PRESSURE COOKING. Hints, tips, recommendations, recipes, or should I not bother?

TerryMyfitbitsnbobs

I am toying with the idea of a small pressure cooker, but have my mind in a mangle.
Should I bother?
What is a good one for a single dude?
What uses can I put it to?
What healthy tasty recipes do you know?
Those questions and many more.
Ok lets hear it. Pour it out here. I need your knowledge.
Also if you want to know something yourself, ask the mob your questions too.
Thanks for your input.

Chef_Barbell

I love my pressure cooker more than my slow cooker. I cook almost every night with mine.

I usually take a meat (chicken, roast etc), brown the exterior in the bottom of the cooker with some fat, add in a liquid (stock, broth, water etc) depending on the flavor I want, and voila a great meal in usually under an hour when the same meal would have taken hours on hours in the oven or crock pot. Throw in some rice and some veggies and you have a great meal in the time it would take to call take out.

You can also cook frozen meat in a pressure cooker it just takes longer to get the pot up to pressure.

The pressure cooker I own is the manual one that was very cheap on Amazon.

MelanieCN77

I have an electric one and I use it most days, sometimes twice. It's the best.

Chunkahlunkah

I'm thinking about getting one too. A friend of mine has fed me several meals cooked in hers, and they were all delicious. The texture comes out great.

Idk why, but my brain thinks of pressure cookers as the sexier version of slow cookers.

Chef_Barbell

Chunkahlunkah wrote: »

Idk why, but my brain thinks of pressure cookers as the sexier version of slow cookers.

YES!!! This is definitely what I think too. :laugh:

CurlyCockney

I had one in the 80s (they were compulsory wedding gifts around that time!) and seem to remember using it a lot for stew and chilli in the winter, not so much in the summer.

I wouldn't bother getting a small one though, just batch cook and freeze in portions.

ETA: Now I think of it, I did use it in summer - for boiling tins of condensed milk to make the toffee for banoffee pie!

sgt1372

I'm a single guy like the OP. Live alone and only have to cook for 1 or at most 2.

I've got a pressure cooker and a slow cooker and NEVER use them. I know there are lots of people who love them but I have no use for them. I prefer the process involved in the slow cooking of food on the stove top or in the oven. Just much more enjoyable to me.

More specifically, I don't like the guess work involved in cooking w/a pressure cooker. Guess wrong and the food comes out like mush. I also don't like being able to lift the cover to check on the look, taste and smell of the food as the food cooks.

So, unless you're in a big rush to get food on the table, like competitors on Chopped or Top Chef, I don't see why you'd really need one.

staciaslp

We have electric one and love it. We use it 4-5 x a week and food is flavorful and cooked quickly ! Haven't used my crockpot in months !

TerryMyfitbitsnbobs

staciaslp wrote: »

We have electric one and love it. We use it 4-5 x a week and food is flavorful and cooked quickly ! Haven't used my crockpot in months !

Which make?

TerryMyfitbitsnbobs

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

I have an electric one and I use it most days, sometimes twice. It's the best.

Which make?

TerryMyfitbitsnbobs

I have so far narrowed my research down to either a small 1.5 litre stove top jobbie, an Instant Pot Duo, or for half that price but looking as good, a Pressure King Pro. The beauty of the last two is that you can steam, fry, etc etc in them. I have limited space, so size and the ability for a tool to multitask are important.

MelanieCN77

TerryMyfitbitsnbobs wrote: »

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

I have an electric one and I use it most days, sometimes twice. It's the best.

Which make?

I have the Instant Pot, 5 quart, LUX I think, 6 in 1. My routine lately has been to work out after I'm done with work for the day, go set something up in it to cook, and by the time I'm showered and changed dinner is ready. I can crack a beer and chill while it keeps things warm or eat right away. I love how hands off it is and how I don't have to think so far ahead like with the slow cooker.

FitOldMomma

My pal just bought one for her daughter and it's awesome! She bought the Instant Pot Duo-6 quart style.
She put in 4 big frozen chicken breasts, some veggies, a can of pineapple, and .50 cup of bottled teriyaki sauce. In about 32 minutes dinner was done and it was delicious! The chicken was perfectly cooked, moist and tender. It takes the pot more time to build pressure than to actually cook the food inside it. It automatically set to cook for 12 minutes.
My niece uses her bigger Instant Pot (8 quart) at least twice a week. Busy family life with teen boys. She told me she can make pork carnitas in less than an hour using a 3 pound pork shoulder and a few other ingredients. She also uses her pot to make yogurt.

I'm looking at different models myself, I was very impressed with the multiple use features...like making rice and yogurts.

JenHuedy

I got one from my mother in law last Christmas. I figured it would end up in the gadget graveyard in my basement but I use it almost every day. Steamed veggies, rice, hard cooked eggs, pasta and sauce in one pot - no draining! Tonight was chicken and rice and it was easy, fast and delicious! The kids devoured it. The flavor and texture are so much better than the slow cooker.

I got a cookbook from Americas Test Kitchen called Pressure Cooker Perfection that has a lot of great recipes and tips that make it easy to cook your existing recipes in a pressure cooker.

