Caution: Contents under pressure

[veg-o-matic]

Well, I finally broke down and got myself a pressure cooker. Since I tend not to like new stuff, I found a grand Presto Control Master PC on the 'bay and tested her out today.
Before doing anything, I replaced the gasket and pressure release thingie. I may be dumb, but I ain't stupid.

Today's experiment was a pot roast. I'm not sure what the cut of beef was--some kind of round, I think. Top or bottom, one of those. It was a very lean piece that I would have turned into shoe leather had I cooked it any other way.

And so we start by browning our meat...

 

[veg-o-matic]

Add some 'taters and spices and stuff...

 

[veg-o-matic]

And let it cook away for 30 minutes. The hardest part was waiting for the pressure to go down. I kept poking at the pressure relief thingie with a fork to speed it up.

No explosions.

 

[veg-o-matic]

Thirty minutes later

Huston, we have pot roast.

Made some fresh zucchini with onions to go with.

Turned out rather well, too. Meat was nice and tender and the 'taters were cooked all the way through. I'm going to have to use this more often, now that I've Faced My Fears!

 

[veg-o-matic]

I even made gravy! One of my more successful attempts, too.

 

[frigilux]

Looks great, Veg! I'm not afraid of my pressure-cooker, but I don't use it often. Just don't EVER try to cook rice (or a recipe containing rice) in it! It foams up and blocks the pressure vent, which can cause an explosion. Your gravy looks excellent, BTW.

 

[veg-o-matic]

Hmmm. How the hell did I put this in the Imperial forum? I could swear I was typing on yellow...

Robert, would you be a dear and move this for me?

veg

 

[tlee618]

Hey Veg, That looks wonderful. I have a pressure cooker as well but just don't think to use it very often. I bet that roast was nice and tender. Terry

 

[Unimatic1140]

I could swear I was typing on yellow

Maybe you just had to pee dear? Like magic it gets moved.

 

[maytagbear]

That's the exact model

pressure cooker I have! I use it a lot.

Very proud of you, Veg. Very proud. Welcome to the real PC's!

I do cook rice in mine, especially brown or wild rice, but you HAVE to put oil in it, about 1-2 tablespoons, depending on how much rice, but it works perfectly and safely. If you don't put in the oil, you do get a mess unto disaster.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[appnut]

I too am proud of you Veg!!! Looks yummy. I guess Sunday was meat day, I did a flank steak in my Nesco.

 

[lederstiefel1]

I use my pressure-cookers quite often - especially on food that needs a long time to cook! Like: beef-tongue, white beans soup, peas-soup, goulash-soup, beef-stock, clear chicken-soup, boiled beef, Eisbein with Sauerkraut (salted/pickeled pork-leg with sour-cabbage), etc.!
Ralf

 

[thor]

Pressure going down

Bob, my mother used to cook almost daily on a pressure cooker. After the cooking time was up she would just put the whole thing in the sink and open the cold water faucet and let cold water run over the whole pressure cooker. Pressure was down to normal in less than a half a minute, without even cooling down the cooked food inside a bit. She would then remove the pressure counterweight with a fork and next she could easily open the lid. In this way the cooking process stopped immediately, and food did not keep cooking while you'd be waiting for the pressure to go down. Same effect as submerging vegetables in ice cold water after blanching them, before freezing, to immediately stop the cooking process.

Emilio

 

[thor]

Electric!

Bob, first time I looked at your picture I didn't realize your pressure cooker was electric! Please, forgive my oversight, my mother's pressure cooker was a standard unit for stove top use.

Emilio

 

[tomturbomatic]

You can immerse the electric pc with the control removed. The reason you generally don't want to cool it rapidly when cooking meats is that the rapid drop in pressure pulls the juices out of the meat.

Congratulations, Mr. O-Matic! Glad to see you cooking under pressure. You got a nice cooker there.

 

[polkanut]

I'm glad that you found a vintage Presto pressure cooker. Presto has it's headquarters in Eau Claire, WI which is only about 101 miles west of Wausau. Vintage Presto's and vintage West Bend pc's are some of the best ever made.

 

[Kenmore62]

PRESTO PRESSURE COOKERS

HII have a presto pressure cooker, it works great. The thing I like is its easy to get parts for. They send you a sheet that has all the model numbers, then list what the part numbers are it uses rubber gaskets,pressure relif valve ect. You call them up order it and in a few days its here.I seen many pressure cookers in the store, but wonder how hard it would me to get part replacements.

View attachment 8-28-2006-20-03-57--kenmore62.jpg

 

[jasonl]

vs crock pot

Helen tells me the meat comes out more tender in a crock pot than in a pressure cooker. She did a roast yesterday for about 9 hours in the Rival and you could hardly get the meat with a fork it was so tender and juicy.

 

[whirlcool]

We've used a Mirro pressure cooker for years. Mostly for pot roast and also for spare ribs. Anything you put in there comes out almost fall apart tender. We prebrown them in the broiler slightly before going into the pressure cooker. Keeps them from coming out gray colored.
A few years ago we gave our neighbor across the street a really nice pressure cooker as a thank you present for watching our house while we were on vacation. She loves it too. But I have encountered quite a few people who don't like them, usually a fear of them blowing up. Seems every one has a story of "the freind who had a stew cooking in the pressure cooker and it exploded embedding the carrots in the ceiling". I think maybe back in the 40's and early 50's this may have happened but with all the safety devices on the modern cookers of today I can't see how an explosion could occur.
Back when I was about 12 or so my mother said that she has a roast cooking in the pressure cooker, make sure I come in the hosue in 10 minutes and turn it off. Then off she went to the store. Of course being involved in a baseball game in the street I rememebered about 45 minutes later. I thought the cooker would explode, but all that happened was the pressure relief valve melted and the house was full of smoke. The only think left of the pot roast was the bone. So if there ever was an opportunity for one to explode, there it was but it didn't.