What happened to the Instant Pot? It's come off its highs and changed dramatically. Its story is not one of overproduction or the whims of popularity. It's a more complicated story that involves investment finance and private equity.

Join us, Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of four Instant Pot books, including THE INSTANT POT BIBLE. We want to talk about what happened to this favorite kitchen appliance. Plus, a one-minute cooking tip on vinegar. And our favorites this week: head-on shrimp and pickled plums!

[01:07] Our one-minute cooking tip: Be forewarned that there's been a big change in distilled white vinegar.

[03:02] The rise and fall of the Instant Pot: its start, its wild popularity, and its move into private equity firms with all the do in their vulture capitalism.

[27:10] What’s making us happy in food this week: head-on shrimp and pickled plums!

Hey, I am bruce Weinstein and

2

mark: this is the Podcast

Cooking with Bruce and Martin.

3

And I'm Mark Scarborough, and together

with Bruce, my husband, we have written

4

37 cookbooks, including the latest

cold canning, small batch counting,

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no pressure or steam canner needed.

6

Make two

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bruce: or three jars of what?

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Apricot jams, strawberry

jams, sour cherry preserves.

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Ketchup, Kim cheese, chutney,

and serves Pickles, relishes.

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Mm-hmm.

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Dessert sauces.

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Hot bud Sauce.

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mark: Uh, like that and a Triple

sec recipe that will, uh, rearrange

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your life for homemade, triple sec.

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Anyway, that book is out.

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Now we'll talk a little bit about that

book in our one minute cooking tips,

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something we discovered as writing it.

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But what we really wanna talk about

in this episode of the podcast is

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the rise and fall of the Instant Pot

and what has happened to it since

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we rode that wave, at least partway.

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I wanna talk about

what's happened to this.

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Instant pot over the years and why it

has now fallen so far from its highs.

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And then we'll tell you what's

making us happy in food this week.

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So let's get started.

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bruce: Our one minute cooking tip.

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Make sure you read labels when

you buy distilled white vinegar in

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North America, because some of the

major North American distilled white

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vinegar producers have decided to

save money by diluting that vinegar.

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Not to the standard 5% acidity,

but all the way down to 4% acidity.

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That's right.

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And that's a problem.

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mark: It is 4%.

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Acidity is not preservative for food.

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So if you've been used to pickling with.

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Distilled white vinegar.

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We're talking not about

white wine vinegar.

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No, not about white slumming vinegar.

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We're talking about the old

standard distilled white vinegar.

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Mm-hmm.

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Much of it is now dropped to 4% acidity,

and you need to read those labels.

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If you are concerned about this, you do.

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Why?

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bruce: Let's say you're making

pickled cauliflower, right?

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Because you're already diluting

that vinegar with water to make

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your brine right, so you're

gonna dilute it one to one.

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It's gonna be much less acidic than

it should be if you'd used 5% vinegar.

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And then after about a week,

your cauliflower is gonna start

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to get mushy and degrade, and

the brines getting cloudy.

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Not enough vinegar in there to

preserve it for any length of time.

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mark: Right.

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So the acidity has gone down.

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So check the labels.

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You can find out the acidity rate

by reading the label carefully, and

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then you'll note you have the right

kind in hand for what you need.

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Mm-hmm.

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Okay.

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Before we get to the next part of

this podcast, the rise and fall

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of the Instant Pod, let me say, it

would be great if you could rate our

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podcast or even give it a review.

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If you can work to just simply write

a simple review like Love the podcast,

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dare I Ask, or things like that.

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That is how you can keep us

fresh in the analytics we are.

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Hoarded.

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That is the only kind of support

we can get because that is the

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kind of support we choose to get.

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So if you can do that,

that would be terrific.

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Otherwise, get ready.

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'cause we want to talk about the

rise and fall of the Instant Pot.

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bruce: I wanna start this segment off

by explaining what an Instant pot is.

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Okay.

