Author Topic: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!  (Read 61752 times)

ender

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #150 on: November 29, 2016, 09:05:20 AM »
A huge advantage of a pressure cooker is that it cooks fast, I'm not sure how a stovetop cooker is going to be either any more efficient energywise or timewise?

It's nearly guaranteed to be less efficient energy wise and probably is much slower, too.

Poundwise

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #151 on: November 29, 2016, 09:17:41 AM »
I don't know if anybody has mentioned it, but a great cookbook I enjoy is "Cooking Under Pressure" by Lorna Sass.

boarder42

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #152 on: November 29, 2016, 09:19:51 AM »
any good websites.  i havent ever bought a cookbook and dont really plan to.

lifeanon269

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #153 on: November 29, 2016, 10:11:40 AM »
A huge advantage of a pressure cooker is that it cooks fast, I'm not sure how a stovetop cooker is going to be either any more efficient energywise or timewise?

It's nearly guaranteed to be less efficient energy wise and probably is much slower, too.

Was this in response to the thermal cooker or just other stove top cookers in general?

The thermal cooker is more energy efficient because you only need to cook it until it boils. That means that thermal cookers even beat out the fastest pressure cookers (from an energy spent perspective) since you aren't adding heat during the entire cooking process. You only need to cook it for about 10 minutes and then you remove it from its cooking source and place it in an insulated vacuum to finish the cooking process. It might not be faster overall timewise before you can actually eat it, but it is definitely more energy efficient. The added benefit is that, like slow cooking, you can come home at the end of the day to a fully prepared meal from a thermal cooker without worrying that it will be burned or overcooked.

horsepoor

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #154 on: November 29, 2016, 11:36:26 AM »
any good websites.  i havent ever bought a cookbook and dont really plan to.

The nomnompaleo blogger is a huge Instant Pot fan and has lots of recipes there.

Yes, it will cook beans from dried no problem.

Yes, you can cook meat from frozen.  Sometimes I just throw in frozen chicken breasts with some stock and chile sauce, salt and cumin.  Pressure cook ~20 minutes and have a good taco filling.  Haven't tried with larger cuts of meat, but I've been known to make chili tossing in dried beans, frozen hunk of ground beef, tomato onion and regular seasonings and then breaking up the meat after pressure cooking.

ender

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #155 on: November 29, 2016, 11:47:00 AM »
The thermal cooker is more energy efficient because you only need to cook it until it boils. That means that thermal cookers even beat out the fastest pressure cookers (from an energy spent perspective) since you aren't adding heat during the entire cooking process. You only need to cook it for about 10 minutes and then you remove it from its cooking source and place it in an insulated vacuum to finish the cooking process. It might not be faster overall timewise before you can actually eat it, but it is definitely more energy efficient. The added benefit is that, like slow cooking, you can come home at the end of the day to a fully prepared meal from a thermal cooker without worrying that it will be burned or overcooked.

I highly doubt most stove --> thermal cooker heat transfers are very efficient. A large percentage of the heat there gets lost, if you don't believe me put your hand on the stove after you turn it off sometime ;)

If you had a kill-a-watt you could measure, too, and I suspect you'd find that while a stove might run less, any electric stove uses a ton more energy than a pressure cooker. Quick googling suggests that a stove uses about 1.5x as much energy as a pressure cooker max does, so running the pressure cooker seems likely to be much less energy overall unless you run it for a loong time.

Davids

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #156 on: November 29, 2016, 11:52:58 AM »
I ordered a faberware pressure cooker from walmart.com on thanksgiving and looking forward to receive it soon so I can join the club.

dragoncar

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #157 on: November 29, 2016, 12:17:22 PM »
A huge advantage of a pressure cooker is that it cooks fast, I'm not sure how a stovetop cooker is going to be either any more efficient energywise or timewise?

It's nearly guaranteed to be less efficient energy wise and probably is much slower, too.

Was this in response to the thermal cooker or just other stove top cookers in general?

