So what can a multi cooker do? A Multi-cooker is a modern cookware appliance that can do a lot of things. It saves time and eases up space in the kitchen. It's also very flexible. You can use it for cooking quick meals or prepping slow-cooked food for a planned dinner.
You can even prepare several dishes at the same time using the multi-cooker! If you add in the KitchenAid Cook Processor, it'll help you save time for cutting, slicing, and kneading for your food. You also don’t have to supervise it the whole time. Multi-cookers are an excellent choice for beginner and expert cooks alike.
Here are some of the settings of a multicooker and what they can do:
What Can A Multi-Cooker Do?
Bake
Yes, A multi-cooker can bake for you. It can bake biscuits, casseroles, pastries, and even cake! How?
There are so many different books on cooking recipes for multicookers you can follow. An example is baking a cake.
All you have to do is spray the inside of the pot with a cooking spray, put your cake mixture in the pot, close the lid and press the bake preset and the multi-cooker will do the rest.
Roast / Slow Cooking
The multicooker can slow cook a dish. All you need to do is push one button, and then you won't have to monitor it. For example, when you're cooking meat, add your liquid and seasoning, set the timer, and slow cook it. You can leave it and do other activities while the multi-cooker does the cooking for you.
However, experienced chefs often prefer to cook their dishes with a Pressure Cooking setting.
Pressure Cooking
Pressure cooking has the same concept as slow cooking. However, they vary on the cooking time and cooking temperature. Slow cooking preset cooks at a low temperature, so the cooking process takes up a lot of time. Whereas, pressure cooking settings can do the same thing but in a faster time. Hence, many cooks prefer using pressure cooking over slow cooking.
Cook
This preset allows you to maintain a specific temperature and preset your time. Great for cooking soup, vegetables, and grains.
Fry
The frying setting allows you to fry your mozzarella sticks, crispy hot wings, and potato fries. Just add the necessary amount of oil inside the pot. Put in your food. Then add the spices and flavoring. Preset it to fry and the multi-cooker will cook it.
Pasta
Pasta setting works the same with a cook setting. However, unlike cook, pasta setting will pause it's cooking time to remind you to add the necessary ingredients.
Pilaf
This setting will bring the broth to a boil first. Afterward, the temperature is raised and bake for a few minutes. Here's an example of cooking pork pilaf on pilaf settings using a multi-cooker.
Plain Rice/Grains
You can also use the multi-cooker for cooking rice. It will bring heat until liquid boils. It will maintain the temperature until all the liquid has evaporated. If your multi-cooker doesn't have this preset, just set it to high and timer on 4 minutes.
Also, do know that some brands only have preset cooking for white rice and won't work for other types of rice. Therefore, you have to input the setting you want to cook the rice manually.
Stew
Stew is your preset when cooking stews, steamed seafood, meats, and veggies. It boils the food and will slightly lower the temperature at a preset time. You usually set the time at 35 minutes at high pressure. Then it can be adjusted to 45 minutes for more cook and 20 minutes for less cook.
Steam
In steam preset, add water on the multi-cooker insert, add a steam rack (depends on the multi-cooker model), and turn it on. Set it on steam, and it will heat up fast to produce the steam to cook.
It's also a preferable preset because of its health benefits. Steaming is known to retain nutrients in food. It also doesn't use oil when cooking, which is why most people use steaming to cook their food.
Saute
You can also use the multicooker as an electric stovetop. It's great when you want to brown those meats before roasting or slow cooking it. It eliminates the need for you to get another cookware for searing and saves you money, time, and space in the kitchen.
You can say that multi-cooker is a combination of:
- Pressure cooker - because the multi-cookers way of cooking is using pressure. It's the multi-cookers primary function. You can even have a multi-cooker with presets that specializes in cooking certain foods like rice, beans, stew, etc.
- Electric pot - you can also use it as an electric pot (make sure you don't seal the lid). You can use your multi-cooker to steam or even sear foods.
- Slow-cooker - slow cooking is also possible. If you want to have worry free-time cooking or preparing for a dinner date, then you can use multi-cookers. However, because multi-cookers use pressure to cook, you can actually cook fast and eliminates the need to slow-cook as the pressure wholly cooks the food.
- Yogurt-maker - you can also use the multi-cooker to make that healthy yogurt you want to eat. The ability to keep a low temperature makes it excellent cookware for yogurt making.
Why You Should Get a Multi-Cooker
How to Choose a Multi-Cooker
Power Capacity - Because it cooks fast, you save a lot in electricity bills.
Multicookers usually have wattages ranging from 450-1600 watts. It depends on what model you’re using. Daily usage may vary from 500 - 900 watts depending on how often you use it.
Pressure & Preset Setting - Depending on your needs, multi-cookers offer various cooking settings. Whether it's yogurt, stew, cakes, steamed buns, you name it, and the multi-cooker can cook it for you. Additionally, you're guaranteed that the food will be healthy.
Manufacturing material - The materials used, especially the inside pots, are made of materials that are safe for a warm environment. Multicookers also use non-stick coatings, which is easy to clean.
Size - Depending on your household (or even if you're living alone), multi-cookers offer different sizes.
You may also check our Ultimate Guide to the Best Multi Cookers 2020.