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Because a lot of people use those

words instant pot, and we will

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get to the fact that they actually

call them ins instant pots.

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But a lot of people use those

words to mean they have an

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electric pressure cooker.

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They do.

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And it's become this just sort of

generic word for pressure cooker,

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electric pressure cookers like,

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mark: like in the South

where where I grew up.

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You call any carbonated beverage

Coke, even if it's, I don't know,

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strawberry soda you call it.

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What kind of coke do you want?

82

Yeah.

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Coke is just the, the word

you use for a carbonated soda.

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bruce: But Instant Pot is a brand,

and instant pot, as we said, is

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Instant pot, not Instant pot.

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mark: I think that.

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I think that people call the Insta Pot

and you see a ton of posts online still

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for Insta Pot because of Instagram.

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That's my theory.

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Sure.

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Yeah.

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But it is officially the Instant Pot,

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bruce: and it is an electric appliance

that does have a pressure cooker function.

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Yep.

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And we will get to all of

that, but it has had quite.

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A history, hasn't it?

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Well,

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mark: yeah, and don't you think that

part of the reason that what you're

99

saying is that people just refer

to any electric pressure cooker as

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an instant pot simply speaks to the

rise, the crazy rise of this gadget.

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Oh,

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bruce: it's

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mark: fantastic.

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It took over the market.

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They were fantastic.

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They were all kinds of makers

of electric pressure cookers.

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Fero, the Spanish brand,

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bruce: even Cuisinart made one for

years and all it did was Pressure cook.

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mark: Exactly.

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Yeah.

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People made other brands made electric

pressure cookers, but the instant pop

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became such a sensation that it swamped.

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Every, like I said, Coke.

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Like Kleenex.

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Yep.

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Right.

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People call any anything.

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You blow your nose with a

Kleenex and that's a brand name.

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bruce: Yeah.

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Part of why I think the Instant

Pot had that success were those

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two words in its name, instant Pot.

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Mm.

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What a brilliant.

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Brilliant marketing idea.

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You have this electric pressure

cooker, which cooks things faster

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than any other appliance you may have

except stove top pressure cooker.

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But it cooks things faster than

any electric appliance you have.

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And you're calling it Instant Pot.

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Who doesn't wanna make dinner in there?

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Instant pot.

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It's magic.

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mark: Right.

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And we'll talk about that.

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The difference between it's instant

pot and a stove top pressure cooker,

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the kind our grandmothers used.

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Mm-hmm.

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And the kind that Bruce still uses.

138

Mm-hmm.

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To this day.

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We'll talk about the Differe in a minute.

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So we wanna talk about the rise, but we

also wanna talk about how this has now

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fallen and this failure is, um, large.

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Mm-hmm.

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Uh, let me say that and

affected a lot of people.

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It did.

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There are some people, and we're not

gonna name any names, but there are some

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people who made a very decent career

by hitching themselves to instant POTS

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and becoming social media influencers

through instant pots, and ended up making.

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Big box over their online

presence about the instant pop.

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Yeah.

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And those people are now high and dry.

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bruce: Yeah.

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Because once the Instant Pot started

to fade out of popularity, they

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had nothing else to hold onto.

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Yeah, that's right.

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You know, I will, I will say that Mark

and I wrote the Instant Pop Bible and

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the Instant Pop Bible Next Generation

and three other instant pop books.

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So we did ride that wave too, but we

did not make it our entire identity.

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Yeah.

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It was yet.

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Five more books in our library

of now 37 books that we've

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mark: written.

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And I think, I think I can tell you

this, and this is a bit behind the scenes

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perhaps, but you know, writers live off

both the advances on their books and then

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if their advances earn out, you sign.

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Uh, you sell enough copies that what

they paid you upfront is now made up and

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now you start making money on each copy.

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You know, you live off your royalties.

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And we certainly started getting

royalties off the Instant Pop

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Bible, but we were not as crazy

popular as some of the other books.

