Pressure Cooking - Advice Please

[mrlee]

I am all in with the Presto...I still have the one my mom left me when she passed 10 years ago and after a gasket replacement I should get another 25-50 years out of it. Fast, easy, less heat, and the vegeys are sooooo gooood!!!!
I have even played around with doing fish and crabs...easy as pie...and fast as#ell...good choice no matter what!

[Dennis.G]

We have the Fagor nesting set. Works great and does not take too much room. Also use as our regular pots (i.e., use when not pressure cooking too).

The euro brands have pressure settings and pressure release features that really set them apart. Much more useful than your mom's old pressure cooker, and worth the money. (edit: didn't mean your mom mrlee, really meant my mom's old cooker)

Really minimizes fuel use, and heat in the galley. Keeps flavor in veggies. Need to be careful not to overcook things, but you learn how to use real quick.

Futuro 5-piece Pressure Cooker Set | Fagor

[zeehag]

i have used my presto pressure cooker mebbe once in 5 yrs of cruising--1yr in opb, 4 yrs in my own boat.
i still have the presto, but i dont use it.

[GrowleyMonster]

Presto or Mirro work fine. Get two, that use the same gasket, and keep a spare gasket. Lose a weight, no biggie. Stretch a gasket, no biggie. Why 2? Cause rice cooks beautifully, perfectly in a pressure cooker using the pan-in-a-pan method, stays hot and fresh for an hour or more. Meanwhile you cook the main dish in the other. Great stews, roasts, beans, etc in under an hour. No steam and condensation to speak of. Saves energy.

For cooking at the dock with shore power available I love my Nesco electric pressure cooker. Doubles as a crock pot. Has a timer. When it gets up to pressure, timer starts. When timer ends, it goes to warm mode, so food stays hot but doesn't burn. Gets hot enough on brown mode to stir fry. Non stick. Inner pot is removable for washing. Next to my 12" thrift store rescue cast iron skillet, it is my favorite cooking pot.

[ALAIN97133]

Originally Posted by Segelplaner

Hi,

We are in the middle of our circum navigation planning, and realize that there is no McD in the middle of the Deep Blue.

We are considering Pressure cooking and need some advice:
-Which brands to consider?
-The "process" around Pressure cooking?
-Tips and Tricks with Pressure cooker, some funny och good tricks?

Thanks,
Jonas

Only one advice: Get one or two, you'll save a lot of gas

[flagorio]

Check out the duo models: two pots,one lid. The first is a skillet, the second is the larger traditional pot. We met an Australian in Annapolis who cans with his and puts the jars in PVC pipes with foam bottoms for storage. He lost electrical power for his fridge and relied on his canned meals for sustenance. He liked that he could control what went into the jar vs. the fat/salt content in commercial products. We cook with ours and can as well. We bake with our Omnia though. We do soups, stews, beans, fish, meats and risottos. After we cook lunch, we bring it back up to pressure and then let it sit off heat til dinner when we repressure again. Saves on reefer space. We also like that normal meals don't splash with the locking lid without pressure.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[jupiow]

go to hip pressure cooking - pressure cooker recipes, reviews and tips!

[Medit]

Hello Jonas,

Here in Italy we have a great brand for pressure cookers named Lagostina.
I have been using it both at home and in cruises and find it most useful in particular situations, such as:
- when it's rough outside and you wish to avoid spilling hot fluids around;
- whenever your recipe calls for a long cooking time and you want to cut that in half.
The cooker is stainless steel with thick - copper sandwiched - bottom for heath diffusion and comes in three basic sizes and this enables you to select the most suitable one. There is usually a recipe booklet with the instructions, which makes you understand the advantages and the safety issues.
Among the former ones, you have a limited use of water and you don't have to stir, watch & check; once the valve starts hissing, you reduce the flame to a minimum and keep going until the cooking time is finished.
Three important safety rules: put the recommended amount of liquids (water/broth/wine...) to last until completion; set a timer to avoid forgetting the whole process (it may well happen, since you don't have to do anything after the hiss starts); do not lift the lid before the hiss stops.
The typical recipes are risotto, boiled potatoes, vegetable soup but also roasts and even sweets, provided you are precise on the quantities and times.
A good, hot meal can change the mood of a crew in a wet, cold sailing day.
Medit

