A question I receive frequently is “Why did my Instant Pot not come to pressure?” The vast majority of Instant Pot recipes are written for a standard size, 6 quart Instant Pot. Depending on the size you have it requires different liquid ratios.
All Instant Pots are not created equal. This is one of those cases where bigger is not always better.
There are recipes, that when made in the 6 quart, can come to pressure with as little as a quarter cup of liquid but the 8 quart really needs 1 to 1 1/2 cups of liquid in order to come to pressure. 9 times out of 10 when a user gets a burn error or when their pot does not come to pressure it’s because they’re using an 8 quart pressure cooker and not enough liquid.
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All Instant Loss recipes are written for the standard size 6 quart pot. If you have an 8 quart I recommend doubling the recipes. If you don’t need to double see if you can exchange your pot for a smaller size! The 8 quarts are HUGE. They take up a ton of valuable cupboard space and if you’re not cooking for an army you just don’t need it.
Tell me the size of your pot and your family below!
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Brittany Williams has taken the weight loss world by storm with her best-selling Instant Loss Cookbook. After reaching a peak weight of 260 pounds and spending a lifetime struggling with obesity, yo-yo dieting, autoimmune diseases, and chronic fatigue, Brittany changed her relationship with food and lost an astonishing 125 pounds in a year through diet alone.
Brittany’s latest book, Instant Loss Eat Real, Lose Weight shows how to make this a sustainable lifestyle with kid and family-friendly meals—from Strawberry Shortcake Oatmeal to Cowboy Chili to Easy 2-Minute Pork Chops. Members of her growing community have reported losing 50 and even 100 pounds themselves! This cookbook will help others achieve similar success with simple, delicious meals, nearly all ready in 30 minutes or less.
With our three kids grown and out of the house, I still use the 8 qt for soups and pot-in-pot batches of oatmeal. My 6 qt seems to scorch everything and won’t come to pressure unless it is just water touching the pot bottom–so I use it to steam veggies using a basket to keep food from touching the pot.
The 6 qt is great for 90% of what I make, but I got an 8 as a second instant pot because I figured if I was going to have two then I might as well have two sizes in case I needed a bigger one. The only things I NEED the bigger one for so far (in a year) have been ribs and bigger spaghetti squash. It has come in handy to make bigger batches of retried beans and chili though. For the most part I only pull out the 8 qt if I need to use two pots (but a second 6qt would work just fine most of the time).
8 quart, 8 kids 😊
I love love my 8 qt. Yes we are a family of 3, but I love making larger batches and freezing them. I understood when I bought mine that I’d need to adjust and it is huge, but wouldn’t trade it for a smaller one. Thanks always for your positive messages. Truly appreciate all of them!❤️
I was given the 8qt as a gift from my daughter. I’ve not had any problems with it. When I cook I cook for 6 plus people. I love it! I always increase the cooking liquid to at least a cup or more just to make sure.
I have an 8 quart and always make sure there is a cup of liquid. I mostly use it for soups anyway. But when I make buffalo wings I put a cup of Frank’s in place of water. Turns out great.
Family of 5 and have only ever used an 8 quart. Hoping to not have issues with making your recipes.
Hi Kelly,
Most of my recipes are created and made in the 6qt so if you have a larger family I recommend doubling some of them or making sure you at least hit that minimum of 1 1/2 cups of liquid per recipe for your pressure cooker. Wishing you all the best!
Family of 5 here too. I only have an 8 qt too and have not had burn notice issues either.
Lol, I have two 8 qt instant pots…sometimes I double things and sometimes I don’t. Have only had one burn notice and that was on an oatmeal that I probably should have done pot in pot anyways…I like not having to worry about whether doubling anything will fit 🙂. There are 4 of us (2 of which are small kids) but we like to have leftovers for lunch etc. so doubling much of the time works for us! I figure if I’m going to the trouble of cooking it’s less work for me to just double things because I’ve already got all the stuff out 😊
I have the 6qt and the 3qt. There are times I need a smaller one for side dishes so I have 2 running at a time!
I ❤️ my 6 qt Duo & only ever got a burn notice once. My hubby & I have his 2 adopted teens here w/us every other week & I use my 6 qt Duo all the time. I tell all my friends to get that model.
I’m usually cooking for 6+ & use the 8qt. I’ve had great success with all the Instantloss recipes without adjusting them 👏 But I like that I can double them when I need too.