Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We have an Instant Pot but we haven't figured out how to solve the problem of the fact that we are so short it's hard to use. I got the wife the 8 quart for Christmas, and with me being the tall partner at barely 5'2" (she's 4"11,") it's impossible for us to reach on our standard countertops. Putting it on our kitchen table is inconvenient. We definitely don't want to use our stool; that's a sure fire way to fall when we're concentrating on cooking. We thought about getting a stand for it, but is it worth it? We used it for one dish and liked it, so we don't want to give up yet.
I do not understand the problem here. Are your counters a lot taller than normal? Because I am 5'2" and I can see into my IP just fine when its on my countertop. Actually mine sits a little higher than that because I have it on a giant tile laid across the top of my stove, which makes it 2 or 3" higher than the countertops.
I have been cooking since I was 6. I don't mean helping mommy roll out cinnamon crisps, I mean cooking entire meals for a family of 7, including holiday meals and the inevitable 30 lb turkey. I used a step stool. You can too, if you cannot afford custom counters at an appropriate height (which I fully understand, kitchen makeovers are stupid expensive). But you can set a step stool inside the cabinet below where you want to have the IP, pull it out to use and stick it back in so its not in your path.
But honestly, as someone who started cooking when I was barely 3' tall, I don't see the problem here. In the first place you don't need to look into it it to properly cook anyway, it's easily set it and forget it - that's its main selling point. If you want to look in while browning something, at 5'2" tall it is not a problem for me and I don't see why it would be a problem for you. And frankly I'm probably not even 5'2" tall any more anyway - a friend of mine has shrunk 3" with age and I expect I'm similarly shrunken by now. But even it is problematic for some reason you've not described, the step stool option for the very limited number of reasons you need to look into the pot anyway is simple, cheap, and easy.
Keep in mind that $109 CA is only $87 USD - so it actually costs less than an IP in the US and not on sale.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taluffen
I did some research and ultimately decided on the stove stop All-Clad pressure cooker purely because stove top cookers can achieve higher pressure compared to electric. You can also reuse the pot for non-pressure cooking as well. I also don't like collecting too many kitchen gadgets.
Yeah, but the IP is totally automated - you do not have to adjust the heat and listen for jiggles/whistles or watch the stove or anything else. Set it and forget it and the worst that will happen is you remember you cooked something yesterday and have to throw it out.
Do that with a stove top and you will probably have an explosion and/or kitchen fire.
And the IP has fermenting cycles, slow cooking cycles, and regular heat (non-pressure) cycles for things like searing and the like. Plus, if you get the Ultra, you can use it for sous vide. The granularity/temp control isn't as fine as a dedicated sous vide but its close enough - plus/minus 2 F I think - for nearly all purposes. Sadly not chocolate making because it won't go low enough on the manual setting - if they added that functionality it would be just about PERFECT.
But at any rate, reuse for non-pressure cooking is not an issue. The IP does that too.
NOTE: Duo and up has yogurt/fermenting cycles. I get the impression they won't be making models below the Duo much longer anyway, but just in case that is important to you, you get that only with Duo and higher models.
You can only get the psuedo sous-vide and automatic adjustment of the programmed settings for altitude with the Ultra (I live at 5200 feet - sadly the auto adjustment is only for the programmed settings, on manual I still have to do the calculation by hand).
Also the Ultra has a special thingy that automatically resets the pressure thingy when you close the lid. I'm not sure actually exactly what it is resetting because I never had any of the models that do not have this feature, but it is one less thing for me to have to remember to do. The effect of forgetting to set/reset the thingy is that you set the thing up, close the lid, go away, and come back later to find it never turned on. This happened all the time with my oven (has electronic controls, which I hate on a stove/oven) because you had to set the time and temp and then push "start" and I usually forget to push "start". The Duo and lower do not have this; I don't know if its on the bluetooth model or not. The ultra is the most flexible model they currently have, IMNSHO.
Last edited by Pyewackette; 02-05-2018 at 02:14 PM..
I bought my IP off of Craigslist for $25....an Aussie woman was moving back home and couldn't take it with her.
I figured if I didn't like it, I only wasted $25....4 years later i'm still using it regularly. Soups, bone broth, chicken adobo, etc....it browns meats ok.....I think it does better (browning) with smaller chunks of meat though. Overall, a great purchase for me.
I do not understand the problem here. Are your counters a lot taller than normal? Because I am 5'2" and I can see into my IP just fine when its on my countertop. Actually mine sits a little higher than that because I have it on a giant tile laid across the top of my stove, which makes it 2 or 3" higher than the countertops.
I have been cooking since I was 6. I don't mean helping mommy roll out cinnamon crisps, I mean cooking entire meals for a family of 7, including holiday meals and the inevitable 30 lb turkey. I used a step stool. You can too, if you cannot afford custom counters at an appropriate height (which I fully understand, kitchen makeovers are stupid expensive). But you can set a step stool inside the cabinet below where you want to have the IP, pull it out to use and stick it back in so its not in your path.
