Recommend me a pressure cooker

seraphina

wssla00 wrote: »

The thing i'm scared of is the word pressure..... That makes me think I will explode the house. Is it that scary?

Hehehe, loads of people have irrational fears about pressure cookers, you're not alone! The new pressure cookers (not the jiggly weight ones) are very easy and very safe to use, and have no release of steam when cooking.

If I don't close the lid of my Kuhn Rikon, I get steam escaping so I know to cool it down, open it up, check the gasket is in place correctly and try again. If I overheat it, steam is released to keep the pressure at the reccommended maximum. If you really go for it, there's a non-replaceable fuse type thing that will release the pressure but you'd have to be really, really careless to let that happen.

I only get a jet of steam when I need to cool the pressure cooker down quickly - to do this on my KR you push down the spring with a wooden spoon and it vents the steam to reduce the pressure. You can't open the lid without reducing the pressure (you can just turn off the heat and let it cool by itself as well) so there's no danger of getting a face full of steam.

To be fair I wouldn't leave my pressure cooker unattended for huge amounts of time, but I wouldn't let any other stovetop pot unattended for ages either. I'm more than happy to wait until the cooker gets up to pressure, turn down the heat and leave it a few mins to ensure that the pressure is stabilised and then I'll happily potter all over the house. Also it's not like it's a hardship to supervise because stuff is cooking much more quickly anyway.

My KR is very quiet during use - it's certainly much quieter than a pan of potatoes bubbling away.

wssla00

Thanks may well give it a try then. Mind you will have to be after this pay day as ive just plumped for a new panny!

Slinky_Malinky

I am probably on the thread linked above but I`ll repeat myself anyway and recommend Kuhn Rikon. Have had several pressure cookers over the years and currently have three Kuhn Rikons (huge 7litre, small 2.5 litre and a 2.5 litre frypan syle) and at some point I plan to buy also a 4 or 5 litre size. They really are the dogs wotsits of pressure cookers. I also have bought the normal lids for mine so that they can be as standard saucepans too.

I also find I use my pressure cookers far more often than my slow cookers.

seraphina

Slinky_Malinky, where did you get the normal lids from? I've been meaning to get one for my 5litre KR, as well as the steamer insert basket thingy.

[Deleted User]

I'm vegetarian too so that's why I never bothered with a slow cooker. Does anyone know a good site for pressure cooker spares? I can get them in the shops for my Prestige (which is one of the reasons I use it) but I have an old Tower cooker which needs new gasket. incidentally I think the ease and cost of obtaining spares is a factor in purchasing a new cooker.

seraphina

onewom wrote: »

I'm vegetarian too so that's why I never bothered with a slow cooker. Does anyone know a good site for pressure cooker spares? I can get them in the shops for my Prestige (which is one of the reasons I use it) but I have an old Tower cooker which needs new gasket. incidentally I think the ease and cost of obtaining spares is a factor in purchasing a new cooker.

Try E bay or Robert Dyas. Certainly our local hardware type place sells Prestige gaskets but not so sure about Tower ones.

angeltreats

I have a Tower pressure cooker that I bought last year, it's an old-style one that hisses and a spurt of steam comes out but it doesn't bother me at all. I don't know why people seem to dislike the hissing so much!

I wouldn't be without mine.

Sunnyday

I love my pressure coooker :smileyhea
I do use it to cook a lot of the same meals that i make in the slow cooker but that depends on what shift i`m working. My first one was a big hi dome prestige aluminium one that i inherited from home, the one that i use now is a tower one which is stainless steel with a heavy encapsulated base which doubles up as my jam pan.

This one hisses but has a dial on top rather than weights but still scares me i wouldn`t give it up for the world but my only gripe is that this one dosen`t have the little baskets that fit inside like my old one did.

Think that i shall investigate the ss collapsible ones though as they look ideal.

My dad once exploded his pc when he fell asleep and woke up when there was a large bang the lid had blown off and hit the eye level grill on the cooker top and there was rice pudding hung from the ceiling in just about every area :rotfl:

He`s just bought a silent electric one which he loves but i`m not sure about the brand, his didn`t come with baskets either but he`s kept the old aluminium ones from his old cooker and they fit fine.

SD

Slinky_Malinky

Seraphina - I bought my lids from kuhnrikon.co.uk spares/accessories. I think your 5l would be 22cm size. The 22cm lid I bought was a bit more expnsive than the others and a slightly different design - it is double insulated and I am pretty sure it is actually the lid from Hot Pan they sell. It cost me £14.49 including postage which I know sounds a lot for lid but I didn`t mind paying that as it makes my PC more versatile and saves cupboard space as the PC doubles up as a normal saucepan so one less pan in cupboard. If I had bought a good quality large saucepan it would have cost me more than £14.

The lids are no longer showing on the website but if you email them they will sell them to you. Their service was excellent, they posted them as soon as they got my cheque.

cooking-mama

I was going to invest in a larger slow cooker,but eldest daughter seems to think everything tastes the same done in SC,and anyway the one i have does work perfectly i just wanted a bigger one to cook and freeze....apart from that there are some days (like today)when i havent been organised enough to set up the SC in the the morning,so a pressure cooker may be more appropriate for these days BUT..My memory of PC,is a large hissing and spitting pot with a twiddling thing on top that then got held under the cold tap,causing it to hiss even faster and louder:eek:...hated it..
Do i realy have to spend £80 odd pounds on the Khun Rikon one to get away from the hissing and need to put under tap,adjust the twiddly thing etc,or are the newer cheaper models just as good??...i also remember everything looking very pale after being in PC..white pork with white potatoes and white cabbage(very very soggy)..or is that just cos my dad overcooked everything;)
And lastly,is a pressure cooker a good gadget for bulk cooking to freeze....cheers.