I’ve come full circle and have solved my personal question of “which is better, slow cooker, or electric pressure cooker…”

The answer (for me) is *both*, each system has its advantages and disadvantages, depends on what I’m cooking…

A hearty pot of chili? Slow cooker! The few times I’ve tried it in my Insta Max, I almost threw the thing at the wall in frustration from the constant “Burn Alerts”, the slow cooker excels at the “dump ‘n go” style of cooking

The insta is brilliant for hard boiled eggs, any rice based recipes, soups, anything with a high liquid content I want quickly, anything that requires simmering goes in the slow cooker

I inherited a big 8 quart monster from a neighbor that never used it, and for a while it worked fine (digital push button panel model), but eventually failed (the heating system, the ceramic crock is still usable though) but the biggest problem is that I felt obligated to fill it to get the most out of it, and as I’m cooking for myself, I had more food waste than I like.

So I replaced it with the Insta, thinking “this will do both”, I was wrong, it’s a specialized bit of kit.

So this afternoon, I picked up a smaller 4 quart model with the simple, uncomplicated knob control, and I’m cooking my 4 hour chili recipe in it, looks good so far, but it’s only been about 30 minutes.

Of course the real secret companion piece to both is my trusty, reliable old Lodge Combo Cooker cast iron skillet, the deep skillet is perfect for browning burger meat without spattering all over, and cast iron makes *EVERYTHING* taste better!

by MacTechG4