Regardless of whether you’re super new or completely used to using a Slow Cooker or Instant Pot for your cooking needs, there are some super helpful tips and tricks out there that could help you. If you’re interested in starting or just starting, using these methods can seem scary or overwhelming. That’s totally okay. Here are some helpful tips for slow cooker and Instant Pot cooking to help you.

Tips For Slow Cooker And Instant Pot Cooking

Shop Right

If you don’t already own your slow cooker or Instant Pot, make sure you shop right when you’re looking for one! Especially with slow cookers, you can find these all over the market for various prices and it can become quite confusing. Make sure you read reviews for the product or seller and consider those. The cheapest deal isn’t always the best because it could be considerably worse quality.

Use Your Resources

There are so many resources out there that can help you understand what your Instant Pot can do as well as recipes, ideas for usage, guides, and helpful tips. This is also the case for slow cookers, although thankfully those are slightly less complex to figure out. Search up tutorials or informational videos and websites that can help you learn your tool before you start cooking with it.

Prepare Ahead

Crunched for time in the morning, but have to put together your slow cooker meal? You can totally make prep much easier by splitting it up into the night before and the morning of cooking. This is especially helpful for recipes that need more heavy prep, or just to make sure you get everything into the cooker by the time it should be in the morning.

Start Simple

If you’re just barely starting out with your Instant Pot or slow cooker, start super simple! Focus on a recipe with little prep time and super easy steps. This gives you a chance to understand and get used to how to operate your cooker. Soups or stews are great ideas for beginner options, and there are plenty of easy or beginner recipes out there.

Leave it Alone

While cooking, don’t check your food too much! If you’re constantly taking off the lid or opening your cooker, you’re letting out heat and steam that’s important to your food and its cooking. It’s okay to check a few times, but if you find yourself lifting the lid many times throughout the day to look at your food without needing to you should step away. Don’t worry, your food is okay.

Know Conversions

If you’re converting a traditional recipe or cooking a specific food, there are some important conversions to remember. For example, if you’re converting a recipe not specifically for a slow cooker you should reduce the liquid amount by a third or so because it won’t evaporate in the cooker as it does normally. The time is important as well. For example, 15-30 minutes of normal cooking is about 4-6 hours on low.

Read Your Manual

You probably don’t want to hear this, but reading the manual for your cooker can be incredibly helpful and important in reducing the risk of something going wrong and making your cooking the absolute best. You may not have to read every word, but at least skim and read the important pieces. Sometimes the manual can give you tips you won’t find online because it’s for your specific tool.

Fill Limit

Make sure not to fill your cooker or Instant Pot more than about 2/3 of the way full in any of your recipes. If you’re cooking something that expands such as dry beans or rice, you should stick to somewhere more around half full. This way you don’t overfill your cooker and risk overflow or improper cooking. It’s not safe to overfill a slow cooker or Instant Pot.

I hope these tricks can help you no matter your status on using tools like these, and give you some ideas or help along the way the next time you use your slow cooker or Instant Pot. It can be really useful and nice to cook in this way, especially for busy households, because it’s a way to cook without as much constant involvement. If you want some ideas to use things you have at home for cooking, here are some pantry recipes for slow cookers or Instant Pots.

The above content has been written by Jax, my content writing partner.
{oldest kiddo, recent 2020 HS graduate}

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