All it takes are a few simple modifications to adjust a recipe for the Instant Pot. Follow these tips for converting slow beer pot recipes to pressure cooker!
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If you’re new to pressure cooking, you may be looking for easy pressure cooker recipes to add to your weekly meal plan. Or, you might be wondering if you can turn some of your favorite slow cooker recipes into pressure cooker recipes.
Good news! The answer is usually “yes”, but with some adaptations.
In fact, most slow cooker recipes convert quite easily for pressure cooker.
This was something I discovered out of necessity after buying my Instant Pot.
I had intentions of making a slow cooker for dinner one day, but forgot to throw everything in the slow cooker earlier in the day. As dinner time approached, I wondered if I could make the same food in my Instant Pot pressure cooker.
Imagine my surprise when converting pressure cooker recipes turned out to be so easy to
do!
It’s worth noting that the Instant Pot actually has a slow cooker feature, which you can always use to make your favorite “slow and low” foods.
But, if you’re like me and sometimes need a faster method of meal preparation, using Instant Pot’s pressure cooker feature is a great way to reduce meal preparation time.
And don’t forget that you can set a timer into the Instant Pot, allowing you to put everything on it now and have it start cooking later at a predetermined time.
With just a few tweaks
or tweaks, slow cooker recipes can easily be turned into easy pressure cooker recipes. This can allow you to prepare your family’s favorite meals in a fraction of the time!
New to pressure cooking? Check out these helpful Instant Pot resources:
- Everything you need to know about how
- Reheat Leftovers in the
- Sous Vide
- Halve
- Steam Smelly Cloths in the Instant Pot How
- instant
to make easy pressure cooker recipes Best Instant Pot Recipes for Beginners How to
Instant Pot 6 Useful Instant Pot Accessories Instant Pot
Tutorial How to
Instant Pot Recipes How to
to Make clay pot recipes in the
cooker
Let’s take a look at some of the most important things to consider when turning a slow cooker recipe into a pressure
cooker recipe.
Things to keep in mind:
There is no magic formula for converting pressure cooker recipes. I recommend having at least some experience with your pressure cooker first before trying to convert recipes.
It can be very useful to find a similar pressure cooker recipe online before doing your conversion. This will give you a stage of cooking times and any other adjustments that need to be made.
<img src="https://marginmakingmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/PressureCookerRecipeConversion-683×1024.jpg" alt="Convert
pressure cooker recipe | How to convert to a pressure cooker recipe” />
It should have some water or other
liquid.
Pressure cookers require a certain amount of water or liquid to achieve a pressure, usually at least 1 cup. Changing the amount of liquid may be necessary if your slow cooker recipe requires very little water, such as 1/4 cup. In this case, increase the amount to 1 cup.
The exception to this rule is if you’re cooking foods that will produce liquid during cooking, in which case you can get away with a little less water at first. But in general, aim for at least one cup of liquid.
Pressure cookers
and slow cookers have very little evaporation, so most amounts of liquid will likely be similar from appliance to appliance, as long as you meet the minimum requirement of 1 cup
.
Don’t overfill
your pressure cooker.
Depending on the size of your pressure cooker, You may need to decrease the amount of liquid and food you put in it. The pressure cooker should never be filled more than 2/3 of its capacity.
If you are cooking foods that expand or foam while cooking (such as rice, other grains, beans, and some fruits), you should not fill the pressure cooker more than 1/2 of its capacity.
Do not use wine or liquor under pressure.
If your recipe calls for the addition of wine, you’ll need to make some adjustments, as the wine remains unchanged when cooked under pressure, resulting in a raw sour taste.
Most recommendations suggest that you should cut the amount of wine in half, then use the stir-fry feature of your pressure cooker first to reduce the wine over the heat. Once this step is completed, you can proceed with pressure cooking.
You should avoid using liquor under pressure. Because it is high in alcohol and does not actually evaporate during cooking, the alcohol is dispersed in the vapor, making it highly flammable.
Adjust your cooking time.
Pressure cookers
cook much faster than slow cookers, so your cooking time will need to be adjusted accordingly.
It is important to note that the
pressure cooker takes some time to reach pressure, at which point the countdown to the specified cooking time begins. The amount of time needed to reach the pressure will vary depending on the fullness of the pot and the temperature of the ingredients.
As the Instant Pot increases the pressure, the food inside is also cooked, so keep that in mind.
There are some excellent tables available online that are extremely helpful in determining the cooking times of your ingredients. A pair I often refer to are:
Hip Pressure Cooker Table Instant Cooking Times Table
I’ve also found America’s Test Kitchen’s Pressure Cooker Perfection book to be very useful, both as a source for delicious recipes and for the cooking time tables it contains
.
Using a natural pressure release with meat will provide the best results in terms of tenderness. This just means that it lets the pressure fully release on its own after the cooking time is complete, waiting for the valve to drop before opening the lid.
If you’re using a recipe that contains meat AND other ingredients, such as grains or vegetables, you may want to cut the meat into smaller pieces so that it has a shorter cooking time closer to that of the other ingredients. Otherwise, you can cook the meat for the recommended time and then add the grains or vegetables afterwards, followed by an appropriate cooking time for those ingredients.
Store the milk and cheese until the end.
If your slow cooker recipe calls for milk or cheese, don’t add them before pressure cooking. Cooking these ingredients under pressure can cause lumps. Instead, after pressure cooking, you can mix these ingredients.
There are times when
using cheese works in Instant Pot recipes, like in this pressure cooker lasagna (I think it seems to work best when not mixed with something else), but as a general rule, I try to save it for last whenever possible.
Add the
thickeners at the end.
If your slow cooker recipe uses thickening ingredients, such as flour or cornstarch, these should be added after pressure cooking.
The thickening ingredients can thicken the liquid in the pot to the point that it is difficult to boil, which affects the ability of the pot to reach high pressure and can cause burns to the bottom of the pot.
If you need to add thickener, consider making a suspension of flour and water or cornstarch and water and stir that in the pot after the pressure cooking is complete, while the contents are still hot. You can even use the Instant Pot’s stir-fry feature if needed.
Prepackaged processed ingredients containing thickeners such as condensed “cream” soups and many seasoning packets pose the same threat, especially if there isn’t enough liquid to dilute them.
I’ve had success adding seasoning packets when there’s plenty of liquid (like in this Instant Pot creamy tortellini recipe and this Instant Pot taco soup recipe).
For “cream of” soups, sometimes it seems to work best if you add those ingredients on top of everything else and don’t mix them up, to keep the liquid from getting too thick.
Take notes.
Once you’ve turned a slow cooker recipe into a pressure
cooker recipe, jot down notes on what worked or didn’t
.
You can keep a specific pressure cookbook or simply add notes to the original recipe you were using. Keeping track of your techniques and settings will come in handy the next time you want to convert a recipe!
Turning your favorite slow cooker recipes into easy pressure cooker recipes can save you a lot of time. By following the tips above, your family’s favorite recipes can be on the table in an instant.
How to translate a slow cooker recipe
to the instant cooker
To make it even easier to remember these tips, I’ve created a FREE printable recipe conversion cheat sheet for you! It is ideal for printing and adding to your recipe folder.
Or, keep it handy in the kitchen for a glance reference for pressure cooker recipe conversion. It’s included as part of my free guide to getting started with your pressure cooker.
Get yours by signing up below and make it even simpler to make your favorite pressure cooker recipes in the Instant Pot pressure cooker!
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