In praise of pressure cookers

[Harry Cobean]

there have been a couple of threads recently about slow cookers/crock pots & i swear by mine.fill it up in the morning,come home from work to a hot meal..fab!but,in some respects i prefer my pressure cooker.prepare the ingredients in the morning,as you would for slow cooking,come home at night,in the cooker....15-20 mins later hot meal.
personally i prefer the pressure cooker because i think the pc has the edge on flavour compared to the same dish in a sc,a 140 watt sc on for 6 hours uses more than twice the power that a pc on a 1200watt hob plate for 20 mins uses & my pressure cooker helped me end a relationship with a clingy girlfriend!what? i hear you ask(well i would if anyone was reading this drivel!)did you whack her with it? no.we were out shopping,she was nagging to move in,i wanted a pressure cooker,she kept pointing at the big family size ones,i picked up the small model that was described as"ideal for one" & said "this'll do fine" ahh well....!!
my fav pressure cooker meals are:
irish stew(a taste from my childhood-bolas & i still reminisce about it) neck end of lamb(lots of bone,lots of fat=lots of flavour),big chunks of potato,carrot & onion,chicken stock,salt,lots of ground black pepper & if you want to be cheffy some fresh thyme too.
cheats souvlaki(well it tastes a bit like it!) thick cut pork shoulder steaks,lemon juice,chopped garlic,greek oregano,chopped parsley,olive oil,red wine vinegar,salt,ground black pepper,chicken stock
what do you cook in your's

 

[buckytom]

thanks for the ideas, harry. i received a pressure cooker for christmas from the dw, but have yet had a chance to use it. i think it will come in use in the summer months as the weather heats up.

i'll have to try an irish stew or the mock-souvlak that you mentioned.

 

[Harry Cobean]

thanks for the ideas, harry. i received a pressure cooker for christmas from the dw, but have yet had a chance to use it. i think it will come in use in the summer months as the weather heats up.

i'll have to try an irish stew or the mock-souvlak that you mentioned.

always a pleasure bucky! take a look at the post i made this morning on the "butter chicken" thread.it's for yoooohoooo!!

 

[Gravy Queen]

Irish Stew is a bit like Scouse innit Harry, perfect for this type of cooking.

However, I am still in therapy after an unfortunate incident with an exploding pressure cooker which covered me and the kitchen in hot mash. It wasnt a good look.

 

[Harry Cobean]

Irish Stew is a bit like Scouse innit Harry, perfect for this type of cooking.

However, I am still in therapy after an unfortunate incident with an exploding pressure cooker which covered me and the kitchen in hot mash. It wasnt a good look.

hey gravy,you're back....missed you!
scouse?blind or lob what's your preference.love both & it probably is derived from irish stew as most of the irish immigrants came in through liverpool docks,home of scouse,the beatles & your luvverliness of course!
wish you hadn't mentioned the exploding pressure cooker....think you may well have killed me thread............ha!!

 

[Gravy Queen]

Lobscouse has norwegian origins H - they used to come to Liverpool something to do with whaling at one point. Although also, everyone in Liverpool has irish connections too (myself included!) so its a mish mash. (not to be confused with hot mash).

 

[Harry Cobean]

Lobscouse has norwegian origins H - they used to come to Liverpool something to do with whaling at one point. Although also, everyone in Liverpool has irish connections too (myself included!) so its a mish mash. (not to be confused with hot mash).

or exploding mash..........!

 

[jennyema]

So you leave the meat at room temperature all day long? In the pc?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Corned Beef Dinner
Chicken and Dumplings
Ham Hocks for split pea soup
Pork Shoulder for pulled pork

I had an explosion once, a long time ago. It was traumatic at the time, but did not still my passion for using the pressure cooker.

 

[Kayelle]

I've been considering buying a new electric PC for a while now. I had one as a new bride and I know they have improved a lot since that old time bomb I had.

For me, Crock Pots seem to produce food that has that weird overcooked flavor too much of the time. Before someone feels the need to defend their CP,mine can be useful but only occasionally.

This is the PC I'm about to order....great reviews.

Amazon.com: Cuisinart CPC-600 1000-Watt 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker, Brushed Stainless and Matte Black: Kitchen & Dining

 

[Harry Cobean]

So you leave the meat at room temperature all day long? In the pc?

hi jennyema
no,sorry should have said that i prepare it & leave in the fridge until i get home then put it in the pc.the five or so minutes that it takes to come up to pressure raises the food to room temp & then i time the cooking from that point
harry

 

[Harry Cobean]

I've been considering buying a new electric PC for a while now. I had one as a new bride and I know they have improved a lot since that old time bomb I had.

For me, Crock Pots seem to produce food that has that weird overcooked flavor too much of the time. Before someone feels the need to defend their CP,mine can be useful but only occasionally.

This is the PC I'm about to order....great reviews.

