The best and most complete button guide to Instant Pot Duo Version 2.
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When you first open your Instant Pot you may be overwhelmed by all the buttons and settings. Fear not! Pressure Cooker Passion has a put together a complete Instant Pot button guide for the best selling Instant Pot Duo Version 2.
Instant Pot Button Guide (371 downloads )
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1. Manual / Pressure Cook Buttons*
- Most Used Button
- Pressure Cook and manually select time
- Default Temperature is “High Pressure”, change temperature with the pressure button
- Change time with “+/-“ buttons
- Recipes with this button usually call for ½ Cup to 1 Cup of liquid
* The new models of the Instant Pot have the “Pressure Cook” button and old models use the “Manual” Button
2. Sauté Button
- Acts as a skillet, pan or pot
- Add cooking oil or fat and use as you would on a stove top
- Used when recipe calls for browning meat, cooking down vegetables such as onions, garlic or peppers, or reducing the amount of liquid
- Sauté temperature can be adjusted with the “Adjust” button
- Normal mode: 320 to 349°F
- More mode: 347 to 410°F
- Less mode: 275 to 302°F
3. Slow Cook Button
- Allows your Instant Pot to function like a slow cooker
- Defaults to a 4 hour cook time, but you can use “+/-“ buttons to change the cook times
- You can make all your favorite slow cooker recipes with this button.
4. Bean / Chili
- Preset button for Beans / Chili
- Defaults to a 30-minute cook time at High Pressure
- You can change the default setting to “More”, High Pressure 40 Minutes or “Less” High Pressure 25 Minutes.
- The Instant Pot Manual will have the recommended cook times for beans and legumes
5. Meat / Stew
- Preset button for Meat / Stew
- Default to a High Pressure for 35 minutes.
- You can adjust for “More” to High Pressure for 45 minutes or “Less” for High Pressure for 20 minutes.
- Use “More” or “Less” based on your desired texture, i.e. “More” will be for fall-off-the-bone meat.
6. Multigrain
- Preset for Multigrains, such as wild rice, brown rice, mung beans, or hard grains like buckwheat, flax, millet.
- Consult Instant Pot manual for recommended cook times and multigrain to water ratio.
- Defaults to “Normal” setting for 40 minutes cook time, “Less” setting is 20 minutes, or “More” at 45 minutes of warm water soaking and 60 minutes
7. Porridge
- Preset for “Porridge” such as rice porridge (congee) or oatmeal
- Default to a High Pressure for 20 minutes (rice porridge (congee)) “More” to High Pressure for 30 minutes or “Less” for High Pressure for 15 minutes (Oatmeal)
- Do not use Quick Release!!! High starch content creates a thick liquid that will spatter out and block steam release valve
8. Poultry
- Preset for Poultry i.e. chicken, duck, turkey
- Default to a High Pressure for 15 minutes, “Less” for High Pressure for 5 minutes, and “More” High Pressure for 30 minutes (fall off the bone)
9. Rice
- Default for Rice, such as white rice, short grain rice, Jasmine and Basmati rice
- Defaults to cooking on low pressure for normal texture rice, “Less” has a shorter cook time for al dente rice and “More” has a longer cook time for softer texture
- Cook time is between 4-8 minutes depending on how much rice is being made
- Use a 1:1 rice to water ratio
- Pressurizing can take 10-12 minutes
10. Soup
- Default for “Soup” button to make broth, stock or soup.
- Instant Pot will control the pressure and temperature so that the liquid doesn’t heavily boil.
- You can adjust the cooking time as needed, typically between 20-40 minutes, and the pressure to either “Low” (No Meat), “Normal” (With Meat) or “High” (Bone Broth).
11. Steam
- Default button for “Steam” function can be used to steam fresh or frozen food such as vegetables, seafood, or meat.
- Utilize 1-2 cups of water to the inner pot, place the steam rack inside the inner pot and with a stainless steel steam basket on top.
- Adjust the time using the “+” or “-“ button, refer to the Instant Pot Manual for cooking times for various foods.
- Use the steam rack to keep food elevated and a quick release will help food from overcooking.
12. Keep Warm
- Once the Instant Pot is done cooking, it automatically enters “Keep Warm” mode. It will display an “L” in front of a number to indicate how long it’s been warm – e.g. “L0:30” for 30 minutes. It’s a great feature to keep food warm (145 to 172°F) for up to 99 hours, 50 minutes.
- Use the Keep Warm Button to turn the Auto Keep Warm function ON and OFF
13. Cancel Button
- The Cancel key ends a cooking program at any time, or resets the cooker to factory default settings by pressing and holding this key until the cooker beeps
- Helpful if you need to change pressure settings, time or modes.
14. Timer / Delay Start Button*
- Use the Timer or Delay Start button to delay the cooking start time for the Instant Pot. This works for both pressure cooking and slow cook options.
- To activate the delayed start feature, just press the Timer button with 10 seconds of pressing either the Pressure / Manual button or Slow Cook button. Then Use “+/-“ buttons to adjust the delayed hours, then wait a second and press Timer again to set delayed minutes.
- You can cancel the Timer anytime by pressing the Keep Warm / Cancel button.
*New models of the Instant Pot have the “Delay Start” button and old models use the “Timer” Button
15. Yogurt
- Adjust to More for boiling the milk, use Normal for incubating the yogurt.
- Refer to a good yogurt recipe as making yogurt can be fairly technical.
16. Adjust
- On older Instant Pot versions, use this button to toggle from the Less | Normal | More settings. Press the feature you wish to use, then press Adjust until the light under Less | Normal | More is adjusted to the desired setting.
- Refer to the manual for a better understanding of how to use these settings with the preset buttons.
17. Pressure
- Switch between High and Low Pressure settings for pressure cooking programs. Works with all buttons that cook at High or Low Pressure.
18. “+” & “-” Buttons
- Increase or decrease the cooking time or timer with these 2 buttons
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