Skip The Slow Cooker And Make Pot Roast Better And Quicker With This Method

Few kitchen gadgets are as versatile and useful as the slow cooker, and the reason for that is convenience. Simply chuck your ingredients in, turn it on high or low, and in a matter of hours, you'll have a hot, delicious meal ready. It's a champion when it comes to breaking down the collagen in tough cuts of beef (the best for pot roast) into delicious, melt-in-your-mouth gelatin for the perfect pot roast. But with newer kitchen gadgets available, could the slow cooker become obsolete? Unfortunately, it seems possible. With high-tech gear like the Instant Pot exploding in popularity, the slow cooker could be looking at second place when it comes to cooking up a pot roast.

The slow cooker and the Instant Pot work in very different ways, but serve a similar function. Introduced in the 1970s, the slow cooker — or crock pot — uses a low, steady heat to gently simmer the ingredients for many hours. In contrast, the comparatively modern Instant Pot, created in 2010, is a multifunctional electronic cooking device. It's pressure cooking function traps steam and creates pressure, which raises the internal temperature above boiling point. This cooks the food much faster, and a pot roast, which takes up to eight hours in a slow cooker, can be done in around an hour in the Instant Pot, with no notable difference in taste or flavor. From a convenience standpoint, the Instant Pot provides a level of speed and flexibility that the slow cooker can't match, making it a great choice for an easy, weeknight pot roast. 

Aside from speeding up low-and-slow cooking, the Instant Pot is multi-functional, which means you can also use it to easily upgrade the texture, aroma, and depth of your pot roast. For instance, the saute function allows you to build up depth of flavor by searing the meat in the pot, creating a rich, caramelized crust, and leaving you with all the rendered fat and fond (the leftover brown bits) to add additional layers and complexity to the final dish. If you were using a slow cooker, you'd have to brown the meat separately, and you'd lose some of these precious flavor boosters along the way. After searing your meat, you can give your onions, garlic, and aromatics a nice char and deglaze your pot with red wine or stock. Then you're ready to get started — all without having to clean up any pots or pans! 

While the Instant Pot is certainly a convenient, time-saving device, it's not without limitations. One issue is control, as once it builds up pressure, you won't be able to open it to check on its progress or make any adjustments. And speaking of pressure, a common complaint about the device is that it actually takes quite a lot of time to preheat and build up steam, which can add a significant amount of time to the cooking process (but it'll still be faster than a slow cooker). It's high-heat cooking means that it's less forgiving than a slow cooker, and leaving your meat in too long can cause it to overcook, causing it to go dry and mushy.