What Is An Instant Pot
An instant pot is the crusader of kitchen appliances. Its our go-to gadget for flogging up quick-and-easy meals and delightful desserts in recorded time. It can make yogurt, cook eggs, and perform a list of other surprising tricks that make our lives easier. This multitasking appliance can do it all, but it needs regular maintenance to continue cooking at its best. Lucky for you, cleaning an Instant Pot is a fairly simple process. Because most of the componentsincluding the inner cooking pot, sealing ring, and lidare easily removable and washable, clean-up is easy.
Instant Pot Cleaning Guide Summary
Dishwasher Safe Parts: Instant Pot Liner , Instant Pot Sealing Ring, Trivet
- Exterior: Never immerse the exterior housing in water or any other liquid
- Rim: Clean the rim with a foam brush
- Inner Pot: Remove the rainbow stains with White Vinegar or Bar Keepers Friend
- Lid: Wash lid with warm soapy water
- Instant Pot Parts: Periodically rinse the Anti-Block Shield, Steam Release Valve, Condensation Collector if necessary
- Silicone Sealing Ring: Remove odors with White Vinegar or get an extra pair of Silicone Sealing Ring
Instant Pot Cleaning was easy, wasnt it?
How To Clean Every Part Of Your Instant Pot
Because today’s Instant Pot cheesecake shouldn’t taste like last night’s curry.
Have you fallen for the Instant Pot?
The multi-tasking, multi-function, magical gadget cooks a fragrant pot of chicken tikka masala just as well as an airy cheesecake. But Ive quickly learned that cleanup is nearly as important as the cooking, unless youre into cumin and garlic-scented sweets.
Instant Pot has made things pretty simple. The inner pot, sealing ring, lid and steam rack are all dishwasher safe basically, everything but the cooker base. However, as Rick Martinez, our resident Instant Pot expert and host of Food Networks Pressure Point, notes, sometimes it takes a little extra care to “keep the bad odors at bay.”
To help out fellow fans, here’s a list of Instant Pot cleaning tips based on personal experience and expert input that will keep your cheesecakes tasting like cheesecake and curries like curry.
Food Network Instant Pot Article
Matt Armendariz
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Put That Ring Through The Ringer
Smells lurking in the Instant Pot’s silicone ring are tough to eliminate. Trips through the dishwasher help, but you might still notice a lingering sweet or savory smell. If that’s the case, try this.
Add 2 cups of water or white vinegar to the Instant Pot plus a roughly chopped lemon rind. Next run the steam program for 2 minutes. Then, remove the ring and air-dry it. If that doesn’t work, try soaking the ring overnight in vinegar, which is a natural odor eliminator. Just remember to run the ring through the dishwasher or thoroughly hand-wash before using.
Some home cooks don’t bother with eliminating the odor and opt to buy an additional silicone ring. One ring is used for sweet dishes and the other for savory dishes. In any case, Instant Pot recommends that you swap in a new ring at minimum every 6 to 12 months.
How To Clean The Inner Pot
The inner pot of your Instant Pot is likely the piece that you will need to clean the most frequently. Its the pot that all of your food, liquids, and seasonings are held in while cooking. Just like a regular pot that you would use on the stovetop, your inner pot needs to be cleaned after each meal.
Keep your stainless steel inner pot clean by hand washing or using the dishwasher. For stuck on grime, Id recommend you use a scouring pad or a scrubbing sponge with Barkeepers Friend. I recommend the powder form over the liquid.
Pro Tip: No cleaners on hand? Baking soda and water work well on your inner pot.
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How To Clean Your Instant Pot Step By Step5 Min Read
If you have an Instant Pot, you know what a workhorse this kitchen appliance can be. From delicious desserts to marvelous main courses and other Instant Pot recipes, this is one go-to cooking essential that makes cooking and cleanup quick and easy. While theres little maintenance involved beyond post-meal cleanup, there are a few key parts under the lid that can make or break that all-important sealing power and your Instant Pots performance.
If you perform a quick post-cooking cleanup every time you use your Instant Pot, youll get ahead of lingering odors, residues and buildup. Washing the inner pot, sealing ring and lid and wiping down the outside is all thats needed for peak performance. The inner stainless steel cooking pot, sealing ring, lid and steam rack are all dishwasher safe. If you use your Instant Pot regularly, give it a good cleaning at least once a month and when you detect odors or arent getting a good seal.
Heres how to clean your Instant Pot and its parts to keep things working smoothly.
How To Clean The Instant Pot Liner
Our first instant pot cleaning tip starts with the liner. This is the pot in which all food is cooked. The Instant Pot liner is made of food-grade stainless steel. Its dishwasher safe, and you can hand-wash it with warm water and dish soap. Wash the liner after every use. Do not use any abrasive cleaners, steel wool, or other scrubbers or sponges that could scratch the surface of the liner. If you find that you have a particularly stubborn cleaning situation, such as burnt-on food, you can use Bar Keepers Friend Cleanser and a non-abrasive sponge or soft cloth to remove the debris.