[Amapola]

We have a stainless steel Fagor and love it. It was more expensive than others but worth it. Food cooks faster under pressure thus less fuel is expended. We use it for all types of foods. It makes a great pot roast.

[NornaBiron]

I have a Kuhn Rikon 6 litre and Prestige 5 litre. The Kuhn Rikon cost double the price of the Prestige and is, without a doubt, the better of the two. I use it 2-3 times a week, either as a slow cooker (a la SWL) or as it was designed. I never used a pressure cooker on land and was resistant to it at first, however I'm not a confirmed convert and would never be without one again.

I make bread and cakes in it too - using it as a stove top oven.

[SaucySailoress]

You can ALWAYS eat well with a pressure cooker. Here goes:

Force Four Biryani:

- Chop chicken, onion, potatoes, tomatoes and whatever else you have hanging around throw in pressure cooker.
- Add some barley, just for a bit of texture, and cos apparently it's healthy.
- Throw in a carton of tomato concentrate, add water and curry powder.
- Stick on heat till it blasts (just a few minutes, that's all).
- Turn off heat.
- Leave for half an hour.
- Turn on gas again till it blasts.
- Leave it till pressure has eased.
- Open, ladle into bowls and eat contents.

Awesome. It saved us an absolute FORTUNE in gas!

[JPA Cate]

SS:

Creative way of using the pc. Great idea. Thanks.

[Island Time O25]

PC is a great way to get full flavor from tough (cheap) cuts of meat. We do lamb shanks stew with veggies in 30-45 mins instead of hours it would take in a regular dutch oven. In the 2nd cooker, just before shanks are ready we boil peeled potatoes in few mins. And then pour lamb stew onto the drained potatoes. The meat is just as tender as the potatoes.

Also I hear aluminum, as aluminum anything, is not very healthy in the long run. All of our 3 PCs are SS and are easy to clean. I have CNG so I try to be miserly using it and PCs help a lot.

[RaymondR]

Many years ago my fridge compressor seized up and I had problems sourcing a new one. The northerlies had started in northern Queensland and since I had been waiting for them for about six weeks and the cyclone season was pending I was eager to start south. I had been saving jars for some time and had a pretty good collection. The no refrigerator problem was solved by madly cooking up large meals, eating one and bottling the left overs using the pressure cooker. Margarine, powdered milk, hard cheese and a yogurt maker solved the dairy problem.

The bottling thing worked so well that I retained it even after the fridge was repaired; it proved very convenient to grab a jar of chile con carne and heat it up rather than having to cook a meal when one had had a long day on the water or was overnighting when the boat was moving about underway.

I usually make up enough meals for about one month. I used to always precook the meals however I learned to just fill the jars with the uncooked meals then cook them in the jars. If you load the jars leaving about 1/2" at the top, firm the lids down and load the pressure cooker and put a couple of inches of water in then bring the cooker up to pop off and give it about twenty minutes it seems to do the job. Don't put the jars directly in the bottom as they will crack, use a grate under them.

After they cool make sure the lids have sucked down concave indicating a proper seal has established; if not the contents will go bad. Since the growth of free trade I have become very suspicious of the source of much of our canned food however when I bottle it myself I know exactly what is in the jar.

[rwidman]

Many years ago, rural people (and even some city folks) canned meat, vegetables and fruit rather than freezing them. Of course for vegetables and fruit it's much easier to just buy them canned.

I wouldn't set out to can food with just the instructions above but safe canning instructions are on the Internet.