But honestly, as someone who started cooking when I was barely 3' tall, I don't see the problem here. In the first place you don't need to look into it it to properly cook anyway, it's easily set it and forget it - that's its main selling point. If you want to look in while browning something, at 5'2" tall it is not a problem for me and I don't see why it would be a problem for you. And frankly I'm probably not even 5'2" tall any more anyway - a friend of mine has shrunk 3" with age and I expect I'm similarly shrunken by now. But even it is problematic for some reason you've not described, the step stool option for the very limited number of reasons you need to look into the pot anyway is simple, cheap, and easy.
I don't get it either.
Looking in an Instant Pot is no different than looking in a stockpot. So how is the cooking happening?
NOTE: Duo and up has yogurt/fermenting cycles. I get the impression they won't be making models below the Duo much longer anyway, but just in case that is important to you, you get that only with Duo and higher models.
You can only get the psuedo sous-vide and automatic adjustment of the programmed settings for altitude with the Ultra (I live at 5200 feet - sadly the auto adjustment is only for the programmed settings, on manual I still have to do the calculation by hand).
HOLD ON.
OMG I can't believe I never put that together that the yogurt setting was a ferment.
I ferment sauerkraut and pickles and all these years with my IP NEVER thought to use THAT. !!!
Thank you for mentioning it. I found a site in 3 seconds google about it!
BTW. Speaking of sauerkraut if you have an Omega horizontal Nutrition Center series juicer or another one like Slowstar with a blank plate you can make sauerkraut with ONLY cabbage (no salt) by running it through the juicer and letting it ferment the normal way. Amazing thing.
Originally Posted by Taluffen View Post
I did some research and ultimately decided on the stove stop All-Clad pressure cooker purely because stove top cookers can achieve higher pressure compared to electric. You can also reuse the pot for non-pressure cooking as well. I also don't like collecting too many kitchen gadgets.
That temp issue is only applicable to canning.
And if I'm not mistaken, the time to get to pressure is longer in a stove top. So, yes, if you need your pressure cooker for canning, the IP is no help. It can only do boiling-water canning not pressure canning.
OTOH, Even if you have no use for the presets (porridge, rice, soup, etc)...if you want to ferment/yogurt, slow cook, delay start, keep warm.... or be able to walk away from supervising your stove top model, YMMV. And yes, the stainless insert can saute or make rice or whatever in the IP - or whatever the stove top model does on the stove for non pressure cooking.
If I wanted to, I could leave it running for two days making a chicken stock like in a slow cooker but not everyone is interested in every function it offers, true.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 02-05-2018 at 05:22 PM..
I bought one thinking I could replace my slow cooker, but I ended up having to make room for both (I have limited storage space) because it turns out that the IP isn't as good at slow cooking as it is doing what it does best - pressure cooking. That said, I love my IP for making yogurt (I have the Duo) and for making things like soups, broths, stews, chili, pasta sauce and beans. Those are things that took hours on the stove and a lot of attention and the IP excels at those.
That happened to me at first but then I increased the setting with "more"/high and it worked out.
The IP low temp is more like the slow cooker warm temp.
It's: low (190-201°F), normal (194-205°F ) or high (199-210°F)
OMG I can't believe I never put that together that the yogurt setting was a ferment.
I ferment sauerkraut and pickles and all these years with my IP NEVER thought to use THAT. !!!
Thank you for mentioning it. I found a site in 3 seconds google about it!
BTW. Speaking of sauerkraut if you have an Omega horizontal Nutrition Center series juicer or another one like Slowstar with a blank plate you can make sauerkraut with ONLY cabbage (no salt) by running it through the juicer and letting it ferment the normal way. Amazing thing.
Yeah, I use it to ferment dosa batter (sort of a sourdough-version of a crepe). I had a spot in the old house where I could always get it to ferment more or less-ish, but since we moved 4 years ago could never find anywhere in the new place where it would ferment right. It either didn't ferment at all or it turned into pink-streaked goop.
With total control over the temp in the IP, it comes out perfectly. Every. Single. Time.
There are 2 different temp ranges to ferment at, the "regular" yogurt setting and the "low" setting (I forget what they call it). I think the temp ranges are in the manual. If not I'll try to find that and post it for you.
Oh what the heck. I had it bookmarked anyway, so here it is - temps and times for various IP Ultra settings. Most will be the same for the Duo as well. Where the Duo and the IP have the same functionality it will be the same - its just the Ultra has some extra things it can do that the Duo can't do at all.
In manual mode - which for some unfathomable reason they insist on terming "ultra mode" - you can set the temp between 104F and 208F and it will maintain that within a range of about 2F. I find this more than sufficient control for sous-vide-ing meat, which I like well done and not burned. I love filet mignon but not when it is weeping blood or has been burnt to crispy critters by an angry bitter "chef". Comes out perfectly every time for me now. I sear AFTER cooking.
Last edited by Pyewackette; 02-05-2018 at 05:44 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
