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How Hot Does Instant Pot Get
Instant pot can get hot for up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit which is much hotter than other ovens. Such temperature can only be achieved if the pressure inside the pot becomes 11.6 PSI. Due to the high temperature and pressure, the food inside the pot gets easily cooked.
Just remember that following Instant Pot recipes can require you to spend a few minutes more cooking time unless you are using one of your pots crock-pots, which are generally warmer than most other pressure cookers. With both the Pressure Cooker or Slow Cooker functions, Instant Pot stays at Keep Warm after you have finished cooking, so you can really prepare food well before you are ready to eat, then simply hold it on a Warm setting automatically for up to 10 hours. The Keep Warm function will turn on automatically once things have finished cooking, meaning that it will keep your food hot until you are ready to eat. The Keep Warm button on your Instant Pot makes it so that you can keep the temperature of your food optimal once the pressure cooker is turned off.
The Instant Pot generates pressure and steam to cook the food, whereas the crock pot starts heating up from the bottom. Steam pressure builds inside an Instant Pot, creating a higher-temperature environment, allowing the food to cook more quickly. The reason to add water to an Instant Pot is because the Instant Pot cooks foods using pressure and steam, so an Instant Pot needs water to generate that steam and pressure.
| Pressure | Time |
| Time to Build Pressure | 10 minutes |
| Time to Release | 2-3 minutes |
| Time to Sit the Meal | 12-15 minutes |
After all, water needs both to be boiling, as well as creating sufficient steam to increase internal pressure, to increase water temperature. Pressure cookers work by creating heat within a tight seal, so that the temperature is far above the boiling temperature of water, and no steam is allowed to escape. Since you cannot increase the boiling point of water simply by boiling it longer, you need help from something else, in this case, the pressure of trapped steam, to get it warm and to function more quickly.
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In this case, the boiling temperature of water in a sealed chamber cooked under high pressure would be 244.8degF, nearly six degrees lower than that of the same system at sea level. Looking at our reliable equation for ideal gases, we know that lowering pressure lowers a systems temperature.
Again, lowering pressure means lowering the temperature, which is why cooking times are longer using an electrical model. As you climb higher in elevation, the pressure in the atmosphere drops, which causes the water to boil with lower temperatures, extending the cooking times. The temperature rise corresponds directly with pressure increases due to the steam building up.
For example, if pressure has reached one bar, or 100 kPa (15 PSI), above existing atmospheric pressure, water would reach about 120degC (248degF). On most pressure cookers today, you will see this higher temperature threshold expressed as the low setting (usually around 10 psi, reaching 235 degrees) and high setting (usually 15 psi, reaching 250 degrees). The pressure indicator and release valves on all pressure cookers will define this upper temperature threshold by releasing the pressure, measured in pounds per square inch (psi), after you have reached a specific setting. Some pressure cookers will either have a lower or higher maximum pressure of 1 bar/15 psi (the gauge), or they may adjust for varying pressures on certain recipes; cooking times will rise or fall accordingly.
When cooking under pressure with a 1 bar/15 psi gauge, the cooking times are about a minute for shred cabbage, seven minutes for cooked potatoes (if they are small, rather than cubed), and three minutes for green beans. For example, if the pressure cooking for pot roast is 30 minutes, total starting-to-finish times for recipes such as these may be closer to 45 minutes or longer. You could get better results using a Crock Pot, or crock-pot, but that takes about 8-10 hours. That means that you need to extend cooking times to account for the lower pressure and lower cooking temperatures in order to achieve the same results.
With a pressure cooker, the water can get up to 250 degrees F. when it is on the highest pressure setting, which is 15 pounds per square inch, also helping with cooking time reduction. In a regular pan using the standard stovetop, water will never reach more than boiling, or 212 degrees F., regardless of how high the burners or flames are turned. Pressure cooking temperatures can get as high as 250 degrees Fahrenheit, while the boiling temperature for water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. The key to understanding is that by trapping the steam of the boiling water, you are effectively raising the temperature of water from 212degF to 250degF, which will naturally result in faster cooking time for your food.
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Because of the steam, the higher pressure, and resulting higher temperature, the food present in the pan is cooked. Unable to escape, the steam continues to increase the pressure, with additional steam added by the process of boiling which continues within the pot. The lid seals air inside the pot (steam) and as air cannot find a way out of the pressure cooker, the steam builds pressure within the pot. When the pressure is released, the escaping steam is extremely hothot, hot enough to burn you.
Release the steam pressure quickly, and immediately halt the cooking process, using a release valve. Once a cooker has reached its maximum pressure, typically indicated by the indicator gauge on the lid or a popping hose, the release valve opens, releasing the steam in a controlled stream that keeps a steady temperature within the cooker. The latch, in turn, causes the silicone caps attached to the base of that floating valve (on the underside of the lid) to seal in steam within the pot, allowing pressure to build up even more, meaning a higher cooking temperature.
The higher pressure increases the boiling temperature within the sealed pot to much higher levels than what can be achieved simply boiling the food inside of a regular pan. The pressure cooker heat is maintained inside the sealed pot, and it is that heat which makes the process of cooking this way so quick and efficient, and a pressure cooker so safe to use. This heat can be achieved only when the pressure the Instant Pot is operating at is at 11.6 PSI.
Once the cooker is pressured, the timer that you set at the beginning will start counting down, and that is considered cooking time. Once the timer is complete, the heat will decrease and pressure will start releasing naturally if you keep the pan unattended (this is called natural pressure release) or you can manually release pressure (known as quick release).
Why does water boil in a pressure cooker at 120 Celsius?
When pressure rises, a liquid’s boiling point rises as well, and vice versa. Steam is not permitted to escape from a pressure cooker. Water boils at a temperature of roughly 120 °C when the vapor pressure inside the container rises to nearly 1.75 times that of the atmosphere.
How does a pressure cooker measure temperature?
You can heat water in the pressure cooker without the lid until it begins to boil, then time how long it takes. The pressure cooker is then emptied, the same amount of cold water at the same temperature is added, and the lid is closed.
What is the difference between an Instapot and pressure cooker?
The PSI or pressure that can be reached is the main distinction between an Instant Pot and a conventional pressure cooker. On a stovetop, a conventional pressure cooker can produce a PSI of 15, but the majority of Instant Pot models—aside from the most costly Max model—can only produce a PSI of 12.