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Dan, how are you making the gravy? Do you pour most of the fat off and stir the flour into the fat remaining in the pan to make a roux and brown it a bit? Then you slowly whisk in cold water to keep the flour from clumping and keep wisking (those flat whisks are great for this) until it comes to a boil? Turn the heat to simmer and cover. This stage is where, if you used a roasting rack, you can place it, upside down, into the gravy and let the nice glaze from the juices cook off the rack and into the gravy. Then all you have to do is remove the rack, check for seasoning and serve. Making gravy is the easiest way to get the really cooked on stuff off a pan.

I remember a friend's grandmother shaking a bit of Wondra into fried corn to slightly thicken it.
 
Nooo!

If the gravy comes out lumpy, Cuisinart or Waring to the rescue! If using a blendor, cover the lid with a kitchen towel, and your hand, in that order.

If the gravy is underflavoured, a few drops of Lea and Perrins (if beef) can work wonders. If the gravy is chicken, a few drops of Knorr liquid chicken broth concentrate performs similar magic. In either case, when I say "few drops," I mean a few drops, usually no more than 1/4 teaspoon.

I like to use beurre manie, which is a flour-butter paste of 50-50 proportions. Mix it well, either with a wooden spoon or in the processor, and then just drop in small bits to the very hot pan drippings/ broth, and stir. Usually perfectly lumpless that way. Lower the heat, and simmer until the flour loses that raw taste.

Pour into a preheated sauceboat.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Growing up we never had a pressure cooker. When I was around 11 or 12 I saw one in use at a friend's house. I decided to buy one for my mom. This was the later 60's and avocado was big, so I got her a green 4qt Mirro-matic. She used it once or twice and that was that--it was relegated to a storage cabinet in the basement. I ended up with it and still have it. When it needed a new gasket I did a lot of searching before finding one at a large ACE Hardware store which has since closed. Then it needed another and I ended up having to order it on line. Yet I regularly saw Presto gaskets and replacement parts at my smaller local ACE store, among other places. So when I saw a good deal on a huge Presto (stove top) PC I decided to upgrade. With a gas stove it's easy to regulate the heat and get the weight jiggling just right. The Presto is even faster than the Mirro was! By far the thing I use it for most is artichokes. They're done in 10-15 minutes. I don't get why more people don't use these things--they are great! I still have the Mirro instruction/recipe book and use that as a guide but the Presto consistently does everything in less time than called for in the Mirro book. I pull out the Mirro when I don't need the volume of the Presto, but I'm afraid it may have to be retired soon as even with a new gasket it doesn't always want to seal correctly and I really have to keep an eye on it.

Veg, thanks for reminding me that I need to pull out the Presto for a one-pot meal sometime soon!
 
One tip if you have a pressure cooker gasket that won't quite seal all the way is to coat it with cooking oil before putting it in the top on both sides. Our Mirro 4-qt unit had this problem and this took care of that.
 
Veg, You've Inspired Me. .

After going to Linens & Things, and then finally BB&B, I found the FAGOR pressure cooker. I really like to cook for family and friends, so I choose the 8QT. It came in a nifty package which also included another pan (maybe a 2 QT that looks more like a big skillet (I'm not being very technical here). Anyway, you can use the pressure lid for either depending on your needs, and it also came with an interchangable glass lid as well as a little steamer basket.

I bought the biggest, baddest, toughest and cheapest shoulder roast I could find that the grocery store and put my new pressure cooker to the test. I browned it in a bit of olive oil and fresh garlic, and then added a mixture of 1 pkg Liption Onion soup mix, 1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup and 2 cans water. Pressured for about 20 minutes, and then added potatoes and onions and pressured for another 20 mintues. I was in a hurry to get to an evening meeting, so I used the quick release method but it came out OH SO TENDER. I made a gravy out of the sauce (and added 2 beef boullion cubes) and it was the best meal I've ever had. I served it with some salad and had a GREAT meal!

I can't wait to try some other dishes in my new pressure cooker!

Bryan
 
No

Well, it looks like my two favorite appliances now are the pressure cooker and the Crock Pot. Apparently, I either want dinner done right now or sometime much later in the day.

