Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

One thing that's worth noting. I don't know about this one but a number of those old SE pressure cooker recipes don't translate to Instant Pots. I'm thinking of Gritzer's french onion soup in particular. For those who have an instant pot as their pressure cooker, check the reviews of the recipes.


Plug-in pressure cookers like Instant Pots don't run at the same pressure/temperature as stovetop models. Electric models apparently run at ~12psi on high pressure mode, while stovetop models can run at 15psi. This means the timing is substantially different between the two.

Electric models can run unattended, so the slightly longer cook time isn't a deal-breaker. I'm a huge fan of Serious Eat's Colombian stew, which I can throw in the pot then go to the gym or out for errands and come home to a hot meal. https://www.seriouseats.com/colombian-chicken-stew-with-pota...


I hasten to add that an old school manual pressure cooker can be used on natural gas, propane, and electric stoves, any camp stove, or over a fire. With a bit of lye added, it can be used as a world class autoclave for sterilizing metal instruments and utensils with almost any available water that has not been chemically polluted. The caveat is that it must never be left cooking unattended.

I'll be trying this recipe.


I also want to add something. The new pressure cookers, stovetop or electric, are much less risky than the old school version with the rocker switch. Those could get clogged with food and they had no backup relief mechanism, as far as I know, anyway.

The ones used now have a primary valve that controls the cooking pressure, a secondary valve that will release if the primary fails, and the silicon gasket for the lid, which acts as a tertiary pressure release if the first two fail.

I know some people, like my mother-in-law, have stories of pressure cookers failing and spewing soup at high velocity all over the kitchen. I think that was more of a feature of the older version. And probably required some carelessness to achieve even then.


I have both a stovetop cooker (Zwilling) and an electric (Instant Pot). The stovetop gets hotter faster, so it cooks a lot faster too. The trade off is I can't leave home while it's cooking.

The electric lets me set and forget and come back to a hot meal hours later.


Exactly, that's the main difference, that the electric is convenient but depends upon... mains electricity.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: