Category: Food

Multigrain Bread Machine Loaves

Table of Contents

Multigrain

Multigrain means a blend of bread flour and whole wheat, or another flour. These recipes involve 15% -50 % whole wheat flour by weight.

The basic bake program works in most machines for these recipes. When bread flour is less than 50% of total flour, recipes may suggest a whole wheat program, or a machine’s multigrain program.

Recipes

Adaptions – records, methods, tables

I adapted recipes, mainly from the Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (“BLBMC”). I wrote the recipes as tables using the WordPress TablePress plugin. I made the tables available online by putting the tables into posts. This was not a good way to record information that was mainly of interest to me, and subject to many internet connections. I changed my use of tables. I kept recipe tables for my own use as worksheets in a few spreadsheets that I use when I load my bread machine. I use the worksheets to calculate adjustments of recipes. I focussed on salt measurement and yeast measurement, and reformulated recipes to reduce my consumption of sodium. I considered how much yeast is necessary to ferment a few cups of a multigrain flour blend, to get a loaf that rises and bakes into a palatable bread. I had to find the correct amount of instant yeast, by weight, for recipes for medium (1½ lb.) loaves in a Zojirushi machine with a horizontal pan that is capable of baking a large (2 lb.) loaf.

Notes

I started with the BLBMC numbers for the ratio of flour. Increasing the whole wheat flour in these recipes would require adjustments to hydration and fermentation. I use some vital wheat gluten, but often less than BLBMC suggests. These loaves get gluten from blending high protein bread flour with whole wheat flour. Some added vital wheat gluten helps to enhance elasticity but too much affects pan flow and rise.

Some regular baking, with some observations

  • Buttermilk Whole Wheat. BLBMC p. 108. A sandwich loaf; 50% Whole Wheat with buttermilk and maple syrup;
  • 33% Whole Wheat. BLBMC p. 105. The source recipe uses skim milk. I did the math and found an equivalent amount of dry milk powder and water;
  • 3 Seed Bread 50% Whole Wheat, Brown Sugar, Seeds. BLBMC p. 116;
  • Pembina Bread. Flavour and texture in a white bread. Half a cup of whole wheat, bulgur and seeds, based in BLBMC Dakota Bread (p. 119). Named for Pembina, North Dakota, the gateway to Fargo and Grand Forks; the site of KCND, the first American TV network affiliate transmitter that reached antennas in Winnipeg (later purchased by Canadian owners and moved north of the border to the southern edge of Winnipeg as CKND).
  • Cornell Bread. A brown bread. 50% whole wheat. A touch less than 50% bread flour Slightly sweet, and rich. BLBMC recipe p. 161, based on Cornell bread. The BLBMC bread machine version has been emulated and published on the Web e.g. here.
    • The recipe for Cornell bread was first published in 1955 in The Cornell Bread Book by Clive McCay of Cornell University. This bread uses an egg, milk powder, and soy flour for protein, and wheat germ for fiber.  Dr. McCay is reported to have believed that this bread, with butter, was a sufficient healthy and nutrious diet. A nearly vegetarian scientific health food, 30 years before the vegetarian prescriptions of Diet for a Small Planet. Dr. McCay, a scientist in animal nutrition, experimented on mice to prove that bread made with bleached white flour was not as healthy as bread made with unbleached flour.  The 1980 edition of the Cornell Bread Book is still available.
    • The recipe is presented in recipes  and articles on prepper and counterculture sites.  The recipe  was developed during the Great Depression.  Food security was recognized as an issue in America more clearly then than now. Eleanor Roosevelt’s Kitchen, a 2010 article in the New Yorker, looked back at the campaigns by home economists at Cornell to  promote economical recipes for American kitchens in hard times.  Americans were persuaded that hard times ended by 1945, and food writers began to treat the austerity diet (e.g. recipes for Bulldog Gravy or Depression Cake in M.F.K. Fisher‘s How to Cook a Wolf) as as a memory.
    • A lesson about hydration. On my first attempt at the medium loaf. I missed a digit in entering the water in the calculator. I used 1.25 cups x 237 g. = 297 g. The correct amount was 1.125 cups x 237 g. = 267 g. The dough was sloppy. I shook some white flour in (not measured, 3 or 3 tbsp) with about 10 minute of mixing time left to get a dough that held up. Too late and too little. The loaf had an open crumb and cratered.
  • Flax Seed Multigrain. The BLBMC (p. 118) calls this Flax Seed Whole Wheat and makes it a multigrain with 33% whole wheat flour.  Also see a formula on the web, also called Flax Seed Whole Wheat Bread.
    • I used the web version, with a shift to a little whole wheat flour.
    • The BLBMC said 1.125 (1 ⅛) cups water. This is slightly high for a dough with 2 cups of bread flour. The dough finds a couple of teaspoons of water in 3 tablespoons of honey. It is a tad low for 2 cups of WW and 1 cup of bread flour. It has a firm crust and a dense crumb that holds up for firm sandwich slices.

Lean Bread Machine Bread

Table of Contents

Lean or Rustic

A lean bread is flour, water, yeast and salt. Technically, a lean bread is made with flour, water, salt and yeast, without fat: butter, oil, or vegetable shortening. Fat mixed and kneaded shortens gluten strands, making the bread softer.

Salt interacts with amino acids in the flour as the protein bind to make up the gluten proteins. Salt affects the elasticity of dough. Less salt means a less elastic and tenacious dough. Salt also inhibits the yeast and the fermentation. The latter effect is addressed by the rule of thumb1A rule of thumb that may have to be adjusted. of proportional reduction by weight.

French Bread made with white bread flour is lean – even when made with some recipes with 1 or 2 Tbsp. butter for a bit of butterfat. There are wet doughs (hydration over 70%) for some loaves e.g. baguettes; and drier doughs (under 60% hydration).

Some baking recipe books are aimed at readers who want to make a specific type of bread, or have sections of recipes for artisinal baking, rustic bread, hearth or country bread. Many “country”, “rustic” or “hearth” loaves are lean. Most “country”, “rustic” or “hearth” loaves are attempts to create a historical style with modern ingredients. Pure wheat white flour started to be milled when agricultural and technical innovations during the industrialization of Europe made it possible. One change – rye or other grain growing with wheat was not harvested or sorted out and not milled.

Sandwich bread is not lean. It is enriched with fat or milk, and sugar. Milk has fats and sugars, in solution. Sugar makes the dough more extensible, which helps the dough to flow and rise. Sugar or milk change the crust and crumb.

Industrial Baking

Industrial scale baking does not dedicate time to rise dough and shape individual loaves. Industrial baking was challenged to mass produce rustic breads. Storebought “rustic” bread is available, but usually inferior to an artisan baked loaf or a home baked loaf.

Bread Machines

Bread machine manufacturers’ writers and recipe writers have tried to overcome the challenges of making lean and rustic bread:

  • shaped distinctively,
  • baked on a deck (hot surface) rather than in pans, or
  • scored to control the way the crust ruptures as the loaf continues to spring in the oven;
  • using the bread machine in a dough program to make dough, or starters or sponges;
  • enriched recipes for a basic baking program or a “French” or “European” program. Panasonic had sugar in its recipe for French Bread in the Panasonic manual. The BLBMC has sugar in the Peasant Bread recipe;
  • recipes for custom programs

Scoring a loaf is not a bread machine practice. It is a manual operation at a specific time at the end of “bench rest” before baking. It is possible but less common with loavea baked in baking pans. In a bread machine bake programs some rupture of the crust may be expected unless the user has intervened.

Bread machine recipes have to be customized for machines. I adapt “standard” recipes, mainly from the Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (“BLBMC“) and from the bread machine chapter of Beth Hensperger’s Bread Bible. I worked out my approach to yeast and low sodium in baking in a Panasonic SD-YD250 for medium (1.5 lb.) loaves June, July and August, 2018.

I adjusted yeast for BLBMC recipes baked in a Panasonic SD-YD250 machine when I realized that BLBMC recipes did not work in that machine.  The BLBMC recipes worked in the Panasonic with the salt proportional change, and an additional the adaptation to yeast quantity for the Panasonic. When I started to bake in a Zojirushi BB-PAC20, I changed my method of writing recipes in tables or worksheets.

I use a Zojirushi custom program for lean white bread. The differences between basic bake, French/European, and the custom program. Times in minutes. Baking temperature is not tested or published by machine manufacturers, because bread machines have one fixed temperature (and options to let a use choose a darker crust in some programs).