The thermal cooker is more energy efficient because you only need to cook it until it boils. That means that thermal cookers even beat out the fastest pressure cookers (from an energy spent perspective) since you aren't adding heat during the entire cooking process. You only need to cook it for about 10 minutes and then you remove it from its cooking source and place it in an insulated vacuum to finish the cooking process. It might not be faster overall timewise before you can actually eat it, but it is definitely more energy efficient. The added benefit is that, like slow cooking, you can come home at the end of the day to a fully prepared meal from a thermal cooker without worrying that it will be burned or overcooked.

You can also just take any pressure cooker off the stove and wrap it in insulation (a blanket) and get the same effect

If I didn't already have a regular pressure cooker, I'd get the instant pot deal in a second.  I like the versatility of my cooker, but don't like monitoring the pressure - it's so efficient that my minimum flame is usually high enough to over pressure and I have to alternate between off and on for long recipes.  Instant pot is set and forget

lifeanon269

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #158 on: November 29, 2016, 01:04:48 PM »
I highly doubt most stove --> thermal cooker heat transfers are very efficient. A large percentage of the heat there gets lost, if you don't believe me put your hand on the stove after you turn it off sometime ;)

If you had a kill-a-watt you could measure, too, and I suspect you'd find that while a stove might run less, any electric stove uses a ton more energy than a pressure cooker. Quick googling suggests that a stove uses about 1.5x as much energy as a pressure cooker max does, so running the pressure cooker seems likely to be much less energy overall unless you run it for a loong time.

Most plugin-electric pressure cookers use about 800-1500 watts of electricity during use. Most medium and small stove top burners are also within that range (the larger burners use much more). It doesn't matter whether the heat is transferred in full to the pot or not. What matters most is how long you are using that amount of electricity for. I am assuming (I could be wrong) that you're using the pressure cooker on average for about 20 minutes to cook a meal. Certainly it is dependant on the food you're cooking and some things may certainly be more efficient to cook in a plugin pressure cooker. Strictly steaming vegetables, for example, only take a handful of minutes to cook in a pressure cooker and so may be better served with one. However, soups with whole grains and/or meats would take at least 20 minutes to cook with a pressure cooker in which case the thermal cooker would serve better.

I compare an electric stove with an electric pressure cooker because the comparison is easier, but gas stoves are much more efficient and so using a gas stove serves a thermal cooker better.

But, if the most amount of time I'm ever actually using a heating element with my thermal cooker is 10 minutes to a boil, then it is still a very energy efficient method of cooking that is on par with a pressure cooker for most recipes.


You can also just take any pressure cooker off the stove and wrap it in insulation (a blanket) and get the same effect

If I didn't already have a regular pressure cooker, I'd get the instant pot deal in a second.  I like the versatility of my cooker, but don't like monitoring the pressure - it's so efficient that my minimum flame is usually high enough to over pressure and I have to alternate between off and on for long recipes.  Instant pot is set and forget

You can't just wrap a pot in a blanket and expect it to continue to cook like a thermal cooker. Thermal cookers use vacuum insulation that lets virtually no heat escape. I can take a pot right off the stove and put it in the thermal container and it will be cool to the touch. If you attempt to wrap a pot in a blanket expecting it to thermal cook, then your food will quickly cool to room temperature and will not be safe to eat.


At any rate, I figured I'd just post some info on thermal cookers since most people have no idea about the benefits of them and how great they can be. Pressure cookers are great too (I used to run a website for pressure cookers).
« Last Edit: November 29, 2016, 01:06:28 PM by lifeanon269 »

Poundwise

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #159 on: November 29, 2016, 01:48:38 PM »
any good websites.  i havent ever bought a cookbook and dont really plan to.


Bazillions, for example:
http://www.fagoramerica.com/my_fagor/recipe_library/pressure_cooker
http://www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooker-recipes/

Plus don't forget the library if you don't want to buy cookbooks!

boarder42

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #160 on: November 29, 2016, 01:52:53 PM »
any good websites.  i havent ever bought a cookbook and dont really plan to.


