PRESSURE COOKERS: Love 'em? Hate 'em? Let's go to the poll!

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Love.

I love my Prestos (two 4 qt electrics, one 6 qt stovetop). Always use them for brown rice or wild rice. Other dishes as well, but brown rice and wild rice cook much faster and better in a pressure cooker.

I still say that for me at least, the best pressure cooker cookbook is Lorna Sass's Pressure Perfect.

I have heard of "exploding" pressure cookers, but it always seems to come down to operator error.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Peas, Rice And Other Foods

That produce froth when cooking must be done with caution in a PC. All manuals and cookbooks on the matter state so and usually give directions regarding amounts or other tips. The problem is the foam; if it reaches a certain point it can and usually will clog the relief valves, then your troubles start.
 
All of those

are easily dealt with by adding a smallish amount of an appropriate fat, like a tablespoon of butter or olive oil, and by following a trusted recipe, either from Lorna Sass, Tom Lacalamita, Victoria Wise, or the manufacturer.

L/Mb
 
Curious about my grandma's pressure cooker (& probably didn't really know much about one, as I'd dismissed this as an ordinary pot, that somehow had steam coming from around the sides of the lid) I did take the top off while it was cooking, just for the steam to then burst through the hole in the lid where what I thought was "the lid handle" was...

The thing whistled like a teakettle, I stood there frozen, after dropping the top on grandma's 1969 Kelvinator, avocado green electric range...

So fortunately "nanna" came to the rescue in time ("it was alright!", she said)...

Side note: the range had all these fancy timers, temperature probe thermometer, start & stop feature, 4 Hour timer, minute minder, which grandma had thoroughly explained how each thing worked, whereas only the Start/Stop Delay/Auto Shut-Off feature survived on my mom's 1994 Montgomery Ward "Designer Series" by Tappan, almond-on-almond of which the knob & timer configuration looked so uncannily similar, in that course of twenty-five-years!

-- Dave
 
I suppose between B & C. I've heard the horror stories, and believe a pressure cooker could possibly blow up. But then I think it's more likely to be improper use of the product. Properly used, it should be C.

I've never actually used a pressure cooker--the opportunity has never come my way. I've never ever seen one used by someone else. I'd be curious to try one--but at this point it doesn't seem likely. I'm cheap, and I don't like the idea of dumping $150 into something that has unproven value in my kitchen. Of course there's always the possibility that I'll find a Kuhn Rikon, new, in sealed box, at Goodwill next week for $5!
 
F

Grew up around them, and have never had any fear of them, its just like driving, if you follow the rules, you dont get into trouble!.I can beans, tomatos, squash,corn etc,far superior to freezing in my opinion, and I use a Mirro Matic and Presto regularly, both are ANCIENT!
 
E

I have one. I've used it several times but usually to make cabbage and carrots. In ten minutes, the carrots are as if they have been cooking all day.
 
For me A and E

In 2008 I found a never used 1967 Presto Electric Pressure Cooker at the Salvation Army in Berkely Springs WVa for $8. The original seals were in excellent shape and there were even some extra seals from Sears in their never opened envelope. The temprature probe and the manual were also still in their original packages too and the teflon coating was snowy white. I use mine in the winter and my favorite meals to cook in it are stews and roasts. I love the way a roast will come out after 45 minutes in the cooker......so nice and tender it fall apart on the fork....YUMMMMM!!!!!!! and that teflon coating makes cleaning such a breeze  PAT COFFEY
 
The way pressure cookers are designed is that the pressure inside actually holds the lid in place tighter. Unless you tried with all your strength, you couldn't remove the lid of a pressure cooker that's under pressure.

We don't use ours an awful lot, maybe 6 or 7 times per year. But the food that you make in it comes out sooooo goood. Our favorite is either pot roast of corned beef. It is falling apart good after only 45 minutes.

Remember, to get the best flavor and appearance from pressure cooked meats is to brown (or sear) the meat really good before adding the water and pressurizing the cooker.

