The Instant Pot® Bible is the first cookbook written for all models, even the Instant Pot® Max, which features both a new, powerful MAX cooking function and the ability to cook sous vide. But you don’t need a MAX for this book. You can have a Lux. A Duo. A Smart BT. An Ultra. A 3-quart Mini. Or an 8-quart of any sort. These recipes are fully forwards-and-backwards compatible no matter which Instant Pot you have. What’s more, over a quarter of the recipes can use either the PRESSURE COOK or the SLOW COOK function, depending on what your timing needs are. Everybody uses their pot to cook fast. Some of us still like a slow cooker. Now we can choose. (And yes, this is the first Instant Pot book with sous vide recipes. Those are only for the Max machine. But the other 342 were crafted for every model, every make.)
That’s a lot of good news, so permit us to be blunt: This cookbook is not an owner’s manual. Because each model varies slightly from another, we won’t tell you how to turn yours on, how to get the SAUTÉ function to the right heat, or how to open the pressure valve. Some models have preset buttons (MEAT/STEW, SOUP/BROTH, etc.); others don’t. Some models require you to press START; others automatically switch the machine on after you’ve keyed in your cook time. You can find this sort of information in your owner’s manual (or online, if yours has gone missing). We’ve accounted for the variables that matter once you start cooking, but we count on you to have a basic understanding of your model.
Then what is this book? The cover says it’s a collection of 350 recipes. But it has many more. Countless, probably, given that we provide 25 flexible “road map” recipes: not standard recipes at all, but detailed layouts for chili and risotto, winter vegetable soup and rotisserie-style chicken. Each is a culinary outline that teaches you the basics and allows you to customize a dish with countless proteins, vegetables, herbs, and flavorful liquids. Consider these road maps to be gussied-up master recipes with the ratios set and the variables laid out so you can prepare whatever you and yours prefer. (Desserts are a matter of greater precision, of course.)
In the more traditional recipes, we sometimes use the headnotes to explain how to make other, similar recipes in the pot. In the end, we hope you’ll treat almost every recipe as a road map. Cook with a pen in hand so you can alter the recipe on the page. Or if you’re scrolling on an e-reader, make notes in the recipe with the call-out function. And post your versions in the various Instant Pot Facebook or Instagram groups. We’d be more than flattered if you took our ideas and made them your own. Creativity is the best part of our job. We have a feeling it may be the same for you—at least, at times other than 5:45 p.m., when the kids are starving and you’re about 20 minutes away from DEFCON 10.
But even with all those road maps and inventive recipes, there are a few dishes this book doesn’t address. Most are utter basics. There’s no plain rice recipe, for example. Nor ones for kefir or plain beans. These recipes are found in the booklet that accompanies each model. Some are even part of the owner’s manual. And some, like those for yogurt, are too complicated to be written for all models, given the differences among the pots.
Instead, we offer a veritable bible of advice on mastering the art of using your machine. There are over 20 recipes for everything that can be pulled (chicken, pork, you name it). There are braises galore. There’s a breakfast chapter, a sides chapter, and a dessert chapter. But most of this cookbook isn’t laid out in a traditional manner. Instead, the main courses are divided into chapters like Pasta Casseroles, All Things Curried, Shorter Braises, and Longer Braises. If you look in one place and don’t find a meat cut, a favorite vegetarian entrée, or a cooking technique you prefer, flip elsewhere or look in the index. For example, there are recipes for chicken thighs in the Soups, Pasta Casseroles, All Things Pulled, All Things Curried, All Things Steamed, Shorter Braises, Longer Braises, and even Rice and Grains chapters. As on any grand tour, your first stop probably isn’t your last.
And there are lots of stops on the tour because this book is big. Try the Chicken Noodle Paprikash (here). Or the Eggnog Cheesecake (here). Or any one of the ten mouthwatering ragùs (starting on here). There’s something in here for nearly every taste and occasion. And if you’re curious about our favorite? Well, let’s just say we made the Bundt Banana Bread (here) about half a dozen times after we got it right in testing because, well, banana bread is so great with a morning cup of coffee. Or at night in front of the TV while we binge-watched yet another Scandinavian crime series.
We live in rural New England and wrote this book during a long, hard winter. If the recipes in these pages helped us get through one of those, you’ll be fine no matter where you are.
An Owner’s Manual for this Cookbook
You need the manual for your Instant Pot, and you need one for this book. Ours is a little simpler. Keep the following seven points in mind:
1. Read the chapter openers.
We know: This is boiler-plate cookbook advice. But in those openers, we’ve included important information that you’ll need again and again, especially under the FAQs header. Five minutes reading these will pay off since you’ll understand how the recipes work.
