It is essentially a light yet sturdy stainless (inner/removable, oven and dishwasher safe) pot! Which has an electric unit around it that can saute, pressure cook and more. There are non-stick pots/versions available, but everyone advises against those, because they won't last as much and will not saute as well. Also I try to avoid PTFE/Teflon whenever possible.
There is a massive fanbase. Scores of aftermarket parts and accessories available, particularly for the Instant pot brand (many other brands have started making similar devices) and their most common models.
People use it very much for Maillard browning and searing, Fond and deglazing. Then, afterwards they can add liquid or whatever and making an amazing stew. Some use it for cooking a whole chicken way faster than any oven whatsoever. So in that sense it can do everything a regular pressure cooker plus Dutch oven can do, faster. And, can do a little of what any oven or air-fryer can do. Lastly, it is also a slow cooker (no pressure), although people say the slow-cooking function is not as good as the pressure cook function. It also has a delayed timer up to 24 hours, so no matter what function you use, you can time your meals. Either at once and very fast or ready and waiting for you whenever.
The electric part means you can walk away with almost zero worries anything will burn, nor that you will have an explosion, nor start a fire. Having a great meal pressure cooked for you after minimal prep, and without having to be in kitchen and adjust any hob, or stir or open a lid etc. at all, I found that game changing. It will often cook it faster than any other method too, with less costs/electricity by far. Like any pressure cooker, it literally takes about one quarter or less of the time to cook dried beans etc. I like making a big batch and freezing the beans in portions, now I don't need anymor canned beans needed and it results in big savings. It also does thick meats or any dishes containing them. Cooks really robust/hard grains extremely fast compared to traditional cooking methods. I really do not love doing dishes, using the pot means I have far fewer. Fewer dirty skillets, pots, pans, stirring implements and more.
Previously totally unbeknownst to me -until I asked a few days ago- it turned out I have two friends I really trust that own an Instant pot, and they both really love it.
They both cook a lot indeed, near daily, because they are both frugal and one is vegan the other veggy. Their feedback also made me sit up and take notice. Especially as the instant pot excels at big or large cuts of meat, yet even plant-based people found a ton of utility and time-savings in the pot, which is great! They wrote:
"I like it because you can turn it on and just leave it 😄. I used to make like 2 litres of soy yoghurt every week that turned out tasting like butter milk, also pressure cooked chickpeas and beans because it tastes much better than the ones in a jar/can, steamed veggies, soups etc."
"I also use it to sterilise mushroom substrate, although it builds up less pressure than an old-fashioned pressure cooker and therefore has a lower sterilisation temperature. It's so cool that you can just turn it on and walk away. You can even time it so that it finishes cooking when you get home."
"I make edibles, and for that you need activated THC/CBD. The pot reaches 110/125 degrees, which is the perfect temperature for activating the active ingredients so that you can then process them into chocolate or something similar."
"Pot is ideal for beans; I buy bags of dried beans and they are much tastier in the instant pot than the tinned ones. My favourite is hummus, made from different beans."
Interestingly I also had two friends that saw little or even no reason to ever buy the Instant pot or at least certainly not in hurry. The interesting part is that one is a professional chef at a great Lunchroom, the other is one of the best home cooks I know. Both are far, far better cooks than I.
Yet, I am not surprised that they are not on board. For one, they have never tried an Instant pot, yet still had concerns and strong reservations. For another, they both do fall under the category of people who own a lot of kitchen gear already, some of which can certainly do quite a bit of what the Instant pot can do. Also, they are the kind of people who do not mind taking a long time to cook, one also has a dishwasher. I am different, I am utilitarian, I only like cooking sometimes (batch cooking), the faster (but still great food) the better! The fewer dishes that I have to wash by hand, the better, always.
One of them wrote "Too fiddly, no buttons or electricity for me please." Truth is the display and buttons look 5x as complicated as they actually are. It is an extremely simple device, you only use about 3 buttons often. Anyone that can use a microwave, can use an Instant pot, and certainly my friend, professional cook and super committed Game master (not an easy or simple skill to learn) can manage it in 5 minutes flat.
In that sense the Instant pot does remind me of D&D a little, in that so many people, when they hear about it, are intrigued, yet almost all are intimidated initially. Many discard the idea of trying it, usually due to fears and concerns that are not very grounded in reality, and they often really miss out.
Or maybe a better analog would be Crocs. There are two camps:
People who have never had them. Many of them will swear that they will never own any, often because they find them hideous. And generally they also add that they do not see how Crocs have any unique utility nor value compared to footwear they already own.
People who might have been in camp 1. but now own Crocs and can not imagine ever not owning a pair (even if it is solely for at home use) and that now know, from actual experience, that Crocs absolutely offer unique benefits, utility and value that no other footwear offers.
In summation: the Instant pot has meant saving: money + dishes + time + electricity and increased convenience and safety & more tasty food as well as easier & faster batch cooking.. Yes please! I am all in.
There is absolutely no need to take my word for it, there are 1000s of videos and blog posts. I bought the cheapest most sold model, I already really like it.
That same one over here has 180.000 Reviews with an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars, I read a bunch. Even if you discount half the reviews (too many bots and fakery these days) it still strongly suggests a truly useful and unusual item) ->
https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-Duo-Mini-Programmable/dp/B06Y1YD5W7
As ever, if you can buy it elsewhere than Amazon, so much the better.
Lastly there is this video titled "$6 Michelin Stock in 60 Minutes (Costco Hack)" In which a person who worked for years at a 3 *** Michelin restaurant, which won "Best Restaurant in the World" award, explains how he went from spending the whole day making the very best stock, to making stock just as good, except in 60 minutes, thanks to the instant pot.
To me these stories are convincing. I will never have 10% of the skill or experience as this elite level Chef, and if he is a fan of the instant pot, if even he thinks it is a massive time saver and help.. it certainly is good enough for me!