My sister borrowed mine 1 maybe 2 years ago for use at her cabin after I got an instant pot. I'm not sure I'll want it back and reading this 2020 article from Kenji further solidified my thoughts on the matter.
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Never have had one. Ran across that post awhile ago and it kind of reinforced the 'slow cookers are crap' idea. But due to SOMEONE (looks at ecowper and fzxdoc among others), I now have many dried beans. And the pressure cooking feature of the instant pot feels like it might be useful. Especially since it's stew season more or less so I'll be making stock, etc.-
Watch when making beans and other 'bubbly' foods in the InstaPot. Debris has been known to clog the pressure relief valve. I read this when I got mine a few years ago, so perhaps the newer models have been redesigned to alleviate this issue. -
I cook all my dried beans in the Instant Pot. Never had an issue with foam clogging the valve. I use a Natural Pressure Release (NPR) though, which takes 30-40 minutes after the cooking cycle is over for the pressure to drop to ambient pressure by itself. If you try to manually release a hot IP full of cooked beans, you may get a starchy geyser, so put a towel over the release valve and release very slowly.
Kathryn
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My broke a couple of years ago and I replaced it with an Instant Pot which I hardly use.
Despite that, all the talk over on the air fryer post has me thinking of replacing my ancient toaster oven...Comment
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Have 3 of them in various sizes, plus an Instant Pot. The oldest is circa 1986 and still going strong. I love the IP, but the wife has yet to get over her fear of time bomb pressure cookers, so she uses the crackpots, yes crackpot (it takes one to use one was my old line), all of the time. Needless to say, when the IP is a cookin' she is nowhere near the kitchen. When she does wander aimlessly into the kitchen after the beeper has gone off, but the steam has yet to be released, I will reach over and give it a quick burp to see if she is still with the living. Ha! One of these days I am going to end up owning a 12" Lodge with a perfect imprint of my head.Comment
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My wife too had an irrational fear of the stove top pressure cooker I had when we first got married, and I think she gave it to charity without ever using it. I've not told her the instant pot is a pressure cooker in order to avoid that fear. I grew up watching my mom and grandmother cook all the time with a pressure cooker, and they never blew up the house....
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I have two sizes of conventional slow cookers and will not get rid of them until they die. I use them fairly often with great results. In fact I did a nice pot roast and veggies in the big one just last week. Yummy.Comment
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We only use ours for keeping a big pot full of pulled pork warm. For cooking, the IP has taken the reigns since it does slow cooking and pressure cooking, not to mention presets for eggs, yogurt, etc. You just can't beat an IP.Comment
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Good to know about the slow cooker setting on the IP. The only thing I ever use the slow cooker for was chili and when I used the slow cooker setting on the IP I was less than enthused with the results. I love my IP and have used it for many different things. Also our slow cooker has actually been trying to kill me before it dies by not cooking our chicken all the way through after being on for 6 hours so now I’ll member use that.Comment
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I have a confession that stays in the pit.
I have never liked the slow cooker. It was a prize / gift from a work competition the wife acquired way back then.
We used it a couple times and I had an instant dislike. I love my very old stove top pressure cooker and it looked like the SC was going to take it's place (according to the wife). When we moved a few years back it was boxed and never unboxed until madam was looking for it a few months back.
This is we're it gets nasty. I got it out of storage and promptly stripped the switch and few other things because it was "supposedly" not working.
She: "but it was still brand new, how can that be"
Me: " These things happen"Comment
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I still have mine but haven't used it on several years, since I got my first IP. I also read an earlier version of this article on Serious Eats which convinced me to use a Dutch Oven in the oven for slow braising.Last edited by Dewesq55; September 22, 2021, 06:52 PM.Comment
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Ditto to Dewesq55 's comments. I have several sizes of LeCrueset Dutch ovens and use them to slow braise in my conventional oven when called for. Nothing works better in my opinion. Perhaps a pressure cooker would save time, it's the only thing I have not tried. But for me, if it ain't broke don't fix it.Comment
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In the end it seems to me that both slow cookers and Instant Pots are quite useful to those who work regular business hours but get relegated to the back of the storage cabinet for those with the time on their hands to tend to a cook that lasts a number of hours.Comment
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I don’t have an IP. I have two old slow cookers. We really don’t use them to cook but I do use them to reheat BBQ at work functions.Comment
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I got a slow cooker as a gift years ago. My main complaint was most of the recipes called for substantial prep work, and I just wanted dump and cook recipes, as a single guy living alone. I had one for stew that was okay, but, as noted in the Kenji article, did not brown up like a conventionally cooked stew. For me, it was good enough, given the convenience. Now, we hardly use it. When we do, most often its for little smokies or meatball in some sort of sauce at a party.Comment
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My wife probably cooks in the crockpot more than she does on the stovetop, if and when she cooks, as she is someone who is more into the convenience of the slow cooker, and just not into messing with something on the stove if she can avoid it. Due to that, we have at least 5 crock pot type cookers on a shelf in the laundry room. Two 6 quart models, an old 4 quart, and two small ones (1 quart?) mostly useful for cheese dip and such. And a big long 3-up unit that holds 3 smaller crocks for serving and/or cooking I suppose.
I made vegetable beef soup yesterday morning, to have for dinner with some family coming last night to play poker, and started it in a 6 quart crock pot, filled to the brim. When I came back at lunch and it still had not reached a boil on high, I transferred it all to my Misen 7 quart dutch oven, put it on a simmer burner, got it to a boil within minutes, then let it simmer all afternoon. No sticking, and I stirred about once an hour. I love that 7 quart dutch oven, and think I will gravitate to it more than the crockpots myself going forward.
We have an instant pot, bought on Black Friday several years ago at the insistence of SWMBO, as they were all the rage. To date, it has been used 4-5 times, only by me, as a rice and quinoa cooker. It works great for those purposes, but I know it can do much more, and can replace a slow cooker for sure.
The biggest legitimate use I see myself for the slow cookers is when serving BBQ at a party, to keep my pulled pork warm for the serving line.Comment
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Attjack haha right? Everyone went off on that Grilla post of mine. The entire point was that I was telling my son what I would get if I were him, not saying I was going to buy a Grilla OG or Silverbac, but SWMBO heard that I wanted to buy one...
I am in the process of turning the 4th bedroom into a laundry/craft room, and will be ripping out the walls of the current laundry room as part of a kitchen/den remodel soon. I think we may need to dispense with a few slow cookers as I move stuff.
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I have never liked slow cookers. My mother cooked in one all the time. Once I got to high school and started eating at friend's houses I realized she was a terrible cook (whether or not she used the slow cooker). Started my love of bbq, actually, because I could volunteer to cook food that I knew would be better than her burnt box mac n cheese. Now I use the dutch oven and pressure cooker monthly during the summer and probably several times per week during cold spells.
The whole "you learn something new every day" adage applies to me here. For whatever reason I've never thought to use the dutch oven as a "slow cooker" by placing it in the actual oven on low temp all day. I've put my dutch oven in the stove multiple times, but only after using it on the stovetop and never for a whole day of low and slow. I will definitely be doing this now. One of those slap your head moments...Comment
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Having only recently gotten two dutch ovens in the past year or two, I too have discovered how great they are for browning the meat on the stove top, then adding your other ingredients and moving to the oven for a long braise. Never thought to use it quite like a slow cooker in the oven all day though. -
My mom was a RN working the 3 to 11 shift when I was in middle and high school. I cannot tell you HOW many crock pot meals I came home to on the days she worked. I grew to despise her crock pot cooking - it was usually a cheap and tough pot roast that was inedible.
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