Prestige pressure cooker

ladyroughneck

Hi, I hope i'm posting in the right place, if not please move me!

I have just bought a pressure cooker for £3 from my local recycle centre. It has the trivet, basket and a spare gasket seal.:j The only probelm is it has no instructions or recipes:o, which i thought i would be able to locate on the interent:o
Please can someone help, as so far i have looked both here on this forum and on the internet generally with absolutely no luck:o
As far as i can tell it is a Prestige Hi-Dome pressure cooker, and i am looking for some instructions and recipes, as i have never used a pressure cooker before.:rotfl:
TIA
Anne

stef240377

I have never bothered with a recipe book or instruction manual for my pressure cooker just what my ex MIL taught me.

If i am using it just to do potatoes and veg i put the spuds in the bottom covering with approx 4 inches of water place the trivet on top with the veg of your choice in and after placing lid on top turn the ring on. Once it starts hissing which can be quite scary if you havent used it before i time mine then for roughly 15mins. Take it of the ring chuck it under a running cold tap and lift the pressure bell a couple of times to release pressure before opening.

I also do stews in mine, i use the flat tray thing in the bottom. place in all manner of vegs etc including the meat and what ever you use to make the broth, not filling with liquids over half way, again turning ring on high till you hear it hissing and leave for roughly 35/40 mins.

With chicken breast i turn trivet upside down in bottom of pan place frozen fillets ontop. Put water in until it is level with the underside of trivet and after it starts hissing leave for around 30 mins.

As you may have guessed i dont really time anything as i have been using it for so long now it is instinctive as to when it is ready for me.

There are several threads on here for pressure cooking recipes and i know my local library has books full of ideas.

stef240377

Further to this OH has just found in 'junk draw' a quickk start guide for my tower cooker.


FISH - (high pressure)
WHITE FISH (cod/salmon) - 5 mins per 450g/1lb
OILY FISH ( herring, trout) - 5 mins per 450g/1lb
SHELLFISH (crab, lobster) - 7-9 mins

BEEF (high pressure)
topside - 12-15 mins per 450g/1lb
brisket rolled - 20 mins per 450g/1lb

LAMB & PORK (high pressure)
shoulder, boned and rolled - 15 mins per 450g/1lb

CHICKEN (high pressure)
whole chicken - 7 mins per 450g/1lb

VEGETABLES (high presure)

root veg - 3-4mins
potatoes - 8 mins

BEANS & PULSES (PER 450G/1LB)
lentils (green or red) - 5 mins at low pressure
chick peas &soya beans - 15-20 mins at high pressure

RICE,CEREALS & PASTA (high pressure)
pearl barley 100g/4oz with 900ml/ 1.5 pt water - 20 mins
Pasta 225g/8oz with 1.5ltr/3pt water - 3-5 mins
Long grain rice 225g/8oz with 1.5ltr/3pt water - 4 mins

PUDDINGS & DESSERTS
Bread and butter pudding - 7 mins at high pressure
Rice pudding - 10 mins at high pressure
Christmas pudding - Pre-steam for 20 mins then 1hr 45 mins at high pressure.

I have never pre-steamed so not sure what to do here.

maryb

Try your library for a pressure cooking book. I find that the information (and lots of the recipes) in them is identical to the Prestige manual that came with my pressure cooker about 20 years ago. An older book would be better as newer ones might be based on Tefal cooker which are different - they only have two pressure settings and the timings are therefore different

ariba10

Most pressure cookers are basically the same. 5 10 and 15 Lbs pressure. so any pressure cooker book will do.