Bazillions, for example:
http://www.fagoramerica.com/my_fagor/recipe_library/pressure_cooker
http://www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooker-recipes/

Plus don't forget the library if you don't want to buy cookbooks!

thanks,   library still requires going somewhere vs the internet which is in my pocket and in front of my face almost 100% of the time.

HAPPYINAZ

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #161 on: November 29, 2016, 02:57:14 PM »
All this talk about pressure cookers and slow cookers and I just have to chime in about my favorite cooking "appliance"...the thermal cooker. You can use it for anything that you would a pressure or slow cooker, but I find it much easier to use and much more "mustachian".

You only need to cook it on the stove for about 10-15 minutes or so depending on what you're cooking, and then just slip the pot into the outer insulated container and then let it cook the rest of the way like you would a slow cooker. Because you aren't adding any more additional heat, it is impossible to burn anything with it. That also makes clean up much easier since you never have a ring around you pot of burned on mess like you get with a slow cooker.

I use it to cook all sorts of things like soups and stews and I've even replaced my rice cooker with it since it cooks perfect rice every time with no burned rice at the bottom.

The only thing to keep in mind when using it is since there is no evaporating taking place, always use a little less liquid than what the recipe calls for.

This method of cooking saves energy, money, and makes great meals. It is also great in the summer time when you don't want to have the stove running for long periods of time. It's great too for taking to other places or potluck dinners since you don't need to depend on having a wall outlet or needing to plug in. It'll be ready and hot whenever you need it on the go.

There are lots of different Thermal Cookers on Amazon, I bought the Thermos brand one since it is a recognizable brand and it works great. It'll keep it piping hot for 8 hours easily.

https://www.amazon.com/Thermos-Thermal-Cooker-RPC-4500-Thermo/dp/B002QHZG3G/ref=sr_1_11/156-8620359-6865726?ie=UTF8&qid=1480434543&sr=8-11&keywords=thermal+cooker


Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there for those that have never heard of thermal cooking before.

PS. I am in no way affiliated with any thermal cooker brand. I just love the product and method of cooking.


thanks for the info.  I have never heard of this before.  Seems like something that might be good to use when camping.  You could just heat up fixings for a stew for 10 mins on stove and then put it in the insulator and let it stew all day, right?  Interesting.  Can you do beans in it? 

I LOVE my electric pressure cooker.  It seems so much more efficient than my stove top, but perhaps that's just my perception. And maybe that's because only our large burner works on our stove and it only works on HIGH!  Our kitchen heats up fast whenever I have to use that.   I saw your post about energy use.  thanks for the extra info. 

boarder42

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #162 on: November 29, 2016, 02:59:26 PM »
All this talk about pressure cookers and slow cookers and I just have to chime in about my favorite cooking "appliance"...the thermal cooker. You can use it for anything that you would a pressure or slow cooker, but I find it much easier to use and much more "mustachian".

You only need to cook it on the stove for about 10-15 minutes or so depending on what you're cooking, and then just slip the pot into the outer insulated container and then let it cook the rest of the way like you would a slow cooker. Because you aren't adding any more additional heat, it is impossible to burn anything with it. That also makes clean up much easier since you never have a ring around you pot of burned on mess like you get with a slow cooker.

I use it to cook all sorts of things like soups and stews and I've even replaced my rice cooker with it since it cooks perfect rice every time with no burned rice at the bottom.

The only thing to keep in mind when using it is since there is no evaporating taking place, always use a little less liquid than what the recipe calls for.

This method of cooking saves energy, money, and makes great meals. It is also great in the summer time when you don't want to have the stove running for long periods of time. It's great too for taking to other places or potluck dinners since you don't need to depend on having a wall outlet or needing to plug in. It'll be ready and hot whenever you need it on the go.

