Can You Use Oil in an Instant Pot : What You Should Know?

You might be visiting a lot of websites these days trying to look up all the various dishes which you can cook during the quarantine , right ?

Well all of us are and we want the best for us .

Guessing from the fact that you are reading this , you must have an instant pot , and probably want to make the best use of it .

A lot of “ good ” food for the people of my generation (the millennials or people in their late teens and early twenties ) includes fried stuff .

Now I know what you are thinking ?

Is this post about fried fool in an instant pot ?

Well , to clear all doubts , no it’s not .

It is about whether or not using oil in an instant pot is adequate or not ?

Throughout this article you will encounter questions like what are the different types of oil we could use in an instant pot and whether or not they are good for our little toys . Let’s get started then .

What are the different types of oil which can be used for cooking?

There aren’t one or two types of oil which you could easily distinguish between and decide from . It has been seen and observed that there ae at least 14 types of cooking oils which are used by the general population . Out of these , the most commonly used ( top 10 ) types are :

These are :

1. Coconut Oil
2. Olive Oil
3. Palm Oil
4. Avocado Oil
5. Fish Oil
6. Flax Oil
7. Canola Oil
8. Peanut Oil
9. Vegetable Oil
10. Seed Oil

Now , while all of us have almost used all of these ( and if you haven’t , you are probably new to this life of cooking ) not all of these can be used in an instant pot . To understand this , we would have to first understand about the structure of an instant pot and precisely about it’s body which is technically called the base unit ( where the food is heated and cooked ) .

The base unit :

The base unit is the powerhouse of the device . It is responsible for all the major functions like controlling the pressure and also includes buttons on it’s exterior that would help control the temperature on the inside .

Why Would I Need Oil In My Instant Pot ?

A lot of food items are made frying them for some time . Frying is generally classified into two types :

• Shallow Frying : The shallow frying technique does not require the extremities of oil consumption as such seen in deep fryig . It consumes less oil and is therefore better for our health .
• Deep Frying : The deep frying technique involves the item to be fried to be dipped into hot boiling oil until the point that it’s outer layer is crispy enough .

Unfortunately for us , deep frying in an instant pot is not the best idea .Oil does not produce steam and you need far higher temperature to boil oil , something an instant pot is not best suited for . This is because of a variety of factors :

• Heat generated while frying may spoil the base unit from the inside .
• An instant pot isn’t deep enough . The oil might splash out and can cause severe burns on our skin if not handled properly.

But , with that being said , shallow frying is definitely a viable solution for us and let us discover more about it .

What Can I Make In My Instant Pot ?

Anything you wish – would have been the ideal answer but no , you can not cook everything in your instant pot . With deep frying completely out of the question , we are still yet to judge if we do , in fact , can say that it is safe to use oil in an instant pot .

An instant pot does not require huge amounts of liquid but like other appliances but it does need a little bit of something for the texture and the moisture . For such purposes it is advised to anyone using an instant pot to use measurable amounts of oil in their pots . These recommendations come from experts who have been in the field long before you and I have .

So it would be safe to consider that we could use oil in a limited quantity . But which oil is the best suited for us ?

Keeping in mind the nature of the body of the instant pot , the boiling temperature of different kinds of oil and fatness levels in them , it has been judged that olive is the best for your instant pot . Google it if you do not trust me , but this is true . Olive oil has been found to be more effective than vegetable oil and this comes as a shock to more people than you would realise.

Why is this so ?

It is because of the three primary reasons already talked about :

1. It has adequate boiling temperature which can be met by an average instant pot .
2. It does not harm the aluminium / steel body of the instant pot .
3. It has low fat level as compared to other oil(s) available in the market .