Stock/broth/sauce - newbie questions

[pacanis]

Originally Posted by dianabell

Picanus,
No, I don't have an electric pressure cooker. I have a Kuhn-Rikon stove top and a Fagor stove top. I cooked this in the Kuhn-Rikon. I cooked the bones with the pressure cooker lid on and reduced it in the pressure cooker pot with the lid off, using it as a stock pot, so I didn't have to clean another pot. I used a separate standard kitchen timer. You can brown things in a stove top also before adding liquid. I'm very interested in finding ways to make things quicker and more convenient but yet tasty in the kitchen. I recently organized a plan for once a month cooking but haven't had a weekend to do it yet. I want to use up some things in the freezer first, and this weekend I want to do taxes. I've thought about trying an electric pressure cooker someday if I run out of burners on the stove when doing once-a-month cooking.
Diane

I just picked up one of these QVC pressure cookers.
http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail

I has a timer, but doesn't start timing until it gets up to pressure (whichever pressure you have it set at). It has some automatic settings or you can adjust the time it cooks, pressure, or even delay it. You can brown in it and also use it as a slow cooker (I haven't tried slow cooking with it yet). I like it.

Shoot. I should have tested that link. It won't take you to the page.
It is K14957, the 9 function, 6 qt if you want to look it up.

[dianabell]

Pacanis,
I did a search after clicking the link. It gets pretty high ratings. Does the pressure go up to the 15 psi? That's the standard used in most recipes or timing charts. It has some very nice features!

Jeenkinz,
Thanks for the compliment. I've learned a lot lately. There's still a lot I don't know!

Diane

[pacanis]

Originally Posted by dianabell

Pacanis,
I did a search after clicking the link. It gets pretty high ratings. Does the pressure go up to the 15 psi? That's the standard used in most recipes or timing charts. It has some very nice features!
Diane

The pressure ranges from 20-80 Kpa. I did a Google and 80kPa=11.6psi

[AllenOK]

While I can't comment on using a pressure cooker, I can give a little info on when beef bones are "done" rendering their gelatine.

This is how I was taught in college by one of my chef-instructors. If the bones you have include a "knuckle" joint (actually the knee joint from the back leg), the bones will come apart when they are done. Cut the joint apart (if it's whole), exposing the cartiliage surfaces inside the joint, where the two bones articulate. As they cook, and the collagen in the cartliage renders in gelatine, the cartiliage will get soft, and softer, and eventually dissolve away. This exposes the hard bone under the cartiliage. As the stock continues to cook, this "curved" bone that supports the cartiliage will actually separate from the long bone of the leg along a "fixed joint" like the joints between the bones of a skull. At this point, the stock is considered done. I wish I had a picture of this. Making stock to this point usually takes me 36 hours. If using a pressure cooker might shorten that time.

If you run a search on my handle, cross-refereced with "Beef Stock 101", you should find a thread I started about a year ago, when I made a batch of beef stock. Hopefully the pictures are still being hosted.