Pressure Cookers - Love or Hate Them?

[bernina]

love my pressure cooker

It's a Kuhn Rikon, yes, it cost an arm and a leg but we use it all the time and it's wonderful.

One of my goals was to eat more whole grains, and having a pressure cooker helps a lot because it cuts down the long cooking times so much.

I don't buy canned beans anymore either, just cook up a batch every couple of weeks and freeze them in "can or freeze" jars.

It's an expensive investment up front, but it's really helped us to eat more healthfully and inexpensively. Plus I use the pot without pressure whenever I need a really large stockpot.

I'd say we use it at least twice a week, year round.

 

[toggleswitch]

To clean aluminum cookware and rid it of the black customary stains, one simply fills with water and a few teaspoons of lemon juice add a couple of peeled potatoes. Boil. The oxidation then transfers to the food. TOSS THE POTATOES!

NOTE: Every time one cooks acidic items they are ingesting the very same oxidation and aluminum. YUMMY! (N O T)!

Why would one WANT to cook with aluminum when beautiful and long-lasting and healthier stainless-steel exists?

 

[passatdoc]

My mom had one, she had to watch it like a hawk. I remember a "lassie" episode in which a pressure cooker exploded in the kitchen and nearly killed Lassie (who went into the kitchen to investigate), so since that time I've been deathly afraid of them.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Though I planted an explosion fear in my previous post, I will have to say that it rarely happens. There are safety relief valves that would blow before the cooker itself would.

As for the Lassie episode, I did a psychology paper where I collected evidence that Lassie suffered from Munchausen Syndrome and used to push poor Timmy down the well so she could be the hero. I am sure in the case of the pressure cooker she more than likely turned the stove on high and plugged the valve to get attention.

 

[mrb627]

Can A Pressure Cooker...

be used to Whiten my Whites?

Malcolm

 

[iheartmaytag]

Good question Malcolm

I would wonder if the high heat would be too high. Also unless dealing the large canning cookers, I would think the capacity would be too small.

 

[danmantn]

Fagor makes great pressure cookers, and even a pressure fryer!

 

[launderess]

SS vs Aluminum

Stainless steel is a very poor conductor of heat, whereas aluminum is quite good. This is why SS cookware usually has an aluminum or copper "sandwich" for the bottom.

Professional cooks have been using aluminum for ages, and indeed you'll find much of the cookware in restaurants is made of the stuff. Copper is pretty, is a PITA to keep clean and must be polished. Copper is good for making certain things but Aluminum rocks.

Problem today is the cookware made from aluminum today is not the heavy cast/wrought stuff such as my vintage Wagner Ware. Though do have a few "thin" "AL" professional small fry/sauce pans (found at a thrift), and they are great.

 

[washerboy]

fried chicken

I use my PC almost weekly; it's one of the best kitchen ware investments I made.

Does anyone have tips on pressure fried chicken? if so, please share.

 

[launderess]

No, One Cannot "Boil" Laundry In A Pressure Cooker

Purpose of fluid is to create steam inside a PC, therefore there normally isn't enough to immerse laundry.

However you could autoclave one's linens and such, providing the PC is large enough and designed to reach the proper pressure level. Hospitals and such autoclave surgical linens, equipment and anything else that must be sterile.

 

[toggleswitch]

yes one did know that, however with a gas cook-top burner 70% of the heat generated is wasted by being released into the room, and missing the pot entirely. Since the hot gasses surround the cooker in its entirety, conducted heat from the bottom is more relevant to cooking with (the heat generated by conventional methods using) electricity. Convention heat then serves to heat the pot when cooking with gas.

Likewise, pressure-cooking is for the most-part steaming food and as such, evenness of heat and conductivity of the vessel itself is also of secondary importance.

Pro-Selections - Uses as a Pressure Fryer

 

[danmantn]

Stainless for me...aluminum can react to acidic foods--besides, who wants to eat aluminum?

 

[launderess]

Ingesting Aluminum

Aluminum is one of the most common elements on earth. You are probably taking in far more via other methods (breathing, drinking water or anything made from it, eating certain foods, and so forth), than what one is getting from one meal prepared in a pot made with the substance.

Antiacids, aspirin tablets, amoung other medications contain aluminum, and in amounts greater than one sees from normal cooking.

 

[launderess]

Another Thing

Unless one purchases those without, baking powder also contains aluminum. So in theory eating baked goods made with such a substance will also expose one to this element.

 

[westingman123]

Love them!

Except when I let one explode with a dozen jars of beets in it. Grandma's kitchen was never the same.

 

[toploader55]

My PC. (Pressure Cooker)

Is My Grandmother's I think 1938-1940 series.

I use it almost daily when the Restaurant is not open. It is Cast Aluminum, It has a BiMetal Regulator that does NOT rock.

Cooks for me Perfectly just like 'Gram taught me to use it.

We'll all die of something whether it be from Aluminum, Big Pharma, or Genetically Altered vegetables that are "Round up" ready. Thank you Monsanto.

Can't find the pics. Must have moved them. Pic Later

 

[frigilux]

I had a standard-issue Mirro and used it only a few times before I finally gave it away.

I, too, saw that episode of Lassie, PassatDoc, LOL.

 

[whirlcool]

My Mother told me a story of once around 1948 or so she had a pressure cooker explode on her. She was cooking chicken soup. The carrots embedded themselves in the plaster in the ceiling!

I once let her Mirro run way too long (I forgot to lower the heat like she told me). It didn't explode. The safety valve melted. Then all kinds of smoke came out of the thing. When I came home and went into the house you could hardly see where you were going due to all the smoke. But the lid held, still on as tight as a drum! But she washed the unit out and bought a new safety valve and was good to go for many more years.

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, like most things, it seems that some people adopt rigid opinions about this or that product or technology.

The Cuisinart develops 10 psi, as far as I can tell (a post in a blog from someone who said that is what Cuisinart Customer Support told him).

However, I don't know if the lower pressure has anything to do with the uneven cooking of the yellow beans. All it means is that the temperature reached at the high pressure setting will be below the temp reached by pressure cookers that get up to 15 psi, which as I recall from my bio lab/autoclave days, is about 251F. So the 10 psi electric pressure cooker might get up to 235F (I'm guesstimating, although there are probably tables or even equations that describe the exact temp reached at a specific pressure). Wait, I googled it, I was right, it's about 235F at 10 psi. This is definitely NOT slow cooker territory; it's much hotter. Also, the way to compensate for lower pressure and temp is to add time. And adding time would probably result in more even cooking, rather than more uneven cooking. In any case, I think the key is that the yellow beans really do need to be soaked overnight before any kind of cooking. Just my opinion, but I have noticed there is more variablility int the size and color of these beans that might be found with other varieties, such as pinto, black, and small red beans.

 

[alr2903]

I was raised with a "presto" and have the Fagor now. Our family for 3 generations has used different makes and models. Mostly for quickly cook a whole chicken to make a chicken salad or the chicken and broth to make chicken and dumplings, Swiss steak, quick vegetable beef soup, pork and beef roasts can be quickly cooked after they are well seared/browned in a small amount of oil. Over the years we have had gaskets pop loose and quite a mess to clean up, probably poor maintenace and failure to replace parts in a timely fashion. I have not found my book since we moved. If you type in pressure cooking time charts Fagor's time charts pop up. I never, pressure cook pork chops they can turn to mush very quickly. arthur

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