Amazon’s Black Friday deal on Instant Pot Ultra is a really good one

Image: Instant Pot

By Veronika Kero and Leah StodartMashable Shopping2019-11-28 10:00:00 UTC

TL;DR: Grab the 8-quart Instant Pot Ultra on sale now for just $94.99 on Amazon, a special Black Friday savings of $85.

Our Thanksgiving wish to you is a day filled with family, friends, and all the yummy dishes you love. The only problem with all that delicious food is that it takes time to cook. 

Add an Instant Pot to your kitchen arsenal and cut down on cooking times so you can dig into that sweet potato casserole two times faster. Lucky for you, Amazon just launched a stellar Black Friday deal on one of our favorite models. 

The 8-quart Instant Pot Ultra is on sale now for just $94.99, which is more than $80 down from its original price of $174.95. 

This 10-in-1 device is a rice/porridge cooker, yogurt maker, cake maker, and egg cooker, plus it can sauté, sear, steam, warm, and sterilize. For anyone who likes to cook, it’s a nifty gadget and makes for an excellent holiday gift. 

If you’ve been living under a rock and have no idea what an Instant Pot is, then keep reading.

What is an Instant Pot?

The Instant Pot is insanely fast, intelligent pressure cooker that can replace numerous kitchen appliances, and is quite possibly the most important technological advancement in recent history. (The iPhone is a close second.)

Everyone completely flipped over the Instant Pot on Black Friday last year, and it’s sure to be a hot item this year as well. But what’s all the hype about, anyway? According to their website, Instant Pots use 70 percent less energy than the average pressure cooker, but somehow cook food, as their title states, instantly — well, 2-10 times faster, but that’s the closest to instant you’re gonna get. That’s a two hour meal in 20 minutes, yo.

This means that dishes that traditionally need all day to cook are ready in, like, minutes, which makes the torture of impatiently waiting to eat far less painful, and saves you from eating a quick frozen meal after a long day. And have you seen the reviews on these things? Almost every model is an Amazon’s Choice product with near perfect ratings, so it’s not hard to see why everyone and their mother are throwing down to get their hands on one. (They also make excellent gifts — hint hint.)

What is hard, however, is choosing the right Instant Pot for you. With multiple series, cooking functions, quart sizes, but virtually identical appearances, it’s easy to go into “WTF” mode. Never fear: Mashable Deals is here, and we’re, well, creepily obsessed with the Instant Pot and could answer Instant Pot trivia questions in our sleep.

Buyer’s Tip: Instant Pots are a HOT item, and are frequently out of stock due to crazy demand. So if you see a good deal, don’t wait.

Today, all Instant Pots on the market are part of their third generation line, which basically makes them the Ferrari of pressure cookers. Aside from enhanced safety features, the most significant new addition is the microprocessor technology. This provides readings of pressure and temperature from built-in monitors, making previously complex (and annoying) cooking tasks possible through a variety of smart programs.

This collection of programs can be tweaked and tailored to perform super specific tasks that you may have struggled with pre-Instant Pot (e.g., the perfect way to cook rice). These programs get down to the nitty gritty of heat intensity, pressure, and cooking duration to achieve consistent results in the kitchen. Some of the more advanced models even offer personalized programming and will remember your settings for the next time. Oh, and did we mention there are also countless Instant Pot cookbooks for traditional dishes, gluten free dishes, vegan dishes, and more, plus a free Instant Pot app with 750+ recipes?

If you want to dive deep into the land of Instant Pot recipe inspiration, check out the #instantpot hashtag on Instagram or peruse more Instant Pot recipes here. And, if you’re that person who can never get enough of this internet sensation, don’t miss this story on how Robert Wang started the Instant Pot empire after getting laid off from his job.

Below are some general rules that apply across the board and be sure to read our in-depth guide to the Instant Pot if you want to learn more.

• The number in each Instant Pot’s title, e.g. “LUX: 6-in-1” describes the number of kitchen appliances it claims to replace.

• Aside from the appliance-replacing functions, each model has built-in smart programs that get more specific: These 12 programs are bean/chili, meat/stew, soup/broth, sauté, poultry, steam, congee, multigrain, rice, pressure cook, warm, and slow cook. Every model will have these unless stated otherwise (they’re the things listed on the buttons.)

• Each model listed is the most recent version of its kind and is equipped with Instant Pot’s third generation microprocessor technology.

• The 6-quart is the most-purchased size and is ideal for families of five or less, and every model comes in this size. The 3-quart is obviously best for smaller families or dishes like dips or soups, and the 8-quart is best for large families or groups as well as larger roasts. Be sure to take your counter and storage space into account before making the plunge.

• All prices listed will be the lowest price for each model, likely the smallest size. As quart size increases, prices of each model will also increase.

• Instant Pots are on sale constantly. The price we’ll list is the full price, but if you’re lucky (you probably will be), you’ll click on a model to see that the price has dropped for the day.