The Crock Pot thread made me think of this. Does anybody use a pressure cooker and what do you use it for? What brand would you recommend? I've been thinking of buying one.

My mother used hers for great corned beef and also for vegetables, though I do vegetables on the grill a lot now with excellent success.

Canning.

I have also been thinking about getting one. I just can't find one that looks good. I learned most of what I know of cooking from my grandmother. She used her press. cooker for many things but primarily veggies (green beens and potatoes) and stuffed peppers and cabbage.

Her cooker had a weight on the top. with different size outlets for different internal pressure. when it started bouncing you started your time. There were different times for different pressures. It was probably circa 1970's. All of the cookers I find today seem to be sans the little weight. Does anyone know of a brand that might suit my desire for variable pressure? I suppose I could use ebay, but you know.

We used to use one a few years back. Half an hour into cooking some brisket, the seal broke. Needless to say, it caused a bit of damage in our rental apartment at that time.

Saw a T-fal one on sale last year and picked it up. It is still in OCC somewhere in the house.

I have two pressure cookers, both Kuhn Rikon Duromatics from Switzerland. One is 8 liters, one is 5 liters. These are simply the finest pressure cookers available, amazing quality, lifetime purchases.

We use the pressure cookers for a wide variety of things, mostly stews and pot roasts, that sort of thing. However, we also do a lot of Indian dishes in the pressure cooker -- Madhur Jaffrey, who is probably the top English-language Indian cookbook writer, considers them to be indispensable, and many of her recipes are prepared in a pressure cooker. We also have several cookbooks by Lorna Sass, who focuses on the devices, and a couple of others, including Pressure Cooking for Dummies, which is actually pretty good.

A wide range of things can be prepared well in a pressure cooker, if you know what you're doing. I have one recipe for Risotto Milanese that I've served to company with rave reviews -- it's 98% as good as regular risotto, but cooks in a couple of minutes, which is a godsend when you're trying to get the lamb shanks finished.

I don't use the pressure cooker all that often, maybe half a dozen times a year, so I'm not a zealot, but I wouldn't be without one. There are some electric ones available, and I once had one, but I found the Kuhn Rikons to be much better. Avoid the junk sold on QVC.

BTW, they're easy to use, easy to clean, and extremely safe. The Kuhn Rikon pressure cookers have five safety valves, all of which would have to be inoperable if not defeated manually for the thing to explode, and even then I'd be surprised given the obvious strength of the heavy stainless steel used in these pots.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RDCollins,

When my children were home and I 'cooked' dinner every night I would use my pressure cooker at least three times a week. I often cooked potatoes in 15 minutes (for baked potatoes). Cheap meats can be pressure cooked and become very tender. The main dish I made was sausage and saurkraut--Grandma's recipe. I used it for canning a couple times--just small pints of green beans, etc. I've used a Presto for over 20 years now. Enjoy!