Here is my favorite Pot Roast Recipe:

1 - 3 or 4 Lb Pot Roast
3 Garlic Cloves
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp Basil
1/2 White Onion, sliced into rings
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
Russet Potatoes to serve all
Carrots to serve all

Pour vegetable oil into cooker and turn up to high heat. Immediately add garlic
and a few of the onion rings. When oil is hot, put roast in, reduce heat to medium, add the spices to the roast and sear all sides of the roast until nicely browned.

When done browning, place roast in cooking position. Then put the remainder of the onion rings on top of the roast. Then add enough water to just cover the roast.
Cover the cooker and pressurize on high heat. When the thing on top starts jiggling reduce heat until the thing jiggles about once every 30 seconds. Cook this way for about 40 minutes.

Now depressurize by running cold water on the pressure cooker. Add your potatoes
and carrots and cover and repressurize. Cook for about 10 more minutes. Then turn off heat and let the cooker depressurize on it's own (about 10 minutes). Dinner is ready!

Sometimes we'll do the carrots separately in the microwave and put a brown sugar glaze on them. That goes very well with this dish.

Let me also say that if you come in the house on a cold, snowy day and smell this cooking your appetite will definitely go wild!
 
E for me. I've got bits and pieces from several (the bottom and rack from a mid-50s Revere Ware cooker...I think it had a flexible lid that kind of slotted in), my grandmother's Mirro, another Mirro from a garage sale, and a Chinese one from Sears 2 Christmases ago.

Lots of nice memories though...my mom only used it for boiling lots of potatoes (potato salad or Thanksgiving mashed potatoes) or once or twice for porcupines (!) which are meatballs with uncooked rice in them cooked in tomato sauce...recipe is in Joy of Cooking, I believe. My memories of her mother (my grandmother) using her Mirro was more using the bottom as a heavy saucepan to make candied grapefruit peel at Christmas time. Dodo made 2 kinds---the stuff that was encased in a sugar shell; and the stuff that was more translucent and rolled in granulated sugar. MMM good.
 
B

B. A high-school chum turned his back on a commercial pressure-cooker in a restaurant and it exploded.
Yes, skin grafts and the like. I do not know if the unit was being operated correctly.
That aside, I want one. My spouse is very skittish. I think we're gonna take the plunge.
I prefer an electric, and probably new. Is there a new one not made in China? I'll take Germany, Japan or anything else.
A vintage Presto electric would be the bomb... excuse the pun.
 
I think electric pressure cookers are a recent development, like in the last 10 years or so. I have never seen any before that.

What you could do is pick up a older Mirro or Presto cooker on Ebay for a cheap price just to try it to see if you like it before investing in a really good one.

I found a brand new never used 1961 Mirro (just like mom had)complete with recipe book and instructions for $35.00 last year. It was the heavy duty aluminum with the flat surfaces. But I have seen new SS Presto PC's out there for as little as $50.00. If we used ours more, we'd get a SS one. One thing is I like the jiggle, jiggle, jiggle sound a PC makes. The newer european ones don't do that.

We had a newer Presto a few years ago. It had these microgrooves that ran around the inside of the pot. After cooking all kinds of food debris was stuck in those grooves and most difficult to get out. Eventually it ended up in the garbage can.
It was only a 4 qt unit which even just for the two of us we found to be too small.

Safety features of pressure cookers:

The lid is held on by pressure.
They have safety valves that release pressure if it builds up too high.
If you don't have the lid on properly it won't pressurize.

The only place someone could screw up on is not having enough water in the cooker and the food could boil dry and burn. If that happened, the jiggle thing would stop jiggling.

So they are basically foolproof!
 
Now the things that scared me are the "broaster" cookers. You see them in fried chicken restaurants. They are like a pressure cooker, but you use oil instead of water in them. The chicken that comes out of them is excellent, but I'd be scared to use one in my home. Hot oil burns a hell of a lot worse than water.

I wonder if that's what happened to the guy above with the pressure cooker in the restaurant exploding?
 
It depends

Allen---

There were electric pressure cookers made by Presto in the late 60s-early 70s. Basically, just a Presto cooker with an element, Control Master, and legs to keep the element off of the counter top. I have two.

The new style of electric pressure cookers have been around since the 90s. I don't know much about them. No desire to drop the big, big bucks on one.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 

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