Cooking DIY

[iomegaman]

So being a DIY guy the condition seems to invade every area of my life...

One of my primary cooking devices is the popular InstaPot Lux mini...since I am single and only cook for me most of the time...
Had mine for about 5 years now use it several times a week...you can make black beans and rice in less than an hour, or steam a potato/veg's super quick...the stainless steel pot is super convenient to clean and so mine gets a ton of use...

One of the issues with Instabrands as a company is they got really popular and the investors pushed past the "safe" limits of debt and after covid sales in these kind of goods took a hit...people didn't need and extra one (I have 2 now, so numbers be damned)...there are actual fans called PotHeads...you can find all kinds of recipes...(more on that in a bit)

So my DIY came down to I decided to do a deep clean on mine...when you release the steam it sprays a mess of mist and spices/oils and a lot of that ends up in places where it accumulates and a quick clean doesn't always take care of...

Drop it in the sink, being careful to not let water get where water should not be...FAIL!

Of course fail...what'd you expect moron?

So I stick it on my bench and get the hot air gun to dry it out after removing the bottom plate...cool, we're good right?

Nope turn it on and its clear I have done what the warning label told me not to do...

Enter DIYMan...pull the board out inspect, the relay is obviously fat and swollen like a pregnant plastic box about to give birth to smoke and goo...

Internet search...cannot find the obscure meishua 12v relay...well I can but everyone of them is Airpak from China and I need my instapot now...how can it be "insta" if the relay takes a slow boat from china?

Find a replacement board on ebay...match model/etc...board comes, its all good except its wrong...so I pull the relay from it and change them out...

Pot works! Cool...next time I go to use it I get a "lid" error...this is the error that won't let the pot start because the lid is not secure...its a safety feature sort of...I assume its because the relay I replaced was way bigger voltages...find actual relay on Amazon...and order.

At this point I can't live without my primary cooking utensil...living in Tucson I almost never turn on a stove to cook...I grill or use the oven or the insta pot...so I go do a search for anew pot, find one a block away cheaper than anywhere else and buy it...back in business.

New relay arrives...I hate not winning so I fix the old pot...still get the "lid" error...

Take it COMPLETELY apart...very well made device, lots of cool build quality and find the relay that tells if the lid is on or off...it is crusted with grease debri because it is in a part of the lid rim that it fairly inaccessible by humans.

Pull it out, put a meter on it, it shows contact even though it should be open...contact cleaner to the rescue small brush and we're back in business.

So now I have 2 instapots...oh well...patience has never been part of my DIY nature much to my checkbooks demise.

I love mexican food...pour a cup of favorite enchilada sauce in pot, put frozen chicken breast in, pour another cup over that and set to pressure cook for 25 minutes...shredded chicken enchiladas in less than 45 minutes, 2 dishes to clean up.


Lately my favorite dish is ribs, pork or otherwise...so freaking easy...

Cut ribs into 3-bone sections...wash them and dry them...

Coat with Bearded Butcher Black...use a trivet or steamer to keep them up off the bottom of the pot...add 1 cup of apple cider vinegar...pressure cook at 20 minutes...they fall off the bone and taste like they were cooked on an open fire for days...

Anyway...how do others DIY in the kitchen?

Other quick and wonderful recipes?

 

[JohnRoberts]

Reminds me of when I replaced my cuisinart slow cooker because it was misbehaving. After I got the new one I repaired the old one. It was a relatively simple repair. I had put it inside a thermal igloo to capture heat loss and make it more efficient. Sadly my igloo also captured humidity and corrupted all the unsealed tact switches. After replacing about a dollars worth of switches it started working perfectly again.

I gave to a neighbor's wife and she enjoyed it.

JR

 

[Matador]

I haven't DIY'ed anything cooking related, but I did make an investment on a nice multi-ply stainless steel pan set from Made In. I've always used non-stick, so never really got into browning meats, or making pan sauces. Having a nice deep roasting pan and a nice flat frying pan really opened up possibilities for cooking methods.

For recipes, I like frying salmon steaks, then deglazing with a butter, garlic, and fresh lemon juice.

