Yes, I like to have all of the kitchen gadgets advertised on television. So a few months ago I bought an Instant Pot. My son Ty has one and had indorsed their usage. I was a little skeptical to say the least. I had only been involved in the usage of Ty's once when my spaghetti sauce was not getting done. His wife Samantha pressurized the Instant Pot and finished the sauce for me with good results. I have used old fashioned pressure cookers in the past, with their little gauges on the top rattling around and the steam whistling through the vent while we were canning vegetables from the garden. But this new contraption intimidated me. It was not until a visit with a former co-worker that I was convinced to try it. Tom B. had told me that there was nothing better for making hard boiled eggs than his Instant Pot. He claimed that the egg shell practically fell off the eggs. So I unpacked the Pot and looked at the instructions and cookbook that came with it. I had decided that I would try the hard boiled eggs. Our family loves them but I hesitate to cook them because most times peeling their shells is problematic . I have tried all of the tricks I could find. Carefully watching the timer and submerging them in ice water immediately after cooking. But nothing seemed to work consistently. We always seem to have torn up egg whites and little pieces of shell that hang on insistently. But the immediate problem I faced was there was nothing in the these instructions or the included cookbook to tell me how to hard boil eggs. So I went to YouTube. I found a couple of videos there.I even found instructions for my specific model of Instant Pot. I eagerly dived in, put the rack in the bottom as instructed and poured in a cup and a half of water. I added eight eggs to the rack above the water. Closed the lid and put it on steam for 6 minutes. After the pressure built, the safety on the lid locked in place and the timer began. Six minutes later I manually released the steam, opened the lid and transferred the eggs to ice water. After waiting a few minutes for the eggs to cool, I cracked the shell of that first egg. Wow the shell just fell off. Could it be? Yes, all eight eggs shelled with no problems. Now I will reserve judgement until I have cooked them a few more times but wow I am impressed.
My confidence now bolstered, I had to find another recipe to try. I found one for Instant Pot Spicy Dr Pepper Pulled Pork in The Pioneer Woman Magazine that my mother in law had given me. Ree Drummand is one of my favorite chefs. The recipe said after a little prep, I could make pulled pork in 45 minutes. I often make a pulled pork but it takes all day in my slow-cooker? I followed her recipe as closely as I could and yes I got very good results. The pulled pork with prep was finished in a total of one hour. It pulled apart really easily and the taste was spicy but very good. We had it in sandwiches but it is good just by itself.
Hard to shell eggs seems to be such a little thing compared to all the other problems we face in the world today. And I don't have the answers for all of the world's problems but maybe I have solved my problem with hard boiled egg shells. Baby steps I guess?
Use mine 2 or 3 times a week. However I did manage to obliterate a pound of chickpeas just a few days ago. Too much of this and too much of that and in 10 minutes my presoaked beans were destroyed. Fortunately I have 2 pots so I ran another pound through right away unsoaked. 41 minutes is not quite enough by the way. Baked potatoes are easy too, but I like to crisp them up afterwards in an oven.
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