downside is the flat side, also called the bottom. Opposite end is the upside. That’s all I know about pressure cookers.
Just got the Breville Fast-Slow Pro pressure cooker, after listening to my wife-who-doesn’t-cook blather on about how her Physician Moms group is always talking about their Instant Pots.
I am loving the thing. Finally foolproof white rice with just the right texture. Have only done one stew/braise but it definitely did a great job with the meat in 1/5 the time. Did artichokes once. Pasta once for a mac and cheese. Wild rice. All of these things have come out just fine with a minimum of fuss.
What should I cook in this thing? Anyone making any more complicated dishes in their pressure cookers? Anything I should try?
We make risotto in ours all the time. Surprisingly great and easy to do variations like mushroom or butternut squash.
bought the pressure cooker from Williams Sonoma that allows browning and then pressure cooking in same unit–has a design flaw that because of temp generated during browning, shuts off early during pressure cooking and can’t be restarted. Happened with two units, as I took first one back. Then I googled and saw hundreds of similar complaints. Took second one back also.
I have old school Pressure Cookers / Canners.
No whistles, bangs, digital readout, timer. I use my recipe and when it’s done I run cold water over it in the sink for a minute to release all the pressure, and voila…
Something like this one…
I love to use them for daily cooking, especially stews, soups and chili! I made orange marmalade and apple butter a couple of weeks ago. Cut out hours.
That looks like my Mom’s except hers is avocado green.
With the Breville, you can manually set the pressure from 5-12psi. Most recipes just say “high” or “low” pressure. You can release naturally, all-at-once, or with auto-pulse. Quick release tends to blow things up but again haven’t played with this scientifically yet.
For those of you doing a risotto, do you sauté veg, add Rice and add hot stock off-cooker and then load it all in and pressurize? Any change in proportions from a traditional risotto?
Perfect for rice porridge.
I have one similar to Nola, just a high and low setting. We still are not real sure when to use each setting but do high for meats and low for veggies basically. Need to try risotto we don’t do it often due to how long it takes any other way.
Just made PC risotto for the first time last night. It turned out pretty good with a creamy sauce and rice that had a slight tooth. Proportions were 1.5 c rice 1/2 c white wine, 3 c liquid (chicken stock, tomato water and water. 1c tomato purée 1 am onion fine dice, one clove garlic 1/2 grated parm 2T butter 1T evoo. Butter and evoo heated than onion till trans. The. Rice to coat and fry a bit then 1/2 wine. Once the wine had
Cooked I added the liquids and covered and brought to pressure for 6min. Opened and tasted cooked on stove to a bit more then added the cheese.
It was a little too rich for me. I’d like to substitute out half the butter, just not sure what to use. Was initially thinking stock, but thought I would lose the caramelization. Any ideas?
I made short ribs last night… start to plates on the table 1 hour…
sautéed onions and garlic in the Instant Pot while browning the ribs in a separate pan… added the wine and spices and then 35 min under pressure and a natural release. meat was perfectly tender but a bit of the browning you’d get with a 3 hour braise was missing…
Some people want to cook everything in the Instant Pot… I say no, but for beans and stocks it is always a win and for braises and many other things where you don’t have time for the usual method… it is great.
really like our instant pot for rice/stocks/soups and certain braises.
Yeah, surprised no one mentioned it earlier. I really like that it’ll run for a few hours then keep warm. I can throw bones in it in the morning and have hot stock ready for dinner. Can’t do that with a manual one.
I use it mostly for stocks and a little for beans or grains. Small tip: You need to aggressively incorporate air into risotto after you make it.
bought my Instant Pot and first meal, short ribs, is tomorrow. Fu recommended the Instant Pot, looks well-made.
Which brand did you have troubles with, Alan? SeriousEats seems to recommend the Instant Pot and the Breville.
I am loving the Breville - not having to worry about manually discharging the steam is a big plus.
Did a pressure-cooked bolognese yesterday that cut down my time considerably. Still labor intensive - did most of the work in the stove and just transferred to PC to substitute for the slow braising part. Came out as probably the best bolognese I’ve made.
That doesn’t surprise me Noah. One big advantage of the fast cooking and enclosed environment is you lose less aroma and flavor to evaporation. if you cook with salt, you might actually find yourself needing less.