Colorado B.S. Thread

I only cook two things in either - beef stew and chili. My conclusion was that the slow cooker was better, but the pressure cooker was (obviously) faster. And that despite what it claims and has modes for, InstaPots cannot reliably be used as a slow cooker.

I grew up with ye olde crock pots. Mom may have made other things, but beef stew and chili are all I remember her making (though other parts of the family made baked beans and other things. One side I think used it more than the other, because the other side had ye even older stove top pressure cooker and used that for a lot of things, including canning.

On my own, I started out with roommates who had a slow cooker. Eventually they got an Instapot because they were making soups and rice (mostly the rice, because they had not really mastered stove top pot - no shade here I've never even tried it). Then the slow cooker died and they didn't replace it. So I tried the InstaPot, using the slow cooker setting. It came out reasonably well though not quite as good. Used it a few more times, always with the slow cooker setting. I moved and was now without either, so I debated which to get - the cheaper and better performing for my use slow cooker, though I wanted one of those I-stir models and they'd disappeared, or the more expensive but potentially more capable InstaPot. Christmas found me with an InstaPot, slightly larger than my former roommates (4 vs 6 quart I believe).

The first attempt at using it to do beef stew was a fucking disaster. I had done the water test to make sure it was working. I put the same settings I normally had in the one I'd used before, let go eight fucking hours, and when I went to check the carrots were still raw. By forced necessity I tried the pressure mode, and it made it edible but dried out the beef. Since then I've used nothing but pressure mode and it's always worked fine, but again never seems to come out quite as good as I remember from slow cooking. I did some research and found that a) I might have a bad unit, at least for slow cooking, b) pressure cooker low/med/hi settings are typically significantly cooler temp points than a real slow cooker, and c) pressure cookers, which I had never used before, are much better at drying things out than slow cookers. I'm not sure if it's just altitude or what, but I've also found that my InstaPot takes longer than they say it will to get up to pressure, and much longer than they claim it should to naturally cool enough to release pressure. I pretty much always have to manually vent it.

SO, the tl;dr is as JasonLee said - different machines, different purposes, good at different things. If you want something slow cooked, use one. If you're doing something that benefits from pressure or will take the quality trade-off for the speed, use the pressure cooker.

Edit: I'll add that it does better at chili than beef stew, and in response to

You don't really have to watch the InstaPot either, you're just not watching it for a shorter time. Benefit of the PID over trying to manually control/dial in pressure with a burner.

 

The tunnel has a fair amount of traffic, but somewhat decent roads. Westbound from Copper to Vail has very little traffic, just bad roads.

I think the storm is supposed to lull this afternoon before picking up again later tonight

 

Rice:
2 parts water : 1 part rice

Rinse thoroughly until not milky. Place entire pot on the stove. Bring to a boil. Reduce to low and cover. Stir after 5 minutes. Then again at 15 minutes. Should be cooked soon after when no more water remains.... not sure why that is so hard....


I don’t do chili in the crock because beans go in chili and beans should not be cooked for long periods.

I have a slow cooker recipe for pork chops with onions and cream of mushroom soup. Served over rice it is amazing....

 

Doggo Friday!!!
Meet the new pup comes home Saturday
Her name is Suki
Rescue from Houston

 

oh what a cutie! Exciting for you

 

those ears look very scratch-able

 

They are
She’s a snuggle bug
I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with her at the fosters house!

 

that is awesome! Hard not to love a cuddly pup

I bet having that familiarity will make the transition easier on both of y'all too

 

Yes I was very lucky to have the opportunity to get to know her first and for her to get to know me..

 

Doggo Friday?
Here’s Mishka after she jumped on to the hot tub cover to eat a radish. She will try everything, and likes just about everything. Crazy kid, crazy fun kid.

 

Cool lookin’ eyes!

 

I figure if Brett shares his corny jokes,you can share a recipe

 

When does she come home?

 

Tomorrow
I meet them at Petco to make it official in the AM

 

If you make it up, please report back about the concert.
Used to be one of my favorite bands and have been to some really great shows...and some really awful. Have had a tough time getting excited about most of their newer stuff but still hold those early albums as all time favorites.

 

Pork chops seasoned with salt and pepper in crock pot. Slice an onion into strips and cover the chops with the slices. Pour a can of mushroom soup over the top. Low and slow 6-8 hrs. Remove the chops. Mix a teaspoon of cornstarch and two tablespoons of water. Add cornstarch and water slurry to crock pot and stir to thicken. Serve chops over rice with thickened mushroom gravy over it all

 

Awesome!!!!!
Thanks!