OT pressure cookers

SimonAH

The bread machine revealed that we are a culinary lot.

What about pressure cookers? I'm tempted to add one to the kitchen arsenal.

walkingbootweather

If you can afford to buy extravagant and un-necessary kitchen gadgets like bread-makers and pressure cookers you clearly have too much disposable income. Clearly the government should introduce a kitchen gadget tax to fund cash-strapped public services.

Think we may have been given one as a wedding present. May have used it twice, so not the right person to ask.

[Edit] Thinking about it, I'm sure its a slow cooker not a pressure cooker we have. Who'd of thought my contribution was even less useful than it first appeared. I'll go an boil my head in whatever cooker we have.... :oops:

Giraffoto

Very useful bit of gear if you like pot roast - also good for beans if you start with dried ones (i.e., saves ages in the boiling).
One half leg of lamb
Chopped carrots and parsnips
Load of baby onions (AKA shallots)
Bottle of cheap red wine
Salt and pepper
Give it a thorough go in the pressure cooker, take out all the solid stuff and make gravy out of the liquid. Perfect on a cold day

Headhuunter

i've mused over a pressure cooker in the past but not entirely sure what benefits they offer over a slow cooker which i've already got, also what's the difference?

rick_chasey

Isn't it just you can boil stuff at a higher temperature?

SimonAH

Rick Chasey wrote:

Isn't it just you can boil stuff at a higher temperature?

Yup, higher pressure = higher boiling point = much faster cooking. Very good for making poor quality meat tender and juicy I understand.

We've also got a slow cooker but I find it really annoying to get the timing right - start it in the morning for dinner on the weekend and it's often not long enough. Run it overnight and it's too long.....grump.

tiny_pens

Its a bit like the opposite of a slow cooker really. By cooking at higher temperatures you can cook things faster without burning it. I use mine for stews and rice dishes like jambalya where everything is all cooked in one large pan.

Works for me and also makes a useful really big pan for vats of mulled wine and the like at parties.

Headhuunter

SimonAH wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Isn't it just you can boil stuff at a higher temperature?

Yup, higher pressure = higher boiling point = much faster cooking. Very good for making poor quality meat tender and juicy I understand.

We've also got a slow cooker but I find it really annoying to get the timing right - start it in the morning for dinner on the weekend and it's often not long enough. Run it overnight and it's too long.....grump.

Oh i see. Why don't you put the slow cooker on a timer? If it hasn't got one built in just use one of those plug in timers that you can use to switch your lights on and off when you're put? That's what i use

t4tomo

SimonAH wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Isn't it just you can boil stuff at a higher temperature?

Yup, higher pressure = higher boiling point = much faster cooking. Very good for making poor quality meat tender and juicy I understand.

We've also got a slow cooker but I find it really annoying to get the timing right - start it in the morning for dinner on the weekend and it's often not long enough. Run it overnight and it's too long.....grump.

Use it for things like stews which need to be cooked for a long time, but which you can't really overcook. Shin of beef with beer and mushrooms is excellent done in a slow cooker. See also Lamb shanks.

Dont have a pressure cooker, but Mum used to use one for doing the veges quickly which seemed to make a decent job of them.

veronese68

I think a pressure cooker does what a slow cooker does quickly. My (Italian) mother makes some lovely stew type things in one. Osso Bucco and that type of thing. Meat always comes out very tender. Glad I've got my sandwiches to hand, this is making me hungry.

lost_in_thought

My mother seals up a pot on the stove with a really big weight on it. It works! Definitely cooks things faster.

But she's kind of old-school like that. Won't let me have a bread-maker, for example, as I have an oven.

CiB

Can I recommend the Remoska? Google it. It's a pan on a supporting frame, with a lid that has a heater built into it with nothing more glorious than an on/off switch to control it. Plug it into a timer and you have all that's necessary.

Hugely efficient compared to having the oven on for an hour or so and it makes a cracking job of chicken, roast veg, stews, spuds, dead polar bear cubs etc. The word is that it's a traditional Czech cooking implement.

il_principe

Sorry, but what is the point? Seems like another pointless gadget IMHO. If I want to eat a cheaper cut I just cook it slowly in the oven. It's no great hardship. Had lamb shoulder on Sunday, it just sat in the oven for 4 hours while I got on with my Sunday as usual...

bompington

We use our pressure cooker about 50% of meals - soups in 10 minutes, any kind of meat in 30, potatoes in 7.

