Pressure cookers?

2Tartu

2Tartu

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I need advice, less than 100 people use a pressure cooker in this country (never caught on, really...), but I've come to realize that it might be a good investment.

What should I look for? What should be avoided? Any favorite brands? Steel? Aluminium?
 
We have an electric one made by Faberware. It has the option to brown whatever you put in it. We love it. Most pressure cookers have a browning option, or a canning option. I don't think it can have both.

Whatever meats you cook in it, come out really tender to the point that if it has a bone, it will just fall off. Pork chops, pork roast, chicken, beef roasts. All excellent. Done in as little as 1/2 to 1/3 of the time by conventional means (oven or stovetop).

We usually put onions and garlic in whatever we cook in it.

Just don't add water or any liquid. If you do, use very little. Maybe just enough to help mix things. Whatever you cook will produce its own liquid. Therefore, if you add any, it may weaken the flavor.
 
Honestly from the ones I have which were both basic slow cookers with low/med/high settings nothing fancy, one locks the lid in place, the other was just a regular lid which works fine for stews. Far as size goes 10qt is great or however you see fit.

I would look for counter top pressure cookers because it will save money, steel+locking lids, multi functions (not necessary but a plus).Steel will be easier to clean. Keep in mind lids do need cleaning so find one that either can detach from the pot or one that locks the lid in place.
If you can try bump it up a bit & grab a counter top cooker with some extra features like pressure/slow combo some even have specific meats, rice cooker, and a steam option. My cookers are Hamilton works fine for what I usually cook.

Hope that helps bud, gl
 
If you want to get into canning, look for a cheap Presto 32 quart (not sure what that is in metric) pressure canner. They might make smaller than that if you think that is too big.

We use ours to can various meats in glass mason jars. We have done boneless chicken thighs, pork roast, beef roast, beef and pork stew meat.

Just cut them up into small chunks, removing as much fat as you can. Fill it up to about 2-3 fingers from the top, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of canning salt on the top. Put the flat lid and retaining ring on top, fill the canner pot with water as per instructions, follow the rest of the instructions to get everything up to temperature and pressure. Depending on your elevation, depends on the amount of pressure and time to cook. At our elevation, its 10lbs for 90mins. Then just wait for it all to cool.

The awesome thing about canned meats is that you do not have to refrigerate. You can save space in your freezer for other things. Just leave your jars on a shelf at room temperature. And if you want a quick meal, just saute some onions in a pan, open a jar and dump all the meat in the pan. Break it up into chunks and basically warm it up. Eat it like that next to rice or make sandwiches.
 
We are old school when it comes to pressure cooking/canners. Some of the new cookers will not do canning just be aware of that. We use one all the time we have 3 different types of presurre cooker/canners. They are great to use and can be used in many different ways. Aluminum is fine to use and with last longer then most of us will. I still have 18 jars of roasts still sitting on the self from 2 years ago. the flavor of this canned meat is over the top good. We went to these type of lids for canning since they are reusable http://tattlerproducts.com/

Try hard boiled eggs in a pressure cooker fast and easy and remember canners and cookers are two different beasts.
 
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Those lids are great to use Bro. On them only very very light finger tight when canning with them.
 
Have you ever used the pot within a pot method in pressure cooker? with PP method you can cook bread and other bread like foods in a pressure cooker. Here is one of the first cookbooks that we started out with. Lots of good stuff in this book. Just remember we dont have the new type of pressure cookers. We are old school pressure cooker types no electronics in our type of cookers. https://www.amazon.com/Miss-Vickies...592&sr=1-54&keywords=pressure+cooker+cookbook

Here is another source of pressure cooking recipes http://allrecipes.com/recipes/11978/everyday-cooking/cookware-and-equipment/pressure-cooker/
Here is a explanation of pot in pot pressure cooking. https://instantpot3.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/pip/
Rice is one food item to use this method
 
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So far, we've only canned those meats. Never used the double pot method. Our next attempt is going to be canning chicken soup and maybe french onion.

Seeing how quick it is to make a meal with them, not to mention how good it tastes, it's hard not to use one every night.
 
Just remember that if you add meat to your soups the 90 min canning rule applies. That sometimes leads to over cooked ingredients.
 
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2Tartu said:
I need advice, less than 100 people use a pressure cooker in this country (never caught on, really...), but I've come to realize that it might be a good investment.

What should I look for? What should be avoided? Any favorite brands? Steel? Aluminium?
Click to expand...
FYI: If you have any Mormons in your area (missionaries) they'll be glad to help you out with getting into canning.
 
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