 

[fallout]

My brother just got a Made In set. Really top notch stuff! Works just as well as the All-Clad D3 pieces (don't have a full set) that I use. I'm contemplating getting a set for myself.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Not to be a Debbie downer but ; https://www.columbiadoctors.org/news/do-grilled-foods-cause-cancer

When cooking over high heat, especially an open flame, you are exposed to two main carcinogens: heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Studies show HCAs and PAHs cause changes in DNA that may increase the risk of cancer.

• HCAs develop in meat when amino acids and creatine (muscle proteins) react to high heat. Time is your enemy: The amount of HCAs increases the longer meat is exposed to the heat.
• PAHs are chemicals produced as fat burns in the flame and can attach to meat cooking over an open fire. When grilling, you’re also exposed to PAHs in smoke. (Cigarette smoke and air pollution also contain PAHs, which partly explains why smoking and air pollution are linked to different cancers).

The good news about grilling: Vegetables do not have muscle proteins, but excessive charring can create benzopyrene and other carcinogens.

Our body constantly repairs these broken DNA so it's an insult vs recovery and repair tradeoff.

Sorry, have a happy labor day holiday.

JR

 

[iomegaman]

Not to be a Debbie downer but ; https://www.columbiadoctors.org/news/do-grilled-foods-cause-cancer


Our body constantly repairs these broken DNA so it's an insult vs recovery and repair tradeoff.

Sorry, have a happy labor day holiday.

JR

This reminds me of a project I have never gotten around to...

I have a set of French Copper Pans/skillets...I hung a ceiling rack in my very small kitchen where I keep them...most of them are so old the tin is worn down to the copper.

I watched a few vids about re-tinning them...I have never gotten around to it...copper is a great transfer metal and with a gas stove I can really control the heat/cooking time very easily...

The concern was that apparently acidic products can cause copper to be released into the food at unhealthy levels...the problem I found was no one EXACTLY determines what levels are unhealthy, and most of the issue was related to the TIME it takes for the copper to leech into the food.

I never cook long-time stuff, the only exception being when I make New York style cheesecake which takes about 3 hours to make because of how low the temp is in the baking process and the regulation of that heat/time ratio.

My biggest drivers in cooking are Flavor/Cleanup/cooking time...which are Big/Little/less...

I've considered sending them off to get re-tinned, or maybe setting up some sort of kiln to do it myself...its not apparently very hard...but I kinda switched to one non-stick pan and the instapot for most duties so the copper pans are mostly for looks now.

I do wonder about how much minunata we obsess over while ignoring more germaine issues like the teflon flakes from the 90's we were ingesting.

 

[JohnRoberts]

This reminds me of a project I have never gotten around to...

I have a set of French Copper Pans/skillets...I hung a ceiling rack in my very small kitchen where I keep them...most of them are so old the tin is worn down to the copper.

I recall some copper bottom cook pots but they were stainless steel inside where they heat the food.

I watched a few vids about re-tinning them...I have never gotten around to it...copper is a great transfer metal and with a gas stove I can really control the heat/cooking time very easily...

The concern was that apparently acidic products can cause copper to be released into the food at unhealthy levels...the problem I found was no one EXACTLY determines what levels are unhealthy, and most of the issue was related to the TIME it takes for the copper to leech into the food.

I have heard similar criticism about aluminum cookware, IIRC at one time they were blaming aluminum pots for causing Alzheimers but later abandoned that.

I never cook long-time stuff, the only exception being when I make New York style cheesecake which takes about 3 hours to make because of how low the temp is in the baking process and the regulation of that heat/time ratio.

I cook low and slow every week. I replaced the non-stick cooking vessel inside my slow cooker (cuisinart) once already.

My biggest drivers in cooking are Flavor/Cleanup/cooking time...which are Big/Little/less...

I've considered sending them off to get re-tinned, or maybe setting up some sort of kiln to do it myself...its not apparently very hard...but I kinda switched to one non-stick pan and the instapot for most duties so the copper pans are mostly for looks now.

I do wonder about how much minunata we obsess over while ignoring more germaine issues like the teflon flakes from the 90's we were ingesting.

Over the decades I have surely ingested lots of teflon... hasn't killed me yet (so far, I think).

JR

PS: I actually have a significant attempt at DIY cookware when I tried to use Peltier devices to simultaneously heat food in a slow cooker while cooling my kitchen. I abandoned it as impractical though it sounded good on paper