I'm a massive fan of things that improve my quality of living, save me time, and save me money. This little hunk of magic does all three.
I had no patience for my slow cooker, and this lets me experiment with foods I normally would have avoided. Beans? 90 minutes from dry. Real steel cut oats? 20 min. roughly. It has saved countless hours of cooking by letting me make awesome meals for the freezer. Lastly, it has easily paid for itself in the first year of owning it by letting me cook in bulk.
The one thing that throws me is it is hard to experiment with when dialing in a recipe. Between pressure build-up time, and figuring out quantities, etc., it can be challenging to say, toss something in for a few more minutes, because you can't watch the food while it cooks, so you don't really know when it is fully done short of cooking it more, testing it, cooking it more, testing it, etc. And that can take a good 10 minutes per test.
You throw the food in the cooker, press a button, walk away, and it will be ready and hot for you whenever you decide you are hungry. There's no temperature adjustment, no watching, and no stirring. When I cook grains in the Instant Pot, I pressure steam them in a bowl, which means the pot doesn't need to be cleaned (and the bowl is easy to clean). The Instant Pot isn't much faster than a pot on the stove for many grains, but it's a heck of a lot easier and more consistent.
I had no patience for my slow cooker, and this lets me experiment with foods I normally would have avoided. Beans? 90 minutes from dry. Real steel cut oats? 20 min. roughly. It has saved countless hours of cooking by letting me make awesome meals for the freezer. Lastly, it has easily paid for itself in the first year of owning it by letting me cook in bulk.
The one thing that throws me is it is hard to experiment with when dialing in a recipe. Between pressure build-up time, and figuring out quantities, etc., it can be challenging to say, toss something in for a few more minutes, because you can't watch the food while it cooks, so you don't really know when it is fully done short of cooking it more, testing it, cooking it more, testing it, etc. And that can take a good 10 minutes per test.
Now I just need to find better recipes.