Introduction

Imagine for a moment a world where you need to bring food with you every day. I know, I know, no one reading this could possibly be in that situation. But bear with me anyhow. Let's just assume for a moment that you have a nice chili that you want to slow cook- you put all the ingredients in your crock pot, and since obviously everyone in this situation only owns a crock pot (college student times, it really happened) you put your rice in with everything else. You turn it on, next morning everything comes out well enough- the rice may be a bit soggy but you live with it since it's got a good taste and the flavors blend nicely.

Fast forward a bit. Rather than having a crock pot, the crock pot started flaking off rust chips because it's old (also happened) and it's now gone. In its place is a shiny new instant pot! When I was in this situation, I figured they couldn't be too different and just put my usual chili recipe in there and turned on the pressure. Boy was I in for a shock.

How not to cook rice

The instant pot over and over again displayed the error "BURN". It didn't seem to matter what settings I used to make this happen, or whether it was the whole thing at once as before, or just the rice on its own with the "rice" setting advertised on the front. Every time it would display this message, and there'd be a sticky mess of rice remains stuck to the bottom of the pot, sometimes with other ingredients trapped underneath. All in all, not a pleasant experience.

Instant Pots are NOT Slow Cookers

My immediate next thought was that the pressure was the problem. The next time I went to cook my chili, I simply set the instant pot on slow cook mode and walked away. All indications were that this would work fine. Then I decided enough time had passed and checked on it. I had set the instant pot to slow cook medium heat, which I figured would probably land somewhere in between low and high on a traditional slow cooker.

I was wrong. Sticking my finger into a pot of what was essentially still luke-warm soup was not a pleasant surprise. At that point I was about ready to call it quits on that idea, and switched to pressure cook mode. I encountered the same "BURN" error as before, but after a couple of attempts at least I had something I could eat for lunch that week. Trying it again the next week yielded the same result.

For those who might end up in the same sort of position as me, here's about where the Instant Pot's slow cook temperature lines up with a crock pot:

Instant Pot setting	Crock Pot analog
High	Low with the lid off
Medium	Keep Warm
Low	Off

Clearly you're not going to get very good results if you go into this without this knowledge.

Potential Issues

I have a lot of theories as to why this problem is as bad as it is. Firstly, the lid doesn't seal the same way. The crock pot is designed with a lid that forms a loose seal from the steam built up as the food cooks. While it's not a hard seal, and steam can still escape, there should be no holes in the lid of a properly functioning crock pot, or else the food won't cook right. The Instant Pot's lid is designed for pressure cooking, so it requires pressure to seal completely. This allows for the pressure release and for the lid to come off safely when used as a pressure cooker. There don't seem to be any good third-party lid options, at least none that I tried did the trick. You may have better luck.

Secondly, the Instant Pot only seems to heat from the bottom, where the crock pot heats all sides. Furthermore, the crock in a crock pot has a fair amount of thermal mass, which helps to spread out the heat. The Instant Pot uses a steel liner, much like a soup pot or a really big saucepan. The Instant Pot may also just not have good enough heat control to give a good in-between heating setting. A lot of steam is required for pressure, which requires a lot of heat. When that kind of heat isn't required, the thermal controls may not be accurate enough to produce a desirable result.

Back to a real Crock-Pot

Finally, fed up with the extra work being put into lunch for the week, I broke down and bought a crock pot. Immediately I could tell the difference. Like any new appliance, it took some getting used to since the old one did not behave quite exactly like the old one, but with not very much time I was back to my old routine.

Most of this actually happened months ago by now. In fact, this whole blog site just got a minor facelift recently, including new background graphics and some under-the-hood improvements to themeing which made a color change practical. The reason those changes didn't go live in December of last year is because I was planning out this post. Since then, I've had some more time to experiment and figure out what works and what doesn't with an Instant pot. Long story short- if you expect a slow cooker, buy a slow cooker. The Instant Pot will not do the trick. It won't. That said, I don't hate the thing. It makes the best macaroni and cheese I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying, and it can do meats, soups, even cheesecake really well.

There's a number of things that both appliances do really well. For example, pulled meats are really easy with an Instant Pot. Nothing sticks to the bottom, and if you leave a roast in there for a little over an hour it comes out in pieces, ready to be pulled. Just season it, add some water, and hit 'go'. This is really the secret superpower of a crock-pot, however. Do the same thing with a crock-pot, and after about 14 hours or so, you have the same result but with more even flavor. It's not a big difference, but there's a difference.

Conclusion time

I know I've said it before, it's even in the title. An Instant Pot isn't a crock-pot. Don't buy an Instant Pot thinking you can just do away with the old crock-pot when it gets old. They serve different purposes, even if the Instant Pot tries to ape the crock-pot, it really does just that, it apes it.

Does this mean I think you shouldn't buy an Instant Pot? Honestly, no. I love the thing, and it really does making traditionally long cook time meals quick and easy. It does a lot of things really really well. It's just not a slow cooker. It really, really isn't.