MachineProgramInitial
Rest		Mix/
knead		Rise
(total)		Rise 1Rise 2Rise 3Bake
Panasonic SD-YD250 Basic301511050
Zorjirushi BB-PAC20Regular Basic31199535204060
Panasonic SD-YD250 French401017555
Zorjirushi BB-PAC20 Custom
French/Euro		221885355070

Lean breads that work in a bread machine:

  • Zojirushi’s recipe for Crusty French Bread, baked with a custom program works as medium loaf in a large pan and as a small loaf.
  • BLBMC Peasant Bread is mildly enriched country/rustic white bread.
  • BLBMC Chuck Williams’s Country French has 33% whole wheat.  Beth Hensperger adapted a recipe by Chuck Williams (of Williams-Sonoma) for the La Cloche device. It is similar to a hearth bread she calls Pain de Campagne in her Bread Bible (2000), which is made with a starter and sponge made with whole wheat flour. It is in the style of Pain de campagne, but with whole wheat (not rye) flour.  The whole wheat version loaf has a firm crust and a reasonably open crumb. It flows enough to work as a medium loaf in a large pan. (but getting the yeast right took some experiments.)

One main difference between using the basic bake program and a special French/Euro/lean program is yeast. My experience with low salt (3.6 g., instead of 8.6 g. salt) medium lean loaves in a Zojirushi is that these loaves work in Regular basic with 2.1-2.3 g. instant yeast, and in the Home-made (custom) Euro program works with 3.1 g. instant yeast.

Bread Machine Sandwich Loaves

Table of Contents

Standard Recipes

I am sceptical of the idea that a recipe for bread works in all bread machines. I think bread machine recipes have to be customized for machines. I adapt recipes, mainly from the Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (“BLBMC”).

I worked out my approach to yeast and low sodium in baking in a Panasonic SD-YD250 for medium (1.5 lb.) loaves June, July and August, 2018. BLBMC recipes did not work in that machine. I adjusted yeast for BLBMC recipes baked in Panasonic SD-YD250 machine. The BLBMC recipes for white bread loaves worked in the Panasonic with the adaptation.

When I started to bake in a Zojirushi BB-PAC20, I changed my method of writing recipes, and changed my recipes for that machine.

Zojirushi Regular Basic recipes

The Zojirushi manual provides recipes for sandwich breads, to be made using the Regular Basic baking course (program), including a loaf called Basic White Bread. The Regular Basic course and the Regular White course are similiar, varying in Mix/Knead phase by a few minutes and varying somewhat in the length of 3 “Rise” phases. I have not tried to identify other differences in Mix/Knead phases of these courses.

I used the Basic White Bread recipe to learn how the Zojirushi machine performed with the ingredients in that recipe for a sandwich bread.

I use the Regular Basic course for several sandwich loaves made with:

  • 100% bread flour, enriched with dry milk (milk powder), sugar and other ingredients such as instant mashed potatoes;
  • bread flour and up to 50% whole wheat flour;
  • bread flour and small amounts of specialty 1I mix and bake loaves with rye flour differently flour (e.g. buckwheat) and/or seeds.

Zojirushi’s approach to measuring flour by volume, stated in the manual, is to scoop flour and fill a measuring cup. This means a less dense or lighter cup than a meauring cup dragged through the flour. I use the amount of flour in the Zojirushi recipe by weight. Zojirushi’s recipes refer to Fleischmann’s active dry yeast and rapid-rise yeast. I prefer instant yeast – which means adjustment.

Yeast

Active dry yeast is less dense than instant yeast. I use instant yeast. I weight it and use 6/7 of the weight of the amount of active dry yeast the recipe requires. This seems to work with loaves made with bread flour and multigrain loaves.

I have touched on yeast in bread machine recipes, standard recipes, and salt in posts published since 2018. I will write more about then later.

Sandwich Bread

Sandwich bread is made with bread flour – in some instances all-purpose flour. It is not lean bread, and will have some fat, usually butter or shortening or vegetable oil. It may be made with milk or milk powder, sugar and other ingredients. Milk with the sugar lactose, and other sugars relax gluten and produce a less chewy loaf. Sugars, unless present in liquids like milk, honey, molasses or maple syrup, are hygroscopic and affect hydration.

Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook

Table of Contents

Introduction

Updated

This post about the Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (2000) (“BLBMC“)was published in 2020 and revised a few times; I haven’t marked the revisions. I made more revisions in 2025 after learning that the author Beth Hensperger had died in 2021, and that subsequently the publisher started selling two new editions of the BLBMC.

Comment

I have kept my copy of the 2000 edition. I have given up using it as a cookbook – it is not for my bread machine or many other modern bread machines.

Ms. Hensperger acknowledged in her earlier book The Bread Bible that manufacturers had not translated the knowledge and experience of bakers into recipes that could be run by selecting a process in a consumer appliance.

A book can explain what ingredients should be put in a machine before the buttons are pushed, which buttons to push, and what a loaf may weigh and look like.

BLBMC Editions

The BLBMC was published in 2000 by Harvard Common Press, an imprint of the Quarto Group. The BLBMC preceded titles by Hensperger and other writers in a “Not your mother’s” series published by Quarto imprints. The marketing pitch: using new appliances was exciting, life-affirming and innovative.

In 2023 and 2034 Quarto published two books based on the BLBMC. Both were placed with Walmart and Target stores, and on Amazon, where a book complements the sale of bread machines. Both were sold to libraries and educational web sites and services. The new books:

  • 2023 – Bread machine baking for beginners : effortless perfect bread (“Beginners“), an “affordable abridged edition” of the BLBMC; and
  • 2024 – a “newly revised and expanded” edition of the BLBMC.

BLBMC – 2000

Size

The original had an Introduction titled”America’s New Bread Box”, and 615 numbered pages of text including 3 appendices. It had a general index and a separate recipe index.

Standard Recipes?

The BLBMC tried to be “Bread machines – the missing manual”. It explained the process of mixing dough and baking bread. It expained flour. It explained how yeasted wheat bread is the basis of many variations including milk bread, sandwich bread, sweet bread, seed bread and raisin or fruit bread.

A subtitle on the cover claimed that the book held “a master baker’s 300-plus favorite recipes for perfect-every-time bread–from every kind of machine“. This is marketing hype. The chapter called “Orientation” is useful, The sections on bread machine operation are worthwhile. The BLBMC also has sections, sidebars, and detail sections on bread making and bread machine topics throughout the book.

But the BLBMC incorrectly treated bread machines as interchangeable as if they are generic, all worked the same way and all would bake bread with the same recipes.

The Orientation section gave a warning to “Take Stock of Your Machine”. But it presented recipes that were said to work in generic machines. This undersells differences in bread machines. Whether a BLBMC recipe can be followed depends on the machine, measurement and ingredients.

The BLBMC did not anticipate technological and market changes in bread machines, in growing and preserving dry yeast, and the evolution of the manufacturing of instant dry yeast.

Machines diverged as the market evolved. Machines knead for an optimized time; some machines use the heating element to heat the pan to a proofing box temperature during the rise. Engineers optimized recipes for their companies’ machines – a walled garden approach to recipes. Manufacturers usually provide a manual with recipes to guide the consumer.

For the most part, BLBMC recipes worked in my old Black & Decker. They did not work when I started to use a Panasonic SD-YD250, and in a Zojirushi BB-PAC20. I solved the issue for Panasonic SD-YD250 by using 50% less yeast by weight, and in a similar way for the Zojirushi BB-PAC20.

Organization & Scope

BLBMC recipes have ingredient lists for “medium” 1.5 lb. and “large” 2 lb. loaves. A medium loaf usually uses 3 cups of flour; large, 4 cups. The BLBMC recipes are consistent with conventional oven recipes. BLBMC recipes work if the user can adapt – usually the amount of yeast – for the machine.

BLBMC covers the varieties of white bread, and the method of changing texture and flavour. It has recipes for whole wheat, and ancient grains. It did not anticipate the demand for gluten-free bread recipes and methods, with only 8 pages on that topic.

The table of contents and the index – I refer to the original 2000 edition for these page references – don’t locate all of them:

  • p. 15 ingredient measurement;
  • p. 18 converting volume to weight (flour and sugar);
  • p. 12 flour,
    • pp. 46-47, white flour milled from wheat,
    • pp. 106-107, whole wheat flour,
    • p. 125, proteins in flour,
    • pp. 62-63, using non-wheat flour with wheat flour,
  • pp. 133-135, using rye flour with wheat flour. This was possible in some machines but these recipes do not work in many modern machines;
    • p. 140, diy milling of whole grain flour,
    • pp. 150-152, non-wheat flour,
    • pp. 182-183, baking with whole grains, and preparing whole grain;
    • p. 193, organic flour;
  • pp. 13-14 yeast;
  • p. 15, p. 290. Salt:
    • is not just a seasoning or flavour agent;
    • should not be exposed to the water and the yeast before the machine mixes the ingredients;
    • can be reduced if yeast is reduced by the same proportion 1BLBMC doesn’t explain that this is a starting point, to be adjusted;
  • p. 13, p. 59 vital wheat gluten;
  • p. 168 dough enhancers;
  • pp. 69-72 6 “sampler” recipes for one pound loaves;
  • p. 76 eggs;
  • pp. 170-177, gluten free recipes and notes;
  • pp. 197-198 using the machine to mix and knead dough for baking in an oven, and using artisanal baking methods, starters and pre-ferments, shaping loaves, etc.;
  • p. 233 olive oil;
  • p. 354 the shapes of bread machine pans.