2. Avoid the presets.
Many machines come with programmed, default features. Let’s take timing as an example. When you press SAUTÉ and the heat level (say, LOW or LESS), or when you press the MEAT/STEW button (available in some but not all models), you get 10 minutes, maybe 15 on the timer. You can then manually adjust this timing up or down. Some models will return to the timing you last selected the next time you press SAUTÉ or MEAT/STEW. Others return to the default. Just skip it all. We give you the timings (and more). Manually adjust the variables each time and you’ll never go wrong.
3. Pay attention to the size of the pot in the main recipe.
We have written all the recipes with the 6-quart cooker as the standard. However, more than three-quarters can also be made, as stated, in an 8-quart cooker. In these recipes, there will be a note in the Beyond section on how to alter the recipe for a 3-quart cooker. (Although a few times we note that the recipe unfortunately cannot be done in the smaller pot.) A few recipes were written for a 3- or 6-quart cooker. Again, there will be notes in the Beyond section on how to up the ingredients so the recipe can work in an 8-quart cooker. And some recipes can only be made as written in a 6-quart cooker. The Beyond section will again explain the necessary alterations for both the 3- and 8-quart cookers. Finally, a handful of recipes can be made in any size cooker.
4. Notice the two types of charts in the recipes.
One chart is for basic cooking techniques like browning a chicken breast or reducing a sauce—the same kinds of things you could also do on the stovetop. This chart is often the first and/or right before the last step of a recipe (see opposite page).
Read the chart left to right to figure out how to get the pot to the place it needs to be. The exact name for the heat level is different among the models—thus, “MEDIUM, NORMAL, or CUSTOM 300°F.” That last “custom” marker is for the Max machine, which has a HIGH and a LOW for the SAUTÉ function, then adjustable temperatures in-between. The Ultra also has an adjustable sautéing temperature, plus a more traditional MEDIUM setting.
Pay careful attention to the heat level indicated for the SAUTÉ function. Although the vast majority of recipes in this book use MEDIUM, NORMAL, or CUSTOM 300°F, some use LOW or LESS; others, HIGH or MORE.
Notice, too, that when sautéing, we always round the time up to the nearest 5-minute mark. So a recipe may tell you to cook the onions for 2 minutes and the chart will say to set the time for 5 minutes, or the recipe will say to brown the roast for a total of 12 minutes and the chart will say 15 minutes. We built in a little extra time because we don’t want the heating element to turn off on you—just in case your onion is juicier than ours, or your chuck roast takes a little longer to brown. As a result, you will often finish sautéing with a couple minutes on the timer to spare. Go right ahead and turn off the SAUTÉ function when you’re ready to carry on with the recipe.
And one more thing: In all models, MAX or any other, the SAUTÉ function doesn’t remain on for longer than 30 minutes. You may need to restart it to continue with a recipe that involves multiple browning and sautéing steps. Such recipes are super rare, but see the Bistro-Style Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms on here as an example. Here, we’ve given the timing as 35 minutes in the first chart, even though we well know that the setting is impossible, given the machines’ limit. We wrote the recipe that way to avoid a second chart, to be honest. We trust you’ll know how to turn it back on when the machine switches off. And let’s face it: Most of us start sautéing before the machine actually beeps to tell us it’s warmed up to the desired temperature. So the 30-minute cutoff in even the most complicated recipe may never worry those of us who lack saintly patience.
The other chart is for using the pot as a pressure cooker or a slow cooker (see here).
A Max machine can (but doesn’t have to) cook at 15 psi—that is, pounds per square inch, the same pressure as almost all stovetop pressure cookers. The chart’s top instructional row (under the headers) is for a Max machine at its MAX setting. This model also automatically opens or closes the valve, so you don’t have to fiddle with it after you latch on the lid and set the cooking function. That’s why there are dashes in the third box of that instructional row.
The second row, the one with the HIGH pressure setting, is the row you’ll use if you have a Luxe, Duo, Smart, Ultra, or Mini. (You can also use it for a Max—see below.) All Instant Pot models except the Max cook at 12.6 psi (slightly higher than most other electric pressure cookers). For this row of the chart, you can either use the MANUAL or PRESSURE COOK setting or you can press (as here) the MEAT/STEW button (or other buttons like SOUP or GRAINS as the recipe indicates). We call out all the options in all the charts. But you must always override the presets to set the specific time noted in the chart.
We should also note that the Max machine can cook on the older HIGH setting. Max users can also use the chart’s line for the HIGH setting, if they prefer a slightly longer cooking time and a slightly lower pressure setting.
Some charts are missing the last row, the SLOW COOK instructions. This is because these recipes cannot be completed using this function without major modifications to the ingredient list (in most cases: less liquid and oil, more spices and vegetables).
