wich instapots best for me?

I love my Instant Pot, and definitely consider it worth getting! I use it pretty much every week, whether it’s to make soups, broths, stews, or just rice. If time is of the essence and you don’t typically have an hour or more to prepare your meals, pressure cooking is a godsend! I can make a beef stew in about 30 minutes (including prep time) using the Instant Pot, and the beef comes out really tender!

My only caveat is that the rice cooker function takes some getting used to. I’ve used a dedicated rice cooker before, and always followed the “pinky nail” rule - that is, you fill the water until your pinky nail can touch the rice and be completely submerged in water. This method doesn’t work as well with the Instapot. I assume this is due to the fast cooking time (cooking white rice only takes about 12 minutes from start to finish), which doesn’t allow the rice to absorb as much water as it would in a typical rice cooker. As I later discovered when I came across

, “the ideal water-to-rice ratio – in the sealed environment of the Instant Pot – is 1:1, with rinsed (wet) rice.”

Also, Instant Pots have deals pretty regularly - I recommend using a deal alert site such as

so you don’t pay the MSRP price.

Note: I have the DUO80 model, which is the 8-quart version and is honestly overkill for 2 people. There is a DUO60 (6-quart) model that might be better if you’re only cooking for 3 or less people (and you don’t do a lot of batch cooking).