Measuring Ingredients

While Ms. Hensperger was clear about the importance of measurement of ingredients for bread machines, she used home cooking conventions in her recipes including measuring out ingredients by volume. The recipes in the BLBMC measure yeast and salt to the quarter teaspoon, and flour and water to the nearest 1/4 cup; water to the nearest 1/8 cup.

Ms. Hensperger covers conversion from volume to weight for flour but not for yeast, salt and other ingredients. Confusion over volume measurement is endemic to baking. She addresses a problem of stating the flour for a loaf in cups. Flour is compressed or packed by drag-scooping. Ms. Hensperger says, correctly that a cup of bread or whole wheat flour, using drag-scooped cups rather than scoop and trickle cups is 5 US oz. by weight.

Bread Baking basics

The BLBMC says bread flour should be the white flour in bread recipes. White flour is prepared by finely grinding the endosperm (inner portion) of the kernel after the bran (outer coat) and the germ (seed embryo) have been milled out. Millers and bakers refer to extraction – white flour uses 50-60% of the kernel.

Ms. Hensperger describes bread flour as having 12.7 % protein. White bread flour in the USA has 11.5-13.5 % gluten-producing protein. All purpose white flour in the USA has 9.5-11.5 %.  Canadian all purpose flour for retail use is milled from a blend of hard spring wheats – Canadian Millers’ technical standards (Canadian millers produce Bakers patent and bakers clear for commercial bakeries and food manufacturing). Canadian retail all purpose flour has the same protein content as USA bread flour. It is fine for bread.

Whole wheat flour weighs as much as bread flour, per unit of volume, but is milled from entire kernel -100% extraction. It has has more protein overall but less of the insoluble proteins that bond to form gluten when water is mixed into the flour.

Dry Yeast

Ms. Hensperger described the varieties of dry yeast as: 1. active dry yeast; 2. instant (or fast-acting) dried yeast; 3. quick-rise (rapid-rise) yeast; 4. bread machine yeast.  3 and 4 are essentially instant yeast; instant yeast, under any of its names, is the choice for bread machines.  Ms Hensperger said instant yeast – particularly SAF instant yeast – is more potent. She suggests two alternatives for each recipe:

  1. SAF instant dried yeast (SAF Red),
  2. 25% – 33% more bread machine yeast than SAF instant yeast.  For instance, for Dakota Bread, BLBMC says 2 tsp SAF or 2.5 tsp bread machine.

The book overstates the amount of yeast needed for a loaf of bread. SAF Red is good but other instant yeast works in a BLBMC recipe in the same amount as the BLBMC suggests for SAF instant yeast. The alternative for “bread machine” yeast is usually just too high. Ms. Hensperger moved away from suggesting the use of higher amounts of yeasts other than SAF instant yeast. In a version of the recipe for Dakota Bread in 2015 on her blog she said 2 tsp “bread machine yeast”. Her blog ceased to be maintained and her domain name was later seized by cybersquatters.

The range of views about the amount of yeast:

  1. For a 1.5 lb. loaf, Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook calls for 2 tsp instant yeast or more and 1-1.5 tsp. salt for 3 cups of flour. This  is in the range of recipes in other books at the time, and of many recipes published on the web. It is .67 tsp instant yeast, or 1.9 g. yeast per cup (about 140 g.) of wheat flour; the B% is 1.4%;
  2. Manufacturers of instant, rapid/quick rise and bread machine yeasts recommend .5 tsp yeast for each cup of flour for bread machines: Red Star Quick-Rise; Bakipan Fast Action and Bread Machine; SAF Gourmet Perfect Rise and  Bread Machine. Fleishmann’s  recipes on its web pages imply the same amounts of its instant Quick-Rise (Rapid-Rise) or its Bread Machine product, or more. This is 1.4 g. yeast per about 140 g. of wheat flour; the B% is 1%;
  3. Panasonic suggests .33 tsp of dry yeast per cup of flour – which works in Panasonic machines;
  4. Zojirushi suggests .5 tsp. of active dry yeast per cup of flour in its recipes

Salt can be measured by volume with measuring spoons, but should be used carefully with level measurements. It is better to go by weight. The conversion rate is 1 teaspoon of table salt to 5.7 grams – the teaspoon that the recipe writer will have assumed.  Table salt is not all the same – some is pretty finely ground and more dense.

Several online converters report: 1 cup, (48 tsp (US)) instant yeast = 136 grams; 1 tsp = 3.1 g. Some converters report a teaspoon of instant yeast is a .11 oz. = 3.12 grams, or 3.15 g. My average for 1 tsp of SAF Red was 2.8 g. I scooped a few dozen samples, weighed them on a scale, and took the mean weight of my samples. Too close to worry about .1 of a gram. It won’t matter.

I checked conversions for my ingredients for the post Flour, B%, Water, Milk, Salt – Bread & Bread machines.

Vital Wheat Gluten

Vital Wheat Gluten, also called gluten flour. is a powder produced by industrial milling, used as a dough enhancer – an additive in commercial baking.

In the bread machine chapter of the Bread Bible, Ms. Hensperger suggested adding 1 teaspoon per cup of white flour and 1 ½ teaspoons per cup of whole grain flour, She suggested added gluten in almost bread machine recipe in BLBMC. She follows the same rules, with some adjustments for even more gluten for some 100% whole grain loaves. Others would not use added gluten with bread flour but add as much as 1 tbsp per cup with whole wheat flour.

Added gluten makes the dough more elastic – it promotes a vigorous rise if the dough is fermenting vigorously. Elasticitys affect the way the dough flows. It depends on how the dough is kneaded. Kneading organizes gluten into a web of protein that traps carbon dioxide.

Bread machines have changed since BLBMC was published. Most machines knead more thoroughly. Many machines warm the dough and enhance fermentation during the rise phase of the baking machine programs. These features change the requirements for yeast and gluten. The effect of using added gluten will be different depending on the machine and recipe. Adding gluten doesn’t improve yeast leavened breads made with high protein bread flour.

Advanced Baking

The sections of the BLBMC on using a bread machine to mix and knead dough for baking in an oven, and artisanal baking methods are informative. However manufacturers have abandoned – or never have supported the features that facilitate this.

The New Editions

BLBMC 2024

It has a new cover. The new back cover claims the BLBMC was the biggest and best bread-machine cookbook of all time.

The 2024 edition has 293 pages of text including the Introduction titled”America’s New Bread Box”, the text, and the first 2 of the appendices. The 3rd appendix “Resources” and the recipe index are gone. The recipes in the original are repeated. There are 5 new recipes in the section on gluten-free and low gluten loaves. I did not detect any new recipes or any deleted or changed recipes. I am not able to confirm that the 2024 edition is revised or expanded.

The page count has been halved by playing with typeface/font.

Beginners 2023

It has 140 pages of text, and an index. All of the recipes are from the original.

This chapter structure follows the original. There are less recipes. There are no gluten-free recipes in Beginners.

It has the text of the Orientation section of the original, including “What Can Go Wrong, and How to Fix It”. It has chapters like the chapters of the original called:

  1. Daily Breads
  2. Earth’s Bounty
  3. Traditional Loaves
  4. All Kinds of Flavours
  5. Sweet Loaves
  6. Express Breads

What can Go Wrong

Beth Hensperger introduced the topic of “What Can Go Wrong, and How to Fix It” at the end of the Orientation chaptet in all three versions: at pp. 38-39 of the 2000 original, pp. 28-0f the 2024 edition and pp. 42-22 of Beginners. It is a discussion of:

  • Shaggy unmanageable dough ball;
  • Wet, slick dough;
  • Pale loaf;
  • Loaf is too dense;
  • Sunken top (crater bread);
  • Collapsed top and sides;
  • Gnarled loaves or machine sound strained during kneading;
  • Squat, domed loaves;
  • Lopsided loaf; Loaf ballons up over the rim of the pan like a mushroom…
  • Bread is not cooked throughout;
  • Added ingredients are clumped; and
  • After baking, the loaf has a long crease down the side.

