words Al Woods
It may be surprising to know that many people out there inquire whether it is okay to take your instant pot when traveling or not. The answer to that question is, yes, of course, you can. You just need to make sure that you are taking the necessary steps to keep your instant pot from being broken and securing the food inside from spilling when you are on your way to your chosen destination.
Traveling with your instant pots can be very convenient for you to cook meals while on vacation; Corrie, who authors Corrie Cooks states that many instant pots have timers. This can be helpful in certain recipes and can also be extremely helpful in your travels, as you can leave meals cooking while you enjoy your day out and come back to your rented place to a ready-cooked meal.
Here are steps to ensure that you safely travel with your instant pot.
Depressurize It
The most important thing to do before moving your instant pot is to depressurize it. Depressurizing your pot means letting air back into it so that the pressure inside the pot is the same as the air pressure outside. You can either do that using the pressure release button on your instant pot lid, or you can do it manually by turning the dial until it is completely depressurized. Whichever way you choose to go about doing this very important step, make sure that it is fully depressurized before taking it with you, especially if you are traveling by air.
Place the right amount of food
When using a pressure cooker or an instant pot, you usually fill it to the brim with liquid or other foods. This is not ideal when traveling, especially for day trips, since not only will the contents make the pot much heavier than it already is, but it increases the risk of spillage exponentially. You want to avoid spillage at all costs. There are some tips on how to make recipes that do not fill your pot to the max and still be plenty of food. You can start by finding out which foods expand and which foods don’t. This will give you an idea of how much you can put into your instant pot without any issues.
How to handle
Never hold a full or even empty instant pot by the lid. That will lead to nothing but heartache. You can end up not just losing the food you have been waiting all day and make a mess, but also ruining your pot if it crashes. To pick up an instant pot properly, use the handles on either side of the pot. If the pot is empty, and cool to the touch, you can even use one hand to hold the handle and the other to keep under the pot so that you are not straining your arms.
Traveling by car
Traveling by car with an instant pot is much easier than by plane. All you have to do is give it its own seat and put the seatbelt on it to ensure that it does not slide all over your car’s backseat. This will make sure that the pot is not overturned due to bumps or dips in the road. If you are confident that it won’t move around much, you don’t have to tighten the seatbelt when tying it around the pot. It is better to be safe than sorry, so it is advised to keep your instant pot as secure as possible using the seatbelt. After all, you do not want stains damaging your car’s upholstery because you took a bump too fast.
Using travel bags
Believe it or not, companies have invented travel bags for the sole purpose of carrying pots, instant pots to be more specific. There are even sizes to ensure that the pot is securely snug inside the travel bag so that you can carry it around with ease and never worry about any bumps or having to constantly be carrying the pot in a certain position. There are even different colors so that you can travel with your instant pot not just securely but in style.
Disassemble the pot
Some people do not want to travel with the whole instant pot because of how heavy it may get. You can simply avoid carrying most of that bulk by traveling with only the inner pot in tow. If you do not have food inside your instant pot when you take it with you on your trip, you can disassemble the pot so that you can fit it into your luggage without much trouble. You just have to be careful not to break the pressure gauge. Just remember not to fit the pot forcefully into your luggage or else you may damage it irreversibly.
Never toss it into your luggage
As mentioned above, you can put your instant pot in with your luggage, but do not just toss it in there. It will take up too much space and may get broken if someone handles the bag roughly. If you plan on putting the pot in your luggage, after carefully disassembling it, wrap it up in bubble wrap and clothes and utilize the pot itself by stuffing it with your belongings to make up for the space it is taking up. Take special care when wrapping the lid because you need to safe proof the gauge to protect it from being broken accidentally. If possible, use a “fragile” sticker to label the luggage you have the pot inside.
If you follow these seven tips when you travel with your instant pot, you will have no issue taking it from one place to another. Using this guide, you will be able to enjoy all the recipes you love cooking using an instant pot no matter where you are in the world. You can even meal prep if you fit some other kitchen supplies in an empty instant pot when you take it with you while traveling.