Amazon.com: Cuisinart CPC-600 1000-Watt 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker, Brushed Stainless and Matte Black: Kitchen & Dining

100% with you on the weird overcooked flavour/texture that you can end up with from a cp kayelle.that's one reason i prefer my pc. i try & minimise this by using minimal liquid & in some cases nil liquid.i cooked a round of smoked ham in my cp yesterday.just the ham,black peppercorns,bay leaf & chopped parsley-7 hours on low.the ham produces enough liquid to keep everything moist & gives a really intense flavour.never add any liquid if i'm cooking pulled pork,"barbeque" brisket or lamb shoulder.just the meat & the rub or marinade.
the electric pc looks fab! good price too,over here you'd pay that just for a conventional stove top pc

 

[Harry Cobean]

Corned Beef Dinner
Chicken and Dumplings
Ham Hocks for split pea soup
Pork Shoulder for pulled pork

I had an explosion once, a long time ago. It was traumatic at the time, but did not still my passion for using the pressure cooker.

good morning hrh princess f
pea & 'am soup,now we're talkin'!! but how did you & gravy queen manage to blow up a pressure cooker those babies will take a direct hit from an rpg & survive!
mine has got the main vent & two safety valves,i just push up the safeties from inside the lid before cooking to check they are working.
a princess & a queen...royalty, i dunno................!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

good morning hrh princess f
pea & 'am soup,now we're talkin'!! but how did you & gravy queen manage to blow up a pressure cooker those babies will take a direct hit from an rpg & survive!
mine has got the main vent & two safety valves,i just push up the safeties from inside the lid before cooking to check they are working.
a princess & a queen...royalty, i dunno................!

Well, when we can't get the serfs to cook for us, anything can happen.

In my case, I was maybe 10-11 years old. Cooking a corned beef dinner and I thought all the pressure was out and took the top off. The entire pot of cabbage, potatoes, carrots and beef headed for the ceiling. It was very hot! The old pc did not have the safeties on them like they do now.

 

[Harry Cobean]

Well, when we can't get the serfs to cook for us, anything can happen.

In my case, I was maybe 10-11 years old. Cooking a corned beef dinner and I thought all the pressure was out and took the top off. The entire pot of cabbage, potatoes, carrots and beef headed for the ceiling. It was very hot! The old pc did not have the safeties on them like they do now.

obviously not pf,obviously not................

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Quick note on Pressure. force of pressure is measured as pounds per square inch (PSI) in something as small as a pressure cooker. If you have a PC cooking at ten PSI, and the diameter of the lid is 10 inches, you have an area of 78.5 square inches. Pressure = area multiplied by the PSI. So in your pressure cooker, if it is operating at 10 PSI, if you open the lid, you have 785 lbs. of force seperating that lid from the pan. If you have partially released the pressure, to say 2 PSI, you still ahve a force of 157 lbs.

It is crucial to release all of the internal pressure before opening the pressure cooker.

We used to receive pressurized metal boxes with helicopter blades stored in them. The pressure was only 5 lbs. The boxes were about 20 feet by two feet. Thats 5,760 square inches. Multiply that by 5 lbs. PSI and you get - 28,800 lbs of lifting force when the box is unlatched, if you don't release the pressure first. That's how you can lift a car with 5 PSI of air pressure. You just distribute that pressure over a sufficiently large surface to develop the lifting force. It's the same with hydraulic fluids too. Now you know how car lifts work, and how they can lift houses with airbags. Oh, wait, we were talking about pressure cookers.

Oil cooks hotter than does water. It drives the internal pressure of a PC to dangerous levels very quickly, hence the warning not to pressure fry in you PC unless it's designed for it.

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Jazzgirl]

I love my slow cookers and pressure cookers for different reasons. The pressure cooker gives you that tenderness you want in tough meats. Sometimes I'm just lazy and love the smell of food cooking for hours in the slow cooker. It depends on my mood.

 

[gadzooks]

My pressure cooker is my friend. Pulled pork in an hour, black beans with potatoes, onions, celery, carrots and habanero, pot roast. One of my favorite easy pressure cooker dinners for Burning Man is rice in the pressure cooker. Place an Indian entree from Trader Joe's, still sealed in the foil packet, in on top of the rice. Bring to pressure, turn off the heat and let the pressure equalize. Open, dump the packet onto the rice, dinner for two on the Playa. I also take a small pc when I camp at altitudes where water boils too cool, for anything boiled. Once, in the California Sierras, I made a pot of beans that cooked for hours and still came out like buckshot. Lesson learned.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

My pressure cooker is my friend. Pulled pork in an hour, black beans with potatoes, onions, celery, carrots and habanero, pot roast. One of my favorite easy pressure cooker dinners for Burning Man is rice in the pressure cooker. Place an Indian entree from Trader Joe's, still sealed in the foil packet, in on top of the rice. Bring to pressure, turn off the heat and let the pressure equalize. Open, dump the packet onto the rice, dinner for two on the Playa. I also take a small pc when I camp at altitudes where water boils too cool, for anything boiled. Once, in the California Sierras, I made a pot of beans that cooked for hours and still came out like buckshot. Lesson learned.

I grew up cooking a 7500 ft. Makes a big difference to move to 3500 ft! I had to re-learn how to cook.

 

[taxlady]

My favourite pc "horror story" was told by my DH about a friend. Friend was cooking a whole chicken in the PC. I think he forgot it was on the stove. The entire chicken flew out through the safety valve and implanted itself in the ceiling. The PC was fine, but needed a new safety valve.