There are lots of different Thermal Cookers on Amazon, I bought the Thermos brand one since it is a recognizable brand and it works great. It'll keep it piping hot for 8 hours easily.

https://www.amazon.com/Thermos-Thermal-Cooker-RPC-4500-Thermo/dp/B002QHZG3G/ref=sr_1_11/156-8620359-6865726?ie=UTF8&qid=1480434543&sr=8-11&keywords=thermal+cooker


Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there for those that have never heard of thermal cooking before.

PS. I am in no way affiliated with any thermal cooker brand. I just love the product and method of cooking.


thanks for the info.  I have never heard of this before.  Seems like something that might be good to use when camping.  You could just heat up fixings for a stew for 10 mins on stove and then put it in the insulator and let it stew all day, right?  Interesting.  Can you do beans in it? 

I LOVE my electric pressure cooker.  It seems so much more efficient than my stove top, but perhaps that's just my perception. And maybe that's because only our large burner works on our stove and it only works on HIGH!  Our kitchen heats up fast whenever I have to use that.   I saw your post about energy use.  thanks for the extra info.

at the end of the day you're not burning that much energy cooking food.  heating and cooling your house is the big ticket item.

TootTootBeepBeep

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #163 on: November 29, 2016, 05:25:39 PM »
Following for pressure cooker glory

boarder42

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #164 on: December 01, 2016, 07:51:34 AM »
been digging trying to find a good low(read as no) sugar pork tenderloin recipe for the pressure cooker tonight.  havent come across anything.  typically i sear it on the stove then spread mustard on it and roast it in the oven.  any suggestions?

do i need more liquids or can i do this recipe.
« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 07:54:24 AM by boarder42 »

Rotax

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #165 on: December 01, 2016, 08:14:03 AM »
I love my pressure cooker. I didn't really get the appeal at first but after using it for a while I learned that I can make huge portions and pack the extra meals for lunches throughout the week. I also bought 4 Turkey for 68 cents a pound when they were cheap at thanksgiving. Rather than cook them in the oven, I'm just going to put them in the pressure cooker. Should save me a decent chunk of change on meat over the next couple of months. I'm also planning on stocking up on some meat deals around Christmas and freezing them as well. Does anyone else have a hack for getting cheap meat? It seems like it's one of the most expensive things on the grocery list and humans need protein. I did see mmm's post on combining rice and beans to form a complete protein set.

boarder42

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #166 on: December 01, 2016, 08:26:54 AM »
just watch for sales.  my go to buying points for meats currently are as follows

boneless skinless chx breasts under 1.5/lb
Thighs under 1.29/lb
bone in thighs under 69c/lb
ground turkey under 2/lb
ground beef under 1.5/lb (we bought a whole cow so this doesnt apply anymore)
Pork Tloins under 2/lb
Pork loin under 1.49/lb
pork butts under 1.29/lb
bacon under 1.49/lb

we eat a high protein diet with lots of meat and drink a ton too and spend about 450 a month on groceries for 2

691175002

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #167 on: December 01, 2016, 08:37:07 AM »
One of the biggest advantages of a pressure cooker is that the higher heat will allow browning to occur even when the ingredients are still wet.  An ordinary slow cooker never gets hot enough to properly cook many ingredients, it just softens them.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-cookers.html

boarder42

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #168 on: December 01, 2016, 08:40:00 AM »
i'm gonna try a thai peanut sauced pork tenderloin tonight see how that goes

ender

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #169 on: December 01, 2016, 11:23:56 AM »
just watch for sales.  my go to buying points for meats currently are as follows

boneless skinless chx breasts under 1.5/lb
Thighs under 1.29/lb
bone in thighs under 69c/lb
ground turkey under 2/lb
ground beef under 1.5/lb (we bought a whole cow so this doesnt apply anymore)
Pork Tloins under 2/lb
Pork loin under 1.49/lb
pork butts under 1.29/lb
bacon under 1.49/lb

we eat a high protein diet with lots of meat and drink a ton too and spend about 450 a month on groceries for 2

Wow this makes our prices look high and I still feel they are great deals.

dragoncar

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #170 on: December 01, 2016, 11:47:46 AM »
I don't know about tenderloin, but I often do a pulled pork or carnitas that looks like this:

Season and Brown pork shoulder cut to whichever size you like (I slice it into steaks and grill outside to minimize smoke). 

