I discovered, by accident, that my beloved instant pot can sub for a classic slow cooker. Without al-tering recipes, ingredients, or cooking times. It’s the simplest of ‘hacks’! And it’s the first such tip I’ve ever shared…
When I first got my instant pot, for Christmas several years ago, I focused – as anyone would – on using it as instructed in the manual. And I tried out a lot of different recipes and techniques from the accompanying cook book, following their directions to the letter…
Not a universal solution
Call me picky (because I am), but I found the instant pot a revelation on one hand – and a disap-pointment on the other. The idea behind it, according to the inventor, was that it could replace a whole list of existing kitchen appliances, from roasting pans to deep fryers.
But I quickly discovered that my trusty, ancient slow cooker still did a better job on some of my fave dishes. And I’ve kept that relic of my marriage specifically for that reason. There’s nothing like a long, low and slow cook for dishes that traditionally need the time to develop classic thick sauces, rich flavours and sublimely tender meats.
But my dear old countertop companion gave up the ghost recently. You can’t expect consumer goods – particularly electric appliances – to last as long as they used to. My old slow cooker made it past the 35-year mark! Anyway…
Priced out of reason
Desperate for a replacement for my legacy cooker, to simmer-up a batch of chili, I sat in front of the computer screen for an hour searching online for a new one. And I discovered that slow cookers are still a ‘thing’.
Unfortunately, these once-revolutionary appliances, which used to sell for as little as $15, are now up in the $40 to $80 range. Boutique terracotta models (leveraging the North African tagine tradition), and luxe stoneware units can cost $250 or more!
Which got me thinking…
Could I somehow tweak the configuration of my Instant Pot to mimic a conventional slow cooker? You can set the ting up as an air fryer… So why not?
And the answer came to me in a flash: Just leave the pressure-cooker-type lid aside and just loose-fit the old clear glass slow cooker lid onto the interior food-containing vessel.
I programmed my instant pot to mimic the appropriate temperature I used to set the slow cooker to. ‘Low’ and ‘high’ were the only options offered on the SC. But I was able to find, in the ancient, yel-lowed manual, what those temps actually were, in degrees.
No so revolutionary
But Sister Erin gave me the old google-eye and t’sked me for my apparent naivité. Being an electrical and electronic engineer in her pre-retirement, pre-catering career, she saw right through my great ‘technical triumph’.
I knew this, but somehow it slipped my mind: The thing that makes the instant pot such as treasure is, it functions as slow cooker and a pressure cooker, combined. But folks forget that… Because all the recipes in the instant pot cook books involve forcing the issue to compress cooking time. And that involves the pressure-cooker effect, which depends on using the lock-on lid.
My take
Set the pressure lid aside and substitute a Pyrex slow cooker or casserole topper of appropriate dia-meter, and you’ve got a conventional, though highly advanced slow cooker.
What a luxury, from the point of view of a slow cooker user, to be able to set the temperature in de-grees, the cooking time, and even a cool-down cycle for your recipes! It involves a small, but steep learning curve. Experienced cooks should have no trouble adapting.
For me, hacking my instant pot was a fun expedition into unknown culinary territory. It really got me thinking about other techno-tweaks I could implement, all around the kitchen…
~ Maggie J.