Instant Pot Help

How To Convert Recipes

To Instant Pot

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Now that most are using an instant pot or pressure cooker, we all want to know cooking times and how to convert our favorite recipes.

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If you’re looking to go backwards from an Instant Pot to a slow cooker, it's not hard at all. 

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Converting Recipes, seems like a sort of hit or miss process but there are some way to make sure your recipes work for you and that's by keeping track.

 

Hold off on Dairy till the end

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Cooking dairy in the instant pot is a lot different then cooking it in a slow cooker or crock pot, milk  and cheese tend to curdle if adding to the beginning of your recipe 

If a recipe calls for dairy ingredients make sure to add them once you have cooked and depressurized your Instant Pot. This is a must when trying to convert to an instant pot recipe. 

The high heat and pressure cause dairy and milk ingredients to scorch or curdle and that’s an easy way to ruin dinner really fast.

Measure Your Recipes To Fit The Instant Pot

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When you want to convert to instant pot, you need to adjust your recipe to fit in what ever size instant pot you have You should think about how full the Instant Pot will get.

If you are using anything that expands - (pasta, rice, beans) you will need to scale the recipe back to make sure it won’t overfill your Instant Pot. Most pasta's need about an 1/2 inch of water to cover them before cooking. Rice expands but if you add 1 cup rice, make sure you add 1 cup water, (or chicken broth) All recipes need 1 cup water to start. Say you are cooking spaghetti, you need to cover your noodles 1/2 inch over the top of your noodles, add your sauce and cook on 8 min. Browning your hamburger first. Pasta normally takes 6 to 8 min depending on how "done" you like your noodles. If they are to done the first time, cut back your time by 1 or 2 minutes until you know "your" cooking time. 

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The instant pot isn't like a crock pot or oven

 

it cooks twice as fast and leaves meats tender. The saute function is great for browning meat before pressure cooking. Or Searing the juices into your roast or pork loin. I even saute bacon in mine. (cooks wonderfully) but always be-careful with oil in your instant pot. It pops high and if you are looking at what you are cooking, it can burn you big time. (especially with bacon)

I find using the saute button, cooks just like it would if you were using your stove top, but the heat is much more even. I make gravies in mine all the time. Just using saute. 

Keep Track

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Keep track of what works for you and what doesn't. Say you like your macaroni cooked on 6 minutes, (you like the texture) then say you want to make mac and cheese, you would fill your desired amount of macaroni, fill it with water so it covers 1/2 inch over your noodles, and pressure cook for 6 min, with an instant release, but say you want your noodles a little more done, so you would adjust your time for a min or 2 longer next time. When you make goulash, you would use the time you liked for your macaroni. (saute your meat till it's almost done) and then set for 6 min, instant release, (see how it works?)  but always take note of what worked and what didn't for your instant pot. I have an 8 qt and a 3 qt) and both cook differently.  Keep that in mind.