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exercise_guru wrote:Well I prep everything and store it in small quart baggies laid flat until frozen and then lined up in a plastic shoe box in my freezer. I also do this for different grains as well. It quickly overtakes my freezer. I recently started repackaging berries in single serving bags and on and on.
The thing about the instant pot is the smaller one will be awesome for grains of any kind. The larger one will be great for batch cooking. I make 4- 10 cups of cooked beans at a time and label them and put them in the freezer. I have an extra freezer and the entire door is full of beans and grains in little lined up bags ready to dump into any recipe.
I also cook 3-5 potatoes or sweet potatoes at a time and put them in the fridge or freeze them for baking recipes etc. Then I take them out the night before and let them thaw . I haven't ate one like baked potatoe style but it would probably taste good.
My recomendation is go for the smaller one(3 quart). Use it and make your meals consistantly. If you find you have the room and the extra space in the freezer get the larger one as well later. That smaller one is probably amazing at making small batches of soups and rice and grains and beans. I also steam apples and fruit in it all the time. Its Just enough for 2-6 servings. I use my multi rice cooker everyday for all kinds of starches and my larger pressure cooker for batch cooking. It really bongs though when I try to just put one cup of stuff in it for a smaller recipe.
So I guess the question would be how many people are you going to cook for ( the smaller one could cook for up to 5 I bet) ?
Are you going to do a ton of meal prep ( cook once eat 5 times)?
and for those that have the larger instapot, How does it handle small batches ie cup of rice, cup of oatmeal, filling only the bottom 3 inches for soup etc. My existing pressure cooker HATES this so it would be good to know if you can cook in small batches in the big one or if it gets all dry and stuck.
Hey can I ask another question of anyone who has an instapot? I love the stainless steal insert but I wonder about the rice sticking like crazy? How does it do and how is it to clean when you just cook rice in it?
Honestly I think the 8 quart would be too large even for my needs. I have a 6 quart pressure cooker now and it takes everything I throw at it and makes it perfectly. I am asking for a 6 quart Instapot for Christmas because I want to be able to leave and go to the gym and not fear that I left the pressure cooker on and forgot it. I am going to cook in my MIL's 6 quart over thanksgiving break and then decide.
Idgie wrote:America's Test Kitchen preferred the Fagor multicooker, not Instant Pot.
Yomom wrote: I find that Chef AJ’s red lentil chili, which I love, often strains the capacity of my 6 qt IP — it juuust fits.
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