# Pressure cooking



## Bob Sanders (Nov 10, 2013)

Anybody still doing it or is it a lost art?


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## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

Bob Sanders said:


> Anybody still doing it or is it a lost art?


 People who live at high altitude use them to cook vegetables.


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## CaptTom (Dec 31, 2017)

Google "Instant Pot." It's an automatic electric pressure cooker with a cult-like following.

Just about everyone in my family has one. We use ours all the time.


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

Was nearly essential for survival when I was a pup, but the wife really never wanted to get into it. But I did own 2 All American pressure cookers for a few days. Not knowing much about the values, I bought 2 at an auction for 5 bucks. Doing e-bay at the time and sold the 15.5 Qt. for 65 bucks and the 7 Qt. for 85. The fellow at our small grocery store ended up with the most of that $$.:biggrin2:


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

As I become more senior cooking meat until it is tender is getting more important and you can't beat a pressure cooker for that. My mom always used hers and now it is my turn to get one.

Bud


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

I've mostly heard of it for Canning. If you don't do that, I would think you wouldn't need one. The Instant Pot is interesting but again it depends on your styles of cooking.

I tend to cook less "bottom of the pot" & more stir fry, saute, steam & some frying, so a pressure cooker isn't needed. It's more for high heat over a longer time. One reason people may not use it as much is it destroys some vitamins.

The Instant Pot seems to be a crockpot/rice cooker/ pressure cooker except you can't can. The heat isn't high enough.

What makes you curious about it?


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

Bud9051 said:


> As I become more senior cooking meat until it is tender is gettingbut more important and you can't beat a pressure cooker for that. My mom always used hers and now it is my turn to get one.
> 
> Bud


Have you tried a simple crock pot?


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

Nik333 said:


> Have you tried a simple crock pot?


I have a crock pot and use it, pulled pork, roasts, and occasional stew. 
One item in particular I want to try with a pressure cooker is fish. We have an abundance of fish that everyone ignores because of their PITA small bones. But in a pressure cooker those bones disappear. I've eaten the fish, pickerel from fresh water and alewife from tidal waters and the meat taste great. But the bones drive you crazy. I love a good fish chowder and these fish are essentially free so would like to stock up in season. I hate to use a fillet at $6 or $8 a bound for a soup.

Then there are lower priced cuts of meat that need tot pressure cooker to soften them up.

I looked at the instant pot, interesting.

Bud


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

I have been wanting one for a while but just haven't bought one yet. We have the crock pot but don't use it much. A friend of ours has one of the pressure cookers and they cook dried beans in 45 minutes in theirs and they taste about the same as cooked the hard way.


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## Bob Sanders (Nov 10, 2013)

BigJim said:


> I have been wanting one for a while but just haven't bought one yet. We have the crock pot but don't use it much. A friend of ours has one of the pressure cookers and they cook dried beans in 45 minutes in theirs and they taste about the same as cooked the hard way.



Yeah. My understanding is that they cook a LOT faster (higher pressure means hotter water.... 250* or so as opposed to the normal 212*).


I remember when I was a kid, my grandmother used one and I can still hear that hissing coming from the stove top in my mind.


I saw one on sale the other day and I was going to pick it up but I can't imagine the actual NEED for it.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

I still have my Grandmothers Presto pressure cooker, in my pots / pans bin.

It's older than I am, and still works, have had to replace the rubber gasket for the lid a couple of times in the last 45 years, but finding it was a little hard, seems that they expect us to trash something that only needs a dollar part.

Another memory just popped up.

When I was a kid, mom was cooking a roast in it, when the little jiggler popped off, and the roast came halfway out the little hole, and was sticking out looking like a meat mushroom. 

What a mess that was, had to let the thing cool off before touching it, then could not pull the meat out, had to cut it off at the stem, open the cooker, use an icepick to clear the blockage, and reassemble the meat and cooker, clean up the juice that had spewed out before the meat plugged the hole. 

And restart the cooking. 

I don't use it much, because they make pressure cookers for microwave use, and I use one of those for my Chicken, pork, beef, and veggies, even boil a dozen eggs in it without breaking a shell one, fantastic.


ED


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

de-nagorg said:


> I don't use it much, because they make pressure cookers for microwave use, and I use one of those for my Chicken, pork, beef, and veggies, even boil a dozen eggs in it without breaking a shell one, fantastic.
> 
> 
> ED


I had no idea, I will be checking them out, learn something new every day.


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## Two Knots (Nov 12, 2011)

I use mine a lot, especially for making soups. 
chicken soup - 30 minutes
bean soup - 40 minutes
lentil soup - 20 minutes
vegetable beef soup - 25 minutes

Beans - 40 minutes
Stuffed peppers & stuffed cabbage - 25 minutes
...and the best is stuffed artichokes. - 25 minutes

Everything comes delicious, and you’re not a slave -
tied to the stove for long periods of time stirring
frequently so that the food doesn’t stick or burn...

Set it and forget it, until the timer dings! :thumbsup:


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

I'm like Nic, we use ours for pressure "canning", but not for cooking. I have found that the freezer sealing machine makes for a good method of preservation in the last year or so. Previously we would lose things to frost bite in the freezer. Not so much with the sealing system. Since all the air is sucked out, there is no room for frost to occur. I still like my green beans canned, though.


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## Colbyt (Jan 27, 2014)

When we grew a large garden we used one to quick cook the green beans but have not used one for 25+ years.


As to meats, long and slow in the slow cooker does the same job as a a pressure cooker.


Lucks (original) makes better tasting pintos than I can and one can is a meal for me the only person who eats them. Highly recommenced if you have never tried them.


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

chandler48 said:


> I'm like Nic, we use ours for pressure "canning", but not for cooking. I have found that the freezer sealing machine makes for a good method of preservation in the last year or so. Previously we would lose things to frost bite in the freezer. Not so much with the sealing system. Since all the air is sucked out, there is no room for frost to occur. I still like my green beans canned, though.


Do you have a generator for power failure?


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Yep. 22k with auto transfer switch. 10 seconds of failure and we're back up........with flashing clocks.


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## Irony58 (Aug 29, 2011)

We've got a big Presto PC that my wife used for some canning awhile back, but it's a bit big for simple meal prep. So now we've got the Ninja Foodi, which is similar to the Instant Pot. This is getting more use than the microwave, although maybe because, since it was an early Christmas present, it's still in the "honeymoon phase". And since it's similar enough to the Instant Pot, at least for PC meals, we're able to use Instant Pot recipes just fine.

But having a smaller size PC makes it more practical for individual meals than our big PC. Chicken comes out much more moist than in a slow cooker. We've hard-boiled a dozen eggs on two separate occasions and both times they came out perfect. The shells peeled off in almost two complete halves and the yolks were perfectly done.

We've also cooked soup, a couple pasta dishes, a rice dish, poached eggs, ..., maybe others, and we really like how fast it cooks. It's also got a timer and temperature control, so that also makes it easier than the big PC.

I think the Instant Pot craze may push pressure cooking back in the mainstream.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

I have two pressure cookers, a big one and a small one. I got the big one from goodwill, and the small one from a yard sale, about 10 and 5 dollars apiece, respectively.

If you cook beans, particularly larger ones, they're a big help, especially if you get some of those ancient black beans that may have sat in the store since Neolithic times. 

They're also great for Indian and other Asian cooking.

Just be careful about opening that valve! :surprise:


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