Pressure Cooker Cooking

[peanut]

Hello folks,

I've just found an old pressure cooker, it doesn't have any instructions with it so I have contacted Prestige for a manual.
Whilst I am waiting for that from them I was wondering if any of you use one?
What are your favourite/best things to cook in one?
Any other hints or tips?
I have never used one before but the idea of being able to cook things quickly does appeal.

[burnie]

We used to cook loads in one........even me on occasion, we did however bin it and all our aluminium saucepans 30 years ago and we got out of the habit of using one. You could.............allegedly.................put a rubber hose on the top of one and boil up home made wine and distil it into your own moonshine..........not that I ever tried it of course...............................

[Ms-T]

stews, soup , stock , gammon , lentils, chickpeas. that's what i cook the most of ....mines only got one weight ..not like some that have 3 different ones.

[greenishfing]

I used to have one years ago but it used to scare me to death so now it is just used as a big pan on rare occasions.

[peanut]

stews, soup , stock , gammon , lentils, chickpeas. that's what i cook the most of ....mines only got one weight ..not like some that have 3 different ones.

Ooh lentils, I've just bought a bag of those, wouldn't have crossed my mind, had you not mentioned it, so thank you
I don't even understand the weight thing yet!

[Bren In Pots]

I use mine a fair bit mostly for quick soups especially those I’m got to blend we also have a small one that handy to take camping. Stopping using it for mushy peas after they ended up on the ceiling those now go in the slow cooker.

[ameno]

As well as the above mentioned, they're great for cooking dry beans.
Instead of 40 minutes in a pan, 15 minutes or so in the pressure cooker is plenty. You can even do them straight from dry, without soaking them overnight, although you need to add 5-10 minutes to the cooking time and if you don't pre-soak they are liable to split their skins.

[Chestnut]

I’ve only had mine for just under a year, so am still learning the ropes.
It has a valve with 2 pressure settings (I presume other models have different weights added to create the pressure, instead of a valve with 2 positions?).

I have found it most useful for cooking stuff which would take a long time in a normal saucepan - whole beetroot, dried pulses, gammon joint, stocks etc. I’ve heard it’s possible to cook Christmas puddings in them too, so will give that a go next time we have a rainy day ;-)

[Ms-T]

Beetroot is really nice done in the p/c.

[peanut]

Thanks everyone. It's great hearing how you use your Pressure Cookers.
I've had a little read up about them. Mine is an older style with10 and 15 weights.
I am definitely going to use it for lentils and stews, apparently they're very good for cooking cheaper cuts of meat and making them nice and tender.

[Snoop Puss]

Peanut, sure as eggs are eggs, you'll need a new gasket if it's old. But once you've got that, there's absolutely masses of things you can do in it. Some instruction manuals include lots of recipes too, but if yours doesn't, the Prestige website will have lots.

I'm a big pressure cooker fan. Mr Snoop saw the title of the thread as I was scrolling down and said "You'll have to look at that. Maybe it'll persuade you you need another one." He was teasing as I have five of different sizes plus a big pressure canner from the States. There are days when I'll do three different dishes in a pressure cooker. Today was only one (egg custards, a bit like a crème caramel without the caramel). We live off grid with bottled gas (like just about all of rural Spain). Saving fuel is essential, so I like them for that, but the food you can make is also fantastic.

I use them for risottos, stews, pulses, 'roast chicken' and 'roast' pork, veg, puddings even cheesecake.

Here's a website to get you started: https://www.hippressurecooking.com/
She does a lot of Instant Pot stuff now, but look at the recipes for inspiration, just to get an idea of what you can do.

Happy to answer any questions.

[ameno]

Oh yeah, one other thing a pressure cooker is useful for is complete sterilisation.
Using boiling water or sterilising tablets doesn't actually kill everything. It kills everything that really matters, vis-a-vis food safety, but certain mould spores and most bacterial endospores can survive both boiling temperatures and sterilising chemicals.
A pressure cooker at 15psi, however, gets hot enough to kill everything, just like a medical autoclave does.

Admittedly, the situations where you would actually need something 100% sterile are very few. I used to use it when I grew my own mushrooms. The jars of grain you grown out the mushroom mycellia on need to be completely sterile, as they naturally come with bacterial spores which which germinate and grow, making the whole batch turn rancid. So I would place a thin trivet on the bottom of the pressure cooker, put about and inch of water in, and load it with as many filled and lidded jars as would fit.

[Snoop Puss]

How's it going, Peanut? Did you manage to get a manual and a gasket?

[Mark_Riga]

I got a stainless steel one a few years ago. Mainly used for; potatoes (7 minutes); beetroot 20 to 40 minutes depending; pulses, 1 hour soak in hot water then 10 to 20 minutes depending on type.

[Snoop Puss]

Don't want to force pressure cooking down anyone's neck, but it's a shame if you have one and could be using it more to save effort and fuel.

Today, for example, I'm making an Ethiopian spicy chicken dish (doro wat) plus an Ethiopian spicy lentil dish (misir wat) for lunch. Then for supper, cauliflower, pear and blue cheese soup. All three very little effort but packed with flavour and none take long to cook. The doro wat is the longest: 15 minutes at high pressure. The lentils are 6 minutes at high pressure.