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

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TerryMyfitbitsnbobs
TerryMyfitbitsnbobs Posts: 238 Member
in Food and Nutrition
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.
B)
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Replies

  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
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    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.
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  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    I have an electric one and I use it most days, sometimes twice. It's the best.
  • Chunkahlunkah
    Chunkahlunkah Posts: 373 Member
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    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
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
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    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
    CurlyCockney Posts: 1,394 Member
    edited December 2016
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    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
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,978 Member
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    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
    staciaslp Posts: 4 Member
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    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
    TerryMyfitbitsnbobs Posts: 238 Member
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    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
    TerryMyfitbitsnbobs Posts: 238 Member
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    MelanieCN77 wrote: »
    I have an electric one and I use it most days, sometimes twice. It's the best.

    Which make?
  • TerryMyfitbitsnbobs
    TerryMyfitbitsnbobs Posts: 238 Member
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    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
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    edited December 2016
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    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
    FitOldMomma Posts: 790 Member
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    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
    JenHuedy Posts: 611 Member
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    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
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    Oh I love America's Test Kitchen, I'll have to find that.
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,087 Member
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    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
    markrgeary1 Posts: 853 Member
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    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
    CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
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    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
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    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
    riverain Posts: 55 Member
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    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
    mjwarbeck Posts: 699 Member
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    Use it for soups and as a rice cooker....one of my favourite tools along with my immersion blender and Philips Air Fryer

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