Instant Pot® Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook - Official Authorized Recipe Book with Quick & Easy Meals for Everyday Cooking | Perfect for Busy Families & Meal Prep

I’m not usually a fan of appliance cookbooks put out by the company that makes the appliance, as they are usually shallow and lacking in many ways—they seem like an afterthought. That is not the case here, with this well-done, well-put-together book. This Instant Pot-sponsored book contains quality recipes. Instructions are straightforward, efficient in their steps and produce tasty results. You will see/read some dorky content at the beginning, in the intro, that sounds like a promotional infomercial, but that gives way to solid advice and instruction.If you just want the basics, this is not the cookbook you are looking for. And there are no timing charts. (Go to the Instant Pot website for the basics and charts. Even though the Instant Pot website is more than a bit ambiguous, you can probably get all the basic info you could possibly want from there.)This is a book of recipes: You will need more than basic ingredients and you will need some room to do prep work. Some recipes will require a cooktop or an oven. Not that any of these requirements are surprising, I just mention it to ward off the potential buyer looking to use this book in conjunction with an Instant Pot in a dorm room or other tiny place.These are not basic recipes that a busy college student living in a tight place will be able to tackle--space-wise. Would she or he wish they could tackle some of these recipes?? Oh, yes! For instance, I am a home cook, with a regular-sized, well-equipped kitchen, and there are many, many recipes in this book that have made me get my Instant Pot off the shelf and back onto the counter top. But if you don’t have the room to store and prep ingredients, these recipes will push your organizational skills beyond the limit.If you do order this particular book, while you are waiting for it to arrive, find yourself a 6”x 3” round cake pan and a deep 8” round soufflé or casserole dish, because those are the sizes mentioned. If you want to bake or make casseroles in your Instant Pot, you will need some kind of pan and/or dish. (I have noticed that other recipe books call for different sizes.)I found the recipe instructions to be very straightforward. Of course, as with any recipe, cooking times need slight adjustments per your environment and ingredients, but I have far fewer questions on the recipes in this book, than when working with the Instant Pot website. In other words, less ambiguity with these recipes than the info on the website. Each recipe in this book makes it very clear which buttons to push.Also, cooking times in these recipes are often different from what I find in the website charts. (Like the potato salad recipe: Steaming 2 pounds of baby/new whole potatoes (about 16) takes 1 1/2C of water in the bottom of the pot, Manual button, high pressure for 8 minutes, quick release. The website chart will tell you 10-12 minutes in 1 C water, but will not tell you which button to push, or give pounds/amount, just saying “small or medium amount of food”. (It was ambiguity like that on the website that originally made me put my Instant Pot away in frustration……)*The instructions in this book were developed with the Instant Pot DUO60 V2 (6 quart), so if you have a newer Instant Pot model without that basic “Manual” button, I believe you will be choosing “Pressure Cook”.Another example of instructions that work, found in the Spaghetti Squash with Garlic and Sage Brown Butter recipe: One spaghetti squash, about 3 ½ pounds, halved crosswise and seeded, 1 1/2C water, on the steam rack, manual button, high pressure, 15 minutes, quick release. Or this one for the potatoes in a yummy twice-baked potato recipe: Steam 4 12-ounce russet potatoes: Prick, place on steam rack, 1 1/2C water, Manual button, high pressure, 25 minutes.You might very well disagree with me, but I get annoyed with pressure cooker books that seem to “force” foods into the pressure cooker method. There are foods—quick-cooking veggies, eggs, fish fillets, for example—that are just as easily cooked in a pan on your cooktop. This book avoids doing that (for the most part, although there is a recipe for deviled eggs and one for salmon….). The Jambalaya recipe makes a lot of sense to me, for instance: The raw shrimp are added after the rest of the ingredients are cooked: Quick release to vent the steam, open lid, stir in shrimp, lock lid and let sit for 10 minutes. Shrimp are not over-cooked. (Many of the seafood recipes are bowl food.)I found the vegetarian main dish chapter too short for me. But the very colorful (and very suitable for the Thanksgiving table), Layered Vegetable Casserole with sweet potatoes, Yukon gold, rutabaga, beets and cannellini beans is a real keeper. And the yogurt recipes give one an idea of how to utilize the yogurt-making feature of this machine. For me, there could have been more grain recipes, (but I have Lorna Sass for that!).There is a dessert chapter, too. And the pictures look yummy, but I don’t often make desserts.Some observations:--No exotic or unfamiliar ingredients.--No canned soup, no canned beans (with one exception of canned cannellini in a casserole), not much canned goods at all—maybe tomatoes. (There are a good amount of bean recipes using dried beans.)--I found it necessary to cut down on the amount of salt called for in the recipes. And I increased the pepper or added a different source of spicy heat.--Prep times are accurate for average experience cooks.--Cook times are fairly accurate; maybe some slight adjustments to be made for when you don’t follow directions exactly.--There are pictures for most recipes, and they are full-color and pretty--maybe not the best quality, though.....Some terrific recipes:--Orange and Honey-Glazed Carrots with Dill; from opening your bag of carrots to serving is less than 15 minutes.--Chorizo and Pinto Beans; the recipe pairs the mix with nachos, I put it on flour tortillas.--Sweet and Sour Meatballs; ground pork or chicken, bound with an egg white.--A Three-Bean Salad fit for a pot luck: Cannellini, kidney and fresh green beans, with a lemon-y vinaigrette.--Scallion Corn Bread is on the sweet-ish side—just like we like it at our house.--Some of the beef/lamb/pork recipes are for the pot as a slow cooker, some for the pressure cooker. There is a nice representation that will give insight for changing up your own meat recipes. I really enjoyed the Balsamic Beef Short Ribs, prep time 20 minutes, cook time (saute and manual buttons) is an hour.--Lemon Chicken with Green Olives is quick and economical. I often make a similar recipe in the oven. This is quicker and less mess to clean up—a real game-changer for me!--I like the entire chapter of pork recipes. We especially enjoyed the Beer Garden Casserole: Layers of cabbage, apple and sweet Italian sausage meat. (I added onions.) Also Sticky and Sweet Sriracha Ribs, cooked over vinegar and not water. And the Pozole recipe is very good!*I originally received a temporary download of this cookbook from the publisher. But, as you can see from the "Verified Purchase" tag at the top of this review, I bought a hard copy for myself to put on my library shelf. (And so my neighbor can borrow it: She's a big Instant Pot fan and she got me started on it!)