Unless you’re taking a multicooker master class, it will take you a couple of weeks or a month to master your Instapot. I’m pretty sure once you’ve tried all its 13 functions, you’ll be confident with your brand new cooking companion. Despite advertising seven capabilities, all in all, it comes with 13 convenient smart programs that can replace multiple kitchen appliances. The Duo Nova comes with a stainless steel inner pot with sealing ring, steam rack and extra seal ring, which is handy as the silicone tends to pick up odors. The only downside is the inner pot doesn’t come with handles, like other Instant Pots, so you’ll need to lift it out carefully.
Along with our in-house experts, our team analyzes thousands of product reviews from the most trusted websites. As its product line has grown and evolved, Instant Brands has retired some of its older models. When looking at the models side by side for price, keep an eye out for flash sales and other deals. Join the Milly’s Community for the latest news, products, promotions, and recipes.
First up, slow cooked chili, the sauté function comes in handy here, allowing you to brown your meat and soften onions in the Instant Pot instead of having to use a separate pan or stove top. Despite the pot not having a non-stick coating there was no sticking during the sauté stage. We slow cooked our beef chili for six hours on the ‘more’ setting and the result was a delicious meaty chili with soft beef. The Instant Pot beeps to alert you that cooking has finished and the temperature of the chili at the end of cooking was 176 F/ 80 C. The chili wasn’t thickened to our liking but by switching back to saute it was easy to reduce it to the perfect consistency.
Again, this product isn’t much different from the Duo electric pressure cooker, but it has some key features that help it stand out from the crowd. An automatic seal makes an Instant Pot even easier to use and is considered to be the safer option when pressure cooking. As a result, it’s fair to say that the manual seals on the Instant Pot Duo are a bit of a drawback. The Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid is sold separately and is compatible with 6-quart Instant models that don’t already have air-frying capability (the Duo, Duo Nova, Duo Plus, Duo Gourmet, and Ultra). The Air Fryer Lid comes with a fry basket and other accessories; it allows you to air-fry straight from your pressure cooker.
The mini 3 quart models will have a few fewer programs than its larger 6- and 8-quart siblings. The texture of stewed beef was succulent, tender, and more flavorsome and delicious than conventional cooking. Bear in mind, there is a fair bit of prep work to do before the cooking process begins. Select the Saute program to brown onions or meat before pressing Cancel to stop sauteing once you’re happy. I was impressed by the searing process, which didn’t take as long to brown as it would in a conventional frying pan. The Instant Pot reaches the ideal, high temperature to brown and crisp the meat before adding in the rest of your ingredients and stock to the pot.
It also gives you the option to use a remote button so you can open the cooking pot at a distance for an added layer of safety. In fact, other machines place their buttons on the main control panel, even farther away from the assault of steam that accompanies depressurizing a pressure cooker. However, the DUO Nova is undoubtedly still in the minority, offering a pressure release button. The moosoo air fryer main functions are pressure cook, steam, slow cook, saute and keep warm, rice cooker and yogurt maker, and also has 14 one touch preset programs.
Both the new Instant Duo Nova and Ultra have backlit displays with Ultra using a spin dial rather than buttons to make selections. And as usual with the 3 quart models, they continue to have a few less smart programs compared moosoo air fryer to the larger models. The Instant Pot smart programs help you cook at the press of a button. Smart programs were created through extensive testing to control pressure, heat intensity, duration, and temperature.