Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsAdds a whole new dimension of functionality to an already very useful tool.
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2016
Fits the Instant Pot as advertised and opens up new functionality with that pot- e.g., slow cook simmering and sweating of vegetables prior to adding other ingredients to finish a recipe, etc.
As I see it, the locking pressure cooking lid works well if your cooking experience is limited or if you're in a hurry, you hit a button, close the lid and assume it's doing the right thing. When you want to cook more conventionally though, as if you were cooking on a stovetop but with very precise and consistent heat control- sauteing and browning ingredients or sweating vegetables prior to adding liquids or meat and proceeding with the pressure cooking part of a recipe, or if you want to slow cook something without the intense heat and pressure blast of the pressure cooking functionality, this lid opens up a lot of that functionality. I use this to make marinara and bolognese among a lot of other things. To be able to very consistently keep the sauces at a barely perceptible simmer all day long as needed, allows the tomatoes and/ or meat to slowly break down to develop a good consistency but keeps the tomatoes from getting bitter, as happens if you cook too quickly or on too high a heat, and you can remove the lid to stir and check consistency and flavor easily, something you can't do with a pressure cooker. The stainless liner in the Instant Pot is a big part of that as well. I've spent my life cooking on gas as a professional Chef, I really appreciate the consistent heat that I can get using this device when I cook at home and again, this lid opens up a whole new world of functionality beyond merely cooking under pressure. The "simmer" and "saute" buttons, with the 3 intensity levels for each are very, very usable controls. Simmer on the lowest setting will bubble a sauce or "bone broth" almost imperceptibly with the lid on, and saute on the highest setting will rapidly and vigorously boil a sauce (or wine, etc) to quickly reduce, and you have 4 levels between those two to use as well. Lid on, lid off, lid ajar adds even more flexibility. You can do all of that with a conventional pot on a stove, but not with this kind of predictability and temperature control.