I'm not sure what this says about my delicate psyche--but the pork chops were sure tasty!

veg
 
Welcome to the pressure cooking club! I am sure you'll find plenty to cook with that 8-qt unit! Just about anything you cook in it will come out fall off the bone tender.

I noticed that the newer pressure cookers sound different than the old ones. My Mothers kid of went "Jiggle-Jiggle-Jiggle" and the newer ones seem to go "Psst-Psst-Pisst". If anyone has an vintage pressure cooker, you'll know what I mean.
 
Pressure Cooker

I have the Presto pressure cooker and the insturction book my great aunt bought in 1940. She used it 2-3 times a week. Growing up in the 50's it was used as much as the microwave is today. I have fixed meat loaf in the Presto and it came out real moist.
 
I have both Presto and Mirro 16 quart canners and the Mirro 8 qt which will hold 4 quart jars. They are all of the older, more streamlined and rounded design. I used to enjoy canning, but kinda do not have time anymore. I found a vintage 50s Presto three piece regulator for canning so it uses the center part (rocks at 5 lbs) and one of the rings that slips down over it to hold 10 pounds for canning green beans and other low acid veggies and just the center for tomatoes. It looks similar to the weight Presto started using in the 60s, with the little triangular plastic knob and a latitudinal groove around the middle to make it look like it has the two rings except those are just one piece. My weight will rock and hiss to keep the pressure from rising above the desired pressure so you do not have to be watching the needle gauge and heat as closely as if you were using one of the newer weights that just maintains 15 lbs of pressure. And, unless you are canning at a high elevation, you do not have to worry if your needle gauge is accurate for 5 or 10 pounds of pressure.

Ralph, if you are having trouble with a U shaped gasket like the Mirro uses, you can try turning it over to see if it seals better. Mom's post WWII Presto was almost silent in operation once the heat was turned down to maintain the 15 pounds of pressure shown by the three rings that rose out of the gauge, but MirroMatics are supposed to rattle and hiss 2 or 3 times a minute to let you know they are maintaining the selected pressure. It's like having a bird in the room making noises regularly. Mirro even published a Braille cookbook titled Cooking Without Looking (perhaps a bit dated title-wise)for their pressure cookers and would supply Braille markers for the 3 different pressures on the regulator because the cook did not need to see Mirro's regulator, the sound would let them know when it reached the desired pressure. Kinahora, I am so grateful for my sight and that all of my senses work.

Has anyone visited Miss Vickie's Pressure Cooker site? It's not as chatty as this site and she is pretty much stuck on Kuhn Rikon cookers, but if you want to check out pressure cooking, that is a good place to go for a lot of information.
 
I'm gonna go look for a PC this weekend and try it out. I guess I'll get a traditional Presto just to be able to get parts for it when needed.

Does the manual that come with the PC's give you cook times like a certain minutes per pound kind of thing or how to convert regular recipes into PC recipes?
 
Yes,

Pressure cooker manuals from big name manufacturers, i.e. Presto, Kuhn-Rikon, Fagor, do have detailed instructions that are great for a start, until you can swing by Borders or B & N, or an independent bookstore (or the LIBRARY!) for an independent pressure cooker book, like one by Lorna Sass (Pressure Perfect), Tom Lacalamita (Pressure Cookers for Dummies) or Victoria Wise (Pressure Cooker Gourmet).

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
PRESTO!

Well, last night, I took the plunge and bought a Presto 6qt PC. It's the typical classic PC only it has a rigid flat bottom for use on a smoothtop stove and a safety plug so you can't open it under pressure.

I setup to cook a beef pot roast in it. 2.75lb beef chuck roast, 3 taters (cut into chunks) and a chopped onion. Seasoned the meat, browned it, put the meat rack in the pot, 2 cups water (per recipe), taters, onions, lid on. I set the stove on high to bring up the pressure. Once it got going, lowered the burner to medium (5 on the dial) and let it chug for 45 minutes. AFter that, I let it de-pressurize on its own accord, opened the lid and MMMMMM MMMMMM!!!!!! And yes, fall off the fork tender. I couldn't even pick it up out of the pot without it falling apart.

YAY for pressure cookers. I never know why I never got one sooner!