Sauté onions, garlic, whatever in pressure cooker, then add pork with a little liquid (stock or beer or whatever-- the onions and pork will release a lot of water on their own - I usually chop up the pork for quicker cooking

Cook at high pressure until it's done.  Longer is better but I think it's usually good in about 30-60 min.  I'm more of a checker, so I'll usually just check at 30 min and cook longer if needed.  Someday I'll have it down

If you want "carnitas", pull it, spread on sheet, season, and broil in oven until dark and crispy

If you leave it in juice it's a pork stew

I usually have to drain and save a lot of delicious juice.  Otherwise you can add some chile verde (I like it from trader joes) and make a pork chile verde. 

Make some flour tortillas while the other stuff is happening

Some day I might make the verde salsa but probably not since we don't have a ton of tomatillos or hatch chiles in my grocery haunts

redbird

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #171 on: December 01, 2016, 12:00:33 PM »
The nomnompaleo blogger is a huge Instant Pot fan and has lots of recipes there.
...
Haven't tried with larger cuts of meat...

I used nomnompaleo's recipe for kalua pork. It was AMAZING. I used to live in Hawaii and it tastes just like the kind you can get there in restaurants. It takes less than 2 hours to make it, and this includes prep time. Normally cooking kalua pork is a many, many, many hours affair (16 hours in a slow cooker, for example).

Probably the only downside of the kalua pork is I bought the smallest pork shoulder I could find in the grocery store and my household of only 2 adults just barely finished it in time before it could go bad, and that was with eating it every single day. Next time I'm going to have to look into seeing if it's possible to freeze some of it.

boarder42

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #172 on: December 01, 2016, 12:31:29 PM »
The nomnompaleo blogger is a huge Instant Pot fan and has lots of recipes there.
...
Haven't tried with larger cuts of meat...

I used nomnompaleo's recipe for kalua pork. It was AMAZING. I used to live in Hawaii and it tastes just like the kind you can get there in restaurants. It takes less than 2 hours to make it, and this includes prep time. Normally cooking kalua pork is a many, many, many hours affair (16 hours in a slow cooker, for example).

Probably the only downside of the kalua pork is I bought the smallest pork shoulder I could find in the grocery store and my household of only 2 adults just barely finished it in time before it could go bad, and that was with eating it every single day. Next time I'm going to have to look into seeing if it's possible to freeze some of it.

definitely freeze when i smoke pork butts. i do two at a time and we freeze 5-6 freezer bags as we are a two eater household.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #173 on: December 01, 2016, 03:31:14 PM »
This is our go to carnita recipe: http://www.skinnytaste.com/instant-pot-pork-carnitas-mexican/ I love it.

boarder42

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #174 on: December 02, 2016, 05:37:58 AM »
so my instant pot didnt show up early enough last night so i did the pork tenderloin in medalions in a pan and poured my spicy peanut sauce over them... then used the instant pot after it arrived.  way better in the pan.  though i do know that pork tenderloin isnt a cut of meat i'd usually do in a slow cooker so its not the best example of what you should do in an instant pot..  i can see the value for roasts and other slow cooker dishes and beans/rice.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #175 on: December 02, 2016, 02:42:03 PM »
so my instant pot didnt show up early enough last night so i did the pork tenderloin in medalions in a pan and poured my spicy peanut sauce over them... then used the instant pot after it arrived.  way better in the pan.  though i do know that pork tenderloin isnt a cut of meat i'd usually do in a slow cooker so its not the best example of what you should do in an instant pot..  i can see the value for roasts and other slow cooker dishes and beans/rice.

