I was just gifted a nice pressure cooker, and I have no idea what to do with it.

Oh, I know it's for cooking stuff, my mother had them when I was a kid, and we ate all manner of boiled stuff that I cordially hated. Boiled chicken, carrots, peas and potatoes, for example. Boiled food is how I discovered Worcestershire sauce. At least it had taste.

We also re-heated frozen stuff in it, but pretty much quit that when the microwave was invented.

I love my mom, but she was no cook, particularly when she was short of time, but I digress...

So, to the main question! What is a good use for this thing? Does any one have any totally super freaking awesome pressure cooker recipes to share?

Help me out here. Give me some good stuff to justify the space being taken up in my closet!

Thank you!

Soups and stocks.

Is it an old school stovetop pressure cooker, or a new school plug-in "Instant Pot" (or clone)?

Think of it like a slow cooker/crockpot, only it's not slow.

So anything that you'd make in a slow cooker would also be good in it. Stuff like roasts, poultry, potatoes, stews, soups, etc.

Meat like roast. Potatoes, the best pheasant I ever ate was pressure cooked. A good friend of mine, rest her soul used one for almost everything she made.
Maybe utube it.
Do you can?

What is the pressure cooker you where given?.

This is the old school kind, no high speed, low drag, fuel injected, computerized, plug in stuff for me. Nosiree!

Stainless steel, stovetop pressure vessel, this is.

Ah. I've got a ton of recipes for the Instant Pot, but none for the old school types.

I do know that it will "quick do" a damned good beef stew.

I put a pork should in mine and made some good BBQ.

Roasts and other tough meats... pork roasts, chuck roasts, whole chickens. A heirloom chicken from Trader Joes for about 24 minutes with a finish in the broiler is on par with rotisserie chicken in my experience.

It is fantastic for soups. No recipe... just throw some stock and a protein and veggies in there and let it go.

Speaking of stock... use that chicken carcass after you've picked it clean, add some spices and veggies and make a stock...

rendering tallow/lard

braised short ribs!

Also pressure canning meats.

6 minute boiled eggs, 10 minute perfectly cooked dried beans.

Soups, stock, stews out of tough cuts

A nice Fissler came my way a little while ago. Supposedly the top of the line stainless steel pressure cooker. I have made a pasta dish and a Kung Pao chicken dish. Both were above average. The pressure cooker really seems to condense the flavor. You can adapt any of the ten million Insta-Pot recipes that are out there to a standard pressure cooker. I had an Insta-Pot and didn't get along with it but a stand alone pressure cooker is more to my liking. I don't like gadgets that claim to do ten different things and have a computerized control panel as an interface.

Search pressure cooker recipes and you will have much to read.

My mother used to do pot roast in the pressure cooker. I do it in the slow cooker (crock pot).

And soups. All kinds of soups.

Here's a recipe book, free download:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/...-471611392237473113/

Make chili faster. It takes the same amount of time for prep, browning the beef, and sauteeing the onions but the tenderizing and melding flavors stage (ie simmering) is much faster.

My normal chili recipe the simmering stage is 2.5 hours. This serious eats pressure cooker recipe takes that stage down to 30 minutes.

Well, my pressure cooker is modern and computerized. However, I have two books of recipes that should also work well with the traditional pressure cookers:
1. "Great Food Fast" by Bob Warden
2. "Slow Food Fast" by Bob Warden

Also, you can do a rack of pork ribs by slicing the rack to fit the cooker, add 1 can of dark beer, pressure cook for 50-55 minutes.
After that time, allow 10 minutes for the pressure to drop naturally, then purge the cooker with the valve. Remove ribs and place on a cookie sheet. Swab the ribs with your favorite BBQ sauce (mine is Sweet Baby Rays) and place under the broiler until charred.

Good luck!

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
This is the old school kind, no high speed, low drag, fuel injected, computerized, plug in stuff for me. Nosiree!

Stainless steel, stovetop pressure vessel, this is.

That’s what I have too. Fagor brand (Spain). You can cook potatoes for mashing super fast. My mother used a pressure cooker for half of everything she cooked. Including from-scratch soup and chili. The only reasonable way to cook dried beans.

Great to make tender, tasty, pot roast from tougher cuts of beef.

And, unlike Instantpots, my stovetop pressure cooker fits into my cabinet.

Looks like I was typing as the same was just posted.


They are great for making mashed potatoes really quick. My mom would always use hers for Sunday dinners, and she would do the mashed potatoes after everything else was ready. I asked my mom if she still had the old school pressure cooker, but it must have been lost in one her last couple of moves across the country.

My mom was an incredible cook, I have a lot of fond memories of so many of her dishes.

She also kindled and sparked my interest in both cooking and baking.

FWIW. My sister had an electric (plug in the wall) pressure, not an instantpot. Seemed like a great ideal, she used it a lot and fed me often.
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Before we got rid of it we let it sit in a cabinet, and we feared it.