Regular washing of the liner after every use should keep it in good condition. You may notice that, over time, your liner is no longer shiny. This blueish discoloration occurs naturally in stainless steel and is caused by minerals or salts in the foods you cook. The simple solution for making the liner shiny again is Bar Keepers Friend Soft Cleanser. Simply squirt the cleanser into the liner and spread it across the surface with a soft, non-abrasive sponge. Rinse and towel dry, then admire the shine.
Also Check: How To Make Yogurt In Instant Pot Without Yogurt Button
Always Clean Your Oven After You Cook In It
Cooking in an uncleaned air fryer oven is the surest way to make cleaning it more difficult. I have been using my ovens since they came out in August and October of 2019 and I have successfully kept them clean following the simple steps of unplugging, letting the oven cool down, and then wiping with a Norwex cloth.
** I do not sell Norwex cloths, nor do I receive any funds from the selling of them. But if you want to buy them, this is the person I buy mine from. **
Norwex Envirocloth:
How Often Should An Instant Pot Be Cleaned
The parts that come into direct contact with the food must be cleaned after every cooking session. If you dont, not only will the pot be more likely to give off bad odors, but the residue may even ruin the next thing you cook.
For parts that dont come into contact with the food like the Instant Pots exterior, you can clean as you see fit. You may never clean the exterior at all and there wouldnt be any significant issue aside from dust. But we recommend that you should wipe the Instant Pots exterior down at least once a month.
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Can You Clean Your Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid In A Dishwasher
First off, your air fryer lid is about 11 pounds which makes it heavy.
Too heavy to fit into the dishwasher. Besides, such an appliance is unfit to be washed in a dishwasher.
First off, there will be a lot of internal damages not only to the dishwasher but also to the appliance in question.
The dishwasher washes with excessive heat and then, there is every tendency that the heat will melt either the paint on the lid itself or the paint on the heating elements and fan.
Another most important thing you should always check before washing any appliance is that you should always check the manufacturers manual for instructions.
The manufacturer would know if it is necessary to use a dishwasher or not. So always check the manufacturers manual.
How To Clean Burnt Instant Pot
If oops happened and you burnt food in your Instant Pot, one of the steps to remediate the error is to clean the pot and start over. To clean up bits and pieces of burnt food from the bottom of your stainless steel inner pot, plain old dish soap and cloth will not work. Here is how to clean burnt Instant Pot in 4 quick and easy steps:
Avoid scratches: Do not scrape the bottom of stainless steel pot with metal spoon or knife to prevent scratches.
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Instant Pot Sealing Rings Odor
Ah! So this is the question we get asked a lot about Instant Pot Cleaning!
How to get rid of the Instant Pot Sealing Ring Odor?!
Easy Solution:White Vinegar many users like to soak the silicone sealing ring in white vinegar, then air dry it to get rid of the stinky smell.
Best Solution: Extra Silicone Sealing Rings we believe the best solution is to have 2 pairs of Sealing Rings 1 for Savory dishes, 1 for Sweet dishes. Then, you wont have to worry about the smell cross-contaminating between savory and sweet dishes!
How To Clean An Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
Cleaning tips for the gadget that does everything but clean.
If you’ve jumped on the Instant Pot bandwagon as of late, you’ve probably been pressure cooking up a storm. For all the work it does for us, the Instant Pot deserves a little TLC, don’t you think? Whether you’re an avid Instant Pot user or you’re hoping to find one under the tree this holiday season use this guide to care for and clean your Instant Pot, remove incessant odors , and make sure you continue to get the proper seal during cooking.
Related: A Beginner’s Guide to Instant Pot Cooking
Also Check: What To Do When Instant Pot Says Food Burn
Things We Didnt Like:
- Up front Price
Exterior Pot
This part is situated right underneath the inner port. Very often, during the cooking, small food particles and moisture can get into the exterior pot and cause an unpleasant odor. Therefore, before you put the washed inner pot in place, you should check what is going on under it.Firstly, wipe the inside of the container with a damp cloth. Be especially careful when removing crumbs that can scratch the surface of the pot. Wipe the inside part with a tissue moistened with water and then wipe it dry.The heating element must be permanently clean and dry. What to do if the food particles got there? To remove grease, you can use baking soda. Take a wet cloth with a little amount of baking soda and wipe the heating element. Then clean the leftovers with a damp cloth and wipe everything dry.
Cleaning The Outside
Lid
Carefully remove the lid and detach the sealing ring and the anti-block shield so that you have better access to the inner portion of the lid. Clean it thoroughly with a liquid dish gel and a soft microfiber or cotton cloth. After this wipe it dry to remove the moisture residues. To ensure that the lid does not retain unpleasant odors and dries well after washing, you can keep it upside down between cooking.