Some problems are not readily fit into those categories, and the solutions are can be contradictory. There are other causes with another solution: measurement mistakes, errors in following or understanding the book or a recipe, forgotten steps or pressing the the wrong button on the control panel. Some occur when a user tries to bake a small loaf in a medium or large pan machine. That situation commonly leads to a lopsided loaf, which looks odd but is palatable and managed easily.

Some problems occur when a user uses a flour that does not react well to the machine’s kneading program(s) – such as rye flour.

Bread baking can be automated. Some problems arise from trusting baking some breads was automated by any particular manufacturer or recipe.

Bread Machine Recipe Tables

Table of Contents

Bread Machine Recipes

Note

I began to chart bread machine recipes when I realized that each manufacturer designs its programs for its machines. “Standard” recipes (e.g. Bread Lovers Bread Machine Cookbook) fail in some devices. I experimented with putting recipe information in tables in the TablePress plugin and storing and publishing the table on this site, but have wound down those efforts. A spreadsheet worksheet is a more suitable tool, and allows for formulas to calculate some information. and more formatting practices. I keep some recipes in spreadsheets on a device I can read and alter at home, without going online.

Wet and Dry

Bread machines are either dry (flour) first or wet (water or milk) first, according to manufacturer’s recommendation.

  • dry first – the yeast goes into the dry bottom of the pan and is covered by flour and dry ingredients; salt is the last dry ingredient. Fluids and water are on top, loaded last.
  • wet first – water and wet ingredients first, then salt, milk powder, sugar and soluble things, flours; the yeast is last.

Either way, load the machine and let the machine mix the ingredients. Don’t stir or mix. Yeast should stay dry and should not come into contact with salt or salted water until the dough is mixed and kneaded. Loading a dry first machine (e.g. Panasonic) put yeast first, then flour, and go down the table. For a wet first machine (e.g. Zojirushi) I go up the table, and put yeast in last, on top of the flour.

Raisins and fruit are loaded as dry ingredients. They can be loaded in the dispenser if the machine has one, or during the mix phase of a program, at the signal (if the machine has one), or according to a timer, as a recipe will say.

Weight

Weight is important for some ingredients:

  • Flour determines how large a loaf can be. A medium loaf can be baked in a machine with a medium pan, a large pan or even an extra large pan. A medium loaf will have 3 cups of wheat flour.
  • Water has to be proportionate to flour to get a dough that kneads, flows, rises and bakes. It varies with flour; some ingredients can add water. Milk is mainly water, but not quite.
  • Yeast is the principal variable that determine how high the loaf rises. Yeast is necessary to turn flour into dough that can be baked to make bread.
  • Salt assists the development and structure of the compound protein called gluten. However, most recipes require more salt than necessary. If salt is reducted from what a recipe says, yeast must be reduced or the loaf will rise too much.

Structure

Basic

A worksheet or table is basically a list of ingredients and quantities that I refer to in loading a machine. It list ingredients according to the source, and alternatives and substitutions. It will listt he source recipe amounts, usually by volume. An ingredient without data in this column is not in the source recipe!

I use the top rows in worksheet or tableas the headings for columns. I note loaf size. It is almost always a medium bread machine loaf. I have experimented with scaling to bake smaller loaves but have found that is too complicated. A medium bread machine loaf recipe works in a horizontal pan machine with a large “2 pound” like a Zojirushi BB-PAC20. In some recipes a refer to a large loaf source and scale it down to medium

Other columns can convert a medium loaf recipe to lower salt medium loaves, Columns can be added to calculate chemical elements in bread, such as sodium.

A baker’s percentage column can arrange cells or entries to calculate the Flour weight (flour, sugar dry milk etc., but not salt yeast or herbs seeds, dry fruit, nuts), soluble water weight (water, and water in milk, butter, sweet syrup but not oils) and hydration.

Rows

Rows:

  • One row can identify the loaf and the recipe source;
  • A row identified loaf sizes for the ingredients in column. Large is a 2 lb. loaf. Medium is a 1.5 lb. loaf;
  • A row a row identifies the salt level adaptation
  • A row can notes the recommended program. Manufacturers’ program names vary. Every manufacturer has basic bake, whole wheat bake, dough (mix and knead but no bake) and cake (bake a batter without mixing and kneading dough) programs;
  • A row can note what kind of measurements are used in that column – volume, weight or both;
  • Most rows are ingredients and amounts. I refer to weight for flour, water, salt and yeast. For some other ingredients, measurement by volume is close enough.

Yeast

I record the active dry yeast in the source recipe, if the source calls for active dry yeast. If the amount is by volume, I put that in the table. If the source calls for instant by volume, I put that in the table.

I always convert to instant yeast by weight. I put instant yeast in several rows, as options and aids to calculation:

  • A row for the highest amount of instant yeast for a medium (1.5 lb.) loaf for information. Using this value for a medium loaf in a 2 lb. pan in a Zojirushi BB-PAC20 is not optimal for that machine, and many other machines. This value is not suitable for the Panasonic SD-YD250 or for the Zojirushi BB-PAC20.
  • There is a row for Zojirushi BB-PAC20.
  • Rows for Instant Yeast, Low at 50% of the source or highest level. This figure work for the Panasonic SD-YD250, and some other machines. I refer to it as a benchmark to estimate yeast conversions.

Instant Pot – Rice

Table of Contents

Cooking Rice

Any vessel that can hold rice and water can cook rice: a rice cooker appliance, a pot on a stove top, or a pressure cooker.

For steamed long grain white rice, including Basmati, I often use a normal pot on the stove. I use the Instant Pot for brown rice. I may use the Instant Pot for white rice particularly when I will add the rice to a wok (e.g. nasi goreng) or when I am working on another dish on the stove and want to get the rice ready at the same time.

The cooking directions on a package of rice typically are for steamed rice in an ordinary pot on stove, or a microwave – typically there are no directions for pressure cookers. Typically, such directions suggest 2 or more cups of water for a cup of rice. This approach typically produces soggy rice in stove-top pot or a pressure cooker. (Bad results if the rice is left on the heat too long). A stovetop recipe can be adapted. Package directions have to adjusted, depending on how you like your rice

The ratio of rice to water may be the same for a pressure cooker as a stovetop pot. In any pressure cooker, including a pressure multi-cooker – e.g. an Instant Pot – the preheat and the time at operating pressure bring the water to a boil, and up to operating temperature. The rice is boiled, and then simmers during a 15- 20 minute natural release period (the vessel is sealed, the heat is off and temperature and pressure drop over time). Using the pressure cooker program with natural release adapts the normal approach to steamed rice.

The advice on ratio or rice to water for a conventional pot on a stovetop or pressure cooker converges on a ratio of 1.5 cups of water to 1 cup of rice for the first cup of dry rice. Jill Nussenow, the Veggie Queen, will decrease the water for larger amounts of rice. She suggests 1.5 cups of water for the first cup of rice, 1.25 cups of water for the second cup of rice – which means 2.75 cups of water for two cups of rice.

One variable is evaporation – a pressure cooker is sealed, but can release some steam. A pressure cooker requires less water. The ratio, whether cooking the rice in a stovetop pan or pressure cooker, will depend on in part whether the rice has been rinsed or soaked, which partially hydrates the rice.

Instant Pot

A Pressure Multicooker

Rice can be cooked in the Instant Pot insert (cooking vessel), or by a bain-marie method: rice and water in a heat proof ceramic or glass vessel on a trivet above water in base of the pressure vessel. Some ceramic vessels such as Corningware can be used for cooking and serving, and for storage of left-over cooked rice. The cooking times are the same. The amount of rice that can be cooked in a ceramic vessel will be less than can be cooked in the Instant Pot insert.

Rice Program

Information posted by Instant Pot about the rice program:

  • It uses low pressure and “automatically adjusts the time based on the volume of rice [and water?] you add to the inner pot”;
  • It cooks “the ever-popular parboiled long grain white rice”, long grain white rice, and medium grain white rice;
  • There is a suggested recipe and method for steamed (white) rice using rinsed rice and water in a 1:1 ratio.

Other pressure multi-cookers have similar programs. They are for medium and long grain white rice, and cook plain white steamed rice.

The Instant Pot web site recommends the rice program for medium and long grain white rice. It recommends using the pressure cooker program, rather than the rice program, for other kinds of rice. Laura Pazzaglia’s 2009 review of the Instant Pot (links in the Instant Pot manual pages for all models on her site) noted the limitations of the rice program:

Pressure programs designed to cook rice and grains.  Because of the decreased evaporation, conventional rice recipes (water to grain ratios) will need to be updated for use in the cooker.  We have written a comprehensive guide for pressure cooking rice and grains with the appropriate ratios and cooking times.  If the “Rice” setting won’t let you adjust the cooking time, use the “Pressure Cook” setting and adjust the pressure to Instant Pot’s recommended “low” following the same cooking times and ratios recommended in our guide. Remember not to ever fill the inner pot more than the 1/2 full mark with rice/grains and their cooking liquid.

https://www.hippressurecooking.com/instant-pot-ultra-manual/

The pressure cooker programs of the Instant Pot allow choice of pressure (high or low), and cooking time. The rice program uses the low pressure settings of the device and automates the preheat, cooking and release/rest time.

