Pressure cookers

I remember a thread about pressure cookers. I'm thinking of getting an electric one. My question is brand, size and pros and cons please.
Like can I put a frozen beef roast in it?
Is the meat still juicy?

Any information would be nice. Thanks.

Here is our recipe thread for pressure cooker cooking:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/242338/pressure-cookers  Check it out as there are some seriously good recipes there. Not many as I think I'm the only one who has posted any. But I think they're pretty good.

A couple cookbooks on pressure cooking:  

Pressure Perfect - Lorna Sass (most of her recipes are for stove-top cookers, but can be used in an electric one as well)

Comfortable Under Pressure - Meredith Lawrence (Cider-Braised Chicken with Apples and Sweet Potatoes)

Slow Food Fast and Great Food Fast - both by Bob Warden (Awesome mac and cheese recipe and a great pot roast) 

Bob Warden and Meredith Lawrence (Blue Jean Chef) hawk products on QVC. That being said, these cookbooks are excellent.

I have a Nesco 6-quart electric pressure cooker (from Amazon). IMO, Nesco is a very good brand I also have a Nesco electric turkey roaster and a Nesco food dehydrator. I've had my pressure cooker now for 4-5 years. It was well worth the money. I can brown meat in it before switching it over for pressure cooking. Yes, I've used frozen meat in it and it's fine (perfect for those times when you forget to get something out of the freezer for dinner). Makes great pulled pork for sandwiches. I like the idea of being able to brown meat in it because it saves on dishes. 

When we redid our kitchen, the pressure cooker and our crock pots saved us from take-out dinners. There were days when we'd be working in the kitchen and I could still have pot roast on the table (in the living room  ) in a little over an hour. I probably use it about once a week during the summer (instead of heating up the oven) and more often during the winter.Macaroni and cheese (without the blue box!) in about ten minutes, including prep.

One word of caution.....you need a pressure cooker that will get to 15 PSI. Not all of the electric pressure cookers do and it's important. My Nesco does on HIGH. I would not recommend putting it in a dishwasher, but it cleans fairly easily. Mine seals well; the gasket does a good job. Extra gaskets are available online. I have noticed that our local kitchen store provides Nesco gaskets, too.

Winchester
Thank you,thank you!
I will look into nesco, I saw an elite on home shopping network and it got my curiosity. It didn't really impress me, so here I am asking.
Thanks again

You are very welcome! Have fun!

Wow. I did not know there was such a thing as an electric pressure cooker. I have been cooking all my life with one on the stovetop. I would not like life in the kitchen without my pressure cooker. I just replaced the gasket. I intend to check out the recipe thread too. Thanks Winchester

You're welcome @blueyedgirl5946. I am so not an expert on pressure cookers; neither my mother nor my grandmother nor my MIL ever used one. So everything I learned came from the above-mentioned cookbooks (and from experimenting). I do watch In the Kitchen with David sometimes on Wednesday nights on QVC. We hardly ever buy anything from there; if there's something I think I want, then I'll go to Amazon instead; nine times out of 10, it's cheaper on Amazon and we always have free shipping.

Anyway, one night they were hawking electric pressure cookers. I didn't buy one right away, but started doing my research. And bought the Nesco from Amazon. Again, it's the only one that I know of that gets to 15 PSI.

I have a pressure CANNER, too, that I use outside on the gas grill for canning. Can't use it in the house because it doesn't work well on the glass-top stove. Works great on the grill though.

BBDOLL22 said:

I remember a thread about pressure cookers. I'm thinking of getting an electric one. My question is brand, size and pros and cons please.
Like can I put a frozen beef roast in it?
Is the meat still juicy?

Any information would be nice. Thanks.

Click to expand...

That was likely my thread  from here:   http://www.thecatsite.com/t/265178/pressure-cookers-anyone-use-them

I'm still loving my pressure cooker!  Not using it daily like I was, but I still use it 2 or 3 times per month.

