Should I buy a pressure cooker?

[GinandChocolate]

Well just that really. My mum had a scary one in the 70s but the new ones seem more hi tech and look safer.

Would it significantly speed up cooking?
What could I cook in it?

Excellent for dhal of all kinds. That's the main reason I have considered it. Will be interested in responses to see what else it might be useful for . . .

Pressure cookers are great. I use mine all the time, and it is not scary. We are vegetarian, and I mainly use it for pulses (they taste much better and cook much faster), but it is also wonderful for whole grains.

I have a nice one made by WMF. Very non-scary and un-hissy. I held off for a long time thinking it wouldn't be useful but I find it very good for turning slow-cook beef cuts into meals in short order.

I have one and love it! Mine is a scanpan one which my Mum bought me for Xmas a few years ago. I was a little scared of it to begin with but I wouldn't be with out it now!

For example if I am making spaghetti bolognaise (which I make from scratch) I put the water for the pasta on first, make the bolognaise, put pasta in pot and then by the time the pasta is cooked so is the sauce.

I also find it great if I decide at say 11:30am that I want soup for lunch it is easy to whip up a pot and have it cooked in 20 mins.

They are great for all soups, stews, quickly cooking veg/potatoes. I haven't been too adventurous with mine, I've just stuck to my regular recipes which just cook much quicker. It is really good for cooking up stews with cheaper cuts of meat as you don't have to cook them for hours to become tender as you would in the oven.

Love mine and it's not at all scary.

Great for cooking stock, pulses, ham joints like hock and I use it to cook beetroot, cos it takes 10 mins if that.

My mum used to cook the bloody cabbage in hers. Well that's plain daft......and disgusting.

We use ours alot too.

Great for making mashed potatoes in under 10 mins

Chicken stock is really good.

I use it for all stews, some pasta sauces, pulses etc. Good for rice too.

My only problem is that ours is too big. Great for a crowd, but I would use it even more if I had a smaller one.

I have the electric one - you brown the meat/veg in it add rest of ingredients - tell it how long u want it cooking and off it goes. I love it !

I love mine, it's a modern one and very safe, not scary in the least although it does hiss but that's normal. I make at least one soup a week in mine, and do stews, meat, and puddings. I used to have one of the old scary types with the little melting safety valve which I did melt on more than one occasion. Once it over heated while making soup and soup was hitting the ceiling at high pressure, we were trying to catch it with saucepans on the way down!! Once Halloween same thing happened with apple stir pudding and it was the first time hubby had had dinner with us.. oh those were the days, dinner on the ceiling!!

They're great. I used mine lots until I had a baby - now I don't use it as I can't keep an eye on the timings.

I have two Kuhn Rikon ones and have been very pleased with them - I think they get good reviews.

Stocks, soups & casseroles are all good.

This is a good pressure cooking site for recipes, ideas & info.

This is interesting. I've been wondering about getting a pressure cooker for a while now. Do you find that you lose the depth of flavour that you get from cooking things like, say, bolognese for a longer time?