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And there came this moment in which, oh,

uh, all the big booksellers, independent

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booksellers, Amazon, all of them

returned thousands of those books as the.

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FAD crashed.

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Mm-hmm.

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And we were expecting a royalty check

at one point, and instead we ended

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up with a statement that had negative

numbers because so many had been

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returned, that those numbers were

pulled off our statement, and I can

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only imagine what some of those giant

people felt at that moment as hundreds,

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even hundreds of thousands of their

books were returned to the publisher.

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Mm-hmm.

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They went.

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Deep in the hole.

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bruce: And I'll say that by that

time, mark and I had already seen

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that there was less interest in it.

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And by the time that happened, we

were already writing air fryer books

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because saw the rise of the air fryer.

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So we jumped on that kind of early

on and we were really one of the

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first air fryer books out there.

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And so we did really well, but.

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Let's go back to the Instant Pot Right.

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And give you a little history about it.

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Right.

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So it was a company formed by Robert Wang.

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Um, he was Canadian.

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He's a scientist.

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He was an inventor.

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And it came out of Nortel.

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mark: Yeah.

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Uh, telecommunications Giant.

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bruce: Mm-hmm.

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And he created this.

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Appliance with two

partners in Ottawa, Canada.

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The partners left, he was joined

by two guys from Blackberry.

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mark: Again, tech guys.

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These are all very entrepreneurial,

techy kind of people

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bruce: and, and they had this

love of food and they loved to

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tinker around and so they came up

with what they called the first.

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Six in one cooker, and I think this

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mark: is really important to just think

about in terms of what happened with

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the Instant Pot, because their initial

idea for the Instant Pot was not that it

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was a pressure cooker, but that it was

a pressure cooker among other things.

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Mm-hmm.

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A rice cooker, a slow cooker yoga.

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A yogurt, a yogurt maker.

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Mm-hmm.

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All these.

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Things, and they believed that they had

come up with this six in one gadget.

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There's a, there's a long

standing myth story structure.

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I don't know in tech about the pivot

that you come up with something

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and you have to be able to, in

the middle of its process, pivot.

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Mm-hmm.

222

Mm-hmm.

223

And do something else with it.

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Once it starts to become a success, and

this is in fact what they went through.

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They went through a.

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Pivot because they came out with

this thing that they were like, oh,

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look at six things in one and you

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bruce: can get rid of all these

other appliances and all you

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need is this one appliance.

230

Mm-hmm.

231

And when they came out with

it, mark and I were writing the

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great big Pressure cooker book.

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It was 2015.

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We saw the Instant Pot out there.

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We got in touch with

Robert where we, oh my God.

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I had a long conversation with

him and we did not jump on the

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Instant Pot bandwagon for that book.

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So when we decided to write the great big

Pressure Cooker book, we knew there were

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electric pressure cookers, just to say,

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mark: we're talking 20, we're writing it.

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2014.

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It's published in 2015.

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Mm-hmm.

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bruce: We knew there were electric

pressure cookers out there, and

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we talked with our publisher and

our editor and we decided the way

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to make this a fabulous pressure.

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Cooker book is in every recipe to

give directions for how to cook

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in a stove top pressure cooker.

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And in an electric because

they cook differently.

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mark: Yeah.

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I So I, I'm sorry to interrupt you,

but that's what I want you to say.

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How, why do they cook differently?

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Mm-hmm.

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Why?

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Why do we need two different sets of

instructions for stove top and electric,

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bruce: A stove top pressure

cookers reach pressure of 15 PSI.

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And if you know anything about

science, you know that as.

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Pressure increases.

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So does temperature so they

get higher pressure and higher

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temperature inside the pot.

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Correct.

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So food will cook faster than it does in

an electric pressure cooker because an

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electric pressure cooker only reaches 12

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mark: Ps.

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Right.

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So just to be, just to be

dumbly scientific about this.

