Pressure Cooker

[Allentown]

Made corned beef in it this year. Way better than a slow cooker for the meat. (It was cooked, but not crumbling apart.) But I made the veggies separately in the water, and those didn’t seem to soak up as much flavor. Plus the potatoes were over cooked after only 3 minutes on high. Will have to try something different next time.

My girlfriend did the same. Cook corned beef for 70 minutes, pull out, cook veggies in water for 15(?) minutes. The beef was delicious, the veggies were bland (potatoes, carrots, cabbage, turnips - turnips were OK, the rest were pretty tasteless).

Are the veggies never NOT bland with corned beef? Have I been resigning myself to bland, crappy vegetables alongside my corned beef for years? I just dump them all in with the meat an hour or two before it is done.

[brkriete]

It kind of kills the "new England boiled dinner" concept but next time I do something like corned beef I'm going to do the veggies totally separately. Boil the corned beef, when it's almost done dice the carrots, potatoes and turnips and throw them in the oven to roast for 20 minutes then sauté the cabbage with some ginger and scallions in a pan for 7 minutes. It's a little more work but not that much and you could prep it all ahead of time.

[omaniphil]

Ya'll need to be making tajines in your pressure cookers. Takes about 5-10 minutes worth of work on the front end, and then its ready 45 minutes later.

I have some preserved lemons pickling right now, and I can't wait for them to be done in the next month or so.

[Skander]

Ya'll need to be making tajines in your pressure cookers. Takes about 5-10 minutes worth of work on the front end, and then its ready 45 minutes later.

I have some preserved lemons pickling right now, and I can't wait for them to be done in the next month or so.

Prune and meat tajine is one of my favorites.

My Tunisian buddy swears you can't get North African grade pressures cookers in the US. His wife insisted on bringing one back, which must have been fun going through Boston customs while Muslim...

[wesf]

Heard lots of good things about Instapot models, might pick one up.

[Hanley]

Heard lots of good things about Instapot models, might pick one up.

I tried one for a few meals.

Will never use again.

“Sear” function absolutely sucked.

Took way longer than a regular pressure cooker to come to full pressure.

[Allentown]

We managed to crack the ceramic pot for our slow cooker, so I'm thinking about replacing it (I assume there was some gunk or something on it that got baked in and caused the crack, and I don't want to pay to ship it for a warranty claim only to have them return it...)
New slow cooker, Instapot, pressure cooker, or sous vide? Sous vide & slow cooker would probably get the most use, since we enjoy simple, easy to prepare, tasteless meals that are ready at the end of the day.

[brkriete]

I agree the "sear" function on the Instant Pot is useless. Aside from that I really like mine and it does all the same stuff a slow cooker does plus pressure cooker stuff. There is a new model coming out soon that is more expensive (150ish?) but will have an extra temperature sensor that is supposed to make it capable of maintaining a tight enough temperature range for sous vide cooking.

I also like the stainless insert vs. the standard ceramic one that is heavier and more of a pain in the ass to clean. I have even thought that for "one dish" type cooking you could use it directly on an electric burner for searing.

[Hanley]

We managed to crack the ceramic pot for our slow cooker, so I'm thinking about replacing it (I assume there was some gunk or something on it that got baked in and caused the crack, and I don't want to pay to ship it for a warranty claim only to have them return it...)
New slow cooker, Instapot, pressure cooker, or sous vide? Sous vide & slow cooker would probably get the most use, since we enjoy simple, easy to prepare, tasteless meals that are ready at the end of the day.

Sous vide thingies are pretty great.

Instead of a slow cooker, will you please just buy a 5qt lodge enameled cast iron Dutch oven and use that as your “slow cooker”. I promise it’s better.

[Manveer]

Instead of a slow cooker, will you please just buy a 5qt lodge enameled cast iron Dutch oven and use that as your “slow cooker”. I promise it’s better.

y tho

[Hanley]

Instead of a slow cooker, will you please just buy a 5qt lodge enameled cast iron Dutch oven and use that as your “slow cooker”. I promise it’s better.

y tho

I can get an awesome sear right in the Dutch Oven...so I don’t need a dedicated searing pan & temp control on many slow cookers sucks (you just end up boiling shit). AND, I can use the Dutch oven for soups, sauces, braises of all sorts.

And the Lodge costs like $50

[Root]

Instead of a slow cooker, will you please just buy a 5qt lodge enameled cast iron Dutch oven and use that as your “slow cooker”. I promise it’s better.

y tho

I can get an awesome sear right in the Dutch Oven...so I don’t need a dedicated searing pan & temp control on many slow cookers sucks (you just end up boiling shit). AND, I can use the Dutch oven for soups, sauces, braises of all sorts.

And the Lodge costs like $50

And you can take it camping.

[SpinyNorman]

Instead of a slow cooker, will you please just buy a 5qt lodge enameled cast iron Dutch oven and use that as your “slow cooker”. I promise it’s better.

y tho

I can get an awesome sear right in the Dutch Oven...so I don’t need a dedicated searing pan & temp control on many slow cookers sucks (you just end up boiling shit). AND, I can use the Dutch oven for soups, sauces, braises of all sorts.