The Chart for Basic Cooking Techniques
Press the button for: SAUTÉ
Set it for: MEDIUM, NORMAL, or CUSTOM 300°F
Set the time for: 5 minutes
If necessary, press: START
Set the machine for: PRESSURE COOK
Set the level for: MAX
The valve must be: 
Set the time for: 3 minutes with the KEEP WARM setting off
If necessary, press: START
Set the machine for: MEAT/STEW, PRESSURE COOK, or MANUAL
Set the level for: HIGH
The valve must be: Closed
Set the time for: 4 minutes with the KEEP WARM setting off
If necessary, press: START
Set the machine for: SLOW COOK
Set the level for: HIGH
The valve must be: Opened
Set the time for: 3 hours with the KEEP WARM setting off (or on for 2 hours)
If necessary, press: START
A few are even missing the first instructional row, the one with the Max instructions. It’s not that these recipes can’t be done in a Max machine. It’s that they can’t be done on the MAX pressure setting without, say, a cheesecake buckling into waves or more delicate ingredients dissolving into the sauce. These few recipes can only be done on HIGH, even in a Max machine.
5. Pay attention to the design and function changes in the Max machine.
For one thing, this pot’s missing the old buttons for, say, MEAT/STEW or BEAN/CHILI. The Max machine is oriented toward cooking technique, not the type of dish cooked. While this change doesn’t affect these recipes, don’t get tripped up looking for the old functions, especially if you’re used to another model or if you see those button indicators in the second instructional row of the chart.
The Max machine is not necessarily the first electric pressure cooker to cook at as high a pressure as a stovetop cooker. Some others hit that pressure mark and immediately fall off it. The Max is the first electric pressure cooker to keep the pressure that high for the duration of the cooking. Because of that and the Max model’s design changes, you’ll need to follow its specific instructions and set the pot manually every time for all of these recipes.
One feature added to the Max is the SOUS VIDE function. We’ll have much more to say about this feature in its chapter (here). For now, let’s just say that this function is a game-changer for a home cook who wants to try out this cheffy technique.
One feature missing from the Max machine is the GRAIN button. On former models, this button was something of a wonder to us. It brought the water in the pot up to a certain temperature and held it there so the raw grains got a warm, 45-minute soak before the machine then flipped to pressure cooking for the stated time. Frankly, the GRAIN button resulted in the most perfect wheat berries and rye berries we’ve ever had. But we’ve found a way around the loss in the Max machine, as you’ll see in the recipe for wheat berries on here.
The Max machine also offers a NUTRIBOOST feature that lets out steam in tiny bursts. Here’s the deal: Every time the pressure valve opens, even for a second, the liquid in the pot goes from being super-heated but essentially placid to being almost apoplectic. When the valve closes again, the liquids calm back down until the next shock. Call it “intermittent fury,” great for bone broth and more assertively flavored stocks, none of which will be clear (as they would be if the valve remained closed, followed by a natural release). These stocks would not be favored by a classically trained French chef who wants to be able to read his menu through them; but they are indeed bolder and more complex, better not only for sipping but even for cooking. We advocate using this feature only where we feel it’s appropriate. For example, we don’t feel the NUTRIBOOST function is right for broth-rich dishes like Beef Barley Soup (here). The grains become soft enough to dissolve and the soup, just too mucky.
6. Follow the release method for each recipe.
As you may know, cooking under pressure is as much about releasing said pressure as it is about building it. That pressure is made only one way: by steam. Liquids produce steam as they boil. That steam fills up the air space above the ingredients in the pot and eventually packs the space so tight that no more steam can be released from the liquids. The bubbling slows down and the pressure begins to build, ultimately bringing the liquids to a state in which they can’t boil. (When a bubble pops, where would the gas go?) The result is that the boiling point of water in the pot rises from 212°F or 100°C to around 250°F or 112°C (the exact temperature depends on the model and the pressure it reaches). In addition, the volume of almost everything in the pot expands, wine to lamb shanks, carrots to cheesecakes.
Eventually, all that pressure has to go somewhere. There are two ways to get rid of it:
the quick-release method
the natural release method (worded in these recipes as “let the pressure return to normal naturally, about X minutes.”)
For the quick-release method, the pressure valve on the lid must be opened to let go of the steam. Doing so requires different moves among different models. In some, you must turn the valve one way or another. For the Ultra, you must push a steam release button next to the valve. For the Max, you must press the indicator on the touchpad without futzing with the valve. In all cases, steam will shoot out of the small hole in the valve.
Learning to release the pressure quickly is a key part of learning to cook in the pot. Don’t ever release the steam under a cabinet overhang. Keep the geyser away from cabinet facings. And never consider the released steam an easy way to get a facial. Instead, put pets and small children out of the room until you get the hang of the method your machine requires. Don’t be afraid; there are countless videos online to help you. We’ve even got two popular classes on craftsy.com that can get you more comfortable with the whole notion of pressure cooking.