Charity shops are a good source of suitable books..

jimmo

A few basics first.
1) Within the lid is a small black washer with a bit of T shaped metal in it. The T bit is inside the lid. That is the safety valve and the piece of metal has to be in place but loose when you start cooking. Don’t try to push it up to jam it in the washer. It will do that itself as the food comes up to temperature.
2) In an old Prestige Hi Dome I had the weight consisted of 3 pieces screwed together. The 3 pieces together give 15lb of pressure. 2 give 10lb and one gives 5.
3) The cooking time is dictated by the size of the pieces of food, not total weight. If you cook a piece of brisket then you need to time it on the minutes per lb basis but if you are cooking 1lb, 2lb or 3 lb of beef pieces it will take 20 minutes.
4) The instructions are that you should not try to thicken the juice whilst cooking under pressure but add thickeners if required later.
I suggest a beef stew as a first try. Shin is my favourite and really quite cheap.
Cut the shin beef into 1 to 1 ½ in cubes and brown. You can do that in the pressure cooker but I always do it in a frying pan. I also always use the trivet in the pressure cooker as my own choice.
Chop the veges and bung the lot in the pressure cooker.
For the cooking liquid I suppose I cheat a bit and put in a can of oxtail soup and then a can full of water. Add herbs, salt and pepper and an Oxo cube.
Heat at max on the hob and wait until it is boiling quite furiously before tightening the lid and putting the weight on.15lb weight
Check that steam is not escaping around the seal and continue with full heat. After a little while steam will start pumping out of the safety valve and that will then pop into place. A little while longer it will start to really hiss. Cook for 20 minutes from then. I try to adjust the heat so that it still hisses but not as loud as in the beginning.
When its done, for goodness sake don’t try to take the pressure weight off straight away or you’ll have gravy all over the ceiling. You can cool the pressure cooker under the tap but I cheat and lever the weight a tiny amount with a fork to let the pressure escape gradually.
Good luck.

ladyroughneck

Thank you so much for all your wonderful advice.:T

I have been to the library and local charity shops with no luck yet but i have ordered a book off the internet, but thanks to you i have some ideas to try while i wait for it to arrive.

I'm a little less daunted too.:o

betsytimmins

Me too, I just got one from Freecycle and my heart sank when it had no instructions! Please help because mine hasn't got the traditional weights but does have a weight near the handle that can regulate(?) It's a Prestige Ultra 2000 if that helps. I'd really appreciate knowing how to use it and would love to use it.

newleaf

betsytimmins wrote: »

Me too, I just got one from Freecycle and my heart sank when it had no instructions! Please help because mine hasn't got the traditional weights but does have a weight near the handle that can regulate(?) It's a Prestige Ultra 2000 if that helps. I'd really appreciate knowing how to use it and would love to use it.

I think that's the model I have. There are just two settings, two dots and one dot? The weight swivels easily between the two.

The two dot setting is for cooking under pressure.

The single dot setting is for steaming, and for releasing pressure after cooking under pressure.

So, you put whatever you are cooking into the cooker with enough water - minimum of 3/4 of a pint.
Seal the lid, and put on the hob at full heat.
Move the weight to the two dot setting.
As the water boils the little t shaped valve will pop up into it's seal, and as the cooker reaches pressure, the larger metal button will pop up and spin round. Start timing when this happens.
Gently adjust the hob heat downwards. The idea is to use as little heat as possible to keep the big button fully raised. It takes a bit of practise if you've not used one before, but it's easy. Don't worry if you overdo it and the button falls - just turn it up a bit and try again.
At the end of the cooking time, turn off the heat. You can either let the pressure relaese slowly - ie just leave it to drop by itself, or quickly, by turning the valve to the two dot setting.
When the pressure has fully released, you will be able to open the lid.

Some recipes call for a period of steaming prior to bringing the cooker to pressure - steamed sponge pudding being one that springs to mind immediately.
In this case you do the same as above, but cook on the one dot setting for the required amount of time before swinging the valve to two dots for the remainder.
Recipes usually state whether pressure is to be released slowly or quickly.

I hope that makes sense? I am happy to photocopy my instructions and send them to you if you like - pm me your address. Otherwise, try the Prestige website, you may be able to download it or order a copy.
Congrats on your bargain anyway, I love my pressure cooker and use it lots - especially in winter. HTH