I've discovered a better way to make beef stew!  I add everything to the roaster and roast until 1/2 cooked.  I pressure cook the stewing beef (I buy cheap stewing beef) with some broth.  Then I add the meat to the vegetables and finish cooking in the oven.    I usually have more liquid than I want, so I  take out 1/2 of the liquid and reduce it on the stove by 1/2 or more and then put it back with the stew. OMG!  Sooooo good.  A few more steps than I used to do where I used to just dump everything into a slow cooker and leave it for 8 hours or more.  But well worth it.

Last week I made chili using raw beans. I did them in the pressure cooker and then added them to the chili.  So much cheaper and I liked the consistency of the beans more than the canned.

My cooker is a Cuizen. I think it's Canadian.  It's an 8 quart oval one which is nice because you can put in odd cuts of mean unlike with a round one.

A thing to keep in mind is that an 8 quart will actually only make 4 quarts of actual food because there needs to be room for pressure to build. You can't fill any of them more than 1/2 full.

The cooker I have is a pressure cooker, and slow cooker. It has a searing setting so you can brown foods before you pressure cook or slow cook.  And it can also pressure can.  There are 3 different pressure settings, but 15 psi is the standard for most pressure cooking, and all pressure canning. I haven't tried pressure canning.

I do find that sometimes it's tricky to get the cooker to build up pressure. Sometimes I've had to fiddle with the amount of food in the unit, as well as taking the lid and gasket off and drying both really well, several times before I manage to get a seal that allows for pressure.  But I still love the machine.

Yes, you can cook meat from frozen state. And it will come out juicy.  The way a pressure cooker works is that there is a tight seal, with high pressure. So steam can't escape, and is therefore driven into the food by the pressure. So the end result is always juicy tender meat.

Pressure cookers were actually invented for areas of high altitude where water doesn't reach standard boiling temperature of 212 degrees, to cook food.  So pressure cookers were used so that water could be brought to a higher temperature and therefore food would be able to cook.  The byproduct is that pressure cookers work at all different altitudes and the result is faster cooking over all

Winchester
Hubby is now on board with getting a pressure cooker.
I've looked and Nesco gets great reviews. Which model do you have? I can't see in any descriptions ones that attain 15 psi on high. Thanks

Mine is like this one:    

High is 15 PSI.

Good luck with yours....we've had ours for several years now and it has really come through for us.

 Any questions, by all means, throw me a PM or ask me here. I'll try to help you.

I don't know anything about pressure cookers, except my uncle made dinner for my family one night and prepared the best chicken ever.  It was delicious.  He has long since passed and I do not know what kind of pressure cooker he used, but if a meal was so good you remember it over 20 years later, it must have been special.  Good luck in finding what you are looking for.  

My dad used one when he made soup.  I think he used oxtail and would cook it in the pressure cooker until the meat was falling off the bones.  I am 59 now and this was when I was a kid so it was one of the ones that went on the stove top.  My mom was afraid of it so naturally I was too.  Only my dad used it.

I will say that my Nesco is a pressure cooker only; it is not a pressure canner. I do have an actual pressure canner as well and we use it on our gas grill. 

Just in case you're looking for a pressure cooker / canner. It needs to say that it will do both. If it doesn't say it's a pressure cooker and canner, then it's not. And that's important to know. (Just in case you think you might want to try canning.   )

And if you decide you want a stove top pressure cooker? You need to be very, very careful, esp if you have a glass top stove. That's why I use my pressure canner on the gas grill. The bottom of the canner is very rounded, so it doesn't touch the stove's glass top burners properly; therefore, it doesn't heat properly, and I cannot get the thing to get up to proper pressure on the kitchen stove. I don't know if a stove top pressure cooker acts the same way or not, but you should check it out, if you're even thinking about a stove top pressure cooker.

Also, if a recipe says to cook for 15 minutes, that means that it cooks for 15 minutes after it comes to pressure. Not 15 minutes from the time you put the lid on and start it. It needs to come to the proper pressure first, then it will start counting down. It can take a while for it to come to pressure, too; it won't happen within a minute or two. I know, I know....you already know that. But you'd be surprised at the people who don't realize it. My GF didn't and she called me to complain that it took longer than 15 minutes for a recipe. I explained that it doesn't include the time for the pressure to hit. Her response was a very sheepish, "Oh. OK."

