I have a Fagor combo, I understand that Instapot has the same/similar cooking settings. I use mine at least once a week, sometime more often.
Firstly, the browning function is a great convenience for preparing meat stews. Pot roast comes out fabulous. Use a mesh lid to contain the splattering oil during browning.
Second, it's great for making stock. No fear that it will boil. Comes out very clear and flavorful. I think the pressure really gets the flavor out of the cracked bones.
Third, make home yogurt and quark cheese. For yogurt buy a can of unflavored yogurt with live culture in your supermarket, and use that to inoculate your milk.
For quark mix cultured buttermilk and regular milk: 1:8 to 1:1 proportions – the fermentation time is the only thing that will change. Milk can be any fat grade, even non-fat, but I prefer 2% for mouthfeel. Turn on "yogurt" setting. Once the mix has thickened, save a pint as a starter (can be frozen for months), then for the rest use the "reheat" setting for 30–60 min, occasionally giving a VERY gentle stir to separate cheese from whey. You get about 2 pounds of quark out of a gallon of milk and a pint of buttermilk.
The "yogurt" setting seems a little too warm for quark, so it comes out much smoother than the traditional method, almost like ricotta, and takes longer to drain. Once drained, add 0.4% salt by weight. It's a delicious and healthful snack by itself, and there are a lot of tasty dishes in Eastern and Northern European cuisines that use quark, and that would be too expensive if you had to buy it. And of course you can use it as you would use ricotta.
Fourth: soups and stews! Through everything into the pot, set it and forget it! I start the soup before going to bed, and let it cook while I sleep.
If your instapot has a time delay function, then it's a great way to have your food finished or reheated by a specific time. Think parties – one less thing to think about; or returning home late at night. You walk in, and the hot food is already waiting for you.
What doesn't work: although I initially bought my multicooker to incorporate more legumes in my cooking, I don't find it useful at all for that specific task. Beans need to be soaked overnight to reduce flatulence, but once they are soaked, they cook on the stove just as fast as in a pressure cooker. If you are not concerned about the gas and bloating, then yes, you can quickly cook beans from dry to creamy.
Same with brown rice: it takes 40–45 min on the stove. It takes less to cook under pressure, but if you count pressure build–up and release, you end up with the same 40–45 min, PLUS a cooker to clean!
Have fun!
Vlad
. Again, I say, THE most important factor in using a pressure cooker is to LISTEN to the pressure release 'psst' sound. Once burner temp and a slow release is established, the pot is not going to blow.