Seems the formula for beef is 15 minutes per pound vs like an hour a pound if using in the oven or 6 to 8 hours in a crock pot.
 
Jason, I bet that roast was good, just wondering about the potaotes, I have always added those after cooking the roast for about 30 min. depending on size and then did the quick pressure relief and added the vegies. I would have thought the potatoes would have been mush after that time. Terry
 
La Patate

They were almost mush but they held their shape and was really good. The onions were melted all in the potatoes and meat giving a really nice flavor.
 
Try steaming vegetables

in your Fagor pressure cooker.

You gotta try this!!!

The steamer Fagor provides isn't any good. Get a standard stainless steel steamer basket that has those leaves which fold inward. Anyway, set it for high pressure, and go exactly one minute after the pressure indicator pops up. Then quick release.

Guaranteed to be the best asparagus and broccoli you've ever tasted! The bright green color remains, the texture is tender but still crisp, and there's much more flavor, especially with the asparagus (because the cooking time is much shorter than with conventional steaming). A pressure cooker is worth its keep for this purpose alone.

If you serve PC'd asparagus or broccoli to foodies unfamiliar with pressure cooking, they will notice and ask you what in the world you did.

Don't forget to use your pressure cooker for corned beef and cabbage, or pork and sauerkraut. And buy a second one to make the parslied and buttered new potatoes or else mashed potatoes, and a third to make the carrots! I'm serious! Tom Laclamita says it's not uncommon for Europeans to have three or more in a household.
 
A general rule for timing at 15 pounds of pressure is about 1/3 of the time it would take in a regular pan. The water you add to the roast can be any kind of compatable stock, or water and bouillon cube, part red wine, augmented with some favorite steak sauce, some tomato juice or even canned tomatoes, some rosemary, whatever flavors you like or usually use when cooking a roast. The wonderful thing is that they are "pressured in" and make a delicious roast.

If you use a steaming basket that stands above the water line, you can hard cook eggs that will not crack at 5 pounds of pressure for 6-8 minutes. The steam is gentler than the contact with hot water and the direct heat on the bottom of the pan like when they are usually cooked and the pressure around them helps equalize the forces of expansion inside the shell so the shell is less stressed.
 
Hmm, lol. Kinda like I have two microwaves. I guess in somje instances the PC would be very fast, but the thought of having to first brown the meat or chicken before PC doesn't sound too appealing, especially at the end of a long day.

Kinda like the idea of more than on ePC--talkk about near nuker-speed preparation!!!
 
Bob.....

Lorna Sass in "Pressure Perfect" eliminates most browning, and so do I, now.

She suggests, and I echo, spreading soy sauce on meat before cooking it. It looks brown, and tastes just fine. It's also less nerve wracking. I bet Lea and Perrins would work well for this, too.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
We use Lea & Perrins Worchester Sauce as part of the pre cooking marinade. Works just wonderful. But if you have your heat up high enough and use a good high temp oil the searing portion doesn't take long at all. Remember, you only want to brown the outside, not cook it.
We normally use just water with some spices as the liquid medium, but with all this talk about pressure cooking we drug ours out last night and made a pot roast and used Swanson's Beef Broth mixed with water (75/25) for a 3 lb pot roast. It turned out a little too salty for our taste. Maybe a 50/50 would be better.
We usually fast release ours, but last night we let it cool on it's own (20 minutes to release). We really didn't notice any difference. It was still good.
As we all here are finding out Pressure Cooking is a wonderful way to cook. But it still gets me that when you talk to most people about it usually the responses you get are "I wouldn't have one in my house", or "I thoght they took those things off the market, they always explode, don't they?".
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they are "uninformed", putting it nicely.
 
I NEVER brown meat if I'm using the slow cooker--why mess up another pan? I do brown it in the PC because it's already there and heated up, so why not? If it required a separate pan or the broiler or something, you can bet I wouldn't do it.

veg
 
Right, meats cooked in a slow cooker usually brown on their own. And when you brown your meat in the bottom of the pressure cooker not only do you use just one pan, but the remains of the browning process just add to the flavor when the liquid cooking medium is added. For additional taste, you could "deglaze" the bottom of the pressure cooker after browning but before pressure cooking with Sherry or maybe some Harvey's Bristol Cream.
 