You might want to put something under your cooker while it's cooking on your counter. I've never done so; I never felt the need, but other people do place something underneath as a way to protect their countertop. Like I said, I don't....I don't do it with slow cookers either, but people do. My GF has a Corian countertop and she uses a thin wooden cutting board beneath her PC. Her crock pot, too.

There are two way to release the pressure once a recipe is done:

• You can open the vent to release the pressure yourself. Some recipes will specify doing so. Use a dishtowel to help with the steam. And be careful. It is HOT....you can burn yourself. Trust me.
• Let the pressure release naturally and some recipes will tell you do that. Just let it go. As the temp and pressure gradually drop inside the cooker, the valve will release by itself. It usually doesn't take real long. 

I am truly amazed at the time difference with food like pot roast and beef stew. Seriously, a really good pot roast in about an hour, not including any browning time. Excellent beef stew. Bob Warden's Adult Mac and Cheese is just delicious and there's no box! I can PM you some recipes, if you're interested, once you have your cooker. Just let me know what you might be interested in trying and I'll see what I can do. Or I can add them to the Pressure Cooking thread in The Recipes Section.

I'm sure Natalie_CA has some delicious recipes and some good hints and tips for us to try, too!

Wow lots of great info and tips!
I only want a pressure cooker not a canner, I have no interest in canning. A stovetop cooker is out of the question as I do have a glass cooktop and the stove top ones scare me. I have heard too many stories from older relatives that had issues with them. Electric ones are for me.
Now I've just got to get to comparing models so I make sure I get the one I want.
Also would the 6 qt be big enough for me, hubby and to kids?

With four of you, I'd go for an 8 quart. As Natalie_CA said, you can only fill them half full because they need room for the steam to build up. With just Rick and me, I have a six-quart and I wouldn't go any smaller. But it depends, too, on how much your kids will eat. With four of you, I think you should go with 8 quarts. JMO. (I can say that, had our son still been at home, I would have gone with an 8-quart....I remember how much that boy could eat.   )

Keep in mind, too, that it's not just for meals. You can make outstanding chicken/turkey/beef, etc broth in a pressure cooker!

Make sure you can get to 15 PSI, no matter what kind you get. Ask questions at the store, check reviews. Ask the clerk if it will get to 15 PSI on High.

I was always afraid of pressure cookers and still am.  I know they are a lot better than they were years ago but I still don't want one

@winchester.

I used a pressure cooker 40 years ago. My mum bought me one from England when got married. I used it on my stove top which was gas and never had any problems. I think it lasted a good 20 years. I've a new one but now I'm older I'm scared. Goodness knows why so I now have a slow cooker and a pressure cooker. I've just got to get myself into the kitchen.
What's PSI 15?

It means 'Pounds per Square Inch" and is important to kill any bacteria. It's really important when pressure canning. And the higher the pressure, the shorter the overall cooking time.

I'm not afraid of them, but I do keep a close eye on mine when it's cooking. I don't leave the kitchen at all.

The one that my dad used for making soup had a flat bottom.  There was also a pressure canner that was much bigger but I don't remember much about it.  It was used on the stove top.  For some reason my mother wasn't afraid of it and used it.  I think it was because the pressure canner had a gauge on it.  The one that my dad used didn't have a gauge on it.  It had this thing on the lid that would start rocking and he went by that.

I've always used a stove-top pressure cooker. Mom gave me hers (she got it as a wedding gift in 1942!) and I finally had to go out and buy a new one because I couldn't find a replacement gasket anymore - they stopped making the cooker she had. I still use her old cooker just as a heavy-duty pot!

My sister bought an electric on and she hates it! It's more like a glorified crock pot than an actual pressure cooker. 

You can go to America's Test Kitchen and read their reviews on them. They explain the purpose of the appliance, construction, functions, and pro's & con's based on actually using it for various types of recipes and comparing it against several different brands and types. They also list the current prices on each product so you can make a better decision, and they have a ton of recipes!  

You have to 'sign up' to use the site in depth (for details on each product), but you get a 14 day free trial. Otherwise, you can just read the written reviews on products in general. 

I hope this helps!

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/