Slow Cookers and Instant Pots: Grandma’s Favorite Appliance Reimagined

Ordering in is easy, but there is nothing like a home-cooked meal when you have the time. Anyone who has taken up cooking as a hobby or attempted to spend more time preparing meals quickly becomes aware of how much effort goes into breakfast, lunch and dinner. This struggle between health and convenience foods has been on going for decades and real solutions are not easy to find.

Crockpots and pressure cookers were some of the first appliances that tried to reimagine the modern cooking landscape. Irving Nachumson invented the crockpot in 1940 as a device that could keep Sabbath dinners warm. In the 1970s they were marketed to American women as a way to cook while multitasking. Although the crockpot lost popularity in the 1990s, it has had a resurgence in the new millennium among both men and women. Crockpot recipes abound, and it’s not just soups or a pork loin that can be waiting for you when you arrive home from work — now you can even bake cakes in your crockpot.

Even more versatile than the crockpot is the Instant Pot. Imagine cooking rice, soups, meat and overnight oats in the same machine. The Instant Pot comes equipped to do just that and in record time. Combining the functionality of the crockpot with the speed of a pressure cooker, the Instant Pot takes the convenience of cooking while away from home to the next level.