Pressure Cookers, anyone use them?

I've had a pot style pressure cooker for a few decades and I'm ashamed to say that I only used it twice.  There is no gauge, just a weight that rocks back and forth.  If it's rocking too fast you turn the heat down, too slow, you turn the heat up.  Needless to say that thing terrified me! I made chickpeas in it once, and wild rice another time, and I stood across the room staring at it out of fear that it would blow up. I have never used it since.  I also have a giant pressure canner (same as a cooker, only on a larger scale), which I've never used because of the fear and I haven't done any canning since I bought it.

Anyway, I invested in an electric pressure cooker/canner and tried it out last night. I made BBQ side ribs in under an hour. They were fall off the bone tender.  The recipe I used was in the booklet that came with it, and it wasn't very good. The sauce was like soup.  I'm going to find a different sauce recipe and try them again in a few weeks.

I bought 2 packages of side ribs for under $8 per package. Cooked St. Louis Style  BBQ ribs are double that for 1/2 the amount. 

Tomorrow I'm going to make Mediterranean Chicken with Lentils. It calls for a whole chicken. Apparently it takes about 45 minutes for the whole recipe.

I plan on freezing all left overs for future dinners

I have an electric pressure cooker and I really enjoy using it. It's a Nesco and it's so easy to use. When I first started using it, I made Rick stay in the kitchen the entire time because I was so paranoid. Now? I literally set it up and let it go. Pot roast in about an hour. Really good mac and cheese in about ten minutes or so. Rice pudding in about ten minutes or so. Wonderful chicken broth in an hour. You can't beat that. And honestly, the whole set-up is more like using a crock pot. It's electronic. I brown the meat using the browning cycle, then set the timer for whatever I need. When it reaches pressure, the timer starts counting down. Beeps three times to tell me it's done, then switches over to the WARM cycle. For some recipes, I can release the pressure manually; for others, it releases naturally. And clean-up is an absolute breeze.

The reason I chose this pressure cooker is because it reaches 15 psi. Not all electric pressure cookers do; at least that's my understanding. And you need that 15 psi for good cooking. My only problem with it is that it's only 6 quarts; if I had it to do over, I'd go with something larger, simply because I freeze a lot of leftover foods.

We first saw the electric pressure cookers on QVC and it was Rick more so than me who was really interested in getting one. After reviewing the ones offered on QVC, we weren't all that impressed with any of them....the quality isn't there, IMO. I did a lot of research and decided that the Nesco was the way to go for us. We've not been sorry. I think I said a couple of times now that when we were doing the kitchen, the pressure cooker was a time-saver for us. We could spend the day working in the kitchen and still have a good meal with no take-out. We just love it.

Now I have a 12-quart pressure canner/cooker that still bothers me and we've had it for about three years now. We use it outside on the grill and Rick does stay out there pretty much the entire time it's turned on. The gauge doesn't gently rock; it's more like it spins for a couple minutes then stops, then spins again, and then stops. The whole thing is kind of scary in a way, although we're getting better at it. I cannot water bath honey-glazed red onions; they need to be pressure-canned. This one is a Mirro. The reason we use it on the side burner of the grill outside is because I have a glass-top stove and the bottom of the pressure canner doesn't work well with the stove; it's difficult for it to get to pressure and then stay at pressure. That has gauges and we use the 10 psi gauge most often. I'm always very nervous around that thing.

Bob Warden (hawks the PCs on QVC) has a couple PC cookbooks out there; I got mine from Amazon. One is Slow Food Fast and the other one is Great Food Fast. His pot roast is quite good. Rick really likes the mac and cheese (the adult version). Don't get them from QVC; you'll spend a small fortune on shipping alone....their shipping is ludicrous. Try Amazon. I also have a book from Lorna Sass called Pressure Perfect. You might be interested in that one, too, but she deals more with stove top cookers. I've made a few of her recipes and they're not bad.

Mine is not electric, but I use it a lot. I love to do stew beef in it. Pressuring really tenderizes meat.

I never used one but my mom and mother in law had long ago.

Never used one they freak me out.

Never had or used a pressure cooker. We had a neighbor a few years back who suddenly lost his wife --- after her death he was trying to learn to cook and always invited us for h is "experiments". We were there one day when his pressure cooker exploded and everything ended up on the ceiling. That completely made me afraid to use one.

My Mom used one a lot.  My pot-like one with the weight that rocked back and forth required you to count the number of rocking motions per minute.  I was totally freaked out about that!

This one is an electric one and very easy to use!  I was a bit apprehensive but this looked so much easier than the rocking weight. And it was.  Because it is electric, it can't go above what you set it, and this thing is made out of cast iron (I think) because it weighs about 20 pounds! And once that lid is locked in place with the locking switch, there is no moving it until you unlock it.  I admit that I was a bit afraid to release the pressure. I put a towel over the pressure valve and stood away and used a long wooden spoon!  LOL   I still jumped and poor Katie went running with her eyes round and ears back, looking around for the loud noise. She was ok about a minute later though.

I have one with the weights, and never had a problem. I kind of like that sound! I've only used mine for canning. I must admit, they do scare me a bit. One must remember to open the lid AWAY from one's face! Kind of like opening a radiator cap on a car.

I still have vivid memories of my Nannie sending things flying across the kitchen when her old pressure cooker went crazy, so I stay away from them! I think it scared me for life! :lol3:

I wouldn't mind having something safe for canning, but I'm still looking into it!