Did you have at least 1 cup liquid? You don't get good pressure otherwise, and technically aren't supposed to run the pot with less. Couldn't tell from your post.

boarder42

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #176 on: December 02, 2016, 03:21:18 PM »
Yeah there was plenty of liquid. I'm just a pretty good cook. And pressure cookers are more to speed up breaking down fat and tendons which tenderloin doesn't really need

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #177 on: December 02, 2016, 03:22:33 PM »
Yeah there was plenty of liquid. I'm just a pretty good cook. And pressure cookers are more to speed up breaking down fat and tendons which tenderloin doesn't really need

Yeah, I just wanted to double check. Not having enough steam would certainly not help with the outcome =P

I have definitely found some items are just better with other methods. IP is awesome, but it is not a panacea for cooking. =)

Telecaster

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #178 on: December 02, 2016, 03:38:31 PM »
As a general observation, I'd say things that are normally braised in the oven are usually--or at least very often--better with the traditional method.

That said, I love the crap out of my pressure cooker. 

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #179 on: December 03, 2016, 12:11:23 AM »
As a general observation, I'd say things that are normally braised in the oven are usually--or at least very often--better with the traditional method.

That said, I love the crap out of my pressure cooker.

I've found a few things that work well "enough" if you start in the pressure cooker to simulate the long cooking, and finish under the broiler.
Weeknight ribs for example. I wouldn't say it's the same as smoked for 8 hours, but it's still pretty darn good and fast

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #180 on: December 03, 2016, 12:45:45 AM »
Ooh allow me to recommend A Pressure Cooker Saved My Life, part recipe book, part memoir, part love letter to a pressure cooker.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/you-can-have-it-all-just-not-all-at-once-20100508-ukrj.html

https://www.amazon.com/Pressure-Cooker-Saved-My-Life/dp/0733325882


boarder42

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #181 on: December 03, 2016, 06:01:51 AM »
Yeah there was plenty of liquid. I'm just a pretty good cook. And pressure cookers are more to speed up breaking down fat and tendons which tenderloin doesn't really need

Yeah, I just wanted to double check. Not having enough steam would certainly not help with the outcome =P

I have definitely found some items are just better with other methods. IP is awesome, but it is not a panacea for cooking. =)

Yep completely understand just had thawed tenderloin and wanted to use it

jengod

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #182 on: December 03, 2016, 03:04:14 PM »
Following.

I bought a stovetop pressure cooker at an estate sale this summer and pulled it out this week because the Instant Pot Cyber Monday talk was so ubiquitous.

I've done chicken stock twice this week and the result definitely had a deeper flavor than stocks made in a slow cooker. Plus, speed! And I appreciate that having the pressure cooker keeps my slow cooker free for our breakfast staple, overnight "groatmeal."

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #183 on: December 03, 2016, 03:05:53 PM »
Following.

I bought a stovetop pressure cooker at an estate sale this summer and pulled it out this week because the Instant Pot Cyber Monday talk was so ubiquitous.

I've done chicken stock twice this week and the result definitely had a deeper flavor than stocks made in a slow cooker. Plus, speed! And I appreciate that having the pressure cooker keeps my slow cooker free for our breakfast staple, overnight "groatmeal."

Yeah, I like the broth from my IP way better than my slow cooker. Doesn't get any of the burnt flavors that develop with a *long* cook in the slow cooker.

jengod

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #184 on: December 03, 2016, 03:47:40 PM »
One of the biggest advantages of a pressure cooker is that the higher heat will allow browning to occur even when the ingredients are still wet.  An ordinary slow cooker never gets hot enough to properly cook many ingredients, it just softens them.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-cookers.html

Thank you for this excellent article. Now I'm going to try Dutch-oven-225 overnight groatmeal, just to see what happens!

lizzzi

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #185 on: December 03, 2016, 03:58:27 PM »
Over the months I've found that I use my InstaPot routinely for rice and for mashed potatoes, in cooking for five or six people. Not only are these things simple to prepare, the IP keeps them warm indefinitely for latecomers, and keeps the stovetop free for other things. Not exotic, but useful.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #186 on: December 03, 2016, 06:26:56 PM »
Over the months I've found that I use my InstaPot routinely for rice and for mashed potatoes, in cooking for five or six people. Not only are these things simple to prepare, the IP keeps them warm indefinitely for latecomers, and keeps the stovetop free for other things. Not exotic, but useful.

