Capacity of Instapot...what is good?

[Janeway]

My dad gave me a 10 quart Instapot for Christmas. I opened it today and it is HUGE! We have five kids at home, with 2 leaving in the next year or so. Even without them leaving, we usually do not have everyone home or eating. We do not like having a bunch of left overs. 

Should I see about exchanging for a smaller one? This one just seems so big. Or can I cook for just five people with this big Instapot?

[cjzimmer1]

3 minutes ago, Janeway said:

My dad gave me a 10 quart Instapot for Christmas. I opened it today and it is HUGE! We have five kids at home, with 2 leaving in the next year or so. Even without them leaving, we usually do not have everyone home or eating. We do not like having a bunch of left overs. 

Should I see about exchanging for a smaller one? This one just seems so big. Or can I cook for just five people with this big Instapot?

OH, I didn't even know they made a 10 quart instant pot, I will have to investigate that.  I have an 8 quart and there are many times I wish it was bigger.  While I do get leftovers, it's never more than part of a second meal (I don't make meal in one in the instant pot just big chunks of meat).  

I'm of the thought it's better to be too big than too small.  With feeding 5 you might be okay with an 8 quart but I feel like the 6 is just way too small (I'm sure others would disagree with me).  If' it's easy to swap out, then I might try but if it's a hassle, I would definitely keep it.

[Janeway]

18 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

OH, I didn't even know they made a 10 quart instant pot, I will have to investigate that.  I have an 8 quart and there are many times I wish it was bigger.  While I do get leftovers, it's never more than part of a second meal (I don't make meal in one in the instant pot just big chunks of meat).  

I'm of the thought it's better to be too big than too small.  With feeding 5 you might be okay with an 8 quart but I feel like the 6 is just way too small (I'm sure others would disagree with me).  If' it's easy to swap out, then I might try but if it's a hassle, I would definitely keep it.

It will be a hassle only because my sister's feelings get hurt when someone wants to exchange a present. I do not want hurt feelings. 

[PeterPan]

I have a 6 quart and it holds a normal batch of something, just barely. So a normal batch of split pea soup (1 bag to 6 cups broth), 4-5 sweet potatoes, 1 bag of brown rice or wild rice, just normal cookbook batches. It does *not* hold a whole chicken. Well I'm saying that and when did I try? It just has limits. There are 3 of us, so it's fine. It's just easy to max out. 

If you find yourself commonly doubling recipes, you'll need larger. If you want to cook whole birds or an entire bag of potatoes to make mashed potatoes, you'll want the larger. I would think for that many people you would at least want the 8 quart, at which point hey 10 why not, lol. 

Does it fit your countertop? If it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. You could keep it and get a small one as well. If you have the flex to do that, you might find you like having both. As you get into your groove with instant pot cooking, you might like having both. 

Fwiw, I also do things like cooking ahead a bag of brown rice to freeze in portions for quick lunches. If you like doing that, you might LOVE having the big one. I could totally imagine that. 

[PeterPan]

1 minute ago, Janeway said:

It will be a hassle only because my sister's feelings get hurt when someone wants to exchange a present. I do not want hurt feelings. 

It was a very generous gift! 

Do you eat corn on the cob? In the summers we do a lot of corn on the cob for dinners and the IP is AWESOME with it. You can set it to like one minute and boom done, no mess. Love it. So the 10 quart would just be stellar. You could probably get close to your whole 12 ears, mercy. I get half the batch in my 6 quart and that's really tight. 

[PeterPan]

I'm trying to think about meat. There are cuts I've wanted to put in my 6 quart that I could not. Like one of those pork shoulder picnic roast things that you cook down for BBQ. I think it would probably be stellar in an IP, and I can't fit it in mine without cutting (yuck). 

Go through what you like to cook...

Edited January 7, 2021 by PeterPan

[prairiewindmomma]

37 minutes ago, Janeway said:

My dad gave me a 10 quart Instapot for Christmas. I opened it today and it is HUGE! We have five kids at home, with 2 leaving in the next year or so. Even without them leaving, we usually do not have everyone home or eating. We do not like having a bunch of left overs. 

Should I see about exchanging for a smaller one? This one just seems so big. Or can I cook for just five people with this big Instapot?

It'll be just fine.

The entire container will be pressured when cooking, so the volume inside doesn't matter as much.  Your pot will just likely be half to 3/4 full most of the time, whereas my 6 qt one is filled to the rim a lot.  I sometimes have to run two 6 qt instant pots to feed my family of 6. 

[cjzimmer1]

40 minutes ago, Janeway said:

It will be a hassle only because my sister's feelings get hurt when someone wants to exchange a present. I do not want hurt feelings. 

Keep the 10 quart.  I can't imagine the space it takes for storage is that much different from an 8 quart that it would be worth upsetting someone over and you might discover that you are really happy with that extra space.

[klmama]

Keep the 10 quart one!  It will have room for just about anything you want to cook in it.  If you want to cook extra to freeze ahead, it will work well for that.  For lunch today I cooked a bunch of sweet potatoes, mashed them, and froze the leftovers in meal size portions for future meals.  Yum!