In the rice program, in the Ultra model, the display shows a pressure cooking time of 12 minutes at the first step of starting the rice program. The time cannot be adjusted from the control panel. In the Ultra Panel, there is an option for Low/High, which does not appear to be a pressure choice within the rice program – it seems to affect cooking time. The display changes to Auto in my Ultra model when the program starts to run, and through the preheat. It changes to a time, in minutes, when the device comes to pressure. I have not used a Less-Normal-More Instant Pot, such as the Duo. The displayed time seems to be pressure cooking time, and is said to be based on the amount of water and rice, however the machine determines that.

ModelProgram SelectionInstant Pot explanationEffect
UltraLow≥12 minutes
UltraHigh≥14 minutes
L-N-M
e.g. Duo		Less“Tender but firm to bite”
L-N-M
e.g. Duo		Normal“Normal texture white rice”≥12 minutes
L-N-M
e.g. Duo		More“Softer texture white rice”

There is contradictory information about white Basmati rice:

  • Instant Pot’s web material has indicates that white Basmati rice needed a different cooking time and ratio than American white long grain, and should be cooked in the pressure cooker program rather than the rice program. Recipes for the pressure cooker program (e.g. Pazzaglia, Nussenow) recommend 1 ¼ cups water to 1 cup of rice and 2 minutes at high pressure.
  • Madhur Jaffrey says in Instantly Indian Cooking, the rice program cooks rinsed white Basmati rice in her Duo model. She used rice and water at the ratio of 1:1.3.

The rice program is fine, for rinsed white Basmati rice at the right ratio.

Other Instant Pot Indian food recipes recommend the rice program for white Basmati rice: plain, in pilafs and in dry khichri (also spelled khichdi in English language resources – yellow and/or red lentils and rice).

The rice program can be used with other recipes. It may not lead to the expected outcome. Some questionable Instant Pot recipes are available. An example: MaoMaoMom’s Kitchen recipe for Chicken Potato Rice presented on her web site uses the rice program. That version of the recipe works. The version of the recipe presented in the 2018 Instant Pot Recipe Booklet said Rice Program, “set to 35 minutes”. A cooking time cannot be set in the rice program; cooking this for 35 minutes in the pressure cooking Program fails – the food burns. The comments on the online recipe indicate misunderstandings about the setting, and the version of that recipe presented in the manual.

Pressure Program

White Rice

The conventional pressure cooker advice for long grain white rice, not rinsed, is a few minutes at High Pressure, typically 3 minutes, followed by 10 minutes or more natural release (letting the pot cool). Christopher Kimball, in Milk Street, Fast and Slow recommends 10 minutes at Low Pressure followed by a natural release. Laura Pazzaglia used a 1:2 ratio of long grain white rice and water (1.5 cups rice, 3 cups water) incorrectly in her printed work, Hip Pressure Cooking (2014) but adjusted to 1:1.5 in her online guide.

For rinsed rice, writers recommend 1.25 cups of water (or less) to 1 cup of rice. Jill Nussenow’s caution about using ratios as the amount of rice is increased (above) is justified. I get fluffier rice by using slightly (as in only couple tablespoons) less fluid than 1 ¼ cups water for 1 cup of rice. I cook in a ceramic casserole on a trivet inside the Instant Pot (the bain marie method, above). I can do 1.5 cups of rice in 2 cups water in the casserole that fits in a 6 quart Instant pot. This produces fluffy distinct grains. It is dependent on the rice – age and quality.

Recipes for more complex rice dishes can be carried out in Instant Pots and other pressure multi-cookers, with limitations. There are pressure cooker techniques and recipes for:

  • pulao and pilaf;
  • risotto (normally made with starchy short grain white rice e.g. Arborio, Carnaroli);
  • paella (normally made with certain varieties of short grain white rice e.g. Bomba).

Brown Rice

Brown rice should be done in the pressure cooker program. It takes longer than white rice. A pressure multi-cooker including an Instant Pot or pressure cooker is somewhat faster than a pot on a stove. A pressure cooker recipe specifies the time at pressure. Where a recipe says the cooking time is 20 minutes, the device heats and boils the rice for 10-15 minutes before it reaches high pressure and the cooking temperature. It is simpler.

The pressure setting is usually the high setting. Low pressure might work but the cooking time would be longer than at high pressure. The cooking time depends on the rice and the way you like it. Jill Nussenow suggests that for some brown rice, the grower/seller’s “stovetop” suggested cooking time should be halved. Her default suggestion for brown rice is 22 minutes at high pressure. The ratio water to rice is normally 1.5 cups of water for the first cup of dry (neither soaked or rinsed) rice. For 1.5 cups of rice, 2 to 2 ¼ cups of water produces soft but not mushy rice, with 22 minutes at high pressure.

Resources

Resources and recipes for Instant Pot, pressure cookers and pressure multi-cookers are available in books and on line.

Instant Pot

The principals of Double Insight developed the Instant Pot pressure multi-cooker in 2008-9. It was on the market by 2012, and took off in 2015-6 with social media and presence in Amazon Market Place. “Instant Pot” is not a trade mark like Vacuum Cleaner or Bandaid. Instant Pot launched a sous-vide heater in 2018, and a blender early in 2019. It merged with Corelle Brand LLC in March 2019, and launched new rice cooker and air fryer appliances in time for Black Friday. Instant Pot markets its pressure multi-cooker as a replacement for other appliances by providing “Smart Programs” that control the cooker to work in a way equivalent to other appliances.

Almost all other pressure multi-cookers, and many devices with a bottom element have a program or setting to brown or sauté. The electric skillet was a common appliance in last few decades of the 20th century. I recall devices with a dial contol marked with temperatures – like a dimmer switch. Some electric skillets had thermostat controls. Instant Pots have a programmed sauté which uses feedback from a “digital temperature sensor”.

The Lux, Duo and Ultra models have three temperature settings for the sauté program, set at target points. The manuals correlate the settings to ranges of temperatures. The Ultra models also allow a user to select or specify a custom temperature:

DuoUltraRange F(C)Setting F(C)
LessLow275-302 (135- 150) 221 (105)
NormalMedium320-349 (160-176) 336
MoreHigh347-410 (175-210) 345
Custom ≥ 104 – ≤ 338 (40-170)

The sensor is outside the cooking vessel at the bottom, below the cooking surface. The device signals “Hot” in the LCD display when the cooking surface is hotter than the set temperature. The Hot signal is an overheat/burn protection system. The transfer of heat to the food lowers the temperature of the cooking surface; the display turns to “On” when food is heated. When the display goes from “On” to “Hot” during cooking, all the moisture has evaporated, and there is a risk of overheating the dried out food.

Instant Pot limits the cooking time on a sauté program to 30 minutes, and automates the time function. For instance, setting a period of less than 5 minutes does not mean that the device will cook at the set level for the programmed time. I have had it reach go from preheat to on to off in a few seconds. I couldn’t find an explanation in the web literature about the device or in Instant Pot’s official web literature. It seems to subtract a few minutes, apparently to adjust for the period of cooking that occurred while the device was reaching operating temperature. The time can be set at 20-30 minutes, and the device treated like a skillet – watch, stir, deglaze – and shut off by stopping the program. (Or keep oven mitts handy and lift the vessel and use it as stovetop pot to simmer or boil or reduce the liquid – whatever).

Using an Instant Pot to sauté is like cooking in a narrow, tall Dutch Oven on a moderately hot stove. The steel pot is preferable – it withstands stirring with various implements, and is easier to clean. The optional tempered glass lid is useful in cooking in sauté program. I find it better to use a skillet when a recipe suggests using the sauté setting to brown an ingredient that has to be removed and set aside.

