Pepe Le Pew

Did you notice on those Instant Pot Facebook sites how people are asking for help in naming or choosing names for their Instant Pot and their second or third pots.  I am not sure if my excitement or thankfulness for this time saving device has hit the point in me searching through baby name books but I can say that after a strong Texas chili and 2 chicken dishes my pot, or silicone seal, has definitely earned the name of Pepe La Pew.

I have seen several posts on this definite drawback for those wanting to do a sweet and savory dish back to back and many have invested in a separate ring for those two foods (myself included).  I also read that Instant Pot was making, not yet released, color coded silicone rings for our convenience.  I have also read many posts about cleaning the ring to remove the smell, baking soda/vinegar scrubs, apple cider vinegar soaks, etc. The manual itself says a good clean in in the dishwasher does the trick.  As that is the only one I have tried, I can say for sure that it did not remove the odor in my ring.  I read in a comment of someone using a steam cycle and lemons to clean their valves so I wondered if  lemon essential oil would have any effect on my silicone ring.  And lo and behold it did!  Here is what I did.

2 cups of water in the bottom of the cooking pot with 5 drops of lemon essential oil, making sure it is food grade, or maybe they all are.  I don't know that answer so make sure to ask your oil distributor.  I set the pot to the steam cycle for 5 minutes and did a quick valve release.  Depending on how stinky your stink bug is, you may have to repeat. I really hope you have the same success I did and that it continues to work for both of us!