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At sea level, as you probably know,

water boils at two 12 Fahrenheit

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or a hundred Celsius, right?

269

Mm-hmm.

270

You know that it belt boils right there,

but if you put water under incredible

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pressure, you can actually get the

temperature of the water above two 12

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up into the 2 30, 2 40 Fahrenheit range.

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Depending, you can get it higher

than that, depending on how

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much pressure you put on it.

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So the temperature of

the water gets hotter.

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Even as it boils in normal

circumstances, the minute water hits

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two 12, it evaporates, it becomes gas.

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It stops

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bruce: getting hotter at that point.

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That's right.

281

Mm-hmm.

282

So,

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mark: and you know, yes,

all the liquid, all the gas.

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Mm-hmm.

285

I mean, it's coming out of the liquid or

it's turning into gas from a liquid, but

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you can actually slow down that process.

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Inside of our pressure cooker.

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Okay, so when we were writing the

book again, Bruce said, we left the

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Instant Pot out and we thought it was

a bit of a gimmick, and here's why.

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So the first six in one cooker,

what they thought was the

291

thing came out in about 2013.

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It came out much hotter in Canada than

it came out in the United States, but it

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was still hot even in the United States.

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And we looked at it and by the

time we were writing a year later,

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Robert Wang is an incessant.

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Inventor.

297

Mm-hmm.

298

And he was already tinkering with the pot.

299

Mm-hmm.

300

And what he was doing, he was

adding lots of buttons for meat

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and grains and all this stuff.

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All of these were for the

pressure cooking setting.

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It was blowing out into

all of these buttons.

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And to be honest with you, and this is

the honest to God truth, those buttons

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all cook at exactly the same pressure.

306

Mm-hmm.

307

They're put on there so that it alters the

timing slightly, but you can even change.

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The timing with any of those buttons.

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So in other words, you can cook a piece

of chicken with the meat button or the

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grain button, or whatever button you want.

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That's a pressure cooked button.

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So long as you adjust

the timing appropriately,

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bruce: and our feeling is.

314

You need to follow the timings in your

recipes, not use the timings built

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into the machines and given that it

was still a six in one cooker, and

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by the time we were writing the book,

they were doing the seven in one

317

cooker and the nine in one cooker.

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Right, right.

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We thought that was gonna be confusing

in our great big pressure cooker book.

320

So here's the instructions for using.

321

An standard electric pressure

cooker, which has pressure

322

settings or the stove top.

323

And then what we have to add a

third set of instructions for

324

how to use the Instant Pot.

325

And to be honest, we're already now

on the second generation Instant

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Pot, and each time it comes out.

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Robert Wang is changing the buttons.

328

So we're gonna be giving you a book that's

outdated before it's even published.

329

That's

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mark: right.

331

And so for the book, just to say, for

the great big brush cooker book, we

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particularly got associated with the

Spanish match manufacturer fa, because

333

they were making both stove top.

334

And electric pressure cookers

and you know, they did a lot of

335

publicity for us for that book.

336

It was really great.

337

Mm-hmm.

338

We went on QVC with that book.

339

It was all great and et cetera.

340

Mm-hmm.

341

However, that book can, in 2015.

342

In 2016, the Instant Pot proved to be the

number one bestseller on Amazon Prime Day.

343

And this is back in the

day when Prime Day was.

344

A day instead of whatever it is

now, four months, but it was a day.

345

Mm-hmm.

346

And you know, you had this one day

instant, uh, Amazon Prime Day and the

347

Instant Pot outsold everything else

by far, all across the Amazon site.

348

bruce: So you put two and two together.

349

We had a very successful, great big

pressure cooker book, and Instant

350

Pot is now selling out everything

and rising Meteorically on Amazon.

351

So we went to a new publisher and the new

publisher said to us, I love what you did

352

with your great big pressure Cooker book.

353

I would like you to do the same

354

mark: from three Sellout.