By contrast, the natural-release method is easier. Basically, turn the cooker off (or let it lapse into stand-by mode) and wait. Over time, what’s inside the pot will cool down enough that the steam in the pot’s air space will condense. (Remember high-school physics?) At this point, the locking mechanism—a pin or cylinder in the lid called the “float valve”—will drop down (or, in fact, release). You can now unlatch the lid and open the pot. A natural release can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the amount of liquid and the mass of the ingredients in the pot.
Do not vary the release from the one stated in the recipe, even if you skipped lunch earlier in the day and want that beef stew right now. The recipes were written to take into account the stated method. Although the machine is off and nothing appears to be happening, a natural release is not dead time. Those cubes of beef continue to cook as the pressure falls.
Why didn’t we just write all the recipes with the quick-release method? Because of what happens inside the pot when you release the pressure in one fell swoop. As we’ve indicated, things in the pot are pretty calm when the pressure’s on. You’ll hear almost nothing. But the second that valve opens, it’s as if the ingredients went from being a jalopy on a country road to a race car in the Indianapolis 500. In other words, the liquids jump to a furious boil. That sudden switch can help save delicate ingredients from getting overcooked, and it can offer faster soups and stews when it’s warranted. But it can also turn braised vegetables to mush, cause potatoes or roots to cloud a sauce, and render more delicate cuts of meat a little too soft.
No, a quick release will not ruin a pork chop. But in testing the difference time and again, we found a quick release can make some cuts of meat a little too squishy for our taste. And they’re not necessarily the ones we expected when we started writing about pressure cooking. Leaner cuts—like boneless skinless chicken breasts—are often able to withstand a quick release better than fattier ones like pork shoulder. (Our tests were conducted with cuts of meat in water in the pot. There are other factors that come into play in actual recipes—fat, starches, and even liquid-mass ratios—so we sometimes call for a quick release even with a fatty cut.)
Hey, we get it: The natural-release method makes pressure-cooker recipes look like bald-faced lies. “Twenty minutes under pressure yet the dish took an hour to make,” someone inevitably says. We didn’t want to fool you, so we always indicate about how long the natural release takes. Some writers shy away from these things. They want you to believe that a soup takes 10 minutes when in fact it takes 15 minutes to brown the meat and sweat the onions, another 10 minutes for the machine to come up to pressure, 10 minutes for it to cook under pressure, and 20 minutes for it to come back to normal pressure naturally. If you glance through a full recipe on any page of this book, you’ll have a pretty good notion of the real timing.
7. Check out the Beyond for each recipe.
We started writing this book with an oath that we wouldn’t call for any ingredient we couldn’t find in our rural supermarket, a nicely stocked but not gigantic suburban Stop & Shop. That’s why we substituted a mix of balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce for Chinese black vinegar in a couple of recipes. True, the real-deal vinegar is available online with a click but otherwise only with a long drive for us. Yes, we can travel over an hour to some big gourmet supermarkets, even a decent Asian one and a great kosher one. But there was no Chinese black vinegar down the road. We should also admit up front that we made an exception for Sichuan peppercorns. There’ll be more about them when we get to the two appropriate recipes.
Even though we (mostly) held to our oath, we often wanted to tell you how to nudge a recipe toward authenticity or how to make X, Y, and Z substitutions to our ingredient list that would make the dish, well, “cheffier”—and thus began the Beyonds. Over time, these grew to include serving suggestions and even garnishes. As we’re indicated before, this section is also where you’ll find any modifications needed to make a recipe work in a 3- or 8-quart pot.
The Recipe Tags
We’ve tagged the recipes in this book to help you make better decisions about what to make for dinner. Not every recipe has every tag. Most have three or four. Here’s what they mean:
FOR MAX MACHINES ONLY. Sous vide recipes are the only ones so marked.
SUPER FAST. These recipes are either 1) shockingly speedy, ready in just a few minutes, like the kid-friendly Buttery Noodles (here); or 2) absurdly quick given all that’s going on in the pot—like a barbecue-sauce-based casserole with dried pasta that comes together in mere minutes (here).
SUPER EASY. In general, these recipes are what we call “dump and stir”: Toss everything in the pot, stir things up, and cook under pressure (or slow cook at will). Most require no browning. If you buy prechopped onion and a jar of minced garlic, most require little to no work at a cutting board. In a few cases, we’ve marked a recipe as super easy even if it requires you to sweat some onions, boil down a sauce, or use frozen gnocchi to make a kicked-up casserole with a two-step pressure process.
FEWER THAN 10 INGREDIENTS. In other words, nine at most. Or to put it another way, about a third of the book’s recipes. We don’t play that funky game in which water, salt, and pepper don’t count. They count. However, some of the road map recipes are tagged this way; when they claim you could use two or three items from a list, you can sometimes get away with using only one.
