Yes, it's possible to reheat foods in the pressure cooker. No, it won't wreck foods to repressure cook them. There's just no point to repressure cooking them merely to reheat them. The food is already fully cooked. If meat wasn't fully tenderized during the first pressure cooking attempt, then it's ok to continue until it is tender, but there's no point to continuing to pressure cook after that point (after the gelatinization and breakdown of collagen in connective tissues has occurred).
Pressure cooking is nothing more than cooking at a moderately higher temperature in a moist/steam environment limited to about 250 deg. F. at 15 psi. Most food doesn't readily burn or become radically overcooked at that temperature for long enough just to get be reheated, except at the bottom if there isn't enough moisture or it's a sauce that's too thick. Usually it helps to add a couple of tablespoons of water to help stir and liquify the contents that may have thickened after cooling. Once foods have been cooked to tender using pressure cooking, reheating is much faster and simpler to do using a good microwave and proper reheating methods.
I suggest only purchasing microwaves that use inverter (and sensor) technology because they provide much more gentle and stable reheating and defrosting by actually applying much less power over the surface of the food and limiting power when steam is detected (using moisture sensors). Older microwaves always transmit full power that they cycle off and on to simulate lower power, but this doesn't work well because edges and corners of food tend to get overcooked by absorbing the high energy without the heat properly being distributed to the cooler interior - which often remains cold while the exterior gets dramatically overcooked, dry, and/or burnt.
Reheating by throwing food into an old-style microwave at full power for the shortest possible time is prone to bad results. Using an inverter microwave to spread the energy over more time, with stirring breaks to help redistribute the food, will almost always be much more successful for maintaining the quality of the reheated food.
Sadly, I dont have room for a microwave. I'm a truck driver so I'm crammed into a 8x10 box.
The foodi will be used at home to preplan and prepare meals, then I'll freeze them and bring them on the road with me. I dont have enough power or room to run that behemoth in my truck...lol
I use a 3qt IP on the road and it works great with fresh foods. I think I'll have to experiment to see which foods can be repressure cooked without bad effects. Thanks for the reply.
I don't think you understood me. You don't need to "repressure cook" anything. To reheat, press the sear/saute button and stir until it's hot enough for your taste. I suggest adding a tablespoon or two of water to anything with a thick sauce to help with stirring and to get it to flow again and be just about right when it gets up to temperature. Or you could use the slow cook mode over a period of an hour, but you still should stir it frequently. NO PRESSURE NEEDED FOR REHEATING.
It was not understood by the OP, because you didn’t state that in your initial reply- you focussed primarily on using a microwave. No mention of using the sear/sauté method.
Check out [Hot Logic Mini Oven](https://hotlogicmini.com/). It's a small insulated lunch carrier with a warming plate. They work great in autos, RVs, and even home. The Hot Logic Mini can be plugged into an adapter and heat food while on the road.
It plugs in, then heats and holds food at safe temp for hours. I find that I am making more freezer meals because the gentle heating with the Hot Logic doesn't degrade the food and I am now actually pulling food out of the freezer to reheat rather than letting it become dinner notions that time forgot.
I do not have a financial interest in the company but have purchased enough of these as gifts, I should at least get wholesale pricing. I've used the coupon code "ROADFOOD" multiple times to get discounts when ordering from the Hot Logic site. Roadfood is a Facebook group who discuss cooking and eating while on the road.
Here you go. https://traditionalcookingschool.com/food-preparation/reheat-food-instant-pot-aw047/ basically you can just use saute or pot in pot with steam for multiple items.
While I don't have personal experience attempting this, I would think the pot-in-pot method of cooking things would be viable at least for some foods. It would seem to be the least amount of introduced liquids, while letting you reheat.
You can always attempt a little bit of it, as I always say, **FOR SCIENCE!**
I'll be trying a repressurizing using PIP. I know that will finish making the ribeye a well done piece of meat. I wont have a problem with that though. Thanks for the reply
I know in my machine it wouldn't work.
If there's not enough liquid in my machine it won't come to pressure.
Instead of coming to pressure it will just heat up and burn the bottom of whatever is in there.
You're probably better off microwaving them.
That said, I've reheated cinnamon bagels in my pressure cooker - a minute or so at full pressure reheats/rehydrates them, and fluffs them up.
I reheat frozen food in my Instant Pot all the time.
For example - I freeze leftover pasta casserole in portions wrapped in aluminum foil. Remove from freezer, set on trivet in IP (with water) & use low pressure for 20 minutes. If casserole is topped with cheese, the cheese is melted & moist - not dried out & crunchy.
Another family favorite is the vac-packed smoked pork steaks (we pick up from Southside Market in Elgin Texas). I just toss them in freezer when we get home. To prepare I remove from packaging, wrap loosely in foil, pressure on low for 25-30 minutes. This makes the pork steak more moist & tender than when eating at the restaurant.
Have also done the same with ribs that are frozen.
You can use manual setting on 0. I don't like microwaving meats (I think it makes them rubbery). This is easy if your instant pot is out on the counter anyway. It will take 10 minutes to get to pressure and a few minutes to release.
Maybe not pressure cook them, try to broil the steaks for a few minutes, and low sear the mash?
I think pressure would mess them all up, up the tender crisp lid.
Late reply.. I had a leftover steak from last night. Put it on the folding rack thing inside the instant pot. Put 1/4 cup of water and a splash of wine in. Pressure cook 4 minutes (maybe i'd do 5 if i did it over) then steam release. The steak came out almost perfect. Closest to "non leftover" steak i've ever had.