355

Uh, uh uh, it was three

Sellout Moments on QVC.

356

Mm-hmm.

357

Yes.

358

He loved that.

359

bruce: He said, I think you could

do the same thing for Instant Pot.

360

I would like you to write just an

instant pop book and let's go for it.

361

So we did.

362

Now, the thing about the instant pop

bible that we wrote is we had to take

363

into account all the different models.

364

'cause by now yeah, there's

three or four different models.

365

Yeah, yeah.

366

And it starts to get a little complicated.

367

Robert w.

368

Even decided at one point he called

me 'cause we were talking a lot.

369

He would send me samples of the Instant

bot right off the line in the Chinese

370

mark: factories.

371

He would go down to the lines if he

was where they were being made, or

372

he would have them pulled right off

the line and he would literally throw

373

it in a box and mail it to Bruce.

374

And

375

bruce: it was written on the,

on the side of it, in indelible

376

marker that you know not for sale.

377

You may not share this with anybody.

378

This is off the line.

379

Secrets.

380

It was really crazy.

381

And he,

382

mark: didn't we even sign an

NDA at one point with him?

383

I think so did we?

384

I think you did.

385

I Wouldn think you signed an NDA with him.

386

Wouldn't

387

bruce: did.

388

And it was all about this next feature.

389

So he calls me and he says, so I'm

sending you something because I am

390

revolutionizing the Instant Pot.

391

I said, well, the part was a revolution.

392

So what now?

393

And he said, well, you know how Stove

top pressure cookers can get to 15 PSI

394

and the Instant pots can only get to

12 PSI as can all maybe 13, 12 or 13.

395

Yes, as can all electric pressure cookers.

396

He said, I'm developing a new model of

Instant Pot that offers you the ability

397

to go all the way up to 15 PSI so it will

cook as hot and as fast as a stove top.

398

mark: And this is a huge thing.

399

And in fact, it.

400

It formed how we wrote the books because

in the end we wrote the instant pop books

401

so that there were recipes that could

be used, um, with most instant pots.

402

And then the same recipe had to

have a separate set of timings for

403

this New Max model, which if you

used Max, it had all these feet.

404

Robert Wang ever.

405

The tinkerer, an inventor, the the

Max model automatically shut the.

406

Pressure valve.

407

Mm-hmm.

408

You didn't have to manually do

anything with it, and it automatically

409

opened it up and as Bruce says, it

came up to the full 15 PSI that a

410

stove top pressure cooker will do.

411

By the way, just to say none of

this, uh, comes up to the level

412

that pressure canners come up to.

413

No.

414

That's a whole nother, that's

a, a whole different thing.

415

These are pressure cookers.

416

Well,

417

bruce: as a chef, I

fell in love with that.

418

That 15 PSI thing that the Max could do.

419

Right.

420

And that's the, I was

so excited about that.

421

But what we didn't take into consideration

was, one, the Max machine was much

422

more expensive than the other.

423

So it was never going to sell

Quite as well or become as popular.

424

mark: Correct.

425

bruce: And two.

426

People who don't have a max

machine, were just confused by

427

those instructions in our recipes.

428

Well, yeah.

429

They were like, well, what's Max?

430

I don't know even what

you're talking about.

431

mark: And here's the thing, Robert

kept it reinventing it, and this is not

432

a fault and why it failed, actually.

433

Mm-hmm.

434

But Robert kept reinventing it.

435

And you know, how many

instant pots do you need?

436

I know people did end up with six, eight.

437

I would see social media posts

with people who had a rack.

438

Of instant pots in their home,

and they were so happy that their

439

spouse built them this rack for the

pots and all that kind of stuff.

440

And they had many different models,

but most people did not need continued

441

updates of this machine itself.

442

So this was, you know, all happening.

443

It was still really hot and as it

peaked and as it hit the top of its

444

hotness in 2019, instant, instant.