FAST/SLOW. These recipes can be made either under pressure or with the SLOW COOK function. Perhaps unbeknownst to you, there have been big changes in the heat levels for slow cooking among the Instant Pot models. One pot’s low is not another’s low. To keep things simple, all the SLOW COOK recipes have been written using the slow-cooker HIGH setting. Therefore, they cook more quickly. There are almost no 8-hour braises here. But you can use the KEEP WARM function to hold the dish until you’re ready to eat it. By the way, some recipes tagged Fast/slow have the slow cooking instructions in the Beyond section attached to that recipe instead of in the chart in the recipe steps.
QUICK RELEASE. You must manually release the pressure at the end of cooking by opening the pressure valve, by pushing the button next to the valve (for the Ultra model), or by pressing the appropriate function on the touchpad (for the Max model).
MODIFIED QUICK RELEASE. Here, use the quick-release method to drop the pressure (and drop the temperature in the pot) but do not open the lid. Instead, leave it alone for a stated number of minutes with the valve open and the KEEP WARM setting off. This method is particularly useful for plumping grains and rice.
NATURAL RELEASE. After cooking, turn the pot off and let its pressure “return to normal naturally, about X minutes.” Take special note: Some pots default to the KEEP WARM function. For a natural release, you must set the pot so it does not.
MODIFIED NATURAL RELEASE. In this case, turn the machine off and let its pressure come down naturally for a stated number of minutes—for example, “let the pressure return to normal for 10 minutes.” After that, use the quick-release method to get rid of any residual pressure, either by opening the valve or pressing the quick-release function on the touchpad. This method is particularly useful for getting a little moisture back into a cut of lean meat.
QUICK RELEASE TWICE. NATURAL RELEASE TWICE. QUICK RELEASE, THEN NATURAL RELEASE. QUICK RELEASE, THEN MODIFIED NATURAL RELEASE. NATURAL RELEASE, THEN MODIFIED QUICK RELEASE. There are even more permutations. These are all the markers to indicate two-step recipes. Each one details what happens at the end of the first step, then what happens at the end of the second. These seem complicated now but don’t worry: Each recipe tells you exactly what to do.
VEGETARIAN. There’s no meat or seafood in the dish. There are, however, animal products like milk, honey, or eggs.
CAN BE VEGETARIAN. In this case, a simple swap will morph the recipe into a vegetarian one—for example, vegetable broth for chicken broth in an otherwise meatless recipe. Remember: Most Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies. Use vegetarian (or vegan) Worcestershire sauce, if it matters.
VEGAN. In this case, there are no animal products at all: no meat, honey, eggs, nada.
CAN BE VEGAN. Again, simple modifications can turn the recipe vegan: a swapped-out broth, or vegan Worcestershire sauce, or maybe oil for the butter.
GLUTEN-FREE. There’s no wheat gluten in the recipe. However, your kitchen, cutting board, measuring spoons, and pot may have been contaminated. If you’re cooking for someone who needs to eat gluten-free, you may need to take further precautions. For ingredients, we follow the Celiac Disease Foundation’s requirements and rules. Some people have more drastic requirements or disagree with the organization. For reference, celiac.org is where we set the bar.
CAN BE GLUTEN-FREE. In this case, you need to substitute gluten-free versions of some ingredients without making any other alterations. We do not list the specific ingredients that need to be switched out. Those to watch out for include but are not limited to Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, sausage meat (which can have wheat derivatives as filler or preservatives), some dried spice blends, and some condiments (particularly fat-free versions that may use wheat or a wheat derivative as a thickener.) Use certified gluten-free versions of these products (and more), even rolled and steel-cut oats. (Naturally gluten-free oats can be processed in facilities that also process wheat, the dust of which can get on the oats.) Watch out for hoisin sauce, a Chinese condiment. (We show how to make a gluten-free version in the Beyond section of the Vegetable Lo Mein recipe on here). And pay attention to baking powder. Although most made in the U. S. include cornstarch to preserve freshness (that is, to trap ambient humidity), baking powder from abroad may use wheat gluten. Finally, as to breadcrumbs, use Italian-seasoned gluten-free breadcrumbs or plain gluten-free panko breadcrumbs, both of which are increasingly available in stores and online.
FREEZES WELL. We tested these recipes with stacks of 1-quart, plastic, sealable containers on the counter. We put leftovers in the freezer. Those we enjoyed another day are so marked.
A Few Notes about Basic Ingredients
We give either the supermarket equivalent or the weight as well as the volume of common ingredients, particularly fresh produce that is prepped in a standard way. For example, a chopped onion is “1 medium yellow onion, chopped (1 cup).” However, we don’t give the volume measure when that onion is sliced into thin half-moons, which are hard to measure accurately.
We assume you may well buy prechopped onion, bell pepper, celery, and carrots, as well as cubed and seeded butternut squash. We also assume you may have jars of minced garlic and ginger in the fridge. Feel free to use these ingredients. When using frozen chopped onion and bell pepper strips right out of the freezer, you’ll have to cook them an extra minute or two.
