This slow cooking is really slow!
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You are too funny @shrinkrap! Are you being serious or is it tongue in cheek? 
I donât think Dave meant it literally 
I know youâve had a rigorous education and career 
Sometimes I take stuff too literally as wellâŚ
The slow cooker liners are kind of like the Brown n Bags of yesteryear, although I still use them occasionally.
Want to add that you will want to avoid thermal shock with the ceramic inserts. Totally ok to put them cold into your unplugged, unset slow cooker. But remember not to add any cold liquids into the pot once itâs cooking. I wiped out a slow cooker recently that way, even though I KNOW better. Had to replace the whole thing.
Also, never put dairy in for a long cook, because it will break down and curdle over those many hours; hence all the recipes calling for canned soup. So, add dairy at the last if need be. Daveâs point about making a roux is a good one if you want to skip the canned soup. I use the canned sometimes, just for the sake of expediency.
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So do I want to leave the beans a bit under if Iâm going to cook them more? Iâm making chicken chili, and it will cook with a roux about 20 minutes, then sit on warm for another hour or so.
I usually wish I had cooked them just a bit more, but donât want them to fall apart.
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My distaste for the IP was not directed at anyone in particular and certainly not you. Knee jerk reaction on my part to posts in which the IP is presented as the solution to everything. âWant to make a souffle.â âBuy an IP!â âGrandmaâs Dutch oven recipe for chili doesnât seem the same.â âBuy an IP!â âHaving trouble lacing kitchen twine around my stuffed pork loin - the knots slip.â âBuy an IP!â âShifting from vegetarian to vegan and looking for substitutes for dairy.â âBuy an IP!â It is wearying and does bring âcultâ to mind. âHere - drink this Kool-Aid - youâll like it!â Bah.
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The bean issue can be tricky, I would probably just cook them slightly under. To the point theyâre almost ready to eat but not falling out of their skins. Hope that helps.
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Iâd say it varies by type of bean. Some are more likely to fall apart, some never do.
FWIW, Iâve always fully pre-cooked beans and lentils, pot-in-pot, with just enough water in the inner pot for the (soaked) beans to absorb (plus water outside in the outer pot to steam and create pressure of course).
The only thing that falls apart is peeled lentils for dal, as they should.
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Iâm going to look up pot-in-pot. Get me started if you have time.
ETA I found this;
âOne of my favorite perks of cooking in the Instant Pot, is the fact that you can cook two dishes at one time. Itâs called âpot in potâ cooking, and it takes the convenience factor of the Instant Pot to the next level. You can make an entire meal at once, totally hands-off!â
Is that it? Sneaky! I was thinking it was some French thing!
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Thatâs it.
Any indian pressure cooker comes standard with stacked steel inserts - I have a three-stack and a two-stack. Can also be used individually. Hereâs an example of the inserts - itâs good to have a mix of deep and shallow for flexibility. You want the top lid so whatâs on top doesnât get waterlogged.
The idea is energy efficiency, so if youâre expending the energy to run the pressure cooker, you can speed-cook ingredients for a whole meal (or a few) at once.
A standard indian stack: pre-soaked beans/lentils (or meat) at the bottom, rice in the middle, whole potatoes on top. Everything is finished separately stovetop, but in minimal additional time.
Iâm not that efficient, but this is a daily occurrence in several hundred million households there.
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The finished white chicken chili. If the three, the IP temp was the easiest to control, although the Cuisinart multi-cooker was probably just as good with experience.
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I see cilantro! yum yum yum
Your comment made me laugh because decades ago, my mom bought a slow cooker without knowing what it was. She just loved the idea that you can plug it in (based on the pretty pictures on the box) and free up a spot on her range while she also cooked in this portable pot.
We were kids so we didnât know what a slow cooker was, but my mom doesnât read English. She tested it by plugging it in and filling it half way with water. She swore up and down that the stupid thing was broken when after a few hours the water only got warm. She never saw the water boil even when she let it run overnight. She returned it, and proclaimed for many years how useless and stupid it was, and that the pot must have been broken because it was so slow.
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More nostalgia
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Years ago I bought a book called âFix, Freeze, Feastâ which has bulk recipes that one can freeze and eat later. Recipes could be put together on the weekend and the family could help. If you are willing to do this for several weekends, I think this method would be of benefit if all you had to do was defrost your dinner after a busy day. There is probably every opportunity for you to use the produce you grow in your garden, as well.