445

Brands, the Instant Pod company was sold

to Chore Brands, and you may know Corll.

446

Dinnerware.

447

Yep.

448

Okay, so Carell Brands was one piece of a

larger portfolio owned by an investment.

449

Banker, private equity firm,

Carell Capital, they owned Corning.

450

They own Pyrex, and now they

own the instant brands and the,

451

they bought it for Billions.

452

Billions, I think they billion.

453

They spent a fortune, which is

exactly as an entrepreneur, what

454

you want to happen to product.

455

He

456

bruce: did a brilliant, brilliant move.

457

He built a company from scratch.

458

It became super popular.

459

He kept making new and exciting

models that people kept buying.

460

And after he'd made so

much money making this.

461

This Instant Pod, he sold

the company for billions.

462

So

463

mark: good for him.

464

Lemme say The Instant Pod

and the Instant Brands.

465

They made this huge success

through social media.

466

They did almost no

traditional advertising.

467

They literally became a viral

phenomenon and he wrote it.

468

Out until he could sell it for as much

as one could imagine to Carell Brands,

469

which as I say, was owned by Carell

Capital, and if you know anything

470

about private equity firms and how they

work, they took this brand, the Instant

471

brand, and they loaded it with debt.

472

They borrowed a ton of money

against the brand name.

473

The brand could never pay back all

that money, and so they were then

474

able to put it into bankruptcy.

475

That is kind of the s.

476

Standard operating procedure of private

equity firms to find a popular brand.

477

Just pull as much debt onto

it as you can possibly do it.

478

No, it will never make up this debt.

479

Mm-hmm.

480

Very sad.

481

And then pull it into bankruptcy.

482

And that cash that you

borrowed on it is now yours.

483

That happened to it.

484

Over time, the company started

to degrade and then came the

485

big degrade, which was in 2023.

486

bruce: Lemme say that online, if

you watched what was happening, the

487

people who were instant potheads,

who had all those things, right, they

488

called themselves potheads, right?

489

They watched instant brands

create many more appliances.

490

Even the many varieties of instant

pots, they did air fryers, right?

491

Uh, they did blenders, rotisserie,

492

mark: didn't they do a

rotisserie thing for one?

493

There was rot,

494

bruce: there was a rotisserie built

into some of their air fryers.

495

That's right.

496

And so what people online were saying,

oh, well they're going bankrupt

497

because they expanded too fast.

498

They made too many kinds of products.

499

And what Mark and I kept

saying to ourselves is.

500

No.

501

They made all these things, which

is what made them a success and

502

made them attractive to Right.

503

Corral brands.

504

Correct.

505

And Carell said, oh, we could scrape

all that lovely money out of there

506

and become rich ourselves, which

507

mark: is what they did.

508

That's exactly what they did.

509

And so they put it into bankruptcy

510

acquired by Center Lane.

511

Partners, another private equity firm.

512

They actually just bought the

Appliance division of Instant Brands.

513

And now I'm gonna tell you something,

and this is a little political, but I

514

don't want any political commentary here.

515

I'm just gonna tell you

the facts of what happened.

516

Okay.

517

So Center Lane Partners owned a

portfolio of various products.

518

They owned Pyrex, they

owned the old glass.

519

Company from Pennsylvania, anchor Hawking.

520

They owned Linux.

521

You made Linux from China and

Flatware and that kind of stuff.

522

Um, now they own the Instant

Brands because Center Lane

523

Partners owned both Pyrex and.

524

Anchor Hawking Center Lane Partners

came under the eye of the US

525

Antitrust Department and they

started to be investigated for

526

antitrust violations, not having

anything to do with the Instant Pot.

527

Mm-hmm.

528

With having everything to do

with the connection between

529

Pyrex and Anchor Hawking.

530

I believe they even put the factory

for Anchor Hawking out of business.

531

They did.

532

They did Pennsylvania.

533

So here's the.

534

Brand did.

