Pressure cooker

[BiscuitMaker]

Ladies what do you cook in your pressure cooker? I don't use mine enough.

One thing I love to do is a whole chicken when I am making something that calls for cooked chicken. One large chicken will cook in 20 mins. Cool it and it will fall off of the bones. Great when you get chicken on sale.

Any tips ladies

[Fritz_Monroe]

We don't have a pressure cooker, but my mother did. She always cooked stuffed peppers in the pressure cooker. Funny thing is I don't remember her ever cooking anything else in it. Just stuffed peppers once a month or so.

[Violet]

Sometimes I cook potatoes in mine. Also, a whole head of cabbage will cook in about six minutes. Roast is the best in the pressure cooker, both beef or pork roasts.

I agree about chicken being so moist and tender.

As the natural gas costs keep skyrocketing I think I will use it more for cooking in this winter.

 

[PoGo]

As an aside, your pressure canner manual probably has recipes for pressure cooking, too.

[Michelle_3kds]

I make pot roast, stews, pulled pork... I can have a "real" dinner on the table fast, even after working all day. I love it.

[Stephanie]

I'm so glad this thread was started. I've gotten out of the habit of pressure cooking. I have a couple, one is electronic and I've always been impressed each time that I cook with them.

 

Here's a good page I found. It has a lot of stuff, but the timer chart is really nifty.

 

http://fastcooking.ca/pressure_cookers/coo...sure_cooker.php

 

Do you know I had forgotten that I use to cook my dried beans in my pressure pot all the time, and you talk about perfect dried beans. They have the chart for those on that page as well.

 

I've mentioned elsewhere that we've gone to the steel cut oats, learning to cook them 'just right' for my family has been a challenge. I see where they have the time for cooking them in the pressure pot. I'm going to try this, maybe this morning.

 

 

[BiscuitMaker]

Ladies, thanks for the imput---keep it coming. I have decided to try new dishes in the pressuer cooker, Ladies it is fast I like fast. Today I am going to try beans.

I found a site that looks interesting. Lots of info.

www.MissVickie.com

Check it out.

[BiscuitMaker]

OK ladies I cooked beans in the PC and it was a bust, but I am determined.

Someone posted a while back that they cook beans in the PC and they turned out good. Question???

How long did you cook them?

Did you soak them first ,for how long?

What did you season them with??

Help---------Oh what kind of beans???

[Stephanie]

I'm going to try beans tomorrow and try to talk to my mom to remind me how we use to do it all the time.

 

Here's another site that gives specific instructions for cooking the dried beans.

 

http://www.ellenskitchen.com/faqs/pressure1.html

 

Here's a snippit from that page

 

******************

Pressure presoak: a 1 hour method

 

Measure the dried beans, write it down. You will need 1-2 tablespoons oil for each cup of dried beans.

Place the beans in the pressure cooker with 4 cups of water for each cup of beans

Bring the cooker up to pressure, so the weight on top will start jiggling

Turn off the heat, remove the cooker from the burner and let it sit for 1 hour

Open, notice the water level, you will need this level.

Stir to loosen skins and foam and pour off the all the soaking water, skins and foam. This also removes some gas-causing compounds

Then add fresh water back to the same level it was and add the oil, 1-2 tablespoons for each cup of dried beans.

Proceed by cooking the beans for the time indicated in the table.

[BiscuitMaker]

Stephanie--thanks for the link I think my beans my be old or too dry. I did not soak them so I will try that. This the second place that says do not season until after cooking. But my PC manual says to season??? But my pot is at least 30 yrs old and things may have changed.

Thanks I will read some more, I am a good cook so this drives me crazy.

[Stephanie]

If I'm remembering right, it's because of the foaming that increases with the seasoning and therefore can clog the vent and cause a problem? I think that's right.

 

I'm glad you started this thread, time is ALWAYS an issue in this household! I'm always on the run.

 

I don't know about the beans being too old, to tell you the truth, I didn't know that could happen?

[ol'momma]

What a great thread! I never really use mine. For one thing, it's huge so i store it on a shelf in the garage...

for another, I never really learned how. Mom was scared to death of the things. She was a trauma ward nurse and treated many serious burns in the 50-60s because of gasket failures and such. She wouldn't allow one in the house (or a microwave either--same reason). Anyway..I could use advice on canning with it if anyone has any to share.

Thanks

[mom11]

I bought two 6 quart, electric pressure canners. I can't CAN, in them, but they sure do cut down on prep time and I don't have to babysit them. I bought them almost half price, when my tax return came. BiscuitMaker is right about cooking a whole chicken in 20 mins. The meat just falls off of the bones. One night, my Aaron put an almost frozen roast, in one of them, and in 45 minutes, the meat was falling apart tender. My goal is to find ways, NOT to spend 3/4 of my time in the stinkin kitchen. I am so sick of preparing food, while the dad is holed up in the basement, and the two bi-polar boys are tearing the house apart, with help from the rest of my birds! I wish I could just put out some bowls of bird seed and everyone would be happy.