And the Lodge costs like $50

And you can take it camping.

Hanley's right, get the Dutch oven. I love ours. It's a cuisinart that I got on sale for around $40 a few years ago. I did a roast in it over the weekend and use it for braised country style ribs fairly often which come out great.

For camping we have a non-enameled Lodge one. We haven't gone camping in years, so it mostly just sits in the basement.

[Allentown]

Sous vide thingies are pretty great.

Instead of a slow cooker, will you please just buy a 5qt lodge enameled cast iron Dutch oven and use that as your “slow cooker”. I promise it’s better.

I have one. For some reason my wife doesn't like the idea of leaving the stove or oven on all day. I bet though I could probably throw a chunk of junk in there when I get home at 4:15 and it would be ready around 7.

[brkriete]

I use my dutch oven for chili and roasts (so I can brown the meat on the stove top and then transfer to the oven). It works great for that. Serious Eats, I think, had an interesting article comparing tomato sauce made via slow cooker, pressure cooker, and dutch oven. I believe they liked the dutch oven best though the pressure cooker and dutch oven were both better than the slow cooker. Had something to do with the heat each reached resulting in better browning in the PC and DO; the DO had pockets of hotter cooking which resulted in more browning.

[ithryn]

Are the veggies never NOT bland with corned beef? Have I been resigning myself to bland, crappy vegetables alongside my corned beef for years? I just dump them all in with the meat an hour or two before it is done.

Coming in late to this, but they don't absorb the salt and fatty flavor from the water? Sometimes I cook veggies in the brine again the next day.

I agree the "sear" function on the Instant Pot is useless.

I don't understand the searing hate. This thing sears like crazy. The only problem is it's small and you kinda have to sear things one at a time, so for me a pot roast is like: saute the onions, shove them to the side, sear one piece of meat, intend to sear the other, then just say eff it and toss everything in.

The sear function is also better than stovetop for reducing sauces, maybe because the abnormally high walls of the pot hold at the heat in?

She won’t stop commenting on how dangerous they are.

Baby boomers (if she is one) are more horrified of pressure cookers than they are of pork cooked to 145 degrees.

[Culican]

Baby boomers (if she is one) are more horrified of pressure cookers than they are of pork cooked to 145 degrees.

Not true. I am 62 and have three pressure cookers. Use at least one of them almost daily. On the other hand, a co-worker of mine in her mid 30's was terrified of them. I finally talked her into buying an electric one (she wouldn't consider the stove-top cookers, said they could explode) and she loves it.

So far as the pork goes, I am involved in food safety (that's all I will say so as not to identify my work) and completely understand that pork cooked to 145F is safe but I agree that most people over the age of 50 think pork needs to be incinerated into leather before it can be eaten.

[ithryn]

I finally talked her into buying an electric one (she wouldn't consider the stove-top cookers, said they could explode) and she loves it.

I guess my remark about baby boomers wasn't fair considering I'm in this same boat. I knew the Instant Pot was theoretically safe but my wife pulled the kids from the room the first few times. And I still "know" a stovetop one is fine too but... not sure I'd be fine for it. Someone'si cook via the 'smoke alarm means it's done' method.

[Hanley]

I don't understand the searing hate. This thing sears like crazy. The only problem is it's small and you kinda have to sear things one at a time, so for me a pot roast is like: saute the onions, shove them to the side, sear one piece of meat, intend to sear the other, then just say eff it and toss everything in.

That’s not “sears like crazy”. That’s an annoying searing process. One that I’m familiar with.

Now a big-ass enamel coated cast-iron Dutch oven? That bitch sears like crazy.

The sear function is also better than stovetop for reducing sauces, maybe because the abnormally high walls of the pot hold at the heat in?

You might be using the wrong pan to reduce sauces on the stovetop.

A saucier is awesome. They have flared sides and no corner at the bottom-side junction...so a whisk easily gets in there. I’m guessing the flared sides might help with evaporation. I dunno.

[tdood]

I'm with @Hanley, haven't touched a slow cooker in years.. and the last time was to keep a large amount of baked beans warm during a cookout.

Pressure cooker all the way for all the stews, all winter.

Did risotto in it last week, took like 10 min. Came out perfect (brown onion and garlic in butter, toss in the rice and mix, add cx broth and lemon juice(didn't have wine or mushrooms), high pressure 10 min, open (quick release under the sink, every time no matter what), add grated parm-reg till it's unhealthy and maybe a fresh herb)
You'll burn some to the bottom. Yolo.


My favorite is carnitas tho.
Get a picnic cut pig shoulder, clean it up (no skin fat bone), cut into pieces that sear well (usually like, softball size), brown em in canola, add some water, chicken cube, adobo, cumin, crushed coriander, lime juice.. whatever makes you feel Mexican, pressure it for 45-50min, shred.
Serve on hot corn tortillas with chopped white onion and cilantro.. maybe a hit of herdez's salsa verde. Make your own tortillas while it's cooking if you want, I do sometimes. Eat leftovers all week, it tastes amazing reheated/researed on cast iron.