Count on me to jump on any trend ;-)

I dug out my presssure cooker last night and made my standard pot roast, but added carrots and potatoes for the last 15 minutes (which I have never done before). It came out really quite well, and took about an hour and a half from start to finish, including prep and pressure build/drop time (usually 4+ hours in the oven)

I, like Veg, was impatient for the pressure to drop, and mine (a Fagor) has a steam realease switch which is quite dramatic, so I ended up using it both after the 1/2 hour of just meat, and the 15 minutes of meat and veggies.

The only thing I kinda didn't like about it was that there was a lot more liquid than there usually is, and it made it soupy.

My recipe is from Nora Ephron's book "Heartburn" (which is a hillarious read, btw)

You just throw all of this in a pot and let it go....

1 pot roast
Can of cream of mushroom Soup
Envelope of Dried onion soup mix
1 chopped onion
4 cloves chopped galic
2 cups red wine
2 cups water
1 bay leaf
tsp each of thyme and Basil

When cooked in the oven, it ends up with a nice rich gravy that is quite thick, but as I said, the pressure cooker retained the liquid and made it soupy. Do you think I should reduce the liquid in future attempts?
 
By all means, reduce the amount of liquid. My Presto instruction manual/cookbook says to use about 1/2 cup more liquid than you want to end up with (if you'll pardon the grammar!)

veg
 
A good rule of thumb is the longer a food will cook in the pressure cooker the more liquid you need to add. This is what generates the steam to create the pressure. You don't want a pressure cooker to run dry. So if you are only going to pressure cook for a short time, not nearly as much liquid is required.
 
Tom & Whirlcool, I've tried various tricks to get my Mirro to seal properly. Last time I bought a gasket I felt I was probably replacing a perfectly good one, and sure enough I had the same leak in the same spot, just to the right of the handle. If I grab both handles and squeeze just enough to stop the steam from escaping out the side of the lid, it will eventually seal but that kind of defeats the purpose of "cooking without looking" doesn't it? I also think I read something about the gasket starting to stretch out if you put oil on it too much of the time. I haven't given up on the Mirro yet, though. I've always made it my business to keep an eye on the PC until it was happily jiggling away as designed. As for the jiggling action, my Mirro is of the few-times-a-minute variety and it's quite an outburst when it does its thing. Meanwhile the Presto asks you to maintain a continuous gentle rocking motion on the weight, and is much quieter as it goes about its business.

Lawrence, my Presto's pamphlet was very limited in recipes compared to the booklet that came with the old Mirro. I usually pull out both manuals because if it's not in the Presto one, it can almost always be found in the Mirro's. But I should get an actual pressure cooker book.

Bottom line on PC's is that they won't blow up when used properly and are a great addition to any kitchen.
 
I agree that they are a great addition to anyones kitchen.
You know, we used our Mirro when we made the Pot Roast the other day. My wife said that it wouldn't pressurize properly. I stopped the unit and looked at the rubber gasket. It still looked like new and the next time we tried it, sure enough it was releasing steam like hell from the right side of the handle, just like you described. After about 10 minutes, it eventually sealed. I wonder if it's a warped lid? How old is your Mirro? Ours is about 12 years old.
 
Meat browning and pale gravy

Mom would ever once in a while pressure a cheap roast. Her secret for getting it to look appetizing was to brown it in the PC. Later years, she got onto the little yellar bottle of "Kitchen Boquet". It's found in the sauce/soup aisle at your grocery store. Think of it as "brown food coloring" for meats and sauces. Brush some on your roast before going into the PC and viola, a brown roast. Also, if your gravy is a little pale (and sorry, guys, Mom taught me to make my beef gravy with cornstarch and water, instead of flour.) add a few drops of the Kitchen Boquet into the gravy. Just becareful, a few DROPS is all you need. Otherwise, you can end up with something that looks very close to chocolate gravy!

duetboy
aka jeff
 
I frequenty use Kitchen Bouquet myself. I have never really learned the art of gravy making (I'm not much of a gravy fan anyway) and it does work wonders! Smooth gravy every time. I used to see this stuff more back in the 60's than now.
 

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