Review on 🍲 Instant Pot Ultra 8 Quart 10-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Yogurt Maker, Cake Maker, Egg Cooker, Sauté, and More Stainless Steel/Black by Andres Mayes

Pressure cooking is not new to me First thing I can say is WOW. I have to admit that I've had a pressure cooker on the stove for a long time and haven't used it in a long time. I wasn't up to speed on Instant Pot's electric pressure cookers either, which is a blessing as I followed my instinct and bought the Ultra without making the mistake of trying to save a few bucks for the Duo series save up. Dealers for a new car, think of the Instant Pot range in the same way. Lux is the base model, Duo is the base model above, Duo Plus is two models above the base, and Ultra is the fully featured model. Just like at a car dealership, more options mean more money. With the ultra retail price of $149, you can be patient and find them on sale from time to time. Either way, $149 is a good price for what this oven can do for you. When you use this stove, you offset the cost by saving when you don't eat out. The food you can cook is so good. I've been cooking in this instant pot every day since I got it; sometimes twice a day. I've also made sure to do things that require more than the manual adjustment that can be made in Pressure Cook or Ultra modes. Here are my pros and cons. Pros: • LCD – one of the big things I hear on discussion groups is, "I pushed the button and it says ON, but I don't know what's going on. The Ultra features a cooking chart that shows the progress of the preheat, cook and reheat phases so you know exactly where you are in the process. The LCD display is way ahead of any control panel on any other model offered by the Instant Pot. • Improved ventilation, quick release and pressure regulator. The bleeder/regulator is now controlled by a separate button, the quick release button. Push the knob to the locked position and the vent will rise to relieve pressure, turn the quick release knob and unlock the vent to move down and stop the pressure release. • Ultra program. You can set the exact temperature from 104 to 208 degrees. • Set the altitude and Ultra will make the adjustments. • Aesthetics is much more. more attractive with LCD panel than other models. Cons: • O-ring in the lid (silicone) absorbs all cooking odors and the ring stinks. The only solution I've found to get rid of the silicone cooking smell is to run the silicone ring flat on the top shelf in the dishwasher. This seems to be a constant complaint from many Instant Pot owners. • The manual is not very detailed. The "water test" familiar to the user is described in the manual as "First test run" on page 14. The instructions for the "First test run" are incomplete. After asking to turn the dial to steam and set the time to two minutes, the manual forgets to tell the user to press the start button. Although explanations 6, 7 and 8 are important for pressure cooking, it is not clear to the user that they are not part of the entrance test. Because the users have adopted the jargon "test by water”; Instant Pot would be better off changing future manuals to instruct the "water test". Some more information on programming presets. The manual talks about making yoghurt, a few more pages on other features would be helpful. It's really not a cheat, it's just a part of quick cooking. Pressure cookers are wet pressure cookers, so any crispy dish you want has to be cooked outside of the instant pot, so lasagna, for example, is cooked under the grill for a baked finish. The chicken skin doesn't come out like it was overcooked. For all the other things you can do with the Instant Pot, those things don't really matter. Here are some of the dishes I've made with the Instant Pot Ultra and the settings used. Pressure Cooking - Applesauce, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Macaroni and Cheese, Slum / American Goulash Soup - Pea Soup with Dried Pea Meat / Stew - Chicken Filet, Honey Garlic Chicken, Cranberry Breast, Doctor Pepper Ribs, Beef Burgundy, Sausage Beans/Chili - Black Beans and smoked turkey sausage steam sauce - Roast sweet potatoes - Vegetables and meat for the above courses Oatmeal - Steel Cut OatsCake - New York Cheese Cake, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Giant PancakeEgg - Hard-boiled egg yoghurt - Greek yoghurt with 2% milk Ultra - Sous Vide tuna steaks, tempered chocolate for making Sweets Many people are trying to figure out which model is right for them. If you are a chef or love to cook and can prepare many dishes, you will need the versatility of the Ultra. It's worth every penny and don't try to save a few bucks by getting the duo. Even if you cook little or have great culinary skills, the LCD panel really reveals the secret of the pressure cook cycle, which is not the case with Duo or Lux models. Perhaps the additional improvements will encourage novice cooks to try something new. Another thing I see in forum comments is people are afraid to use their Instant Pot. Either they have a general fear of pressure cooking, or the controls of the Instant Pot are just too hard, so why bother trying. This is a computer controlled pressure cooker. The Ultra ventilation and pressure control system is excellent. If you follow a few basic rules, you can cook for a long time without worry.1. Always have enough liquid in your recipe, the Instant Pot cannot pressurize if there is not enough liquid.2. Don't overfill the pot. At the bottom of page 14 of the Ultra manual is a great explanation of how much to put in the Instant Pot Ultra.3. After each use, be sure to clean the lid and check the ventilation system for products that could block the ventilation system. This is a computer-controlled pressure cooker, and in that it's several years ahead of your mother's or grandmother's pressure cooker. The flexibility that programming creates for the user makes it one of the most versatile cooking appliances you can have in your kitchen. Computer programming makes it a safer cooking system than a manual pressure cooker. My family is very typical, our kids have lots of after school activities, we come home late and no one wants to cook. We have a slow cooker, but if we forget to turn it on in the morning before we leave the house, it still takes a while to collect the recipes at home. The Instant Pot changed all that. The rapid cooking system significantly reduces the cooking time. In addition, I don't have to sit at the stove and watch the cooking. Once I put all the food in the pot, put the lid on, and pressed start, I can do a lot of other things around the house. To eat out. There are so many recipes out there on the internet and in cookbooks that my family looks forward to coming home to eat because it will be something good and maybe new for us.