Best Instant Pot 2022: A guide to the features of this year’s top cookers

It’s really great to be able to chuck all your raw ingredients into the cooker, knowing that there’ll be plenty of food to go around when it’s done. This is especially true if you’re cooking for a family and need something that is going to be big enough for all the hungry mouths in your house. Conversely, there’s no point buying a more expensive, larger capacity pressure cooker if it’s just for one or two people. After a rather undercooked release of the Instant Vortex and Vortex Plus, the Duo Crisp came out as Instant Pot’s first true pressure cooker and air fryer combination. The Pro Crisp shows it up function-wise, but for $100 less, the Duo Crisp covers a lot.

instant pot duo nova

You may also want to read up a bit about the differences between the Instant Pot Duo vs Duo Nova. The best Instant Pot® for beginners, with upgraded lid and display.

The latest high-tech Instant Pot model has the most functions of any Instant Pot on the market including air-frying capabilities. The new lid is called “the ultimate” because, unlike the lids on other Instant Pot models, this one has one lid that can be used for both pressure-cooking and air-frying. The the most recent version, released in late 2019, now offers a sous vide setting in place of the steam instant pot duo nova setting, as well as an updated auto-seal lid. It’s more convenient when making both the primary and side dishes in your pressure cooker. Instead of cleaning the same pot after cooking, you can prepare the next dish and cook it right away. If you’re a fan of the ‘set it and forget it’ style of cooking, the handy keep warm function means your food won’t go cold if you do actually forget about it.

The Instant Pot has fairly basic instructions, however, you can download the Instant Pot app where users share their recipes amongst the Instant Pot community. The Exchange is proud to work with our Partners to bring you expanded selections and exciting products you can order online – all at military exclusive pricing. All products featured on Epicurious are independently selected moosoo air fryer by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. If the answer’s not there get in touch and speak to our knowledgable staff, we love chatting with our fellow foodie community. At Milly’s, we believe in buying once and buying well, investing in good quality product that will be with you for generations of use.

They are set-and-forget appliances that allow you to start cooking instantly and eliminate your need to consult the instructions. An Instant Pot is basically a multi-functional electric pressure cooker. It can do everything that a conventional pressure cooker does but with better results, from cooking rice to roasting a whole chicken. If you participate in canning, a pressure cooker is the best way to go. The USDA says pressure canning is the only safe method for canning meat, fish, poultry and all vegetables.

This feature has to be one of the best things about my new pressure cooker. At around 10% cheaper, the basic Duo, meanwhile, is not a very fancy pressure cooker (at least as far as Instant Pots go). However, it’s still a great addition to the company’s most popular line. The size of your cooker often determines how quickly it can reach full pressure and the amount of heat produced in a given time. Larger pots typically take longer to build and release pressure since they have more space to fill. But there are certain situations where one of the devices will be more suitable than the other.

You may remember your grandmother’s old stove top pressure cooker, and wonder “Will My Instant Pot Blow Up? ” The amazing difference between an electric pressure cooker and the old school ones is there are tons of safety features that make it impossible for it to blow up. Additionally, these features make using a pressure cooker super easy.

This collection of programs can be tweaked and tailored to perform super-specific tasks that you may have struggled with pre-Instant Pot (e.g., the perfect way to cook rice). The Duo Nova for all sizes does not include the Cake Setting, egg, or pasteurize features if you’re interested in that particular smart program. But don’t worry as you can still make hard-boiled eggs using the steam setting and cakes in any size Duo Nova by using the pressure cook setting and adjusting the time. If the yogurt button is a deal-breaker for you, the all-in-one Ultimate Lid is the only air frying pressure cooker that has that option. Keep in mind that the Ultimate Lid model is heavier than either the Duo Crisp or the Pro Crisp. Additionally, we found many meat-based pressure cooker recipes suggest significantly longer cooking times than Instant Pot suggests for the same cut of meat.

But it has far fewer preset programs than you’ll see on some other Instant Pots such as the more expensive Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus, which has 48 customizable presets. The steam release valve does just what it’s called to release the steam from inside the pressure cooker. So there are no more worries about forgetting to turn the sealing valve to sealing. All you have to do is put the lid on your IP and of course, adjust the LCD screen for the correct cooking time. Combining the function of seven appliances in one, they both perform well an extensive variety of cooking tasks, all at the touch of a button. And the smart programs in the Duo and Duo Nova are both able to take care of all the cooking-time and temperature calculations.