Instant Pot Duo Plus 9-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Steamer, Sauté, Yogurt Maker, Warmer & Sterilizer, Includes App With Over 800 Recipes, Stainless Steel/Black, 8 Quart

Update 3.5 years in: still love it, use it all the time, no problems.For a long time, I wasn't a believer. I mean, I'm all for electronic gadgets in the kitchen. If I want to cook something for hours until its delicious and tender, I've got a traditional slow cooker. If I want to feel fancy when I'm preparing perfectly-cooked meats, I've got my Anova sous vide, and a wireless meat thermometer for the grill. But friends and family were always like, "Oh but you gotta get an Instant Pot!" But no, I didn't _have_ to get an Instant Pot.Eventually, though, there was a sale, and I bought one. Now, I didn't really have any meaningful concept of the differences between the sizes and models. This 8 quart Duo Plus came up as a daily deal thing, and I bought it. It was a good price. And you know, it can make like 2 gallons of yogurt or porridge or something, so...great...whatever.I'll be the first to admit that I didn't count on the sheer size of the thing. At the time, it was just my wife and I and our two-year-old daughter. When I unboxed this 8-quart monstrosity, I experienced a moment of trepidation, a fear of ridicule from my wife, who would point out that we don't need a really really ridiculously huge pressure cooker for just us. But I moved on from that anxiety, and I set about putting this thing to work.The first time each of us used it, we felt what I'm sure every other pressure cooker rookie feels at first—the crippling fear that you're about to die in a horrific high-pressure home explosion, and that your family will always be embarrassed to explain that they were related to one of _those_ statistics. But, as I'm sure most pressure cooker owners do, we survived.And it didn't take long before we realized (my wife especially, since she does a lot of the cooking) how fantastic this giant culinary autoclave really is. Cook an entire dinner of roast chicken with red beans & rice in one go? Done. Steam a whole mess 'o veggies when some friends show up with their gaggle of kids for dinner? Easy. Meatballs. Tamales. Artichokes. Corn on the cob. All quickly and (perhaps most significantly) very simple. And there's just a single pot to scrub at the end! Then just throw it back in the pantry until next time.Last night I think I reached my true peak of giant Instant Pot appreciation. I cooked two racks of BBQ pork back ribs. I thought about just taking the meat to my dad's house and letting him do them in the smoker. But that would have taken like 10 hours! I could have tried the sous vide, but that would required me to cut up the ribs into ziploc-sized portions, to come up with a way to cook that much meat together in a bigger cooler than I usually use, and to then clean up the mess and cook for at least a few hours to get a good texture. And who has that kind of time when there's football to be watched and naps to be taken? Want to know how long I spent preparing this meal in the Instant Pot? We wanted to eat at 6pm. I boldly began my process at 5:00.- Five minutes unwrapping and rubbing the meat and stuffing it all into my countertop sauna. I'll leave the visualization to you.- Twenty minutes as the Instant Pot got up to cooking pressure.- 25 minutes cooking + 2 minutes decompressing (and filling the house with delicious porky aroma)- Five minutes painting on some sauce and letting everything sizzle on the grill.Seriously. Delicious, perfectly cooked barbecue ribs—enough to feed at least eight people—ready in about an hour.So yeah. I'm a fan. And even though it's comically large when we're just cooking for ourselves, I'm glad I got the 8 qt monster after all. I haven't even explored all of the fancy other options and space-age things it can do. But I will. If only because I can. Thanks, Instant Pot! <insert smile with tooth sparkle and "ding" sound>

The media could not be loaded. I use this appliance pretty much every week. I am not a big cook so this makes sure I have food in the house. It is a huge time saver as I can be done in less than an hour. It is also a slow cooker, rice cooker, and yogurt maker (though I haven't used this feature). Great value! Easy to clean!

I admit it - I am a kitchen gadget freak. Still, I somehow avoided getting Instant Pot until recently.Maybe it was the peer pressure, or maybe it was just idle curiosity that finally kicked me over the edge. I have a traditional pressure cooker collecting dust in the basement, and truth be told, I've always been a little afraid of it. I have memories of mom cooking up dinner (circa 1965) in this hissing nightmare of a device. But still, I'd heard the Instant Pot was different.It is different. For one thing, it doesn't go on top of the stove. It plugs in, and it self-monitors to maintain a constant pressure, so it doesn't have to release excess steam -- no hissing while it cooks.The directions are well-written, and the unit is very well-built. If the recipe calls for it, you can brown meat in the stainless-steel insert, although I think this would be slower that just browning whatever meat you're using on the stove in a regular frypan. Clean-up is a bit fussy, since there is a silicone seal to remove and wash. The stainless steel cooking insert comes right out and can be hand washed or put in your dishwasher.The idea of reducing my cook times is appealing, but all is not as it first seems. The unit takes a bit of time to reach a boil (and then to build up steam pressure), and takes a bit more time to depressurize. It is all very elegant and non-scary. I conclude that it is worth the effort to use it if you want to cook meat or fowl quickly. Still, remember that this is a fancy steamer: it doesn't produce nice crunchy skin on chicken or beef.Also, if you are making a meat dish that includes vegetables, you'll need to cook in two stages. If you dump the meat in with the vegetables all at once, the vegetables will cook down to mush by the time the meat is done. So, that means to get everything right, you need to allow separate time to pressurize/depressurize for the meat stage, and then pressurize/depressurize again for the vegetables stage. And, all of this is hands-on (as opposed to a slow-cooker, which is pretty much hands-off).I made hard-boiled eggs that were quite good. But all-in-all, it was no faster than just boiling them on the stove.So, I'm thankful to the inventor of Instant Pot for getting me over my pressure-cooker paranoia. And I do use the devise when I need to cook/tenderize meat in a hurry. I'll use it, for sure, but not often enough to make room for it upstairs in my already over-crowded kitchen. It is in my basement, in the space created when I tossed out the old-fashioned pressure cooker that I never ever used.

Most multifunctional devices are jacks of all trades and masters of none. Instant pot seems to be one of the rare exceptions.It is a good pressure cooker. I made some rather messy or smelly foods avoiding aforementioned problems. I cooked menudo/tripe, Indian curries without all my clothes being permeated, tamales without worrying about water boiling out etc.Sous vide function works very well. I used glass lock container filled with meat rather than bags. Lamb chops, pork loin, steaks were exceptional every time.Yogurt turned out very well as well.Next experiment - flan and dim sum, which should turn out well with steam function. It can be used for canning smaller jars as well. It does great job with chickpeas, brown and white rice and other beans. Minestrone soup, goulash, chicken dishes also turned out great.It can envision using it for travel as it can be used easily in hotel rooms or even hooked up to a converter in a car.I have been using it nearly every day for about a month and still marvel its versatility and simplicity. It is a great tool for busy people or those with love for gadgets.On the negative - it is somewhat intimidating to start using as one has to put stuff in and forget it. It is hard for someone used to tending the cooking process, but it is easy to overcome after watching some videos and having good results.