"Instant pot" cookery

[Peripatetic Phil]

One unanticipated benefit of purchasing an "Instant Pot"-style multi-function pressure cooker that became apparent today is that having cooked oxtail yesterday, I can today take advantage of both the residual heat and the flavour of the broth in which I cooked the oxtail (flavoured with onion, leek and carrot, as well as Knorr beef stock pots) to cook the pigs' hearts that I had bought a few days ago (£3-00 for three, in Great Cornish Food, Truro).  As I also bought four sheeps' hearts in Morrisons (Bodmin) yesterday, I will then cook those in the same stock tomorrow (or the day after, if the pigs hearts are not fully cooked and require a further 35 minutes or so).  This means that when I then come to eat the oxtail / hearts, I will have only to cook the dumplings (for the oxtail) or the chips (for the hearts), thicken the heart gravy with Bonne Cuisine Madeira wine sauce mix and serve.  Considerably less hassle than trying to cook both meat and accompaniments on the same day.  I will, of course, bring the oxtail / hearts and broth back to serving temperature in the microwave oven, although I suppose I could use the m/f pressure cooker for that, if it is not currently cooking something else.
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** Phil.

[Robbo141]

Hey Phil, when are you going to cook a bloody curry in it?!
Speaking of added benefits, it's also possible to cook 'pot in pot'.  Cook your meat or stew or whatever in the main stainless pot, add a trivet and stand another pot on top with your rice or spuds etc and cook both at the same time but keep them separate. In truth I haven't tried that but sounds like a good thing.

Robbo

[Peripatetic Phil]

"... a bl@@dy curry ...".  Good question.  Not soon, I think.  For whatever reason, I seem to be fixated on simple old-fashioned British fare at the moment — maybe when I'm sated with offal (etc) and need something more exotic ...  Tho' I have to report, when I told my wife and our head chef that I had cooked liver-and-bacon casserole, Chef first said "who eats that these days ?!" and then realisation struck and he said "Why don't you cook it for a Rotary meal ?!".

Pot-in-pot is an interesting idea; it would be interesting to see how basmati rice is after an initial cook and then kept warm for a further 12 hours, which is the default behaviour of my device.
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** Phil.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Robbo, a question for you (or for any genuine "Instant pot" owner).  Am I right in thinking that on a genuine "Instant pot", the "less / normal / more" indication/setting refers to temperature, not time ?  I ask because on the Hoyer / Silvercrest version, "less / normal / more" refer to cooking time, which basically means that one cannot rely on "Instant pot" recipes when using the Hoyer.  Incidentally Hoyer now inform me :

Unfortunately we are unable to provide you the preset temperatures for each function.

We thank you for your understanding.

Rather sad, and I have let them know that I will therefore be unable to recommend their multi-function pressure cooker to others —

Thank you for your response.  Unfortunately the lack of any information on cooking temperatures makes this device virtually useless for anything other than the preset dishes, so I shall be unable to recommend it to others.

P.S.  All now becomes clear —

HOYER Handel is an importer of non-food products. Matthias Hoyer founded the internationally operating company based in Hamburg in 2001. Hanseatic mercantile tradition meets the joy of progress ever since – successfully. Today, several big European retail chains are counted among our clients. We are specialized in electronics and produce consumer goods in the areas of kitchen, household, personal care and entertainment electronics. We are in close cooperation with our purchasing office in Hong Kong and Shenzhen and sell our goods in 27 European countries as well as the United States.

Hoyer is an importer, not a manufacturer — presumably its purchasing offices in Hong Kong and Shenzhen are unable to formulate my question in the local topolect and forward it to the real manufacturer for an informed reply.
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** Phil.

[Robbo141]

Phil,
As far as I know, the less / normal / more settings change temperature when using the sauté function and time when using some of the preset cooking functions like soup, yoghurt etc.
I'm sure you can still use yours once you get used to it.  The butter chicken recipe only requires cooking at high pressure for 10 mins. None of that sauté palaver etc.

Robbo

[Peripatetic Phil]

Ah, interesting, I was taking my information from here, which suggested (to me at least) that for the genuine "Instant pot", less / normal / more refers solely to temperature.  Ah well.  Oh, and my Hoyer offers no "less / normal / more" for sear/sauté, cake and slow cook.  But it does a d@mned good job of cooking sheep's hearts using the "stew" setting (35 minutes at high pressure, followed by 12 hours keep warm).  And because it does a 12-hour "keep warm" after its 35-minute cook, it means that I have hot food waiting for me when I come home from a hard day at the office playing bowls !

[livo]

I'd be very surprised if it's a temperature adjustment. At least it isn't on mine as I don't have it.  As I wrote earlier, the only adjustment on mine is the duration of cook time between minimum and maximum values for the different modes, excluding saute (no adjustment) and slow cook (pre-set).  Each mode has a default value for time in minutes and this is increased in 1 minute increments by pressing the Time button.  Once the maximum is reached it then jumps down to the minimum value and cycles through again.  My unit also has the keep warm capability.

I've just looked at that link Phil. Your unit may well be a copy of the Instant Pot and operate the same way.

Edit:  There is a half price knock off available here Phil and the less, normal, more is a temperature adjustment. I'd imagine the temperatures given on your linked pages would be the same, or close.

There is only one way to gain knowledge of cooking temps while in use and I would hesitate to recommend it and advise to ensure safety if you do.  It wouldn't be totally accurate anyway but you may get something from it.  Immediately after the cook program has completed you could cover with a tea towel and manually release the pressure valve to unlock the lid and then measure temperature of contents with a suitable thermometer.  Great care would need to be used, although some recipes actually call for manual pressure release.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Edit:  There is a half price knock off available here Phil and the less, normal, more is a temperature adjustment. I'd imagine the temperatures given on your linked pages would be the same, or close.

It's by no means impossible that my "less / normal / more" does indeed control temperature, but inversely   — i.e., "more" decreases the temperature, so that it needs to cook for "more" time to achieve the desired effect (etc).  Certainly the manual for the Chinese Hoyer is written in the sense that "more" means "more time", not "more heat".

There is only one way to gain knowledge of cooking temps while in use and I would hesitate to recommend it and advise to ensure safety if you do.  It wouldn't be totally accurate anyway but you may get something from it.  Immediately after the cook program has completed you could cover with a tea towel and manually release the pressure valve to unlock the lid and then measure temperature of contents with a suitable thermometer.  Great care would need to be used, although some recipes actually call for manual pressure release.

I had considered that, but am more inclined to try to dangle a temperature transducer into the inner pot, somehow avoiding destroying the pressure seal ...
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** Phil.

[livo]

https://assets.kogan.com/files/usermanuals/KAPR14COOKA_UG_V1.3.pdf

Check page 12.  I know yours is different (but the same maybe).  On this one Less, normal and more definitely refer to temperature (like the real Instant Pot).

[Peripatetic Phil]

Definitely different, Livo.  The manual for mine is here.