What do you do for mashed potatoes?

Digital Dogma

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #187 on: December 04, 2016, 06:50:00 AM »
The nomnompaleo blogger is a huge Instant Pot fan and has lots of recipes there.
...
Haven't tried with larger cuts of meat...

I used nomnompaleo's recipe for kalua pork. It was AMAZING. I used to live in Hawaii and it tastes just like the kind you can get there in restaurants. It takes less than 2 hours to make it, and this includes prep time. Normally cooking kalua pork is a many, many, many hours affair (16 hours in a slow cooker, for example).

Probably the only downside of the kalua pork is I bought the smallest pork shoulder I could find in the grocery store and my household of only 2 adults just barely finished it in time before it could go bad, and that was with eating it every single day. Next time I'm going to have to look into seeing if it's possible to freeze some of it.

definitely freeze when i smoke pork butts. i do two at a time and we freeze 5-6 freezer bags as we are a two eater household.
Yes! I smoke 3-6 butts at a time for 24 hours, and usually end up with a years worth of pulled smoked pork for my freezer. We pull it while its hot, let it cool and then bag it in 5 gallon freezer bags. If you mash the bag flat so its less than an inch thick full of pork, youll be able to snap off portions easily while its still frozen. No need to thaw out a whole package for one pulled pork sammich!

Poundwise

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #188 on: December 04, 2016, 07:24:30 AM »
Somebody asked about used pressure cookers... I have an old fashioned Fagor cooker and a couple of precautions I take are replacing the gasket periodically and checking to see if the the pressure vent is clear.  If you find a used cooker, I would try to figure out the model number, look up the manual, and see what maintenance it requires.  I would also preemptively replace the gasket and carefully monitor how the cooker sounds as it heats up.  You want it to settle down to a fairly steady stream of steam, with a kind of calm "shooka shooka" sound as the liquid inside boils. If you hear the liquid inside bubbling but no steam is coming out, I'd quickly turn off the heat, wait until the cooker cools, and either troubleshoot or give up on that cooker.  You don't want an explosion because of a blocked vent!

A good idea, if you are new to pressure cookers but want to try a used one, is to find a friend who does have a working cooker and see how they cook with it. That will give you an idea about what is normal so you can cook safely.

Metric Mouse

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #189 on: December 04, 2016, 08:40:46 AM »
If you mash the bag flat so its less than an inch thick full of pork, youll be able to snap off portions easily while its still frozen. No need to thaw out a whole package for one pulled pork sammich!

That's a really good idea. I could do this for all sorts of things in my deep freeze! Thanks for sharing.

Digital Dogma

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #190 on: December 04, 2016, 12:26:28 PM »
If you mash the bag flat so its less than an inch thick full of pork, youll be able to snap off portions easily while its still frozen. No need to thaw out a whole package for one pulled pork sammich!

That's a really good idea. I could do this for all sorts of things in my deep freeze! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! This method also enables me to maximize storage space by stacking flat frozen bags of food like tiles. I can turn 6 pork butts into a solid square foot of stacked frozen pulled pork in bags

QueenAlice

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #191 on: December 05, 2016, 05:23:03 AM »
Over the months I've found that I use my InstaPot routinely for rice and for mashed potatoes, in cooking for five or six people. Not only are these things simple to prepare, the IP keeps them warm indefinitely for latecomers, and keeps the stovetop free for other things. Not exotic, but useful.

What do you do for mashed potatoes?

  • Cubed potatoes + 1 cup stock (or water)
  • 4 minutes high pressure
  • Quick release
  • Mash, prepare as you normally would

*Sometimes I throw a few cloves of garlic in with the potatoes
*I typically use red or golden potatoes, russets may need a bit more time under pressure

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #192 on: December 05, 2016, 06:18:23 PM »
Over the months I've found that I use my InstaPot routinely for rice and for mashed potatoes, in cooking for five or six people. Not only are these things simple to prepare, the IP keeps them warm indefinitely for latecomers, and keeps the stovetop free for other things. Not exotic, but useful.

