Had already ordered the LUX before I learned the ULTRA has an easy way to sous vide. Oh well, I get to use my new stove’s indoor grilling capabilities for my steaks. And in general, I try not to use plastics with food. All my storage containers are glass these days.
I know it is supposedly safe to cook with the zip bags, but I prefer not to do that, thus my purchase of the IP.
@collaroygal this is what you need, it’s on sale today for $85 if you’re in the US, and yes it does sous vide.
I’ll second this, for both the site and the recipe. However, my wife does not add cabbage, just meat. You cook one day, then bring it out and sear it up. Put it in the microwave to get some liquid out, dump everything including the liquid into a pan, sear.
Hard boiled eggs are also great. There are really too many recipes to begin telling all the recipes we’ve made with the Instant Pot.
I think you could go cheaper ($70):
They keep adding features, but I’m not sure they are necessary.
I think a real sous vide is going to be better. I often cook many steaks, burgers, etc., at once. The Instant Pot is too small for that. We cooked over 6 pounds of chuck this weekend. We used our modified cooler and the Anova. The Instant Pot just couldn’t do that.
If you cook small meals, you might be OK.
Already ordered the LUX, arrives today. DH is not crazy about sous vide, so I will just stick with what I got. I am really more concerned about bone broth, stews, and soups really anyway. I follow Julie Childs’ method of cooking steaks and I love them cooked her way.
I am very open to other uses for the LUX and found a decent for free Kindle IP recipe book.
This one doesn’t sous vide, FYI. I was thinking of upgrading to the Ultra but I already have an Anova. I just figured the Ultra would be a nice way to do sous vide with even less prep, but frankly it makes little to no difference and I agree that the Anova is going to probably be more accurate because it’s purpose built for it – and it’s a water circulator, not just a thermostat controller.
I haven’t used our instapot in a few months, but pretty sure anything you can do in a croc pot you can do in instapot. it’s just 30 minutes compared to 4+ hours. Make sure you add water or stock.
Yes, this is what my serious goal was, and I think the IP will keep me happy, still awaiting delivery today.
I was really concerned most about the bone broths, they take forever on the stove, and I have heard that IPs will really soften up the bones even more effectively. DH and both need collagen, so I wanted to make more bone broths as soup bases. So make up batches of bb and then make soups quickly as well.
Checking in with an update. Got the IP, loving it. I did a corned beef roast, and the water got turned into beef broth and was delicious for sauteing veggies to go with the corned beef. I did a bison meatloaf soooooooo goood!! I like that these dishes that usually take at least half a day can be done, prepped, cooked and eaten in about 2 hrs. I am now planning to make a keto cheese cake in it because there are recipes all over the 'net for them and they all sound great.
Not sorry at all about this purchase.
I believe that one might be under the tree for me on Christmas Day! 
I’m excited about making bone broth and stews but I hadn’t considered doing hard boiled eggs etc! Very excited about the possibility. Everyone I know who has one absolutely loves it!
Because I have the coolest sister…and she just came back home for the holidays 
now i have to figure out how this thing works 
The Instant Pot Ultra has a sous vide mode. I bet it’d do the job just fine; I have a sous vide stick but I’ve cooked sous vide using a probe thermometer and manually switching the stove on and off at 20-30 min intervals. Tim Ferriss has cooked sous vide in a hotel bathroom sink with a probe thermometer. Totally doable.
I’m actually trying the CRACK Chicken recipe tonight, Was going to use thighs instead of breasts… Thoughts?
I’m another huge fan of the Instant Pot. Love mine! I haven’t used my crock pot since I got the IP.
I pretty much use mine for meat (since that’s usually all I have for dinner) - Beef chuck/pot roast, chicken wings (freezer to table in less than 1/2 hour), beef short ribs, whole chicken, Cornish hens, etc., etc…
I love that I can come home from work and have a meal that I wouldn’t even have considered without the IP due to time constraints.
Oh, and I also love to cook hard boiled eggs in it. I do them 6-7 mins., quick release the steam, and put them directly into a bowl of ice water. The shells peel right off EVERY time.
Ok, end of IP commercial… 
Maybe for cooking 1-2 hours, if you like hanging around doing not much else. We regularly do 4+ hour, 24-36+ hour sous vides. About to start one tonight in fact. You need a device for this.
For me, most of the stuff I sous vide is much too large for the instant pot. Don’t get me wrong, we use the instant pot all the time, but most of the time the meat couldn’t fit in the instant pot. My roast tonight is a 10 pound beef brisket that won’t fit in our instant pot. We regularly sous vide 4-5 steaks.
Mark, I made a chicken cacciatori recipe that called for thighs and I used breasts instead and it was fine. Try and approximate the weight so they don’t overcook.