Steam Release Valve
Float Valve
Remove the silicone ring that holds the float valve in place, then wash and dry both items. After reattaching, make sure that the valve can move up and down freely.
Sealing ring
How To Clean Your Instant Pot Base:
Make sure that the inside of the base is clean and free of dirt, dust, or liquid. The processor, heating element, and other electronic parts on the inner pot are not safe to be wet or dirty.
The whole outer part of the pot should never be placed into water or into the dishwasher. The outer part of the pot should be wiped clean with a soft damp cloth. Microfiber cleaning cloths work awesome and leave behind very little lintthey keep your pot looking brand new.
If you need to clean the rim around to the top of your pot, you can use the same damp cloth and a butter knife to get into the edges. An old toothbrush or cotton swab would work well too.
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Inner Pot And Steam Rack
The inner pot and steam rack are the easiest part of cleanup. The pot and rack go into the dishwasher dirty and come out sparkling clean. Of course, you can always hand wash if you prefer.
After a few washes, if you start to notice water stains or a blueish rainbow effect on the bottom of the pot, don’t panic. Its totally harmless. You can remove the spots with a gentle non-abrasive cleaner, like Bar Keepers Friend or scrub with a sponge soaked in white vinegar. For tougher spots, soak in white vinegar for 5 minutes and rinse. Spots begone!
How To Clean An Instant Pot Cooker Base & Heating Element
As mentioned earlier, the cooker base and the heating element are the two parts that must be manually cleaned.
The cooker base is home to the cookers microprocessor and sensor modules. It is also where the heating element the part that produces heat for cooking lives.
Even a short stint inside of the dishwasher can irreversibly ruin the unit. In fact, if the cooker base gets wet, it could run the risk of suffering from severe damage.
So, for the cooker base and the heating element, all you can do is to occasionally wipe them off with a damp cloth to take off any dust and food drippings.
Its more or less the same for the interior: use a damp cloth to clean it out. Let it air dry once you are finished.
After some time, the lips of the cooker base may accrue some food debris. This can solidify into tough, stubborn gunk that is difficult to wipe off. In this case, use a toothbrush to dislodge it from the cooker.
We recommend using the fine-bristle type to minimize abrasion. The surface of the cooker is fairly scratchable and a tough-bristle toothbrush will likely deface it.
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How To Clean An Instant Pot: Top Tips For Keeping Your Multi
Creating delicious meals from scratch every evening, and impressing your family and friends with your culinary delights is certainly rewarding, but spending hours on end slaving over a hot stove can become tedious, even for those of us that love cooking with a passion.
There are plenty of kitchen gadgets that can make life easier in the kitchen – not only speeding up cooking time, but also offering a multitude of cooking methods to ensure that you dont serve up the same few dishes week in, week out. None more so than the best Instant Pots, because they’re one of the most versatile kitchen appliances you can buy.
These multi-cookers ensure you can create everything from slow-cooked stews, soups and chillies, to pressure-cooking meat on the bone and vegetables so theyre ready in half the usual time.
While using your Instant Pot may be a simple task, cleaning it may leave you feeling,well daunted. With so many different components from the internal pot to the lid, where do you start? It’s important to know how to clean your Instant Pot properly so it continues to perform as efficiently as possible.
Read on to find out just how to clean your Instant Pot, or if you want to get your hands on one of the best Instant Pots right now, check out these great deals for some of the best prices on the market.
Clean Instant Pot Lid And Components
Before cleaning your pressure cooker’s lid, the anti-block shield and silicone sealing ring should be removed and cleaned separately. The anti-block shield is a small round or oval element installed underneath the lid. To remove the anti-block shield, use your thumb to gently push the piece toward the lid rim and lift up to pop it off. Hand-wash the shield in warm, soapy water and wipe dry with a clean cloth. Remove the sealing ring and inspect it carefully for cracking, warping, or other damage, which are signs you need to replace it. The sealing ring can be hand-washed in soapy water or placed in the dishwasher. Because it is heat-resistant, you can place it on either rack of your dishwasher.
With the anti-block shield and sealing ring removed, wash the Instant Pot lid in warm, soapy water or place it on the top rack of the dishwasher. Once clean, check the lid’s steam release valve and float valve to ensure they’re clear of food particles that could prevent the cooker from maintaining pressure. If needed, remove and hand-wash the cup that collects condensation.
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Different Parts Of An Instant Pot:
The Instant Pot are comprised of about four main parts. The lid, the sealing ring, the inner pot , where you cook the food, and the base/outer pot. There is a way to clean all of these parts.
If you want to learn how to correctly clean an Instant Pot keep reading for more information on how to properly clean and sanitize all of the parts of your beloved pressure cooker!