Long-time cookbook readers will note that some ingredient volume equivalents seem a tad off. We say, for example, “1 medium garlic clove, peeled and minced (1 teaspoon).” A medium garlic clove minces up to more than 1 teaspoon. However, we have given the volume amount for the convenience product. This is because jarred minced garlic has (ahem) stewed in its own juices and is therefore more pungent than the freshly chopped stuff. Even prechopped onions and bell peppers have a more assertive flavor if they’ve sat around at the store.
On another note, the two of us under-salt food. It’s not that we don’t love salt. (One of us adds more to every tortilla chip.) It’s just that we’d rather add crunchy sea salt or even kosher salt at the table.
In fact, we prefer reduced-sodium versions of common packaged ingredients in the Instant Pot. For our taste, a dish turns too salty if it includes standard cans of tomatoes, beans, and broth. We also tested every recipe that calls for soy sauce with the reduced-sodium version. But tastes vary. And this is not a health or diet book. So we have not specifically called for reduced-sodium ingredients unless we felt doing so was important to the dish’s success.
Finally, we need to make a comment about butter. (Did you hear us sigh?) Unsalted butter is the holy grail of published recipes: always sought, never found. Every food writer makes a plea for it. We have, too. But the vast bulk of the butter sold in the United States is salted. Its sales are growing while the sales of unsalted butter plummet. As St. Paul learned on the road to Damascus, there’s no use kicking against the cattle goads. So the butter in this book is salted, the American standard.
But we just blathered on about reduced-sodium ingredients. To compensate, we’ve even reduced the added salt in recipes to take salted butter into account. If you hold onto the righteousness of the culinary ideal and use unsalted butter, increase the salt in a recipe by at least half, if not double. But as for us and our house, we’ve gone with the flow.
All the Special Equipment You’ll Need
Although there are now dozens, if not hundreds, of specialty cooking gadgets for the Instant Pot, not everyone wants to cough up so much money on gear. So beyond wooden spoons, rubber spatulas, measuring cups, and the like, we call for eight specialty items:
1. A 2-quart, high-sided, round soufflé dish.
That is, a round baking dish with 3½-inch (or 4-inch) sides that’s also 7½ or 8 inches in diameter (outside edge to outside edge). It must be heat- and pressure-safe. Most are, but check with various manufacturers to be sure. Ours is made of thick porcelain. Not every piece of porcelain can withstand the cooker.
For the 3-quart cooker, we often recommend halving the recipe and substituting a 1-quart high-sided soufflé dish, which has 3- to 3½-inch sides and is 6 inches in diameter.
2. A 7-inch Bundt pan.
No matter the flutings and designs, the diameter is sacrosanct. Most fit snugly in a 3-quart cooker. In this case, don’t worry about the Max Fill line. The water level needed to make the steam is well below that mark, even if the Bundt pan sits above it.
Getting a 7-inch Bundt pan out of a 3-quart cooker (or really any cooker) can be a pain. We stick the handle of a wooden spoon into the hole in the pan’s center post, then use the spoon to leverage the pan up a bit before grasping its edge with oven mitts. Remember: That pan is super hot.
3. A 7-inch round springform pan.
This pan has a detachable side wall over a 7-inch bottom. Its sides should be 3 to 3½ inches tall. Because of the way the latch sticks out from the side of the pan, this gadget will not work in a 3-quart cooker. You can substitute a 7-inch cheesecake pan (without a lip) in some cases but you may not be able to unmold the fare inside. We’ve heard there will soon be new Instant Pot springform pans without the latch, specifically designed for the Mini. These were not yet available as we finished writing this book.
4. A heat- and pressure-safe trivet.
We’re talking about the one that comes with the machine. If you’ve misplaced your trivet, order another. If you don’t have one and want to use whatever you’ve got, it must not have rubber feet and must be built to withstand the pressure’s onslaught. Some pottery will not.
You can often turn a couple of small Pyrex custard upside down and use them as a base for a springform pan in a 6- or 8-quart cooker. To do so, put them in the cooker before you add the water or other liquid for steaming. But the best advice is to use the trivet that comes with the pot. It has collapsible side handles, indispensable (as you’ll see) in the sous vide recipes.
5. A heat- and pressure-safe collapsible steaming basket.
This is not the machine’s trivet. This is an old-school, metal basket that opens out like daisy petals. Some new-fangled ones are made of silicone. These do not open out. Keep in mind the diameter of your pot. A giant silicone basket, made for a Dutch oven, won’t work.
You’ll need this gadget in rare instances to hold a lot of stuff so it doesn’t sit in the water. The basket’s feet should not be rubberized or plastic-coated. (Silicone is definitely okay.) The basket should have relatively tall legs. Always use the amount of water (or other steaming liquid) indicated in the recipe, even if it touches some of the food in the basket (thus the need for tall legs). The steam’s the thing.