The Instant Pot’s key program is Pressure Cook, an electric pressure cooker function with high and low pressure/temperature settings, and cooking time programable in one minute increments. Preheating is automated. The device will cook for the programmed time at the operating pressure programmed. It may show a hot or burn setting – some foods are a greater risk for such misadventure. The Duo and Ultra models have two settings for the pressure cooker program. The cooking temperature, when the device has reached that pressure is related to pressure:

Pressure SettingPressure (kPa)Pressure (bars)Pressure (psi)Temperature F. (C)
Boiling point0212 (100)
Low40-505.8-7.2229-233 (110-11)
High70-8010.2-11.6240-242 (116-117)
Normal stovetop cooker15250 (121)

Cooks Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen’s Multicooker Perfection (2018) reported that the Instant Pot Duo (8 quart) heats to 247 F. but takes several minutes longer to reach operating pressure than other pressure multi-cookers and electric pressure cookers. Instant Pot models introduced before 2018 peak at over 13 psi but operate with operating high pressure of 10.2-11.6 psi, in the same operating pressure range as other electric pressure cookers. Electric pressure cooker recipes work in Instant Pots, with few adjustments.

Many “Instant Pot” recipe sources concentrate heavily on the pressure cooker function. Laura Pazzaglia, Barbara Schieving and other pressure cooker writers concentrate on the pressure cooker functions of electric pressure multi-cookers. Laura Pazzaglia suggests recipes should be adapted for pressure unless a recipe uses ingredients that fail under pressure or create functional complications. Her books and web site provide tables for cooking specific items in most pressure cookers at different operating pressures.

Laura Pazzaglia, Barbara Schieving and other writers have several recipes for rice and suggestions for cooking rice on pressure settings. These writers have little to say about the Instant Pot Rice program. The Rice program uses low pressure with automated functions to cook long grain white rice and some short grain white rice. It provides a basic steamed rice function, and may support a few other preparations. It has been a work in progress in the manuals, recipe booklets, independently sourced recipes and support documentation.

Instant Pot identifies three temperature settings for the slow cooker function across the pressure multi-cooker product lines in the 6 and 8 quart models, called by different names for the Duo and Ultra models (5, 6, and 8 quart). Normal (Medium) and More (High) are simmer settings, and supposed to “replace” low and high, the cooking functions in a traditional slow cooker. Less (Low) is supposed to replace the warming setting in a traditional slow cooker. It is not a cooking setting!

Cooks Illustrated/ATK’s Multicooker Perfection (2018) reported that the Instant Pot Duo (8 quart) did not perform well as a slow cooker on that publisher’s repertoire of slow cooker recipes. Some sources provides recipes that can be done using either in pressure cooker program or slow cooker program in an Instant Pot, or another pressure multi-cooker. Cooks Illustrated/ATK doesn’t like Instant Pot for large recipes. Christopher Kimball has tips on how to use an Instant Pot:

  • Melissa Clark, Dinner in an Instant, (2017);
  • Cooks Illustrated/ATK, Multicooker Perfection, (2018);
  • Christopher Kimball, Milk Street Fast and Slow, (2020) [update]

A few other Instant Pot or pressure multi-cooker sources provide recipes for slow cooker programs. For instance, Madhur Jaffrey has recipes for lamb (and goat), including a lamb pilaf, using the Instant Pot slow cooker program (her Instantly Indian Cookbook refers to a 6 quart Duo v. 3).

The slow cooker program provides a capability for timed and partially automated slow cooking, but recipes that work in traditional slow cookers will not necessarily work in an Instant Pot or other pressure multi-cooker. The slow cooker program is worth learning.

The Instant Pot product sheet for the Ultra model says the Ultra program “provides complete custom programming for pressure and non-pressure cooking”. Laura Pazzaglia explains the program this way:

…the ability to pre-program the cooker with any cooking time, any temperature or one of two pressures.

…the Ultra feature will let you set the right temperature to, for example, scald milk (180°F/82°C) and melt chocolate (104°F/40°C).

https://www.hippressurecooking.com/instant-pot-ultra-review/

The Ultra function temperature range is ≥ 104 – ≤ 208 F (40-97.7 C). People experiment using the Ultra function for Sous-vide. It would be wise to use a thermometer to verify the temperature of the water.

Electric Pressure Cookers

Table of Contents

Endless

This post was published in August 2019 and has been updated . It is easier for me to edit the post than to write new posts.

Devices

A pressure cooker reaches cooking temperatures above the boiling point of water (212 F. or 100 C.). Pressure cooking involves time to bring water to a boil, reach cooking temperature, and a period at the operating pressure and temperature. Pressure cookers use high heat to build pressure and get food to a cooking temperature; low heat to maintain heat and pressure. Pressure cookers have sealing lids and valves. The lids are metal with locking rims. The cook cannot see what is going on an monitors the events in the pot by watching valves pot shut and by readouts in electronic models.

Most devices have low and high pressure settings. The American standard for high pressure limit is 15 psi; the European standard is 1 bar, or 14.6 psi. Stovetop pots tended to go to those limits, although many did not. Stovetop pots were the standard for most recipes until electric pressure cookers became more common in the last decade of the 20th century. Electric pressure cookers cook at lower pressure and temperature than the upper limit(s); but above the boiling point.

Laura Pazzaglia observes on her Hip Pressure Cooking site FAQ that:

To facilitate the writing of pressure cooker cookbooks and sharing recipes, there is an un-official standard.  This standard includes the maximum operating pressure for American Pressure Cookers (15 psi)  and the maximum operating pressure for most modern European Cookers (which is about 13 psi for spring-valve type cookers).

At the time of the writing of this article, most electric pressure cookers reach 15 psi but they do not cook at 15 psi.  … electric pressure cookers reach 15 psi briefly during the warming process. Electric pressure cookers build pressure up to 15 psi but then maintain a lower pressure during the cooking.  … the “operating pressure” is 11.6 even though the cooker reaches 15 psi while it’s building pressure. “Operating Pressure” is the true pressure at which an electric pressure cooker cooks.

Hip Pressure Cooking site FAQ

Electric pressure cookers and multi-cookers cook at lower pressure and temperature that standard devices. There have been exceptions; e.g. – Instant Pot Max, marketed in 2018, is said to operate at the standard pressure.

Laura Pazzaglia’s Hip Pressure Cooking site FAQ has a pressure/temperature graph. The lower pressures of electric pressure cookers require an adjustment to cooking times from standard recipes.

An electric pressure cooker has an outer shell, a heating element, an inner pot, a sealing lid and a control set. A modern machine has a microprocessor and an electronic control panel. The device turns the heating element on to sauté or build pressure. When operating temperature and pressure are reached, it cycles off and on to maintain pressure and temperature. The device will turn the heat off at the end of the period entered as the cooking time (at the operating pressure), and sound an alarm.

Pressure Release

Recipe sources and manual use terms for the two main options for when to use the pressure release valve – the end of the period of operating pressure, or after waiting for pressure to come down. Examples:

SourcesEnd of OPWait
Instant Pot Recipe BookletQuick Release Natural
Sass, Cooking under PressureQuick Release Naturally
ATK, Multicooker PerfectionQuick Natural
Pazzaglia, hip Pressure Cooking Normal Natural
Schieving, Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook Quick Natural
Clark, Dinner in an InstantManual Natural

There are variations on each release method including modified or slow (i.e. incremental, pulsed) quick release and a timed wait with a manual release to be able to open the pot.

Cooking Times

Recipe sources are consistent in describing cooking times in for pressure cookers and pressure cooker programs by time at high or low pressure; pressures vary between standard (stove top) and electric devices. This is worth checking before cooking.

Laura Pazzaglia has charts on a cooking times page at her Hip Pressure Cooking site. Her charts recognize that there are differences between stove top and electric machines and different brands and machines by leaving some parameters within ranges. Some writers provide notes about performance on some recipes in specific devices.

The charts will reduce cooking times for beans (and other legumes) that have been soaked. There are differences between botanically related beans. Cannellini beans (white kidney beans) take up more water when soaked than other phaseolus vulgaris beans. Most soaked phaseolus beans can be cooked completely in 8-10 minutes at high pressure. Some recipes call for parcooking the beans and adding more ingredients. It is important to not overcook the beans in the parcooking phase – the beans may start to release their contents, which thickens the cooking broth. An Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker will detect that the pot is overheating, and shut down with a “burn” condition report.

An electric pressure cooker provides the option of cooking without the pressure sealing lid using a sauté setting (or any hot setting that can be activated without locking the lid). Some have multiple saute (the device serves as an electric skillet) settings, some have only one saute setting. This is a way to use the device to cook some ingredients (e.g. softening onions and “blooming” spices and garlic and ginger) before filling the cooking pot and starting the pressure cooker. Using these settings to cook ingredients that have to be removed and added later is less convenient – it may be better to use the pressure cooker pot for other prep steps and pressure cooking, and manage the saute item in a skillet or wok on the stove. An electric pressure cooker is narrow and tall, and not easily handled and used like skillet. A user may needs to able to continuing cooking after the pressure cooking has ended – some final simmering to reduce a dish or cook ingredients added after the pressure cooking. The sauté setting may be too hot for anything less than a full rolling boil. Most electric pressure cookers have a simmer setting or an equivalent (the slow cooker setting will simmer warm contents below the boiling point).

