Pressure cookers

Author
Discussion

don4l

Original Poster:

10,058 posts

176 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
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The OH and I are both great fans of the pressure cooker.

This Christmas we cooked the ham in it, and later made a turkey soup/stew with the remnants of the turkey. We also used it for the Christmas pudding.

All turned out fantastic.

We often do Irish Stew, and the wife likes to do a chick peas and bacon dish in it.

I would like to use this fantastic implement a bit more.

Does anybody else use one, and if so, what do you cook in it?


adsk

87 posts

159 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
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Have started using mine more having replaced a 20yr old Prestige for a new Tefal. It gets used for making marmalade at this time of year - softens the oranges in 10 mins compared to 1-2 hours in a conventional cooker. It's brilliant for mince based dishes - mince comes out super tender. Also great for beef/lamb stews - quick and very tender results. Also like it for steaming swede. The other thing I use it for regularly is stocks, especially boiling chicken carcasses. Do tend to use it more in winter than summer.

The most unusual use was to quickly create lots of steam - brought it to pressure with a little water in the base and then released pressure it in the bathroom to create lots of steam to eliminate dust to apply a glass screen protector on my mobile phone.

Mobile Chicane

20,825 posts

212 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
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Heston advocates making stock in it as the rapid heating and short cooking time keep the volatile flavour molecules in.

ChrisnChris

1,423 posts

222 months

Thursday 5th January 2017
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Perfect timing for marmalade season, quickens up the peel softening by a factor of about 1,000

yum

don4l

Original Poster:

10,058 posts

176 months

Thursday 5th January 2017
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Mobile Chicane said:
Heston advocates making stock in it as the rapid heating and short cooking time keep the volatile flavour molecules in.
The turkey soup that I made involved three seperate stages. The first was just turkey bones and neck for 50 minutes.

The bones were removed, and vegetables were added. Potato, carrot, onion, celery, nutmeg, bay leaf, oregano and pepper. Lots of pepper. Back in the pressure cooker for 30 minutes.

Finally some broken up thin noodles were added and left to sit for 6 minutes.

It ended up as a delicious stew.

It looks like not many people are using pressure cookers these days.


LordGrover

33,539 posts

212 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2017
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I've been using an electric pressure cooker most days for quite a while.
I find it invaluable for beans and the like, plus batch cooking potatoes and rice.
Excellent for many one-pot dishes like chilli and stews/casseroles.

karma mechanic

728 posts

122 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2017
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Fantastic for making lamb curry.

Shoulder of lamb, cubed and fried up a bit to seal it, then give it some pressure cooking. Ours is a Kuhn Rikon one and although initially sceptical I love how you can fry up the onions, add lamb and a small amount of water and then create melt-in-the-mouth lamb in an oozy rich curry suce.


NorthDave

2,366 posts

232 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2017
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I use mine fairly often. I did a Beef Rangdang last week - stewing beef, coconut milk, bit of fish sauce, chilli, garlic and ginger all cooked for 20 minutes or so. The meat just fell apart and it tasted amazing.

smack

9,728 posts

191 months

Wednesday 24th May 2017
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I bought a Kuhn Rikon Pressure Cooker 3 years ago, and been very happy with it. Main things I used it for is cooking casseroles, curries, beans, to save time, or I start cooking dinner too late. And the favorite thing I cook in mine is meat for Carnitas/Tacos/Bin Mah sandwiches and alike.

If you are buying one, make sure it can reach high pressure, which is 15psi. Cheaper ones might only get up to 9-10 psi, so you won't get much time saving when cooking. That won't matter much if you are cooking some beans, but it will on pieces of tough meat that when they need to be cooked for an hour or more.

Jer_1974

1,506 posts

193 months

Wednesday 24th May 2017
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I use my electric pressure cooker all the time (Instantpot) you can find massive Facebook group with recipes etc.

Rice
Porridge in the winter by placing a Pirex jug on a trivet inside and setting timer.
Soup's, stew's, curry, pulses, stock and you can even use it to fry onions and slow cook. You can even make yogurt in it.

matrignano

4,365 posts

210 months

Thursday 25th May 2017
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I find myself making more and more curries and stews (and ragu!) so it might be time to invest in one of these.

What are the pros/cons of an electric cooker vs. pressure cooker?

LordGrover

33,539 posts

212 months

Thursday 25th May 2017
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Electric pressure cooker is essentially set and forget. Conventional stove-top pressure cookers require attendance.
Conventional typically reach higher pressure (15psi?) which may be beneficial in some circumstances, but 11-12psi in the Instant Pot has been fine for everything I've done.

matrignano

4,365 posts

210 months

Thursday 25th May 2017
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LordGrover said:
Electric pressure cooker is essentially set and forget. Conventional stove-top pressure cookers require attendance.
Conventional typically reach higher pressure (15psi?) which may be beneficial in some circumstances, but 11-12psi in the Instant Pot has been fine for everything I've done.
Thanks. Leaning towards the electric cooker, I don't trust myself with high pressure stuff hehe
Does it use a lot of electricity though?

LordGrover

33,539 posts

212 months

Thursday 25th May 2017
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Should have listed that as a plus point, very low power usage as they typically half (or less) cooking times and are well insulated.

LeadFarmer

7,411 posts

131 months

Thursday 25th May 2017
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I have memories back in the 70's & 80's as a kid, of my mother stood at the kitchen sink struggling to hold the weight of the pressure cooker under the cold tap to de-pressurise it.

OneManBanned

59 posts

84 months

Thursday 25th May 2017
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We have an instant pot. We often use it to cook an entire chicken from frozen (45 minutes). We then finish it for 10 minutes in the oven - just to brown the skin. We first did it when we realised we hadn't taken anything from the freezer. Now, we always do it this way as it's delicious.

It's very good for chilli and I often use if to do curried goat (goat is a poor quality meat, but is delicious in the instant pot.

It also does perfect rice too!

Emanresu

311 posts

89 months

Thursday 25th May 2017
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I bought one for a fiver at a car boot sale. Put a union and a copper pipe on the top and used it to distill poteen. Way more fun than boiled ham.

Speed 3

4,564 posts

119 months

Thursday 25th May 2017
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Beef Goulash is sublime done in a pressure cooker. i've still got the hand-me-down Prestige from the 70's and it works perfectly. I was on a curry course recently and "Sir" started his dahl beans in one. Must admit I avoid what my Mum used it for - veg for Sunday roast - ever had liquid sprouts ? I have been tempted to get a newer one but can't come up with any man maths that justifies it when the old bugger is so simple & reliable.

Tony Angelino

1,972 posts

113 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2018
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Thinking of investing in one of these for the winter - daft question here but assume when you do a full chicken and the like they dont come out crispy?

Hoover.

5,988 posts

242 months

Tuesday 9th October 2018
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I use my mine to make salt beef, pastrami, dahls, spare ribs etc...…. nice n quick compared to traditional methods

Mine a Fagor Futuro set which has both a 6qt and 4qt pan (which neatly nest in each other when not in use), with one pressure cooker lid & one glass lid and cooks at both 8 & 15 psi. I had to buy this from the USA as no one over here stocked it here.