Instant Pot?

[Jane P.]

Originally Posted by CindyL

We hope our new 6 qt Instant Pot will fit in our oven and only come out when needed. We will have to determine where we can put it on the countertop when needed. Hopefully, it will fit on the back half of the stovetop, because we only use it for the main dish, i.e. tonight, we are making ranch-dressing flavored pork chops and will make veggies on the stove. The countertop is taken up with our Keurig. (Yes, we like our amenities and only camp with electricity.) We have not used our Silver Cloud oven yet, since we bought the Silver Cloud, so it can be used as a storage area and already is. We will have to find a different space for what is in the oven, which might be Goodwill.

Just curious, can your oven safely contain heavy appliances such as the IP when on the road?
Rbryan has a great suggestion to add an outside outlet so that your IP can sit on a table, away from your countertops & stove flames while you put together the rest of your meal.
I have never used my oven. But my husband has retired & will be joining me. He loves to cook. I'm curious to see if he will be using it.

[/QUOTE]The smaller Instant Pot that we will use for camping is currently making wine from Welch's grape juice. We made a single batch that IS wine, although I am disappointed in how much grape taste it has. I hope in a week or two, it may taste more like Merlot which is what it is supposed to taste like.
CindyL[/QUOTE]

That cracks me up! My husband is researching "fine" boxed wines for our road trips. I don't want anything that may break & possibly harm our dogs not to mention stink up the trailer. My husband is very particular, so it will be interesting to see just what will satisfy his pallet.

[rbryan]

Originally Posted by Jane P.

My husband is researching "fine" boxed wines for our road trips. I don't want anything that may break & possibly harm our dogs not to mention stink up the trailer. My husband is very particular, so it will be interesting to see just what will satisfy his pallet.

We've found some very drinkable box wines from Black Box, Hardys and Yellow & Blue, just to name a few. They travel well too. Besides them being unbreakable, the cool part is the last glass tastes as good as the first, even if that's a week or two later.

The only problem is we have a tendency to visit wineries on our trips, so the inevitable bottles make it onboard anyhow.

[Jane P.]

Thanks for the suggestions. We bought home Black Box Merlot tonight. Very nice. We'll check out Hardy's & Yellow/Blue. Trader Joe also has an affordable wine from Down Under. The stores we checked out also offers "wine in a can". But I simply cannot go there. If I have a can of anything it will be beer.

We also check out wineries when traveling. But hauling wine cases is why TV's were created.

BTW, I cooked up an Indian dal dish in my new stovetop PC. Due to its smaller size & the fact that it was on the stove instead of the counter, I found it more convenient to work with it than the IP. But also harder in that I could not "set it 'n forget it" like the Instant Pot. Will need to get use to working with it's idiosyncrasies, but feel I'm on the right track.

Cheers!

[CindyL]

Kevin had some of the IP wine last night and liked it. We think it more potent than what you can buy. It does not take much to make your fingers tingle.
As for storing it in the oven, we will see. We have bowls in it right now. We have a lot of other storage in the Silver Cloud.

CindyL

[Jane P.]

Originally Posted by Jane P.

Great thread!



I bought a 6 Qt Instant Pot (IP) 7-in-1 duo from Amazon about 18 months ago. I LOVE IT! Best yogurt ever. Great for stock, soup, stews, a multitude of grains and ... risotto! It's simply indispensable for vegetarian dishes which tend to be labor & time intensive. Plus, YOU CAN LEAVE THE HOUSE WHILE YOUR IP IS CHUGGING AWAY. Can't say I use it daily, but I do fire it up on weekends for veggie & chicken stock which forms the basis for most of my recipes.



But ... it's a large appliance which devours counter space. Hard to store in our Bigfoot 19' trailer. In fact, as a boon-docker, I consider it to be impractical.



Full disclosure: I am not a full timer, but I do go on long (1-6 week) dog training & competition trips. I usually camp on dog training grounds with no hookups. I'm out in the field from early morning to after dark, at which time I must first feed & take care of the dogs. So, my dinner needs to be quick, fulfilling & easy clean up.



Accordingly, we're getting ready for cold weather dog training trip. I'm using my IP to make soup & stews which I am freezing in 1 Qt containers. I have a microwave which I use while the generator is recharging the batteries. While the main course is defrosting I can make a salad & side dish.



This should work well for us at the end of a hard day of training.



I recently purchased a 3.2 Liter Magefesa Perfecto Stovetop Pressure Cooker, which is a perfect size for my husband & me. The new stovetop PC will augment my microwave, and allow me to prepare risotto or rice. I also suspect the frozen food will defrost much faster in the stovetop PC. I'll let you know how this works.



The advantage of this stovetop PC is it doesn't require electricity, requires little fuel and easily stores in the galley. The drawback to the stovetop PCs is that they require babysitting: You need to be present to turn the heat down when the pot comes up to pressure. You need to take it off the heat after required time at pressure is finished. It also takes a bit of experience to recognize the proper flame height needed to maintain pressure. But, then again, the Instant Pot isn't an intuitive gadget, and has a rather steep learning curve.



For all the hookup campers, I'd recommend a 3Qt IP. It has a smaller footprint than the 6 Qt. A stovetop pressure cooker may be a great alternative for frequent boon-dockers.

FIELD UPDATE:
Well, we did go camping & I brought my Magefesa Perfecto Stovetop PC. First of all, it was very easy to transport. I store my pots & pans in a large cabinet above the refrigerator. And, the Magefesa paired perfectly with my propane stove. I did the 5 minute water test & lost no water.

We brought a package of chicken thighs which we braised along with veggies & chicken stock. I would have also added rice in a Pyrex bowl, but didn't have a stand tall enough to clear the chicken & veggies. So we cooked the rice in another pot. The dinner was easily put together, very tasty. We used the PC again for a black bean & chicken chili which was super tasty.

I also brought along frozen soups & stews made in my Instant Pot. We used the Megafesa as a regular pot to defrost & cook those dishes.

So, I was very pleased with the stovetop pressure cooker in the trailer. It was versatile and big enough for the two of us. The chicken dish we made basically substituted for the oven.

One nice thing about a stovetop is it comes to pressure much faster than an electric PC, and requires less time at pressure. It also takes less time to naturally release. So you could save 8 to 15 minutes of cooking time.

The disadvantage over an instant pot is that you need to monitor when the PC comes to pressure, turn down the flame, and keep track of time at pressure. It is dangerous to leave the trailer when the stovetop PC is under pressure. But considering we were in a small cabin & steps away from the galley, monitoring the stovetop PC was no problem at all.