Laura Pazzaglia in her book hip Pressure Cooking (2014) and on her web site provides times for both standard and electric pressure cookers. She doesn’t have a formula. The additional cooking time may be zero or may as much as 50%. Her tables are available online at her hippressurecooking site. Her tables are consistent with the view that necessary adjustments are variable depending on ingredient and release method (and release time).

Jill Nussinow (below), writing mainly about vegetables, thought that standard pot recipe cooking time did not have be lengthened for an electric pot where the release is slow or natural – the device provided enough cooking time because electric pressure cookers provide a little extra cooking time coming to pressure and while the pressure drops.

Many electric pressure cookers and multi-cookers have sauté functions; some call it “brown” or “browning”. In theory, the heat is enough to melt fats. This is not always the case. Some devices have safety settings to avoid burning food – this is triggered by a sensor reading the temperature of the cooking surface which is the base of the cooking pot. The temperature is an indirect reading – it is what the manufacturer says in the manual and is calibrated to what a sensor outside the pot is reading.

In some devices, the heat on the saute setting is not warm enough to caramelize (brown) the food. Some have a button or setting to engage a “simmer” function. Simmer is a setting in Fagor/Zavor Lux devices that to heat the food at 200 F for up to 30 minutes. Instant Pots can simmer at a slow cooker setting; the slow cooker “high” setting should match the Fagor/Zavor simmer setting.

Resources

Recipe books and web sites for pressure cookers, electric pressure cookers, and multi-cookers:

Title/NameAuthor/SourceMediumYearReviewNotes
S=Standard
E=Electric
IP/M=Instant Pot/Multi
Cooking Under PressureLorna J. SassBook1989GoodreadsS. recipes
hip Pressure CookingLaura PazzagliaBook2014GoodreadsS & E
hip Pressure CookingLaura PazzagliaWeb siteS & E
MaoMaoMom KitchenWeb siteIP
Vegan under PressureJill NussinowBook2016S
Dinner in an InstantMelissa ClarkBook2017IP/Mr
The Electric Pressure Cooker CookbookBarbara SchievingBook2017GoodreadsE
Pressure Cooking TodayBarbara Schieving
Jennifer Schieving		Web siteE
Instant Pot Recipe BookletInstant Pot corporate;
various contributors		2018IP
Multicooker PerfectionCook’s Illustrated
(America’s Test Kitchen)		Book2018M
Madhur Jaffrey’s Instantly Indian CookbookMadhur JaffreyBook2019IP
Milk Street Fast and SlowChristopher KimbellBook2020IP/M

Instant Pots

Books about pressure cooking, which were scarce, became more specialized during and after the success of the first waves of Instant Pots which inspired many books about the use that device and other pressure multi-cookers.

A recipe for use in an Instant Pot, in the pressure program should work in any electric pressure cooker or pressure capable multi-cooker; but variations may be needed; with adjustments of time, an “Instant Pot” pressure recipe should work in a stove-top or standard pressure cooker. Books on pressure cooking published since 2010 have generally provided standard and electric times. Laura Pazzaglia’s hip Pressure Cooking (2014) takes this approach.

Instant Pot and multi-cooker books suggest foods that work well in a pressure cooker and provide recipes that can be cooked for company. Melissa Clark’s Dinner in an Instant (2017); Cooks Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen Multicooker Perfection (2018); Milk Street Fast and Slow (2020).

Instant Pot has used different terms for preset sauté temperatures in its pressure multi-cookers; and a recipe source may use the term for one model. Other electric pressure cookers and multi-cookers will be different in some ways. A stove-top user has to use the heat setting of the the stove or cooktop.

A user will have to see what the food is doing when using any pressure cooker as a skillet. Using an Instant Pot, or any other electric pressure cooker to sauté is like cooking in a narrow, tall Dutch Oven on a moderately hot stove. I find it better to use a skillet when a recipe suggests using the sauté setting to brown an ingredient that has to be removed and set aside and when the cook is attempting to slowly render fat from bacon or lard. For using the sauté Program in an Instant Pot or other multi-cooker with different cooking pots, the steel pot is preferable – it withstands stirring with various implements, and is easier to clean.

Slow Cookers

I used a slow cooker for many years, and invested time and effort in learning that method of cooking.

Slow cookers braise food in liquid at low heat. Most slow cookers made from the 1950s to the early 21st century used ceramic crocks heated by a single electric heating element- low powered and poorly insulated. Elements were like elements in electric ovens and toaster ovens: straight metal, shaped into a circle or oval to surround the lower part of crock. Elements in modern machines are ribbon or wire elements in a belt. In some modern machines the element may have insulation. In basic devices the power is turned on to allow a constant electric current produces constant heat stated as in watts. The element heats the crock which heats the food. The heat at the element will be greater than the temperature of the inside surface of the crock. The element may be contolled by a switch or a control panel.

The ceramic crock slow cooker was inspired by the ceramic beanpot. This article on CNET has pictures and illustrations of old devices. Ceramic beanpots, like Dutch ovens and casseroles, cook dry beans in water or broth. Beanpots involved long cooking times at low heat. The constraints for dry beans are heat and time. The heat source had to provide steady low heat, and keep the cooking water below the boiling point of water (212 F. or 100 C.). A slow cooker can be used like a beanpot, to cook beans in fluid. If heat is constantly applied, the beans will be heated, and simmered or gently boiled. Writers (e.g. Anupy Singla, The Indian Slow Cooker; Rick Bayless, Mexican Every Day) suggested several hours on high in a normal ceramic crock slow cooker. Some beans need a long time on high. e.g. chickpeas (garbanzo beans), black urad beans, or red kidney beans. Some recipes incorrectly suggest that dry chickpeas cook in 6 hours on low.

The ceramic crock slow cooker would cook root vegetables in a few hours; less dense material more quickly. Rival (now a Jarden Brand) began to build and market the Crock-Pot in the 1970’s (by the 1990’s “the Original Slow Cooker”) as a device to cook stew and chili. Rival and its competitors pushed the standard size of the crock from 5 quarts to 6 or 7 quarts. The manufacturers increased the wattage of elements to meet concerns that the device was not cooking the food well enough to be safe and palatable after 8 hours of cooking. Another innovation: the three and four position switch. With the latter the cook can select Off; Warm; Low; High. Warm is not a cooking setting. High means the element runs hotter than low. This article says that 7 hours on low is equivalent to 3 hours on high.

I used a 6 quart ceramic crock Crock-Pot with a manual off-low-high switch for years. It heated the ingredients enough: it created humidity under the lid and some bubbling in the pot; some ingredients would bake to the sides. I made stews and chilies that filled the pot to 2/3 to 3/4, cooked on low for 5-7 hours. I refrigerated or froze leftovers. The chilis I made were American chili con carne, a stew that may involve meat, beans, bell peppers, chili peppers, and vegetables. Mexican and Central American versions feature the flavour of chili peppers, and use beans. American versions often stress meat and minimize beans, but there are bean free and meatless recipes.

These slow cooker recipes require precooked or canned beans. Many slow cooker recipes for recommend using canned beans, because beans take long than any other ingredient. Most canned beans (most canned vegetables) are cooked in the can in a salty broth; salt is used to counteract the effects of this cooking – manufacturers think that without salt, the food takes on offensive flavours. This is a problem for many people – no sodium beans are available but consumers have to find them.

I tried a recipe with dry white chickpeas in that device once. The other ingredients were well cooked at 6 hours on low before but the beans were not done – rather crunchy. Chickpeas are said to need 3 hours or 4 hours on high in a crock pot or slow cooker. I haven’t tried that; I won’t. I am suspicious about recipes that say that chickpeas can be done in less than 10-12 hours. I have since done curried chickpeas (using a chana masala spice blend); cooking time of 14 hours on high.

In June 2015, Rival published a statement about Crock-Pots that can still be seen in the Wayback Machine archive here. It includes these assertions and disclaimers about cooking, food safety and slow cooker:

  • The simmering point of water is 209 F.;
  • The contents of a crock should reach that point in 7 to 8 hours on low or 3 to 4 hours on high;
  • Food doesn’t need to reach the boiling point for safe eating – the simmer point is acceptable;
  • The safe to serve internal temperature is around 160 degrees, which your food may reach well before three hours.
  • Just use your best discretion.

Rival did not say which ceramic crock slow cookers could bring food or fluid to 209 F. in under 3 hours on high or low setting. The simmering point of water usually refers to a range from 185 F. to 205 F. The water has thermal energy and bubbles slowly. A small amount of water turns to gas, condenses, and becomes visible as a mist. The water is not actually boiling and the mist is not steam, which is the gas made up of water molecules at a temperature in excess of the boiling point of water.

