The Instant Pot die-hards will swear on their last batch of beef barbacoa that this all-in-one kitchen gadget has been the savior of their weekly meal plan. But is this much-hyped kitchen device really worth the money, can it save you the time it promises, and produce a meal bursting with bold, full flavors? Here are a few reasons why you may want to think twice before adding this not-small appliance to your already limited counter space.
Related: 50 Kitchen Gadgets That Are a Waste of Money
The Instant Pot is not instant. Between allowing for the stainless steel inner pot to heat up, the food to come to pressure, the time needed for natural release, having to hand-clean the outer pot, and the actual cooking time, you might not end up saving as much time as you anticipated. “We’ve found that the ‘instant’ part of the name is very misleading. Preparing foods in the Instant Pot consistently took 45 minutes (or more) longer to prepare than the recipe called for. The time it takes for the device to come up to pressure and the time added for a natural release of pressure meant that recipes only needing 10 minutes of cook time took well over an hour,” says David Gafford of The Barbecue Lab.
Related: 50 Easy Recipes You Can Make in 20 Minutes or Less
Depending on the size of your Instant Pot and how many racks you include, you can get between two and 78 (you read this right) hard-boiled eggs cooked at one go. Unless you run a salad bar or have a family of bodybuilders to feed, it is unlikely you will be boiling more than two to four eggs at once. Cooking time wise, it takes five minutes of cooking time in the Instant Pot and another three minutes for the pressure to naturally release. This means it actually takes longer than cooking the eggs in the old tried and true pot on stove method. The only caveat is if you’re boiling a lot of eggs, this is a winner, but according to The Cooking Family, “Some eggs will have compromised shells and will crack. Also, you may have some variance in your yolks. All of mine were cooked well, but a couple of them were overdone with a slight grey ring around the yolk.”
Related: 50 Simple, Cheap, and Delicious Instant Pot Recipes
Do you live off pot roast, brisket and shredded pork/chicken for dinner? Buy an Instant Pot and suddenly you’ll be eating a lot of it. These tried-and-true recipes are what Instant Pot die-hards swear by — there are over 9 million pulled pork recipes alone online, but the quality is questionable depending on whom you ask. “I know people cook brisket, pork shoulder, and baby back ribs in the Instant Pot and love the convenience. It just can’t compare to the product that one gets using a pellet grill, offset smoker, or charcoal grill with the same recipe. In my opinion, the Instant Pot is all about convenience at the detriment of flavor and texture, and even then, it’s not very convenient,” says Gafford of The Barbecue Lab.
Insider Tip: If you’ve got a smoker and fancy
some Texas-style pulled pork, check out David’s recipe.
Part of the Instant Pot’s allure is its ability to combine a slow cooker with a pressure cooker, meaning one less clunky kitchen appliance. Too bad the Instant Pot doesn’t quite deliver on the slow-cooker front. “We are big meat eaters in our house, so we love any chance to slow cook a big piece of meat, like brisket or a rack of ribs. While the Instant Pot does have a slow-cooker feature, you have to buy the lid separately, and the lid does not seal like it would if you were to use an actual slow cooker, so the meat doesn’t turn out as tender or moist. I find its only useful feature to be the pressure-cooking functionality, which means I would have been better off just buying a pressure cooker. Rather than doing a few things really well, it does a whole bunch of things badly,” says Matt Gaedke of Keto Connect.
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A regular slow cooker can cost as little as $30 while the cheapest Instant Pot is just under $60, depending on if there’s a sale going on. While that’s not a big difference, the most expensive Instant Pot, the Instant Pot Pro Crisp & Air Fryer 8-quart Multi-Use Pressure Cooker and Air Fryer is $200 on Amazon. If you’ve got limited counter space and you don’t mind the sub-par performance of its various functions, it might be worth considering, but you’ll also likely get better value and mileage out of separate appliances.
Everyone loves to cook, no one enjoys cleaning up. And because the Instant Pot’s main unit can’t be chucked into the dishwasher, some of the time you “save” cooking will now be spent cleaning its cracks and crevices, which is suboptimal. There are also a few fiddly bits that make the chore even less enjoyable and even the most thorough clean won’t get rid of certain smells. “There’s the anti-block shield, which is just difficult enough to remove that I’m afraid I’ll bend it. Then there’s the back’s small plastic drip catcher. Finally, there’s the dreaded silicone ring, which, even after a trip through the dishwasher, still stinks,” says Laura Ritterman of Recipe Fairy.
Insider Tip: If you are going to cook with the Instant Pot, do yourself a favor and get some extra sealing rings.
For home chefs who prefer to cook with feel and hate following recipes to a “T,” the Instant Pot may prove challenging. Despite its multiple pre-set functions, getting the most out of the Instant Pot requires some trial and error (hence all the Instant Pot recipes online) and adapting along the way. “It i
s not very intuitive to use. There is the precision required in how much water you use, the particular setting you use, the way you release pressure, etc. Since you can’t interrupt the Instant Pot while it’s cooking, this can lead to some exasperating circumstances like waiting the full time only to find out your rice didn’t cook. Nor is the Instant Pot very easy to troubleshoot with, when things go wrong,” says Angelo Larocca of Orblue Kitchen Products.
The Instant Pot all-in-one functionalities (sous vide, air fryer, steamer, roaster, saute, etc) would be great, except that it does these multiple functions, at best, averagely. That gorgeous brown sear you’re hoping to achieve? Don’t throw your cast iron pan out just yet because the saute function is unreliable. Either it never gets hot enough to do a proper sear, or it gets too hot and burns commonly sauteed ingredients like garlic and onions. Plus, once you add meat to the pot, you have to wait (again) for it to come to temperature, which adds on additional time to a meal you’d hope to dump and cook in 10 minutes.
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You don’t buy an Instant Pot expecting it to produce perfectly crisp buttermilk fried chicken (maybe if you buy the air-fryer version), but it’s got to be great for stews right? “The Instant Pot isn’t good for cooking stews or sauces either since those need to simmer on the stove for a few hours or all day,” says Michail Korovin, chef and owner of Pearls of Caviar. While it produces a stew, the cooking time proposed is between 20-45 minutes (not including the time needed to come to temperature or resting time) and gives a serviceable result, it won’t be the same full-flavored results derived from a stew cooked for hours over a stove. “When you cook something with a high liquid content like soup or other stews, it can allow the liquid to evaporate and concentrate the flavors of whatever else is in the pot. It might also bring out some of the natural sugars or release proteins from the food. The secret behind a velvety soup or stew is to cook it long enough so that the proteins and fats in the meat can break down and dissolve into the soup. This makes it thick and creamy, and gives it tons of flavor!”
Related: Best Winter Stews to Enjoy All Weekend
Anyone with limited counter space should just forget about the Instant Pot. It’s big and heavy, so once you set it down, that’s where it’ll live. “The InstantPot is a large and clunky appliance. It takes up a lot of my workspace, it’s a pain to drag out and set up. I find it’s more inconvenient than helpful,” says Kali Schmidt of Kali Eats Keto. In practical terms, it takes roughly the same space as an espresso machine (sometimes more depending on your appliance) except that it is a device you won’t be using daily.