535

Here's what the firm, the private

equity firm did, and again, I

536

don't want to be political here.

537

I just wanna tell you the facts.

538

What the firm did is it began

bringing out Linux, China, Linux,

539

flatware, and Instant Pots, as well

as even some glass square through

540

Anchor Hawking, all with the Trump.

541

Brand on them.

542

They did this so that they could

ease their way out of regulation.

543

Essentially this was the new kind of

lobbying, which is part flattery, that

544

in other words, we will put out Trump

bla branded appliances and this will

545

help ease us back out of regulation.

546

Again, I don't wanna get

political right in the

547

bruce: hopes.

548

He gives us a free pass.

549

mark: That's right.

550

But whatever you think about this move

politically, and again, I don't care,

551

but whatever you think about it, this

further damaged the instant brand, right?

552

Because politics are so divisive

in the United States that people

553

discovered that Instant Brands was

putting out a Trump branded Instant

554

Pot, and they all got away from it.

555

Whole, um, groups online and

fire sales of Instant Pots, and I

556

gotta get rid of my Instant Pot.

557

'cause now they're with Trump.

558

They, they're not really with Trump.

559

They're not really with Trump.

560

It's this weird backdoor lobbying campaign

in order to get the US Justice Department

561

off their tails for antitrust violations.

562

bruce: And that was really the.

563

Final decline of the Instapot.

564

It, it has been still.

565

They're still out there.

566

People still have 'em.

567

We still have them.

568

I love the ones I have.

569

mark: And let's say that the Trump

branded products was particularly

570

devastating to the original

audience of the INS Instant Pod.

571

Mm-hmm.

572

The Canadian audience, which the sales

just fell off the hook at that point.

573

bruce: So at the height.

574

Instant pot.

575

And when we were writing all

the books, I probably had about

576

25 instant pots in the house.

577

You did?

578

You did.

579

And I have, of course, given so

many away and kept my favorite.

580

So what I have kept is a three quart

instant pot because it's the perfect

581

size for just like making potatoes

for mashed potatoes from Mark and me,

582

um, for making just a small amount of

broth if I have, you know, a bunch of

583

chicken wings and a neck and a few legs.

584

I got rid of all of my six quarts,

which was the standard one, but I

585

kept an eight quart and a 10 quart.

586

The giant ones.

587

The giant ones, the eight quart

is great 'cause you could make,

588

you know so much, use so much

in it as once and the 10 quart.

589

Here's what I love about the 10 quart.

590

What I loved about the Insta

bot in general was pasta.

591

You could cook pasta,

spaghetti, zdi, rigatoni.

592

In your sauce, right?

593

You build a sauce, you put the

pasta in, you put it on, and

594

five minutes later it's done.

595

In the 10 court, you could cook

spaghetti without breaking it.

596

To fit the pot, it fit the

whole box of spaghetti.

597

And

598

mark: I will say that, uh, we still have

these pots and I, uh, and as you know, the

599

writer in the pair of us, but I use them.

600

Exclusively as slow cookers at this point.

601

I used the slow cooker function

to make chili after Bruce's

602

concert, stuff like that.

603

I rarely ever use the pressure

cooker setting of them.

604

So that's the whole story, how this thing

became a phenomenon through social media.

605

People built careers off of it.

606

Mm-hmm.

607

As.

608

Influencers.

609

Then the things started to fall apart.

610

Not because it became too popular, not

because they began innovating too much,

611

but because they innovated it until they

were at the peak of their popularity.

612

It got sold and then it got sold.

613

Again, and then there came this political

problem and it really now has collapsed.

614

As I say, I've seen actually parties

online with people selling on Facebook

615

marketplace, their instant pots

for a dollar to get rid of them.

616

This is all part of the political

polarization in the United States.

617

Ca Canada's distrust of the United States.

618

Yeah.

619

At this moment it's all part of what's

happening around it, and the pot is

620

just continuing to tank underneath us.

