http://www.democraticunderground.com/115712035Oh my.
Like cousin Vlada Mitty, I'm trying to connect things, and thought perhaps something might be found in the cooking and baking forum indicating the primitives were up to some mischief with pressure cookers.
There were more than 3,460,000 results to "pressure cooker site: democraticunderground".
TreasonousBastard (20,790 posts) Fri Jul 13, 2012, 11:28 PM
Ongoing saga of the pressure cooker...
Back in March I mentioned I bought an electric pressure cooker, and it worked pretty well.
It still works great, and being electric it doesn't heat up the kitchen in these hot times-- double bonus.
I've done roasts, ribs, and other things-- all of which come out like butter in record time. Veggies are kinda rough, since the cooking times are so short if you don't want them to turn to mush and it takes a long time to get to the cooking temps so they're damn near cooked by the time they "start" cooking, if that makes any sense. There are some other settings I still haven't quite figured out that might solve the problem.
Just did a six pound chicken, which is kinda the limit for this thing-- it barely fit. Of course the skin doesn't brown, so you don't get the pleasant crispy display and smell unless you go to weird lengths to brown it before cooking. Which kinda takes away the point of cooking this way.
Anyway, most of the time when I do chickens in the thing I don't care about looks-- I just want to get the meat off for soups, and chicken salad, Caesar salads, whatever... Got about two quarts of meat off of that thing that I hope gets eaten before it goes bad in the fridge. And another quart or so of stock by the time I'm though.
It took maybe 10-15 minutes to warm up and then 35 minutes cook time-- much less than the two hours or so in my rotisserie. I'll happily save well over an hour and all that waste heat even if it means no crispy skin.
Anyway, still nothing but raves about pressure cooking.
Ugly was the first to butt in:
Warpy (68,316 posts) Sat Jul 14, 2012, 12:34 AM
1. Actually, the best way to brown a pressure cooked chicken is to use kitchen shears to cut out the backbone, break the wishbone, and lay it out flat* under a broiler or on a grill, skin oiled and season and turned toward the heat source.
Pressure cooked chicken is so highly flavored by anything it's cooked with that it seems a bit like gilding the lily to me, but that's the sensible way to get the skin a little browner.
Even a pressure canner on a gas stove doesn't tend to heat the kitchen that much, it's much more economical to have the stove on for half an hour, tops, than it is to have a braising pot on the stove for two or three hours.
*odd, how much that sounds like an abortion, one of Ugly's favorite causes.
Le Taz Hot (14,283 posts) Sat Jul 14, 2012, 03:19 AM
2. I LOVE my pressure cooker.
I got a combination pressure canner/cooker several years ago and have found so many uses for it. One of my favorites is making stock. Before I had the pressure cooker it would take 1/2- to 3/4- of a day to render the stock down. With the pressure cooker, I cook it under pressure for an hour, conventional for an hour and that's it.
Mine is a 22-quart and when I do canning, I'm able to process 14 pints at once, 7 on the bottom and 7 on the top.
Also, cheap cuts of meats fall off the bone after pressure cooking them.
Lots of other things I could list but, like you, I've found it's added a whole other dimension to cooking.
HopeHoops (47,675 posts) Sun Jul 15, 2012, 08:04 PM
5. Just make sure you have enough water. My late grandmother ended up with pea soup on her head.
I'm not kidding. The rocker blew off, the soup squirted out of the spout, and after it hit the ceiling it dripped all over her. This was NOT a pleasant experience.
TreasonousBastard (20,790 posts) Tue Jul 17, 2012, 01:13 AM
7. For some reason, even if no one gets hurt, stuff squirting all over the kitchen...
is rarely seen as funny at the time, no matter how many Stooge movies you may have laughed at. I have seen people get hysterical over spraying stuff on the ceiling, even when far less spectacular than a pressure regulator blowing.
Anyway, there has always been a problem with cooking goopy stuff like pea soup in these things. If you overfill, even by just a little, the jingly dingus could get clogged with the soup and thar she blows.
Modern ones have some protection from this happening, but care is still in order.
HopeHoops (47,675 posts) Tue Jul 17, 2012, 09:02 AM
8. Pressure cookers are generally completely safe, but when they go wrong, they're dangerous.
The empressof all (27,700 posts) Mon Jul 16, 2012, 02:20 PM
6. The new electric ones are extremely safe
Those worries you may have grown up with because of the stories of soup sprayed all over the kitchen are really a thing of the past. The new electric ones actually have multiple safety features and most brands operate on much lower pressure than those things our grand mother used.
I use mine regularly for soup, stews, quick pulled pork and of course apple sauce and freezer jam.
My only complaint with the new electric ones is that most of them come with a "non stick" internal pot. Now that problem has been solved as I finally found one with a stainless steel cooking pot. I think this is going to be my next appliance fix. I've been looking at it for a few months now and trying to justify the purchase in my mind since I already have one that works fine.
