Slow cooker vs pressure cooker

PipneyJane

I have both and, if truth be told, the pressure cooker wins every time. Food in the slow cooker often comes out tasteless. You can do a full bodied, tasty stew in half an hour in the pressure cooker and it only needs 1/3 the liquid of a regular stew.

My vote is get the largest one you can afford. Mine is 10L but, like Kitty, I too use it for "canning". A large one is much more versatile than a small one - you can always cook smaller quantities in it but you can't cook larger quantities in a small pressure cooker. I regularly batch cook 1kg of dried beans in the pressure cooker. Also, since it's stainless steel, I use it as my jam/jelly/preserving pan. In fact, the last thing I cooked in it was 3kg rose-hips for rose-hip jelly (they're currently draining in the jelly bag).

Eenymeeny

"I find even on the low setting things cook quite quick for me and last night I did a pork mince, gravy, mixed vegetables in approx 3 hours(that was on high setting granted)and I use those roasting bags to save having to clean the SC after using it."
What a great idea Popperwell! That's the one thing that puts me off using my SC, the thought of washing that big bowl, which I always do by hand! I would have thought they might melt but I suppose they are made to go in the oven...brilliant!
I often find things bubbling furiously rather than simmering, wish I could turn it down a bit... I do like the fact that things don't stick though, which is more than I can say for the last time I used my pressure cooker. Scared to use it now!

Popperwell

Eenymeeny,
As said on another thread funnily enough where talk of Pressure Cookers came up again, PC's do scare people and that originally was my concern but no one I know ever used one...

I was surprised that there is an electric version of a PC...

Best value on the roasting bags...Wilkinsons(more for your money)and quite large.

Also, depends how big the meals are that you are doing and for how many but for a single person a small SC is probably big enough. But SC's are so low in price but so useful and I only have been using mine for 4 months, why didn't I use one sooner...all the years I have missed.

You can cook most meals in one bag or decide to put two into the SC. They don't dry out.

Good luck!

They call them slow cookers and yet often I can do a meal very quickly.

skader

For me its the PC everytime, i agree with above posters who said about being organised enough in the morning, i never seem be that well organised!
We tend to eat a lot of curries, and i find the PC invaluable
You can buy ready fried onions in most of the ethnic stores nowadays, and my typical lamb curry done in the PC is:

- 2 tablespoons ready fried onions
- 500mg lamb bone in
- 1-2 chopped tomatoes
- spices ( i use cumin, coriander, chilli, turmeric, salt)
- 2/3 tablespoons sunflower oil
- garlic and ginger

Bring to pressure, cook for about 20-30 mins, perfect lamb curry every time gives enough time to get rice/chapattis ready :j

Chipps

Pressure cooker, definitely. Apart from anything else, the pan can also be used as an ordinary saucepan - very good for jam making as it is large and good quality.

It's great for soups, and for making chicken stock in only 45 mins. Yesterday I used mine to cook corn on the cob that DH had just brought back from the allotment (10 mins at H pressure) You know what they say about sweetcorn, walk to pick it & run back to cook it! The sooner you cook & eat it after picking, the sweeter it is.

valk_scot

All this talk of pressure cookers has made me think I should get mine out again. I've got two, one a standard high dome one with weights, the other my mum's old Prestige with timer, inserts, divider and instruction book. I haven't used either for some time as I'm in all day and tend to just use the hob or oven but it would definately save gas to be making soup and stock in it.

When I did use my PC regularly it was for soup, stock and the sort of cuts of meat that would be tough as rubber without long slow cooking or the equivelent. I used to have this mean recipe for lanm and butterbean stew with rosemary.... The other thing PCs are good for is cooking beans and pulses.

As to a PC v a SC...I can't stand the way the SC makes everything taste of overboiled school dinners tbh. The only reason I'm keeping my SC is for the mulled wine at Christmas and then it's off to the charity shop. Meat "falling off the bone"? The translation of that is mushy imho. Mushy meat, ugh. And I agree, there can't be much nutrition left in veg that have been simmered for eight or ten hours tbh.

pineapple

Well it's years since I tried a PC - the old fashioned type with the weights vibrating ominously on top :eek:.
My mother used one as well but it always seemed to me that it was difficult getting veg just right (imo al dente). If you were doing a meal with meat and veg it was a matter of faffing about, putting the veg in at different times and guessing. Her veg was always mush . Unless you are doing an 'all in one' it's not ideal.
As for the SC meals always tasting the same maybe it depends. I can see how a piece of meat that you want to retain it's distinctive flavour would be better in a PC.
But I recently did mutton chops with Guinness and they were perfect (and still on the bone). Next I am going to do a well spiced curry with not a hint of Guinness. If they both taste the same, I'll think there is something very strange going on! :shocked:

PasturesNew

I am small and have weak wrists. I always found lifting the pressure cooker, while full/hot a feat in itself.

We used to cool it down before removing the lid by holding it under the cold running tap.... almost impossible due to size/weight.

valk_scot

PasturesNew wrote: »

I am small and have weak wrists. I always found lifting the pressure cooker, while full/hot a feat in itself.

We used to cool it down before removing the lid by holding it under the cold running tap.... almost impossible due to size/weight.

You can get auto-release pressure cookers like mine, you can set it to allow the steam off in a quicker but controlled manner than just letting it cool on the stove top. The other way to cool it down faster without picking it up is to put a wet teatowel on top a few times. Putting it under the tap makes it cool down so quickly the contents can froth up and you end up with a clogged valve...which you don't know about till the next time you're cooking. :eek:

I generally just let it cool down on the stove top though, it's not vital to time things to the exact minute when making soup or stock or strew. And as has been said, it's a bit faffy to do veg in a PC. The only thing I ever used to cook in it was beetroot, it's brilliant for cooking very hard veg really quickly.

[Deleted User]

pineapple wrote: »

My mother used one as well but it always seemed to me that it was difficult getting veg just right (imo al dente).

I chop and change the accessories amongst my PCs and saucepans and have a steamer with a handle. This sits nicely raised above the lower level in my 5 litre PC. Potatoes and carrots remain al dente whilst the meat is properly cooked

re cooling and PC weight. A cool wet cloth will work just as well, to reduce pressure. All mine have pressure reducers but I usually just do it with a wet cloth

lol, re the old ones with the weights. I made pea soup in one 35 years ago and the top flew off, the ceiling got coated. Doesn`t happen with the built in safety systems today and it doesn`t sound threatening either