Anyone use a pressure cooker?

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

I know that I should be tarred, feathered and permanently excluded from MN, but I just don't get on with my slow cooker .

So, I'm thinking of getting a pressure cooker instead. Does anyone have one, do you use it and what do you cook?

I have an Instant Pot. I love it! Today I made soup in it, yesterday rice. I use it almost daily for something including yogurt making. As it's an electric pressure cooker it's very simple to use.

Ooh sounds good. Not heard of an electric pressure cooker, will wonder off to go and Google, thank you

I just got an instant pot too and love it. I did pork shoulder in it yesterday for pulled pork and it took 90 minutes instead of four hours to make it wonderfully tender and forkable. Soup in 30 minutes. Steel cut porridge in 3 minutes. Love it!

I have a traditional hob one, think its a swan one. I love it. Best thing ever in the winter as you can make massive pots of soup in 10 minutes,currys in about 15 and brilliant for doing potatoes too.
You can also use the steam to clean your kitchen tiles when you release the pressure!
Don't understand slow cookers and just don't fancy having something cooking all day with no one in the house.

I've got both and infinitely prefer the pressure cooker. Rarely use SC but PC (stainless steel one from Aldi) is fantastic for soups, curries, pulses, brown rice, potatoes, 'tough' cuts of meat and many other things. Love the fact that I can think of a meal which would usually take a couple of hours roasting / baking or simmering and it's ready in under an hour, often way less.

It's good that you all like them. One of the things that I don't like about the slow cooker is that the water doesn't escape, so everything is watery. Does this happen with a pressure cooker or is it more like it's been oven cooked?

I have both and use them for completely different stuff. My pressure cooker is older than me and just has a new weight. I love it, could not live without it.

I use my Pressure cooker for mince, soup and stock

My slow cooker for stew.

Anyone who says chicken broth from a slow cooker is great has never tasted pressure cooker stock and I feel sorry for them.

Right, you've convinced me to buy one. Now I need to know which one to get and your favourite recipes please

I have always had a pressure cooker as did my mum. I have the traditional and for the last six years also an electric which I use daily.
I cook stews, pulses, soups, broths, steam vegetables, rice......
Can't live without it. One of my sons and his DW have become converts.

Have a look at the link below to get some ideas about what you can do

www.hippressurecooking.com/

I make risotto in mine.

Anything with tough (and therefore often cheap) cuts of meat e.g beef casserole, goulash, lamb shoulder curry, ox cheeks (makes a lovely rendang), lamb shanks. Also good for preparing oranges to make marmalade. You can do beans and pulses really quickly e.g. Pearl barley risotto, lentil soup. I love our pressure cooker - really useful for batch cooking and cooking on a budget.

Thank you

Should I get a stove top or an electric?

I've only used an electric and would recommend. Stovetop pressure cookers scare me!

Ok, I shall look at the electric ones. Must admit that the stove top one my family had in the 70s was a bit scary

Both are fantastic but since having the electric I have hardly used the stove top.
With the electriic version you don't have the hissing sound while cooking, no loss of steam and no food smell, also you save on electricity or gas as very economic to run.
Best of all you don't have to be in the kitchen or even at home while it's cooking as it stops by timer and keeps warm. Obviously with the stove top you have to be on hand to turn off the heat and easy to overcook.
Just have to remember to use a lot less cooking liquid than with regular pots and a little less than with a stove top pressure cooker.
If the one you purchase doesn't have a steamer basket it's an idea to get one as great for steaming. In mine most vegetables take 2 or 3 minutes from when pressure rises.

I have both a pressure cooker and a slow cooker, rarely use the latter (as in twice a year) because I don't like the texture of meat cooked in it.

Use my pressure cooker all the time, for me the trick is to cook things a bit short of the time required and then take the lid off to reduce the flavour of whatever it is I am cooking if it is a casserole type affair.

I use it a lot when camping. I wouldn't buy anything other than a stove top personally because a good one will last forever.

I have this one, really love it - not scary at all like the one my mother had.

www.richmondcookshop.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=21_164_238&products_id=5822&osCsid=eu9futi5qj68dnrief84i48cu5

I have a stove top Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker and it is farand away my favourite kitchen thing! I also hate slow cooker food - institutional slop IMO. We are vegetarians so we get loads of use out of the PC for lentils etc. I also use it for meat curries etc for guests. I much prefer the stove top ones as they generally get to a higher pressure so cooking times can be shorter. You won't regret it!

BTW the modern stove top ones are nothing like the old ones - no weights etc and they are silent during use.

Very I like mine so much I keep toying with buying another one, a smaller one - DD & I don't eat much meat either, lots of pulses.

Love the fact that spares are guaranteed to be available for 15 years still and mine is a few years old now.

This one keeps calling me ...

www.richmondcookshop.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=21_164_238&products_id=5559

Very cute!

It's very dinky, isn't it lavendersun! I'd buy a smaller one in a flash too if I weren't cooking for a family. We used to cook on bottled gas and I couldn't imagine keeping gas going for hours whilst I cooked pulses without a PC when they can be done in 12 mins! I also don't like the idea of prepping stuff in the morning either for use in a SC.

It's true that the new stove top cookers are nothing like the old ones and even with the old ones used properly there was nothing to worry about.

Kuhn Rikon is a top brand, really worth it the investment

(Apologies for multiple posts...)

We have an induction hob now which means I can bring the cooker to pressure, set the hob to cook for X minutes and go away and leave it which is fab. That I can see would be the major advantage of an electric PC if you don't have a hob you can set a timer on.

Please don't apologise for multiple posts, this is all good stuff

I only have an ordinary hob and cope fine with a stove top - mine is an ancient range with solid tops. I have had to use a diffuser with a camp stove in the past.

I cook everthing from lentils/pulses/soups/stews and even things like Irish stew, beef in red wine, lovely steamed puddings .... just waiting for autumn now!

I have used it today actually - lentils with basil and sundried tomatoes with frozen chopped spinach added at the end.

DH often works away so I am only cooking for two hence the wish for a tiny one that I don't need.