What do you do for mashed potatoes?

  • Cubed potatoes + 1 cup stock (or water)
  • 4 minutes high pressure
  • Quick release
  • Mash, prepare as you normally would

*Sometimes I throw a few cloves of garlic in with the potatoes
*I typically use red or golden potatoes, russets may need a bit more time under pressure

Mashed potatoes in four minutes? Yes please!

Gone Fishing

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #193 on: December 05, 2016, 06:39:18 PM »
A good idea, if you are new to pressure cookers but want to try a used one, is to find a friend who does have a working cooker and see how they cook with it. That will give you an idea about what is normal so you can cook safely.

Good call.  I certainly know when it sounds "right".  Never had a blockage, but I can certainly hear when the heat is not right.

dragoncar

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #194 on: December 05, 2016, 09:01:10 PM »
What happens when the gasket fails? Is it catastrophic (food everywhere, including the ceiling) or does it just not reach pressure?

Rubic

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #195 on: December 06, 2016, 05:30:50 AM »
What happens when the gasket fails? Is it catastrophic (food everywhere, including the ceiling) or does it just not reach pressure?

Not catastrophic.  The internal chamber just fails to reach pressure if the
gasket fails or isn't seated properly.  Eventually the gasket will wear out
and need to be replaced.  I've done this once already.  It's no big deal.

Ben Hogan

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #196 on: December 06, 2016, 09:05:33 AM »
Huge fan of bone stocks of any kind here, but not a fan of pressure pots. I like to be able to access the pot and add/remove contents easily. So just a old fashioned stock pot with a lid for me.

Just fyi on the bones, there are alot of butchers that you can find to get bones cheaply from, I use one here that does lots of game meats. I get to try alot of different animal bones for my stocks. Typically i have 2 weeks worth of stock frozen that I make ramen with for dinners. It's an amazing meal for very little cost!

Freedom Invested

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #197 on: December 06, 2016, 09:40:02 AM »
One year ago I paid the un-Mustachian price of almost $100 for a Cuisinart pressure cooker:
    http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-EPC-1200PC-Electric-Pressure-Stainless/dp/B003RCEVOY

I received this same one as a gift and use it constantly.

As much as you're using it, I wouldn't call the price un-Mustachian. :)

MandalayVA

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #198 on: December 06, 2016, 09:42:36 AM »
Over the months I've found that I use my InstaPot routinely for rice and for mashed potatoes, in cooking for five or six people. Not only are these things simple to prepare, the IP keeps them warm indefinitely for latecomers, and keeps the stovetop free for other things. Not exotic, but useful.

What do you do for mashed potatoes?

  • Cubed potatoes + 1 cup stock (or water)
  • 4 minutes high pressure
  • Quick release
  • Mash, prepare as you normally would

*Sometimes I throw a few cloves of garlic in with the potatoes
*I typically use red or golden potatoes, russets may need a bit more time under pressure

Mashed potatoes in four minutes? Yes please!

Plus the ten or fifteen minutes it takes to get up to pressure.  That time always needs to be added in.

ooeei

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Re: Forget the slow cooker, give me a pressure cooker!
« Reply #199 on: December 06, 2016, 09:47:44 AM »
Yeah there was plenty of liquid. I'm just a pretty good cook. And pressure cookers are more to speed up breaking down fat and tendons which tenderloin doesn't really need

Yeah I was just about to post asking how those turned out, that's not something I'd usually think of cooking in a pressure/slow cooker.  Same with chicken breasts or a ribeye.

As a general observation, I'd say things that are normally braised in the oven are usually--or at least very often--better with the traditional method.

That said, I love the crap out of my pressure cooker.

You don't get that same browning on the sides and top that you get in the oven.  The Food Lab guy talked about it in a stovetop vs oven debate for stew.