Simmered food should reach an equilibrium that is will be sustained for a time. The situation will change when heat is added to the system, too much evaporation has occurred, or the food is cooked.

The food safety aspect of cooking is to avoid the conditions in which bacteria contaminate the food. Bacteria are dead in frozen food, dormant in cold food, and die off at about 140 F. They thrive in cool to warm food. They digest the food and excrete complex chemicals that spoil or poison the food. Most cooking methods raise the temperature fast.

Books and recipes before 2016/17 assume 5.5-6 quart ceramic crock slow cookers with high and low cooking settings. Culinary writers try to get a stew, chili or curry done in 6 hours or less – fast slow cooking. Cook’s Illustrated/America’ Test Kitchen produced three America’s Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution cookbooks 2011-2015. Each discussed the uses and some of limitations of the device, and provided workable techniques and recipes – addressing the ceramic crock slower. Each book had product reviews of a few products. The products tended to work the same way.

Innovations extended product lines and marketing opportunities; some innovations added some value for consumers. Timers give cooks an option to turn off or turn down the heat. Jarden/Rival had a line of Smart-Cookers with buttons that allowed the user to select 4 or 6 hours on high, or 8 or 10 on low. These are not what a user may want. The Crock-Pot Count-Down timer was a good innovation and has been widely emulated.

The limitations of ceramic crock slow cookers include:

  • A 6 or 7 quart crock is heavy;
  • The crock could not sauté, fry, or roast food. Some ingredients have to be cooked in a skillet or other vessel first to ensure the dish would be fully cooked, or to enhance flavour (bloom spices, heat onions and garlic, brown some ingredients);
  • The ceramic crock cannot be used on stove elements, in hot ovens, or in microwave ovens;
  • Manufacturers and culinary writers warn users
    • to not lift the lid or stir the food;
    • to not add cold ingredients into a hot crock;
  • The food near the element gets hot first and is always hotter. Food touching the crock near the element may brown, stick or even burn;
  • Ceramic crocks develop cracks and break down. The heat source is in a belt around the lower part of the crock; recipes place variable demand on the device. Manufacturers deflect by blaming users for ignoring warnings and limit their liability to short warranty periods.
  • Replacement ceramic inserts are hard to find – out of production, or out of stock;
  • The device draws power constantly. It is cheaper and more efficient than using an oven, but not as efficient as other appliances.

Devices sold as slow cookers or having a slow cooker function, in 2019:

  • oval or round vessels with surrounding elements with ceramic cooking vessels or chambers;
  • oval or round vessels with surrounding or bottom elements, with metal, coated metal cooking vessels or chambers
  • round metal pots with bottom elements (electric pressure cookers and other multicookers).

Slow cooker sizes vary. There are many 3 and 4 quart devices. 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5 quart models were common – nearly standard. There have been a few 7.5 and 8 quart models. There are roasting pans/ovens in the shape and style of slow cookers – these are larger than slow cookers.

Some modern slow cookers have metal pans, with non-stick or ceramic coatings. Metal pan slow cookers may have the heating element in an aluminum hotplate below the pan – like rice cookers and electric pressure cookers. A rice cooker heats a metal pot of rice and fluid to a boil, and uses automated controls to change the heat to low simmer. An electric pressure cooker brings the contents of the pot to a rolling boil with a hotplate element (e.g. Instant Pots: 1000 watts in 6 quart pots). A pressure cooker heats food and fluid to the boiling point; under pressure the temperature rises higher. The elements in these devices are below at the cooking vessel, and temperature and pressure sensors are outside the inner pot.

Machines with high wattage elements and/or metal pots rely on temperature sensors and programmed controls to prevent the food from overheating. Temperature sensors are typically outside the cooking vessel, and read a temperature at a point on the outside surface. The chip makes progammed calculations that control the current and the read out/display, if any. Usually, the control chip turns the element off when a set temperature is reached, and turns it for short periods on maintain temperature at the point calculated by the manufacturer’s team. The temperature of the contents of the vessel over time should rise and then graph as peaks and troughs along a mean.

Cook’s Illustrated/America’ Test Kitchen The Complete Slow Cooker (2017) recommended modern slow cookers with features including temperature sensors, countdown timers and electronic controls. CI/ATK tested heating performance by heating 4 quarts of water in 6 and 7 quart slow cookers Parts of the tests and results are in a YouTube video and a background story. There is a graph which shows that several devices in their tests will heat the water to 210 F. on high heat in about three hours; other devices take longer. CI/ATK pointed out that many newer machines run too hot to execute the CI/ATK library of slow cooker recipes. They like devices that heat the food to nearly the boiling point in a few hours and stabilize the heat. CI/ATK highly recommended a 6 quart KitchenAid ceramic crock model with a 350 watt belt element, and a Cuisinart model with a coated aluminum pan and a 250 watt hotplate element.

Wattage does not necessarily predict results. A 200-250 watt element is not hot enough to to fry in a metal pot. It heats the food faster in a metal pot than a ceramic. Ceramic crock machines with lower wattage elements will not heat water to 210 F. in 3 hours on high. Crock-Pot has 370 watts for an 8 quart crock, 240 watts for 6 quart models and 210 watts for 4 quart models. These machines would execute most recipes within the parameters of the recipe books, with a little variation depending on the crock and the contents of the crock. A few hours at low may be enough for soup, stew and chili. Several hours at high will do dry beans.

Pots and Pans

The hypothesis of Catching Fire is that cooking food was a learned cultural practice that affected the physiological evolution of human beings. It used “external” energy to make eating and digesting food take less time and liberated people to get on with life.

Ceramic cooking vessels were the dominant technology in societies in which people had stable homes. They were/are heavy and might be fragile, as compared to metal. They were the dominant technology until metal could be mined, refined and worked at scale – economically accessible. The Romans had sophisticated ceramics – the decline of the Roman empire is marked in the archeological record by the decline of the quality of ceramics. Ceramic vessels have been regarded as primitive and superceded in most cultures and have hung on as a specialty method of cooking.

The metal cooking vessel was allowed food to be fried, roasted, boiled or braised. The combination of metal cooking vessels and reasonably safe and efficient stoves that created heat with electricity or fuel enabled people to work with raw ingredients and “staple” processed ingredients (e.g. rice, dried beans, flour) to cook. The kitchen stove in the 20th century, heated by electrical energy or gas, provided direct heat applied to base of the cooking vessel by elements or burners, and an oven. The top worked with metal vessels, primarily. The user had to set the energy level, monitor the time and temperature and work the food around the pan. It is better than cooking with wood or coal, but it required some skill and effort and used energy.

Cast iron was a dominant technology in 19th century Europe and America. Carbon steel became (and remains) was a popular material to make woks and karahis in Asia. Thick walled vessels were durable and managed to distribute heat evenly. Thin walled vessels were vulnerable to dents and dings, and could easily scorch food. Lighter and less expensive thin-walled, vessels dominated the markets in Europe and America for most of the 20th century. Technological innovations included stainless steel, clad (bonded layers of stainless steel surfaces over other metal that held and conducted heat) bases, multi-ply vessels, induction pans.

American and European tradition culinary writers favoured using heavy cast iron or steel pans to fry or roast to get the outer layers of some food to carmelize (brown), and using technique (e.g. deglazing) to get the carmelized matter out of the pan and into a sauce or gravy that would reach the plate. Enamel on iron and enamel on steel coatings make metal less prone to stick, more resitant to corrosion, and simplied maintenace and care. Bare iron had to be treated or seasoned. This was the folk wisdom of cooks, recited by culinary writers. Cast iron cookware was durable, which led to interest in restoring and using old cast iron ware. The modern manufacturers and culinary writers theorized, experimented and tested the principles of seasoning iron. The idea of seasoning by baking a coating of flaxseed oil became a dominant theory around 2010:

American writers favoured the large skillet to fry and sauté most food, and as shallow roasting pan – even as a substitute for a wok.

Teflon and other chemical non-stick coatings developed in mid to late 20th century had benefits and drawbacks. The coatings could be scratched during use or cleaning – the utensils have to be softer than the utensils that work with bare metal. Some coatings degrade if the pan is overheated, or under heavy use. Hard anodized aluminum is marketed as non-stick. There have been technical advances. True advances cannot be readily identified in the background noise of product marketing “reviews”.

A few pans and utensils and a stove will see most cooks through most tasks. A few specialty applicances can cook some food with less adjustment of stove temperatures and work over the stove. A flat bottom wok, with a durable non stick coating, is a versatile pan which can serve as a skillet, a deep sauté pan and a wok.