missvickie
Assistant Cook
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2005
- Messages
- 10
Ok so I thought it was a Presto but it's not. It's a T-Fal. It's an older one.
Vita
If I can chime in on my favorite topic... let me add that the T-Fal is a non-standard pressure cooker. Since their product literature never mentioned the actual psi settings, I had contacted them some time ago and it came as no surprise that the T-Fal operates at only 11psi.
That poses many problems for you as the owner. Ever since 1917, pressure cooker recipes have been designed for the standard of 15 psi, and this is such a universally accepted fact that most recipes never need to specify the psi setting... a fact that the manufacturers of these non-standard unit capitalize on. Likewise, the electric models do not meet the 15psi standard.
In looking at the recipes T-Fal has on their website, you can see the differences in cooking times with a Risotto they say to cook 10 minutes versus 7 minutes at 15psi. At only 11psi, that means a 27% increase in cooking times for this product, which not only defeats the speed benefit of pressure cookery, but wastes more of your time in waiting for dinner, costs you more in fuel, and the end results are unpredictable.
Do look at what's available in today's modern pressure cookers, not the old fashioned 'jiggle top' models or the electric fads, but the new spring valve, stovetop models that deliver the most bang for the buck. I hope this gives you some useful information that will help you find the best pressure cooker for your needs.