@Snowball City I have, but at low pressure (so I didn’t save any time) and they were great but I forgot the settings. I use every available tool in tamale season - crock pot, oven, pressure cooker, roaster. I have to set up in the garage where we have enough circuits to handle the load.
Will anyone be cooking a Thanksgiving dish in their Instant Pot??
I will have giant steaming pots going in addition to two crock pots. We are getting together on Saturday and my share will probably be about 6-8 dozen. It takes a lifetime to steam them but I know I would be too lazy to steam frozen ones later.
edited add this is about tamales
@abasket I plan to use mine to cook potatoes before mashing and sweet potatoes before pureeing for a sweet potato casserole.
^^ me too. Mashed potatoes are going to be made in the IP (and looks like I can keep them warm in there too!)
@“Snowball City” and @ollie113 and anyone else, if you have tamale recipes you’d be willing to share, I’d love to have them. I don’t do the instapot but have been wanting to tackle tamales as we all love them but have never made our own. When my kids who are good cooks are home at Christmas, I’d like to give it a shot. Sounds like a good item to make with helpful hands.
What I know of the process:
My sister in law slow cooks the 40 pounds of pork and shreds it.
We purchase from the local mexican shop 43 pounds of prepared masa. It works well enough. We also pick up roughly 35 dozen corn husks. We end up with roughly 33 dozen tamales.
My brother in law does the peppers. I don’t know what kind they are and how much. Someone else can chime in. Do they get ground up?
Our secret is that we take some of the liquid from cooking the peppers and add it too the masa. This gives it a really nice flavor.
My husband is now the family patriarch. Besides our labor, our family’s only contribution is his telling them when the flavor is right for the meat. Really. Family dynamics are funny. I have no idea what they are throwing into the meat besides the peppers.
Soak the corn husks before using them. If you feel them carefully, one side is smoother than the other. That is the side you want to spread the masa on.
My kids have graduated since high school to being allowed to put meat on the masa and close up the tamale. I am still an outlaw and am only allowed to spread masa.
Once we get down to work it takes about 7-8 of us 4 hours to make the tamales. We steam them at home. The little kids rotate in and out as they want to help versus play. My husband drinks coffee and talks while sitting at the masa spreading table. Really. Family dynamics are funny.
Wow! That’s a huge production!
Sounds like a good scene to base a movie script around. 
One of my friends cooks tamales from frozen (she doesn’t cook them before freezing.) She told me that she sets the pressure cooker on high and for 10 minutes once pressure is reached. I haven’t tried it.
From your description, I have a feeling your husband’s family might not want to mess with tradition.
It made for a good college application essay…
I am using the big pressure cooker (8L) due the quantities but the IP could be used as well. Nothing gourmet or spectacular.
-Butternut squash soup (the day before)
-Roasted potatoes with herbs which is a variation of the recipe from the IP original recipe book. I only have one oven so that recipe works well for us.
- Beets for a simple beet salad (done today)
No big deal, but I pressure cooked 2 frozen turkey breasts for a Thanksgiving-themed potluck over the weekend. (One at a time, because I onliy have a 5 qt. pot). Everyone raved about how moist my turkey was, though honestly it still seemed dry to me – I prefer dark meat, but if cooking for a small group the breast-only is easier and it can be cooked directly from frozen in the IP. 45 minutes cook time plus natural pressure release; – cooked on the trivet over broth and whatever veggies you want to stick in for seasoning the broth (which can then be used to make gravy).
Roughly how heavy were they?
edited to add: I just checked. My 7.75 pound turkey breast doesn’t fit into my 6 qt Fagor.
I hard boiled eggs today (for deviled eggs) and will cook red potatoes for mashed potatoes in my IP tomorrow. I’ll add the other ingredients and leave them in there to keep warm.
The breasts I cooked are the frozen Butterball’s that are 3 lb. apiece. - like this → http://www.butterball.com/products/turkey-roasts-and-whole-breasts/breast-meat-roast – so relatively small.
Instapot on sale today for $ 67.99on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-Multi-Use-Programmable-Pressure/dp/B00FLYWNYQ/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1511460691&sr=1-3&keywords=instant+pot
I used my new Instant Pot mini to make the quinoa for the salad today. I used the 6 qt duo yesterday to make a Moroccan squash soup.
Joining the club! I just bought a 6 quart instapot duo at Target. I’m sure it wasn’t the cheapest price out there…but I was AT Target. Anyway…looking forward to trying beef stew…and my butternut squash soup!
I can’t do 40 pages of this! What’s the best cookbook for a beginner?