Pressure cookers

I'm thinking of buying a pressure cooker. But I must confess I know nothing.

Looking at the pictures, some just look like a normal pan but with a chunkier lid. They look like they go on the hob.

The more expensive ones look like their own entirely self contained system, with timers and a mains cable suggesting they provide their own heating.

I had my eye on the former design. But am I right in that you just stand them on the hob? The cheaper ones are aluminium. Does that introduce any health concerns?

Who can give me a basic heads up on how to use one, buying tips, safety tips etc?

 

I use one,great for soups,chillis etc. Drastically reduce cooking times.
Bought a new all fancy £££ one but cant work out the instructions (Italian) so sticking with the 30 year old one for now.
Just watch taking off the lid because if you dont depressurise it fully first it can go bang and decorate the kitchen ceiling with tomato soup just like my mum did as kids

 

I own 4.

24l 9l 6l and 4l.

I started with the 9l one in order to understand how to use them and I also chose the old fashioned kind. Aluminum with weight rather than the slide contol. My second buy was the one with the slide control and I tried it with just water to test and hated it. Took it back. The rest are all old fashioned like the first. Whem the weight starts gently rocking, you turn down the heat and maitain that gentle rocking for however many minutes you need. Picture doing large chunks of turnip to tender in 10 minutes!

I usuaĺly take mine over to the sink and run cold water over the lid when the time is up. You can hear the pressure drop. Then it is safe to take the lid off. This quick cooling is handy when making stew where you are quick cooking the meat, then want to add potatoes and other veggies. Only the pressure is gone, the contents are still hot and you csn get back up to pressure quickly.

Just remember to never take that weight off when the contents are under pressure. The lid will NOT blow off, that is an old wives joke, but the contents will blast through that opening and decorate your entire kitchen ceiling and cupboards wit 256f food. Oh, and don't walk away for a cuppa. It is called fast cooking for a reason and you don't need your food burning

I recommend you get a cheap oldie style one to try and then go on to the more exotic if you want. I have never looked back since my first one.

And I use mine to process crabapples for jelly and lots of fun stuff..

Https://fastcooking.ca has lots of hints however they feature the slider button type cooker. Their guides and recipes work with any pressure cooker though.

 

Always use the raised base within, or contents may stick to the bottom and burn
I only make soup in mine, as the instruction book is useless for anything else, no times or weights to use

 

Thanks WeeTam, Jack and Canadian Lori.

Basically here's my logic. I've been researching nutrition for ages, and the conclusion I keep coming back to is that my parents and grand parents had it right, even if the 'experts' say otherwise. In nursing injuries, my research concludes I need the building blocks of collagen, and vitamin c to fuel the metabolism of those building blocks. And it all needs to be in a format that will stick around in my gut long enough to be absorbed efficiently. Every study I read alludes to the same thing. The classic meat and veg with gravy is about as good as it gets nutrition wise. The gravy being made with offal and bones, ie the rendered down connective tissue and trace elements. All with classic veg providing the vitamins needed to metabolise it all.

The pressure cooker idea comes from the fact that making stock from bones in a saucepan is so tedious it's easier to just use rubbish processed stock cubes, but quote apart from nutritional concerns, I hate waste and if an animal is going to die so I can eat, I don't want to simply chuck it's bones in the bin.

The pressure cooker idea is all about extracting the nutrients out of the chicken carcasses and other bones I'd normally just chuck.

 

My mother had one, she used it for years. I do not own one, have not a plan to get one. Usually I can plan what I want to cook for dinner and start it at the right time to have it done when needed. The only other thing I do find, for me, to be useful is a crook pot, as I work out side the home 5 days a week, to start something in the morning and come home to it done is more suited.

 

If you're looking for something that slow cooks, a sun oven works extremely well. All you need is a sunny day to power it. I have used mine to cook delicious stews and puddings, hard cooked eggs, roulades. But if you want speed, a pressure cooker is the answer. Also, the high temperatures/pressure does a thorough job of tenderising less than expensive cuts.

Here is my sun oven - I was slow cooking spagetti sauce that day

 

I always remember my mum having a pressure cooker in the 1960's . They were the thing to have then , cooking three veg in a few minutes. It had three triangular sections to cook in. Always wondered what happened to them ? They do seem to have made a resurgence in the last twelve months , probably never went away . I presume the new ones are Wi-Fi / Bluetooth ready and can be controlled from your homeward bound commuting traffic jam

 

that is interesting indeed @CanadianLori . My day is too stressful already to add to it to worry about something cooking in enough sun etc. I'll just use the old electric crook pot.

BTW, at 1PM put a huge Turkey breast in the oven, with lots of carrots and cumin spice on them, some celery, and onions, gently smelling the togetherness now, it will be done at 5PM. now you can't get that drifting yummy smell any other way.

 

All good ideas and sentiments BUT a pressure cooker is what Clueless1 wants and needs
Way to go, remember to break the bones first though to let all the goodness out

You can once again get beef bones from the butcher, ask him to cut them up for you

Jack McH

 

I totally agree . But somehow slow cookers creeped into the conversation. It all comes down to planning which cooker serves best for various recipes and time slots. I have cut my electric use by 30% via pressure cooking, sun oven use, etc. We pay high rates because we use no coal burning power generators. It is our environmental response to pollution. Not climate change, just filthy pollution.

And finding alternates is fun!

 

So the wee mouse UK, CANADA cut down on everything whilst on the ELEPHANTS BACK China and Russia,
It is a con, we pay high rates for electric and gas, for conservation that saves 1% meanwhile China and Russia belt out the other 99% literally a Flea on an Elephants back contribution wise

Jack McH

 

Yes, our province fell for the big con game too. Meanwhile we have clouds of pollution coming across the great lakes from another country to replace what we don't produce

 

We can't complain about other countries polluting and using loads of energy while at the same time buying all their wares.