It's the holiday season, and there are so many advertisements out there for small kitchen appliances, especially air fryers (which are fairly new but gaining in popularity), and electric pressure cookers. Some air fryers and pressure cookers are combined into one, which makes sense for those who have limited counter space. The brand of pressure cooker that leads the pack is the Instant Pot. There has been Instant Pot fever for a few years now, with many people thinking they have to have one, probably due to clever advertising and word of mouth. When I received a pressure cooker as a gift a few years ago, I did what the majority of people do: I took it out of the box, glanced through the instruction booklet, then promptly stored it in a closet where it stayed for months. Finally I forced myself to venture into the pressure cooking world, and my cooking life has never been the same. These appliances are amazing, and I can now understand the Instant Pot craziness that is going on.
You don't have to buy the specific Instant Pot brand: all electric pressure cookers are basically the same: they cook food quickly at a high temperature in a moist environment. It doesn't have to have a lot of buttons, bells, or whistles. There are 3 buttons you do want it to have: Manual, Cancel, and Saute. That's it. If you already have a pressure cooker and haven't taken it out of the box, do it now. Take a good look at it, get familiar with the settings, and start with something simple, like eggs. You can hard-boil eggs using the 5/5/5/ method: 5 minutes (on manual setting), 5 minutes natural release, and 5 minutes in ice water. If your pressure cooker is still a little too overwhelming for you, sign up for the Instant Pot Cooking class and find out what all the fuss is about. Trust me, you will never look back.