I quite like the irony of someone on a cycling forum talking about "extravagant and un-necessary kitchen gadgets"

rick_chasey

bompington wrote:

I quite like the irony of someone on a cycling forum talking about "extravagant and un-necessary kitchen gadgets"

Well quite. They should be spending it on extravagant and unnecessary cycling gadgets and kit.

bompington

not to mention un-necessary hyphens

rick_chasey

I'm not one to comment.

Drysuitdiver

bompington wrote:

We use our pressure cooker about 50% of meals - soups in 10 minutes, any kind of meat in 30, potatoes in 7.

I quite like the irony of someone on a cycling forum talking about "extravagant and un-necessary kitchen gadgets"

Pah , that long ! 5 seconds to open a tin , a few minutes in the microwave job done .

seriuosly good bit of kit. we use ours for doing suet puddings mmmmmbabbysyeds and cooking the veg quick whilst keeping all the goodness in. the little water that is lefdt from the veggies makes the gravy yum yum yum. avoid the fancy timer type ones and get a simple weight one. oh and stainless steel NOT aluminium

veronese68

Isn't aluminium better for heat transfer. We got a reidiculously fancy risotto pan as a wedding gift. Made of aluminium with a very thin layer of stainless either side. The stainless is eaasy to clean and the ali spreads the heat more evenly round the pan is the theory. I'm hungry again now.

rjsterry

Ali is (much) better for heat transfer but can't go in a dishwasher without ruining the surface. It also scratches fairly easily if you are the type to mangle stuff. Stainless is much more durable but relatively rubbish at heat transfer (10 to 20 times worse than ali)

t4tomo

copper bottoms.

thats all I have to say on the subject

davis

CiB wrote:

Can I recommend the Remoska? Google it. It's a pan on a supporting frame, with a lid that has a heater built into it with nothing more glorious than an on/off switch to control it. Plug it into a timer and you have all that's necessary.

Hugely efficient compared to having the oven on for an hour or so and it makes a cracking job of chicken, roast veg, stews, spuds, dead polar bear cubs etc. The word is that it's a traditional Czech cooking implement.

That sounds a lot like an electric Dutch Oven (fnarr). Might have to investigate..

Drysuitdiver

Veronese68 wrote:

Isn't aluminium better for heat transfer. We got a reidiculously fancy risotto pan as a wedding gift. Made of aluminium with a very thin layer of stainless either side. The stainless is eaasy to clean and the ali spreads the heat more evenly round the pan is the theory. I'm hungry again now.

more to do with the ali being a possible factor in dementia. if i can reduce ali contact, and cooking at pressure in ali isn't going to help, then its a little better .

SimonAH

Drysuitdiver wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

Isn't aluminium better for heat transfer. We got a reidiculously fancy risotto pan as a wedding gift. Made of aluminium with a very thin layer of stainless either side. The stainless is eaasy to clean and the ali spreads the heat more evenly round the pan is the theory. I'm hungry again now.

more to do with the ali being a possible factor in dementia. if i can reduce ali contact, and cooking at pressure in ali isn't going to help, then its a little better .

The Aluminium Alzheimers link has been fairly thoroughly debunked. There is no associated known toxicity to aluminium - apart from the dust being explosive (and generating H2 gas in water). Oh, and possibly being whanged with a saucepan :-D

SimonAH

http://alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/d ... umentID=99

Twostage

Definitely get one. I make meat pies by first cooking the chunks of stewing steak in the pressure cooker for 15 minutes (rather than 1.5 hours at normal temperature).

Drysuitdiver

SimonAH wrote:

Drysuitdiver wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

Isn't aluminium better for heat transfer. We got a reidiculously fancy risotto pan as a wedding gift. Made of aluminium with a very thin layer of stainless either side. The stainless is eaasy to clean and the ali spreads the heat more evenly round the pan is the theory. I'm hungry again now.

more to do with the ali being a possible factor in dementia. if i can reduce ali contact, and cooking at pressure in ali isn't going to help, then its a little better .

The Aluminium Alzheimers link has been fairly thoroughly debunked. There is no associated known toxicity to aluminium - apart from the dust being explosive (and generating H2 gas in water). Oh, and possibly being whanged with a saucepan :-D

note the word possible in my post.

in the not so distant past people were encouraged to smoke to sort some health problems.we used to play with mercury in school too. Asbestos was a wonder product.
when a full life test has been conducted on a double blind basis and shows me its perfectly fine then i will be happy.
watching my mother deteriorate with dementia in the space of 12 months was not a nice thing to experience. which leads me onto asking if anybody want to do the workinton to whitby ride for alzheimers society in 2012. i am hoping to do it, training dependent.