621

So.

622

That's the rise and fall of the Insat.

623

You wanna add anything?

624

bruce: Yeah, that I am not selling mine.

625

I don't care what's

happened to the company.

626

I love my three Insta Bots.

627

They are mine and no one can have

628

mark: them.

629

Okay.

630

So there you go.

631

That's the rise and fall

of the In Instant Bot.

632

So before we get to the final segment of

this podcast, let me say that we have, uh,

633

great social media group available to you.

634

In fact, we have a TikTok

channel named Cooking with.

635

Bruce and Mark just the same name as

his podcast, and we've recently had

636

some videos actually go viral on TikTok.

637

Mm-hmm.

638

You might wanna check us out on TikTok,

uh, cooking with Bruce and Mark.

639

Were making food for each other.

640

I think we're, uh, pickling

cherry tomatoes right now and

641

making a really spicy carrot.

642

Mm-hmm.

643

What?

644

Conant Jam?

645

Mm-hmm.

646

Carrot Jam.

647

But it's more like a condiment for soft.

648

Cheese and for hamburgers,

that kind of thing.

649

Uh, those videos are actually

going viral right now, and

650

we're kind of proud of that.

651

So check us out on TikTok, uh,

cooking, Bruce and Mark, as well as of

652

course, subscribing to this podcast.

653

Okay.

654

As is traditional, the final segment,

what's making us happy in food this week?

655

bruce: Head on shrimp.

656

Skewered and grilled

marinated Vietnamese style.

657

We had a dinner party last night.

658

Mm-hmm.

659

It was our friend's grandson's.

660

14th birthday we did.

661

And we said we would have the whole family

over for dinner 'cause he loves fish.

662

And we did a big what?

663

mark: Nine of them came right?

664

Well the grandkids Two different.

665

Two different.

666

Our friends, their kids, two

couples that are their kids.

667

Plus three grandkids.

668

Mm-hmm.

669

bruce: Including the

birthday boy who wanted fish.

670

So I did a home mixed fish

grill, including head on

671

shrimp, which I got at Costco.

672

These were like, U nines means fewer than

nine shrimp per pound, so they were giant.

673

I skewered them.

674

I marinated them in fish sauce and curry

paste and lime juice and brown sugar.

675

They were so yummy.

676

So that made me happy.

677

mark: It was really good.

678

Uh, I think what's made me happy in

food this week are spiced pickled plums.

679

And if you go out to

Melissa's, produce the organic.

680

Produce, uh, seller.

681

If you go down to their site on

YouTube, you'll see Bruce and

682

I did, uh, an event for them.

683

We did a cooking event for them

that went on YouTube live and

684

now it's just living on YouTube.

685

So Melissa's produce and we

make these spiced pickled plums

686

from cold canning, our latest

book, and they are so delicious.

687

If you grew up in the south, like me,

you may know about spiced peaches.

688

These plums are fantastic.

689

Mm-hmm.

690

And in fact, people ate them

last night with all this.

691

Fish off the grill.

692

I'm not sure they exactly go with

fish, but they were simply tasty.

693

They, with everything.

694

One person at the table claimed he was

fighting not to go back for a second plum.

695

So there you go.

696

There was a lot of food on the table.

697

So there you go.

698

So that's the podcast for this week.

699

Thanks for joining us.

700

Thanks for being a part of this

journey and thanks for being, um,

701

with us every step of this way.

702

bruce: And if you're paying

attention to social media, you know,

703

there's a lot of AI out there and

a lot of videos that are totally.

704

Made up.

705

They're bots.

706

They're not real.

707

But when you go to watch Bruce and

Mark on cooking with Bruce and Mark on

708

our TikTok channel, on our Instagram

channel, on YouTube, on our Facebook

709

channel, you are always going to get us.

710

You are never gonna get ai.

711

That is our promise to you here

on cooking with Bruce and Mark.