6. Heat- and pressure-safe 1-cup ramekins.
We used these in some desserts, particularly the puddings. We tested the recipes in Pyrex custard cups, the sort our grandmothers had. You can get fancier ones, but (again) they must be able to withstand the heat and pressure.
7. A fine-mesh sieve.
Small ingredients like wheat berries or rice grains can slip through the holes of a standard colander. A fine-mesh sieve can catch them. The best is a chinois (see here). We also always give you instructions on how to line a standard colander with cheesecloth or (sometimes) paper towels.
8. An aluminum foil sling.
Here’s the one piece of equipment you must make. A sling is necessary because everything in the cooker is crazy hot, especially if you’ve quickly released the pressure and opened the lid right away. It’s tough to reach in without touching the metal insert. Yes, the machine’s trivet has collapsible handles. We still ended up with blisters on our knuckles. A sling gives you an easy way to raise and lower things into the pot (or even onto that trivet, provided its collapsible sides are up).
To make this sling, set two 2-feet-long pieces of aluminum foil on top of each other. Fold them together in half lengthwise (so that the thing is now a four-ply strip of foil). Put this sling on the counter as close to the cooker as possible, then set the baking dish or pan in the center of the sling. Fold its two ends over several times to create secure handles. Lift the whole contraption by these handles and put it in the cooker. Crimp the ends down so the lid will latch tightly but also so you can grab them later to lift the baking dish or pan out of the cooker.
And finally, while we never call for them, at the end of recipe-testing we discovered clamps with silicon-coated handles, designed for grabbing the edge of the Instant Pot’s insert and lifting it out. We also discovered hand-length silicone gloves, perfect for grabbing the edge of the insert. If we’d had either of these while testing, our knuckles would have thanked us time and again.
A Dozen Up-Front FAQs
1. Why doesn’t food squish flat when it cooks under pressure?
The pressure isn’t coming straight down onto the food. The pressure comes from all directions at once. Think of a chicken breast. Think of a zillion arrows pointing at every spot on the breast, even every molecule. Then think of a zillion more arrows inside the breast, pushing out toward the surface. That’s about how the pressure works. The chicken breast can’t go flat. It’s being pushed (quite literally) in every direction. That said, softer items—like cheesecake batters—can expand because the liquid inside is blowing up with the pressure. Batters billow, which is why they require extra care.
2. My pot has an elevation setting. Should I use it?
Sure. And you’re talking about the Max pot. This elevation setting is specifically designed for the canning function. For all other models, don’t worry about your specific elevation. A couple of years ago, we taped our pressure cooker classes for craftsy.com in the mile-high city of Denver, one class at a studio in a suburb with an elevation over 6,300 feet. We never canned anything but we also never had a single problem. Here’s why: Although the pressure in the room was altered because of our higher elevation, the pressure in the pot was not. It’s a sealed environment. It comes to HIGH (or LOW or MAX) internally. We even included quite a few baking recipes in those classes and did not make a single change to any cake, cheesecake, pie, or pudding.
3. What’s with the weird verbiage in the road map recipes?
As we said, these recipes can be endlessly customized. The ingredient lists include culinary terms like “creamy liquid” or “flavor enhancer.” These items are then immediately explained with a list of possible options and even ways to combine those options. We’ve set the ratios and left you to fill in the blanks, all while giving you plenty of options for those blanks. But in so doing, we had to use some terminology that smacks of chef school.
4. What’s 0 minutes at pressure?
It’s a way to make sure that delicate items like shrimp or orzo don’t get overcooked. Every model lets you choose “0 minutes” as an option. The pot comes up to MAX or HIGH pressure and immediately stops cooking.
By the way, we should note a slightly alternate technique for some pasta dishes. We set the time for 1 minute, then release the pressure, not when the machine actually hits high pressure, but the moment the lid’s float valve jumps up and clicks closed (that is, before the pot is actually all the way up to pressure). You’ll also know the float valve (or pin) has closed because no more steam can escape from it (or from the pot at all). You’ll hear it click and see it happen. For this rather odd technique, use the quick-release method to get rid of the pot’s pressure right when the float valve closes, so delicate items don’t stick, burn, or turn gummy.
5. You say to “turn the machine off” when it undergoes a natural release. Do I have to?
No. If the KEEP WARM setting has been turned off, the pot has turned off at the end of cooking (or actually, has moved to stand-by mode). That said, we’re both a tad neurotic. OCD, really. One of us even unplugs the machine from the wall. (The writer, not the chef.) We turn the pot off just so nothing can happen. See? Neurotic.
