how do you like the egg?
Cooking eggs in an Instant Pot®, like rice, is an individual matter. A casual Internet search reveals countless tips, instructions, and exhortations on how to cook eggs. Once again, most of them are wrong. This is an area that you as users of this unique device will have to explore for yourself.
The most popular technique seems to be the “5-5-5” method. To wit: “Place 6 eggs in a steamer basket or trivet, ‘pressure cook’ for 5 minutes, then wait 5 minutes, then chill for 5 minutes in an ice water bath.”
However, I find that “8-8-8” works best for me. I start with the eggs straight from the fridge, and then proceed to cook them, “8 min Pressure Cook, 8 min wait, 8 min ice bath”.
What I haven’t had much luck with is the “steam” approach to hard-boiled eggs. In this method, the “Steam” function is used instead of the “Pressure Cook” method. Even on a 12 minute “Steam” setting, 12 minutes of waiting and 12 minutes in an ice water bath does not produce what I would call an evenly yellow cooked egg that peels easily.
But that’s just my preference. Plan to expand at least one egg carton, finding out what your preference is and how your new appliance works.
How much can I cook at once?
In general, you should not fill the Instant Pot® above the “MAX” line etched on the liner. However, barring this restriction, there is no hard and fast rule on how much you can cook at a time.
There is a technique that allows you to layer delicacies such as ribs, chicken pieces, ears of corn and the like.
To add a layer, be sure to place a square of aluminum foil between the layers. This prevents the foods in the layers from sticking together or creating “funny” looking cooking patterns.
My kitchen, an IP-DUO60v3, can only handle three large ears of corn in a single layer on the trivet. Similarly, I can only have four chicken thighs in one layer. Hover over, I’ve cooked 9 ears of corn in one go using a foil separator between layers and turning the ears of corn between layers.
Similarly, I have cooked 12 drumsticks at a time making three layers, each separated by a square of aluminum foil.
The amazing thing is that you don’t have to add more than 1 cup of water: cooking is done with steam and pressure, not volume of liquid.
In these two examples, the entire batch of corn on the cob was cooked as if each had been cooked individually, and the stacks of chicken thighs were falling off the bone and tender!
On the side, I finished them with the thighs by searing them on my patio gas grill and basting them with BBQ sauce as they cooked. The inside was juicy and the outside, conveniently “grilled”.
To the timer or not to the timer?
As you become more familiar with your Instant Pot® and the recipes that use this wonderful appliance, you’ll notice that a surprising number of recipes contain a set of almost mandatory steps. An example of this, taken from one of the most widely used recipes, reads, in part:
“Close and lock the lid. Set the vent to “sealed”.
Select “Pressure Cook”, High Pressure, 20 minutes, “Hot” off.
When the screen shows “Off”, perform the NPR method and wait for 10 minutes.
Follow the QR method to release any residual pressure and steam.
Wait until the pressure indicator pin drops.
Open carefully and remove the lid.”
The Natural Pressure Release Method, abbreviated as “NPR,” has you wait 10 minutes before continuing.
Now you have a choice.
How do you know when the 10 minutes are up?
The obvious answer is: “You put a timer in action and let it run out. When the time expires, your timeout is complete.”
However, there is a subtle change you can make to the instruction set and let the Instant Pot® tell you when that time has elapsed.
Consider the following set of instructions:
“Close and lock the lid. Set the vent to “sealed”.
Select “Pressure Cook”, High Pressure, 20 minutes, “Hot” on.
Wait until the display shows “L0010”.
Then perform the QR method to release any residual pressure and steam.
Wait until the pressure indicator pin drops.
Open carefully and remove the lid.”
A subtle difference. But one in which the “Hot” function serves as a timer.
“But,” you ask, “doesn’t that mean that during the timeout, the content is still heating up?”
Yes and no. While it’s true that the pressure cooker is technically “on”, the temperature the controller tries to maintain is only 145°F ~ 172°F. It is likely to be well below what the ingredients were cooked, and consequently any further cooking at that low temperature will be next to nothing.
The only drawback, compared to an external countdown timer, is that you’ll have to look at the screen during the waiting period.