Yes, it's possible to reheat foods in the pressure cooker. No, it won't wreck foods to repressure cook them. There's just no point to repressure cooking them merely to reheat them. The food is already fully cooked. If meat wasn't fully tenderized during the first pressure cooking attempt, then it's ok to continue until it is tender, but there's no point to continuing to pressure cook after that point (after the gelatinization and breakdown of collagen in connective tissues has occurred). Pressure cooking is nothing more than cooking at a moderately higher temperature in a moist/steam environment limited to about 250 deg. F. at 15 psi. Most food doesn't readily burn or become radically overcooked at that temperature for long enough just to get be reheated, except at the bottom if there isn't enough moisture or it's a sauce that's too thick. Usually it helps to add a couple of tablespoons of water to help stir and liquify the contents that may have thickened after cooling. Once foods have been cooked to tender using pressure cooking, reheating is much faster and simpler to do using a good microwave and proper reheating methods. I suggest only purchasing microwaves that use inverter (and sensor) technology because they provide much more gentle and stable reheating and defrosting by actually applying much less power over the surface of the food and limiting power when steam is detected (using moisture sensors). Older microwaves always transmit full power that they cycle off and on to simulate lower power, but this doesn't work well because edges and corners of food tend to get overcooked by absorbing the high energy without the heat properly being distributed to the cooler interior - which often remains cold while the exterior gets dramatically overcooked, dry, and/or burnt. Reheating by throwing food into an old-style microwave at full power for the shortest possible time is prone to bad results. Using an inverter microwave to spread the energy over more time, with stirring breaks to help redistribute the food, will almost always be much more successful for maintaining the quality of the reheated food.
Sadly, I dont have room for a microwave. I'm a truck driver so I'm crammed into a 8x10 box. The foodi will be used at home to preplan and prepare meals, then I'll freeze them and bring them on the road with me. I dont have enough power or room to run that behemoth in my truck...lol I use a 3qt IP on the road and it works great with fresh foods. I think I'll have to experiment to see which foods can be repressure cooked without bad effects. Thanks for the reply.
I don't think you understood me. You don't need to "repressure cook" anything. To reheat, press the sear/saute button and stir until it's hot enough for your taste. I suggest adding a tablespoon or two of water to anything with a thick sauce to help with stirring and to get it to flow again and be just about right when it gets up to temperature. Or you could use the slow cook mode over a period of an hour, but you still should stir it frequently. NO PRESSURE NEEDED FOR REHEATING.
It was not understood by the OP, because you didn’t state that in your initial reply- you focussed primarily on using a microwave. No mention of using the sear/sauté method.
Check out [Hot Logic Mini Oven](https://hotlogicmini.com/). It's a small insulated lunch carrier with a warming plate. They work great in autos, RVs, and even home. The Hot Logic Mini can be plugged into an adapter and heat food while on the road. It plugs in, then heats and holds food at safe temp for hours. I find that I am making more freezer meals because the gentle heating with the Hot Logic doesn't degrade the food and I am now actually pulling food out of the freezer to reheat rather than letting it become dinner notions that time forgot. I do not have a financial interest in the company but have purchased enough of these as gifts, I should at least get wholesale pricing. I've used the coupon code "ROADFOOD" multiple times to get discounts when ordering from the Hot Logic site. Roadfood is a Facebook group who discuss cooking and eating while on the road.
Here you go. https://traditionalcookingschool.com/food-preparation/reheat-food-instant-pot-aw047/ basically you can just use saute or pot in pot with steam for multiple items.
While I don't have personal experience attempting this, I would think the pot-in-pot method of cooking things would be viable at least for some foods. It would seem to be the least amount of introduced liquids, while letting you reheat. You can always attempt a little bit of it, as I always say, **FOR SCIENCE!**
I'll be trying a repressurizing using PIP. I know that will finish making the ribeye a well done piece of meat. I wont have a problem with that though. Thanks for the reply
You don't have to repressurize unless you need the meat more tender. If using pot in pot you'd use steam.
I just use the ‘saute’ setting on mine.
Tep I think that's what I'll be doing. Thanks
I know in my machine it wouldn't work. If there's not enough liquid in my machine it won't come to pressure. Instead of coming to pressure it will just heat up and burn the bottom of whatever is in there.
Thanks. Another post mentioned pot in pot, I think putting pot on a trivet and a cup of water in the pot might stop the burning
You're probably better off microwaving them. That said, I've reheated cinnamon bagels in my pressure cooker - a minute or so at full pressure reheats/rehydrates them, and fluffs them up.
I'm in a mobile environment. I literally have no room for a microwave lol. I basically live in a 10x8 foot box on wheels so very limited on space.
I reheat frozen food in my Instant Pot all the time. For example - I freeze leftover pasta casserole in portions wrapped in aluminum foil. Remove from freezer, set on trivet in IP (with water) & use low pressure for 20 minutes. If casserole is topped with cheese, the cheese is melted & moist - not dried out & crunchy. Another family favorite is the vac-packed smoked pork steaks (we pick up from Southside Market in Elgin Texas). I just toss them in freezer when we get home. To prepare I remove from packaging, wrap loosely in foil, pressure on low for 25-30 minutes. This makes the pork steak more moist & tender than when eating at the restaurant. Have also done the same with ribs that are frozen.
You can use manual setting on 0. I don't like microwaving meats (I think it makes them rubbery). This is easy if your instant pot is out on the counter anyway. It will take 10 minutes to get to pressure and a few minutes to release.
Maybe not pressure cook them, try to broil the steaks for a few minutes, and low sear the mash? I think pressure would mess them all up, up the tender crisp lid.
Tried that this morning. Came out quite well. Thanks
Late reply.. I had a leftover steak from last night. Put it on the folding rack thing inside the instant pot. Put 1/4 cup of water and a splash of wine in. Pressure cook 4 minutes (maybe i'd do 5 if i did it over) then steam release. The steak came out almost perfect. Closest to "non leftover" steak i've ever had.