6. What’s with the lean ground beef, pork, and turkey?
Because of the way the lid fits tightly on the pot (even in the SLOW COOK mode with the valve open), there’s almost no reduction among the liquids, even those trapped in interstitial fat. We find that standard ground meat results in dishes too oily for our taste. We prefer 90 percent (or more) lean ground beef, ground white meat turkey, and lean ground pork. Your taste may differ.
7. What’s with scraping up “every speck of browned stuff” off the pot’s bottom?
Many models of the Instant Pot have a safety feature that turns the pot off if things stick to the bottom of the insert and begin to burn. To avoid that, we’ve come up with ways to avoid the sticking problem altogether in pasta casseroles and some rice dishes. Even so, when proper browning happens, all sorts of natural sugars get stuck on the pot’s bottom (aka the “browned stuff”). In a traditional stovetop braise, you would most likely deglaze a pot (starting the process of getting the browned bits unstuck from the bottom), then the remainder of the stuff would eventually dissolve into the sauce over the next hour or so. In a pressure cooker, not enough time elapses. Some of the browned stuff hangs around and acts like glue on the pot’s bottom. Ingredients fall down there or float by and get caught. They adhere and burn; the pot turns off.
In some recipes, you don’t need to scrape up every speck. For instance, when you deglaze the pot with, say, wine or broth, we simply indicate that you should scrape it up without being assiduous. But for many pasta casseroles and grain dishes, you must get obsessive. In those, the direction every speck of browned stuff is in italics so you won’t miss it. Listen, you want the caramelized stuff in the sauce anyway.
8. I tried to lock the lid onto my pot and it wouldn’t do it. What gives?
Most likely, you’ve been cooking on the SAUTÉ function for a while. The pot is hot. There’s steam inside the insert. Liquids may be boiling. The lid resists a firm lock because the pressure’s already too high in the air space above the food. To remedy this problem, turn the SAUTÉ function off and wait a bit. Or if you’ve opened the pot after the first stage of a two-step cooking process, let the machine cool down a bit. Or—and this is the only case where such advice is ever applicable—use a skewer to press down the float valve (or the pin lock) so that it can’t get in the way of locking the lid onto the pot. If none of these options work, you may need to contact Instant Pot for a repair.
9. My Max machine asks me how I want to release the pressure right up front. Should I do that?
You can but you don’t need to. The machine will default to a natural release setting. Here’s what we do: We let it default to the natural release function. When the machine beeps to indicate the timing is done, we press the quick-release function on the touchpad and let the pot rip. Of course, you can also set the pot to rip at the right moment when you start the pressure-cooking process. It’s really a matter of taste. (And we’re a bit fogeyish.) Just don’t confuse the quick-release function with the one that has the Max machine make microbursts of pressure throughout the cooking, the NUTRIBOOST function.
10. The valve on my Max machine can’t be manually closed. What do I do?
Nothing. The Max machine has been designed so that the valve opens or closes automatically, based on the function you request. This increased automation is why the requisite block in our charts for the valve’s function has been left blank for the MAX setting on the Max machine. Remember, too, that you can also cook on HIGH in the Max machine and even use the SLOW COOK function. In all cases, setting the valve is irrelevant.
11. You call for a lot of dried spices. Seriously? I’m not running a spice store.
First off, many pressure cooker recipes yield better results with dried herbs, not fresh. The latter can end up squishy if they’re not truly minced or if the braise is not well-stocked (in which case the herbs are more noticeable). What’s more, the flavors of dried herbs and spices are often earthier and soften considerably under pressure, rendering them a great choice in many recipes since the pot tends to foreground sweet flavors in a dish.
In the end, you can’t create wonderful food in the pot without layering the flavors. The pressure also kills a lot of the hot stuff in chiles. It can even mute some of the subtle notes in vegetables and herbs. To compensate, we need to up the spice game so the food isn’t dull.
Here’s an idea: Do you know other people in your neighborhood with multi-cookers? Run a spice ring. You take care of dried herbs, Henry takes care of dried spices, and Jane takes care of specialty blends. Now you don’t have to run a spice store. You just have to have a few more house keys on your key ring.
12. Wait! What about when I…? Did you really mean to…? What if I can’t eat…?
We can’t predict every question, so look us up. We’re around and happy to help. Bruce is on Facebook as Bruce Weinstein, on Twitter @bruceweinstein, and on Instagram as @bruceaweinstein. Mark is on all those platforms under Mark Scarbrough or @markscarbrough. Or go to our website: bruceandmark.com. Or listen to our podcast: Cooking with Bruce and Mark. We’d be honored to answer your questions wherever you find us.
In Conclusion…
Well, really, that’s it. The rest we’ll leave to the chapter openers and the recipes. You didn’t buy an Instant Pot to read a book. You bought it to get busy. And to get a meal on the table. And then to get on with your morning, your day, your evening. You bought the pot to save time, right? So get cooking.