Has an Instant Pot been mentioned? Awesome for cooking game roasts

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Wife scored a solid deal on an instant pot a while back with some stacked sales, etc. Anyways we've made a handful of recipes now using roast meat and I must say this thing rocks. Its a computerized pressure cooker which can also sauté etc. if you need to brown up some onions before tossing in the rest of the stuff for instance. It switches to warm mode after the cook sequence is completed so you don't have to baby sit it either.

Normally we blow through our ground meat fast and drag our feet using up roasts in the crock pot, etc. I can see that changing going forward. This thing cooks stuff fast <1hr typically and tender. You don't have to thaw/fully thaw cuts out (huge for last minute stuff). Numerous times I've thawed a roast enough just to cube it up into 2" hunks and threw in those mostly frozen chunks still and just added 5-10min on the 35-45min cooking time.

Anyways I'm a fan, wish we got one sooner. I just finished off some leftovers for lunch.

 

[BKhunter]

I made Osso Bucco in mine from last years white tail. That thing is awesome with tough cuts of meat.

 

[Murdy]

What size do you recommend? I see they come in 3, 6, and 8 quart. My instinct, as usual, is to get the BIGGEST!!!!

 

[LostArra]

The multiple buttons and settings can be a little intimidating at first but I like it a lot more than my old crock pot.

 

[Ray]

They are an awesome tool. 30 minutes start to finish and I have perfectly cooked squash. An hour or so and a pot of stew. Pork shoulder carnita filling needs to be refried to crisp up how we like it.

 

[Roy68]

What size do you recommend? I see they come in 3, 6, and 8 quart. My instinct, as usual, is to get the BIGGEST!!!!

We have 2 of the 6qt size for our family of 5. Instant Pot DUO60 6 Qt 7-in-1 _ amazon for $100
Amazon.com: Instant Pot DUO60 6 Qt 7-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Steamer, Saute, Yogurt Maker and Warmer: Kitchen & Dining

First one is 2 or 3 years old now. Bought the second one for my wife's Birthday ( because she told me too). The only way I would go with an 8qt is if you are going to cook large chickens or something similar. The IP is bigger than you think and an 8qt is going to be a pain to store unless you have a big kitchen or big cabinets. It will consume some space. The 3qt is to small.

Routinely put 4# roasts in the 6qt. Any given day of the week one of our instant pots is on the counter. My wife makes greek yogurt in ours and it is awesome!

(Honestly, I should let my wife chime in on this thread)

 

[BKhunter]

I have roasts that I want to try cooking in it, but my concern is drying them out. I like my venison med-med rare in the middle. I think tough cuts are best for this appliance.

If anyone believe otherwise, would love to cook how you cook the roasts and any other cuts as I wouldn't mind giving it a go.

 

[Daniel_M]

I've abused my InstaPot with pork to the point I can't eat pulled pork anymore. I use mine every week with different things. the 6 vs 8 quart does cook different, in a sense it takes much longer to get the 8 up to pressure.

Best reserved for the tougher cuts, temperature isn't a variable you can adjust for how rare you want it. Only time, which can affect the tenderness.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I have that 6qt linked above.

I have roasts that I want to try cooking in it, but my concern is drying them out. I like my venison med-med rare in the middle.

I don't connect these two statements unless I just haven't ran across the issue with mine yet. Cooking med-med rare I can see being problematic/hard to dial in since you can't just check it regularly for doneness. The drying out part is where I'm confused. Its cooking it in a pressurized steam environment which I believe drives moisture into the cut.

Are you going for a sliced roast result with a certain mouth feel it sounds like? To date the stuff we've made we're just going for "fork tender" and the liquid sauce component is usually mixed or drizzled with the end product.

 

[AdamW]

Found out about these from Michelle Tam aka Nom Nom Paleo and I'm intrigued. I think I need one.

 

[Ray]

I have roasts that I want to try cooking in it, but my concern is drying them out. I like my venison med-med rare in the middle. I think tough cuts are best for this appliance.

If anyone believe otherwise, would love to cook how you cook the roasts and any other cuts as I wouldn't mind giving it a go.

Everything I have cooked in my IP was cooked through. Tender, sometimes completely falling apart into fibers.

If you want to preserve the redness of the meat, try a Anova Sous Vide hot water bath cooking system. So far I have only cooked chicken prior to grilling for a large party, and a few salmon pieces. It can seem like a complicated process, but you are only cooking for a few minutes as the heater in the pot does all the work. It just takes time, so you have to plan ahead somewhat. For red meat you should finish it off in a hot pan to sear the surface. Not needed, but a gray to pink steak is not cool looking.

 

[shadow]

+1 for the instant pot. You can sure make a tough piece of meat into the tenderest. Great machine!