MelanieCN77

Oh I love America's Test Kitchen, I'll have to find that.

mjbnj0001

I have both a pressure cooker (old-style, range-top, "jiggle top," 8L capacity) and a slow cooker. Use them both frequently in mostly the colder months. This week, made a tasty, healthy beef stew in the pressure cooker (used chuck roast I trimmed myself, saving about $1.25/lb for better meat than the store-packaged "stew meat") and a chicken-mushroom-barley stew in the slow cooker. 2 meal preps = 4 days' dinners for 4 people. The pressure cooker is great for many things, such as quickly cooking a load of brown rice or beans - in addition to actual one-pot meals. I've made cacciatore-style chicken with frozen breasts in about 12 minutes in the pressure cooker. I recently caught one of the shopper channels with late-night demonstrations of the popular electric pressure cooker (500 channels and nothing to watch, LOL!). The infomercial makes a great case for the pressure cooker, and the electric pushbutton versions look a little more convenient/flexible than my old trusty. Oh, and being 8L, the pressure cooker pot is one of my larger heavy pots for other cooking needs.

markrgeary1

Instant pot owner.
We're at 7500' so it's almost a necessity.

Steel cut Oatmeal in 3 minutes. Green Pork Chili, oh I never knew how great that is.

Check out dadcooksdinner.com there's a bunch of recipes.

CooCooPuff

I have an Instant Pot and use it very often- newest reason is for quicker potatoes.

I've messed up plenty of meals in it, but I love my Pot and use it at least once a week. Unless I'm pressed for time (11 vs 3:30 mins), leftovers heat much better in it as well

MelanieCN77

Broth chicken soup and lentil soup turn out great for me every time. Bolognese sauce, too. I also cooked a piece of fish from frozen the other day and it was wonderful.

riverain

I love my pressure cooker. It is awesome to have something that tastes like it took hours in a fraction of the time! I got the stovetop Fagor recommended by America's Test Kitchen. I also enjoy their pressure cooker cookbook, the recipes are good and there is also info on cooking times to help you branch out and do your own thing. The recipe books by Lorna Sass are also great.

mjwarbeck

Use it for soups and as a rice cooker....one of my favourite tools along with my immersion blender and Philips Air Fryer

staciaslp

Power pressure cooker XL is the kind we have.

lulalacroix

Pressure cookers are a quick way to cook a really juicy piece of meat. Yum.

erinc5

If you eat a lot of beans, it is a godsend. Dried beans turn out perfect in about 40 min - no planning or soaking needed. I have an instant pot and love it.

MelanieCN77

I like to make a goulash type stew as well, with chuck steak/stew meat. Meat, potato, carrot, onion, can of tomatoes, paprika, garlic and some good beef stock. I didn't write down how long I cooked for but if I did it right now I'd go for like 25 mins on high pressure and release when I felt like eating.

avskk

I have an Instant Pot and I am so in love with it I'm thinking of taking it on a honeymoon. I make carnitas in it (starting with a frozen pork shoulder) in 40 minutes; I'm making oxtail stew tonight (starting with 2lb frozen oxtails) that should take about half an hour; I make beans and chilies and soups in it in ~30 minutes (starting with dry beans).

Sometimes I dump an entire bag of russet potatoes in with a little salted water, steam them for 10 minutes, and stick 'em in the fridge to eat all week. I like putting a layer of veggies in with a bit of water, lemon, and dill; put a layer of foil over the veggies (leaving a gap at the edges), put frozen salmon filets on that, season the filets, and steam the whole mess for ~7 minutes.

You can do a whole squash in the Instant Pot with much less hassle than the oven requires. You can also do a whole chicken, if you have the bigger IP, and it comes out so fall-apart tender you might want to cry a little.

I also make pretty much any slow-cooker recipe in the IP, except I start with frozen/dry/whatever ingredients and cook for 10-30 minutes (depending on the recipe) instead of starting thawed/canned and cooking for 8 hours. It's the best.

TerryMyfitbitsnbobs

erinc5 wrote: »

If you eat a lot of beans, it is a godsend. Dried beans turn out perfect in about 40 min - no planning or soaking needed. I have an instant pot and love it.

Yes I buy lots of tinned pulses and beans of all types because soaking etc seems too much faffing about. This is great news.

TerryMyfitbitsnbobs

Ordered a 5 litre Pressure Pro Cooker. Seems as good as the Instant Pots, but is half the price. I hope it's not the Betamax of choices.

suruda

Clearly I need to branch out! I use mine regularly to cook beets and artichokes...haven't tried it yet for anything else~ Thanks for starting this thread!

bcl003

I have the Pressure Power Cooker, I think it is a 5 or 6 quart. I use it all the time to make hard boiled eggs (we pickle our own) and they are so easy to peel no matter the freshness, plus it only takes 5 minutes at pressure. I have used it for pork loin, pork roast, frozen beef roast, meatloaf, frozen and fresh chicken breasts, and pinto beans. My husband was very skeptical about the meatloaf, but now it is one of his favorite meals. I like to make the meatloaf in the bottom and put the steamer tray in with gold potatoes to steam for mashed potatoes.

MelanieCN77

TerryMyfitbitsnbobs wrote: »

Ordered a 5 litre Pressure Pro Cooker. Seems as good as the Instant Pots, but is half the price. I hope it's not the Betamax of choices.

Hey, Betamax was actually the superior format, it just got out-marketed!