If you are one of the millions of people who cook for pleasure or a hobby as well as to feed themselves and family, you may have heard of the Instant Pot. This multicooker is now owned by over 20% of adult Americans and sold over 300,000 in 36 hours on Amazon Prime Day.
If you own one of these convenient appliances you may be aware that there are many accessories available for it. Some of these allow you to do things you were previously unable to and others just make life more convenient or help to cook certain ingredients better. Are they all worth your time or is it just a bunch of costly gimmicks that will be used once and sold in the next garage sale?
What is an Instant Pot good for?
There are many pros and cons to the Instant Pot but it is undoubtedly good at pressure cooking. For most people, the ability to cook a flavorsome meal in a short time is the biggest benefit of owning one of these cookers. Sure, there are many other functions and its followers will no doubt rave about its yogurt-making ability and the way it cooks eggs but it has its faults too.
The saute function leaves something to be desired and if you want your chicken to come out golden, with crispy skin you will be in for a disappointment. You can use your broiler to give that crisp finish but then it negates the benefits of pressure cooking if you have to add more time on at the end. Luckily for Instant Pot fans, a number of accessories have been developed to fix any shortcomings in the original design.
Fixing the Instant Pot’s frying problem
As mentioned above, the cooker has a problem with browning and crisping. There is indeed a saute function and can be used for sealing meat but it doesn’t have the same results as pan-frying or broiling. There is an accessory for the Instant Pot to fix this.
The Air Fryer lid fits on compatible models of the Instant Pot and allows the user to make what appears to be fried food. The reason the word ‘appears’ is used is that the Instant Pot doesn’t normally use oil in cooking. This attachment crisps the food by heating the air and circulating it. The food comes out looking and tasting fried. You can pressure cook chicken and then use the lid to crisp the skin up after and there are lots of Air Fryer recipes on the net to follow too.
Replacement sealing rings and pot liners
These might not be the most exciting accessories to invest in but they might be the most useful. Buying more sealing rings is an absolute must. Without the rings the Instant Pot becomes useless but aside from that, the rings take on the flavors and odors from what you have cooked. Buying color-coded rings to use for savory and sweet food means your cheesecake won’t smell like Indian curry.
Buying one or even two more pot liners is handy if you happen to use the Instant Pot a lot and like to put leftovers in the fridge. If you make a batch of chili then you can just transfer the pot to the fridge and use another liner to cook your next meal in.
For cake makers
The Instant Pot is good for cakes as the cooking method means they come out moist and never dry. To make the most of its cake making ability there are some useful accessories out there. Cheesecake pans are available in different forms as are silicone muffin cups and cooking slings. The silicone cooking sling allows you to put ramekins or other cake pans into the Instant Pot and remove them all at once easily.
On the go
One of the strangest accessories is a carry bag for the Instant Pot. If you want to take your pot camping or on the road with you then this bag does make it easy and convenient to carry the pot around.
Accessories you probably don’t need
The Instant Pot comes with a trivet that allows your food to stay out of the water or liquid at the bottom of the cooker. However, on the market are several alternatives. There are many tips for people who enjoy cooking but buying an egg holder is probably not one of them. This is basically the same as a trivet but with holes to hold the eggs in. You can also buy a glass lid for keeping an eye on the food during slow cooking but because it is branded the price is pretty high and it is not absolutely necessary.
Summary
Robert Wang, the creator of the Instant Pot was sacked from his own messaging service so it is perhaps surprising that he went on to create the Instant Pot. However, a shrewd marketing strategy of using Instagram influencers and word-of-mouth has led to what some describe as almost a cult. Millions of people have bought an Instant Pot and there will no doubt be more accessories released for consumers to use. As with the accessories above some will be useful and others pointless. The proof of the pudding as they say will be in tasting the results afterward.
