Kenji's black bean recipe for the Instant Pot ends with "For extra-tender and creamy beans, allow pressure to release naturally." If I want this, do I turn off the "Keep Warm" feature, or leave it on?
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You can keep it on. It doesn't matter for the cooking process. The warm feature is just to keep the food warm after it is done cooking.-
hoovarmin the keep warm only heats up AFTER pressure has released, then it just intermittently cycles to keep the pot at a minimum temp
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As ItsAllGoneToTheDogs pointed out, the warm feature only turns on after the cook is complete. I do brown rice in my Instant Pot all the time, nearly weekly. (2 cups rice, 2.5 cups water, 15 minute on high, 10 minutes natural release)
One time I totally forgot about it and it was on warm for over an hour. The rice was just a little bit drier than normal, but not objectionably so.Comment
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hoovarmin Correct....just letting it vent on its own.
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Releasing pressure naturally just means waiting for it to die down on its own, versus opening the pot right after the cook completes. My off brand pot changes screen color from red to blue backlight once pressure releases naturally. I would leave keep warm on - that setting won’t affect the pressure release.Comment
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Ooops, being from California and reading the subject line I thought this post was going in a waaaay different direction. Carry on, I'll show myself out.Comment
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Don't be surprised at how long it takes for the full NPR on your Instant Pot, hoovarmin . My 6 qt IP takes about 40 min to come all the way down. Instant Pots are not really instant when you factor in the time it takes to get up to pressure and the NPR time (if you go the NPR route). But that little bucket works magic with some foods so it's worth it.
KathrynComment
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I mostly use our IP as a rice cooker. It doesn't take 40 minutes to do a natural pressure release though - more like 8 to 10 for ours. There may still be a little pressure on it I guess, but not like if I open it right after the cook finishes. I've never done beans in the IP. I just do those on the stove for several hours in a dutch oven.
Funny thing about the IP - it was an impulse purchase one black friday at Sam's Club years ago by my wife, as all our kids had them and swore by them. So we got it.... and it sat in the box in the laundry room for 6 months. I finally opened it, and figured out how to use it for rice. I used it to brown meat in braise mode and then made chili in it one time, in slow cooker mode. But mostly rice. Yvonne has never ever used it, as I think she is intimidated by the controls and the fact that she didn't realize an IP is a pressure cooker, and she's seen too many stories of exploding pressure cookers. I on the other hand grew up with my mom and grandmother canning veggies, fruit, jellies and jam every summer and fall, and using the pressure cooker for that, and for just general cooking, like my grandma's pot roast (oh so good!).Comment
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I resisted for a long time. But since I began making stocks and broths on the regular and began to hear what a champ it is for those, I caved. I'm really glad I did. The Pho broth produced by a 20 minute cook Sunday was a game changer. I have not made rice in it, yet. -
hoovarmin I do now recall that I made broth from a chicken carcass at least once, but it was more trouble than it was worth for me. Glad to hear you are having success with it though!
The magic with rice is that I can add white or brown rice and select the appropriate option on the screen, hit the button and go work on the rest of my meal. Much of the rice I make is destined for fried rice on the griddle, which gets cooled in the fridge, or for consumption with something coming out of the wok.
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It kinda actually depends on what works best for you. We use ours a lot for things like rice, eggs, slow cooking, or soups/stews. For rice/eggs, I usually turn it off because it tends to burn (rice) while I am waiting for the natural release or for eggs as they end up way over cooked. For slow cooking or soups/stews, I leave it on so that I can let it sit and not have to reheat.Comment
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jfmorris , the more you use your IP the more you use it. I know that's a headscratching sentence, maybe, but you get my drift.
For example, last week I was taken by acorgihouse 's post on how to make broth after a chicken dinner super simply. Throw the bones with the rest of the chicken's bits and pieces plus water into the IP, add aromatics or not, set the IP to cook, let it NPR and then let the broth continue to slow cook until morning. Her post is here. That way you've got some nice broth and don't have to deal with it until the next day. Brilliant.
I just made 4.5 quarts of chicken broth yesterday in my 10 quart Instant Pot, using the 2 carcasses (edited to add: along with some raw chicken parts and bones, just to clarify) from Sunday's Peruvian Chicken cook on the PBC. If I hadn't run out of steam (and poured an extra glass of wine) on Sunday night
, I would have tried acorgihouse's method.
KathrynLast edited by fzxdoc; January 17, 2024, 12:58 PM.Comment
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The broth I make, wrgilb, is a mix of fresh chicken bones (the backbones, the keel bones, neck bones, the clavicle (wishbone), some of the lower rib bones, the gizzards, hearts, and sometimes the wing tips) along with the roasted carcasses. The result is very "chickeny" with quite a bit of gelatin. I seldom make broth with all raw chicken, so I can't say how it compares.
I always roast the bones and the short ribs when I make beef broth. It turns out well too.Last edited by fzxdoc; January 16, 2024, 10:18 PM.
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Will be doing some venison shanks and grits in mine soon.Comment
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