Does Anyone Use a Pressure Cooker - Electric or Stove Top?

[PennySillin]

I would like a pressure cooker for Christmas after watching too much MKR Australia but I can't decide whether to get an electric or stove top one! What would you recommend?

[dementedpixie]

We have a stove top one from argos

[lougle]

I am getting an Instant Pot Duo60 for Christmas. I'm ridiculously excited. I was on their community FB page earlier and people had posted to say that they had cooked a deep frozen whole chicken in just 30 minutes in the Instant Pot. A risotto takes just 4 minutes!

[bookbook]

I have a traditional one that sits on a hob. Love it - its incredibly useful

[thenumberseven]

I've used the traditional since I started cooking when I was about sixteen. For the past six or seven years I've been using electric. I have both stove top and electric and use it for practically everything. Now I rarely use the traditional mainly because the electric I set and forget.
I cook meat and chicken, stews and casseroles, pulses, rice, steamed vegetables. I even steam eggs for hard boiled as they peel easily this way.
I can honestly say that mine gets used daily and more often than not more than once.

[SunnysideDownunder]

I started off with an electric one but had problems with it not pressurising properly so I took it back, got a full refund and bought a stove top one. I love it and it's used at least once a day.

Electric
Pros - really, really easy to use. DH would cook our steel cut oats in the morning.

• you don't have to watch it, just set the timer and it automatically switches off.
  
• there is one make that releases the pressure for you so you don't have to stand there pressing a button.
  

Cons
-too small for my purposes (batch cooking for 5, good for one meal)

• tricky to clean
  
• generally the electric cookers don't cook at a constant pressure. The ring underneath heats and then goes off and heats again. I could hear mine bubbling up in side and then resting. This means that recipes for conventional pressure cookers may not turn out as well, but that's only what I've read on the Internet I couldn't tell the difference.
  

Conventional
Pros - you can get a huge one (mine's 8.5lt)

• you can release the pressure under the tap as well as fast/slow which is useful for cooking something (dried beans I think, otherwise the yucky water bubbles through the valve)
  

-spares are easy to find and not as likely to be replaced by a fancier model.

Cons - you have to watch it and turn down the heat and then set a timer.

• you need a hob that you can control easily, like gas. The older style electric that takes ages to heat up and then heats in cycles (like my mil's)would be rubbish.
  

In a perfect world I would have one of each. An electric for DH to cook porridge and rice and a stovetop one for everything else.

An electric one is perfect to find your way pressure cooking without all the worry of fiddling around with the hob and timers.

[peekaboo1]

I love my stove top one, a love passed down to me by my mum who loves hers. She swears by Prestige brand ones and we have both been well served by them.
Have discovered the hip pressure cooking website which is now a constant source of recipes. The bolognese sauce is amazing and tastes like it's been cooking all day, even though it takes under 1 hour from start to finish. I make giant batches. They give you recipes for both types of cooker.

[Sgtmajormummy]

I have a traditional style one and I've solved the pot watching/timer problem with an induction hob. It's great that I just turn it down to "1", put the timer on "20 mins" and come back whenever I like to well cooked veg soup (easily pleased).

I make soup, stews, mash, frozen veg, dried pulses, mince dishes and risotto in a third of traditional times. I also use the pan part with an ordinary lid as it's a great size for boiling pasta or making jam. Mine is a double-handled 6(?) litre Lagostina bought 8 years ago and I haven't replaced any parts in spite of using it every day, like a PP.

I couldn't get on with a slow cooker in spite of trying (the idea of low temperature seething for six hours does not appeal) but I'm definitely a fan of pressure cookers to make "real" dinners in double quick time. Less vitamin loss from vegetables, too.