I've had a non-electric one for 25 - 30 years and doubt that I've used it 20 times. It doesn't seem worthwhile for anything other than meat, and the taste of that doesn't impress me - it's too much like "boiled beef".

jcat said:

I've had a non-electric one for 25 - 30 years and doubt that I've used it 20 times. It doesn't seem worthwhile for anything other than meat, and the taste of that doesn't impress me - it's too much like "boiled beef".

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I just made Moroccan Chicken with Lentils.  I haven't tasted it yet, but it smells yummy.  Total cooking time for the lentils and a 3 pound chicken, 45 minutes.

For good tasting meat from everything I have been reading, you have to brown it just like you would if you were going to put it into a slow cooker.  The old addage is "Browned food, tastes good", it's where much of the flavour comes from. 

I'm going to have some of the chicken for dinner before cake class, and when I come home I'm going to cook some dry chickpeas. I want to make some Hummus. I used to buy hummus and then I looked up how to make it, and it's very easy, and tastes so much better.  I was using canned chickpeas, but if I can cook up the dry in 12 minutes without having to pre soak and boil for an hour, I will be a very happy camper.

Tomorrow I want to tackle chili using frozen ground beef right from the freezer. Apparently it takes about 35 minutes from start to finish.

Can you post your hummus recipe! I'd love to try it! [emoji]128512[/emoji]

StarryEyedTiGeR said:

Can you post your hummus recipe! I'd love to try it! [emoji]128512[/emoji]

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I don't use a recipe anymore, but I started off using this one and now I just adlib.   The amount of lemon is to your taste. I basically use the juice and zest of one lemon.

http://chefmichaelsmith.com/recipe/hummus/#.UkJz9z-gZJs

EDIT: 
Here is another one that I tried.  I don't know what Balkan yogurt is, so I used Greek yogurt.

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/smoky_hummus_with_toasted_pita.php

I'm kind of surprised by how many people are afraid of pressure cookers.  My mother always used one; I got one for a wedding gift, and when the rings became unavailable for it after years of use I bought another one.  I couldn't cook potatoes, corn on the cob, a ham bone, or stew beef with it. ( Mine has the weight that jiggles back and forth.)

Someone mentioned the bbq sauce that came out too soupy; that's a problem with cooking bbq.  So much steam builds up in the cooker that any kind of sauce thins down dramatically.  I've been known to cook the meat in the cooker to get it tender, then add the sauce and stick in the oven for a bit.

Thank you! I didn't give thought to the steam condensing back into liquid.  I made a chicken dish yesterday and thickened the sauce with some corn starch.  Turned out great!

I've never seen or had a bad experience with a pressure cooker. My fears have been from things I've read and my own paranoia about that rocking weight!  lol  But I'm so happy that I bought this electric pressure one. When I used it yesterday I did so without any reservation at all.  It's definitely going to get it's uses.  I'm not one to think ahead and take things out for meals. If I don't have anything already precooked and frozen ready to eat, I tend to order in food. Not healthy. Hard on the bank account. And not so good for my diabetes.  I figure if I can make 2 racks of ribs in 45 minutes, less time than it takes to get a pizza delivered, I can cook after work, so long as I have the groceries in house to do it. A whole  chicken dish in 45 minutes with left overs to freeze? I"ll take that over delivery any day.

Natalie_ca said:

For good tasting meat from everything I have been reading, you have to brown it just like you would if you were going to put it into a slow cooker.  The old addage is "Browned food, tastes good", it's where much of the flavour comes from. 

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I do brown it, but I still don't think it tastes as good as when it's cooked in the oven or slow cooker. Usually if I want to cook other things fast (and with little liquid), I just use the microwave. It's faster and there's less to clean up afterwards.

Linguist here Balkan yogurt is Greek yogurt because Greece is part of the Balkans -- a very distant southern part, but still part. So you did absolutely the right thing! Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia . . . I don't think I'm forgetting any. Those are the Balkan states.

Incidentally, you are all tempting me to try one out, but I'll have to wait until I have more money (like next year, maybe). My cat and my food are making me broke, currently, since I haven't gotten myself out from under my school loans/expenses from 1 1/2 years ago (paid tuition with a credit card in March 2011).

That Moroccan Chicken with Lentils was absolutely to die for!  The recipe had some errors in it, but I did my own thing.  The next time I will take the time to brown the chicken in the oven at 500 degrees for about 1/2 hour before putting it in the pressure cooker.  It called for it to be browned in the pressure cooker before actually putting the lid and ingredients into the cooker, but how do you evenly brown a whole chicken on a flat surface?!  lol

I haven't turned my stove or oven on all week! 

Today I made:

- Sausage, Kale and White Bean soup - 8 individual servings to take for lunches. I'll freeze them tomorrow when I organize my freezer. That is if there is any left! OMG! This is the best soup I've ever eaten!  Total time from raw beans to finished soup?  40 minutes

- Beef Stew - 8 individual servings for dinners. Took 25 minutes.

Tomorrow I'm going to make:

-  Oxtail and rice and beans. Again to freeze for dinners. Will take about 20 minutes.

-  Ham and Split Pea soup.  For lunches.  Will take about 10 minutes.

Rick just loves split pea soup....I haven't tried it in the pressure cooker yet. We'll be having baked ham some Sunday during October, so I'll use the leftover ham for some soup for him. I may try it in the pressure cooker, too.