How can I figure out cooking times for an Instant Pot?
If I want to make dal (let's say) in an Instant Pot, I google someone else's recipe and find that the pot should be at pressure for 12 minutes if you're using red lentils and 15 mins. if you're using green lentils. Is there a way to calculate that on my own (i.e., some equation or formula that people use to develop pressure cooker recipes)? Or does everyone just figure it out by trial and error?
Best Answer
Instant Pot has a page with cooking times for various things on it:
However, there are also lots of good pages out there with more specifics. For example, chicken thighs (fresh, frozen, bone in vs. out, brown first vs. not):
Pictures about "How can I figure out cooking times for an Instant Pot?"
Quick Answer about "How can I figure out cooking times for an Instant Pot?"
The colder the contents of the Instant Pot, the longer it takes to come to pressure. So a 5-minute pressure cooking recipe could take: 10 minutes to come to pressure + 5 minutes to pressure cook + 10 to 30 minutes to release pressure = total time of 25 to 45 minutes.How does Instant Pot Calculate cooking time?
Refer to the amount of time that a recipe needs to cook on high and covert from hours to minutes (multiply it by 60) then divide by 10. For example, a recipe that needs to cook for 8 hours on low and 4 hours on high, you would take 4 hours and convert to minutes. 4 times 60 would give you 240 minutes.Is the Instant Pot timer hours and minutes?
Season your meat as you normally would. Heat a little oil using the Saut\xe9 function and sear the meat. Add 1 1/2 cups of liquid (water, stock, etc.). Cook for 20 minutes (per pound of meat) at high pressure for large chunks and 15 minutes (per pound of meat) for small chunks.Instant Pot Quick Tip #2 - Quickest Way to Find Cooking Times
More answers regarding how can I figure out cooking times for an Instant Pot?
Answer 2
As already noted in comments: there are no usable formulas for this. Just look it up in a table.
First, the models which deliver the formulas would have to be developed. Developing the models would be more resource consuming (requiring time and tons of expertise) than creating tables by trial and error. Also, developing the models would also need quite a few use cases based on trial and error anyway.
Second, they would have to be applied. Very few people would have the required mathematical expertise to apply them, but even the minority who would happily solve a system of differential equations in the kitchen will have no source for the required parameters to plug in.
And then, models are not perfect. And nonlinear models with a large number of assumptions are especially likely to be off. Once you get a calculation from a model, there is still a chance that it will be wrong. Which means that even with a formula, you are still doing a trial-and-error thing, it is just that the formula supplies you with a reasonable initial guess to test. But the expertise of people who have cooked vegetables before will also supply a reasonable initial guess, without the need for all of the above.
So, in the end everybody uses tables. It is both easier and more effective.
Answer 3
As a rough rule of thumb, the modern generation of electric pressure cookers run at 10psi, the older stovetop ones at 15psi. I've had good results adding 20-30% time to traditional cooking times, generally finding that due to no loss of pressure/steam with the later generation PC's 20% is sufficient.
A great reference for PC cooking times is Miss Vickie, but her site has not been maintained in some time so she may be cooking for the angels now. Part of her site is still available on the Wayback machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160303140415/http://missvickie.com:80/howto/times/timingframe.html
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Yaroslav Shuraev, Dương Nhân, cottonbro, Amina Filkins