The one I "inherited" had a broken seal, which I bought from ebay.de for 11€ (delivered to my parents in Germany for free).
The large ones you have to buy new usually because they are so rare and people don't sell them.
Smaller ones can usually be picked up rather cheaply from auction sites etc.
There is a power pressure cooker from Tristar available at Lehner for Fr. 159.00.
On amazon that one is not available at the moment.
Yes, you can do smaller portions, the key is to have enough liquid.
No, times don‘t change.
I have both a ceramic hob and a portable induction hob. For the ceramic, I start on high till it gets to pressure and then low medium to sustain pressure. Induction is great for short cooking times. I can start it at medium and drop it all the way down to the lowest to sustain pressure. I have to keep an eye on my induction hob.....if cooking time is long, i sometimes release pressure and let it build back up either by releasing it on the top, or by turning off the heat for a few minutes. Induction can be powerful.
You have to play with your hob settings to work that out.
So, I read that using a pressure cooker for soup (fluids will splatter) or potatoes (will burst), the pressure can/should not be quickly released. Letting it cool off/go down by itself can take up to 30 minutes?
Here's an other smart-ass question (sorry, sorry): What's the point in saving all this time (which I'm very keen on) if the cooling down puts it back on?
For me at least, it‘s in choosing what to cook. Dried beans in less than an hour without the soak. Rather than cooking a stock for hours, One hour.
The intstant pot Indian cook book has a recipe for chicken biryani that takes maybe half an hour to prep and 5 minutes to cook. Another 5-10 minutes to release pressure.
I‘ve never cooked potatoes in it, and i‘ve Not had a splatter problem.
It's a fair question. Cooking potatoes, ours takes more like 10 minutes to get to ambient pressure. During which time they don't need to be watched, and the whole cooking process has not filled the kitchen with steam. I'll do the potatoes first and then they just sit off the hob coming back down to normal pressure while I do other things. (In any case I only have two cooking rings on the hob so it's convenient to get them out of the way first.) We think they taste better pressure cooked too, compared to boiling or steaming at atmospheric pressure. You do need to develop a bit of a sense of how long they need - new season new potatoes, 2 minutes, tougher ones maybe 4 minutes.
With soup, you can generally stand the pressure cooker in the sink and run cold water over it to drop the pressure quickly. Actually that is the only quick release method I ever use, and (I think) the only one in the instructions with my pressure cooker, although I believe others have a "pull against the seal" method - I can imagine that soup might spatter with that method.
You were quicker than me!
Chickpeas, 8 minutes. Chicken stock from leftover bones, I cook for 30 minutes on High plus this does perhaps take nearly 30 minutes to come back down "naturally".
Does that go for dried lentiles, chickpeas etc. too? Or do you mean the green dried beens?
These (and pelati) are basically the only things left I buy in tins. I'd prefer not to but hey, how would I know what I want to eat tomorrow
2-4 minutes for potatoes - that sounds like I would like this thing.
An other question: While I'm trying to get used to this/figure it out: Can I open the pot and when the food is not ready close it and put it back on/build the pressure up again?
From what I've read, anything that absorbs liquid e.g. pasta, noodles, rice, starchy veg, and so on, should get the quick pressure release, or the food'll end up stodgy and clumped together. But meat, curries, chicken/meat-based stews etc can happily withstand the slow release treatment (if you're not in a hurry). But what do I know? Had the pot only a few days and made only a nice pasta sauce so far.
Oh, I forgot about the dried green beans, which I‘ve never made.
I meant things like chickpeas (ceci), red kidney beans, black beans and lentils, borloti, white beans.....
Lentils will not take very much time, I think....can‘t remember.
I‘ve never cooked pasta in a pressure cooker because I need to test it to make sure it‘s not overcooked.
You can of course cook something, release pressure and then build up and cook some more, but that‘s better for something which is not going to get all gummy, like stock.
People use instant pots to cook (steam, i guess) cheese cake, and you can do the same in a pressure cooker. I‘ve not done this, yet.
Curley, you can check out the pressure cooker recipes from Serious Eats. They really break it down well - I cook the 30 minute chicken pho from them very often.
I have a Silit Sicomatic and its very heavily used in my kitchen. It has 2 levels of pressure and the release is safe and fast.
For example, I made brown lentils this week (the unhulled ones). I put the lentils in with 1.5 times water, brought it to pressure and cooked under high pressure for 8 minutes. Did a quick release wich takes less than a minute (there is an in built system to that in this model). Opened, threw in some coconut milk, spices, cauliflower, cooked some more, threw in some chopped peppers and some spinach leaves. In 2-3 minutes it was done. As the vegetables are soft, I do not cook them under pressure, but the cooker is a great cooking pot as well. The Silit is so efficient, it needs very little water as well.
And yes, I have opened, checked the doneness and put back the cooker in pressure many times. There are decent pressure cooking time guides available online. I follow them. I never had a splatter problem.
A pressure cooker is great for dried green beans. Timing is on the bean packets I believe.
Also excellent for Getreiderisotto (mixture of pulses and grains they sell at Coop), and Gerstensuppe (barley soup) takes a short enough time to be reasonable to cook.
I don't generally cook pasta in it except if I cook it together with a meat sauce, to do a super quick supper that's a bit like pasta al forno. That took a little practice to get right so that the pasta is cooked and the meat sauce is not burnt but it's a favourite for when a substantial supper needs to be cooked and eaten within a short time window.
And yes, when not under pressure it's a useful big pot - when we first had an induction hob it *was* our pasta pot as none of our other large pots were magnetic.
I'm sure a quick release system other than the cold tap in the sink would be a useful feature. For me my purchase of the WMF Perfect Plus was a case of taking the opportunity to get a large pressure cooker at a very much lower price than some others I had seen, and I haven't regretted it, but such a feature is definitely something to consider. ( I *can* carefully pull at the lock slider and release the pressure faster than normal that way, but that's not in the instructions and it's not what I would call a "pressure release system".)
Have you tried any of the asian shops?
Now that way of cooking sounds like my type of thing. Thanks.
Of course now you will have to be more detailed: Which Silit Sicomatic do you have exactly? What size? Is it made from ceramic (looks like teflon) or stainless steel?
Now these were three questions, don't try to skip answering one of them
I carried on research. At first I though I want a small one but came to the conclusion that in the long run that might annoy me. Yet I don't want a really large one as I know I won't bother pulling it out (after a while you know yourself ). So I guess 4 liter - doesn't exist, therefore 4.5 liter would be okay.
I trust Landi blindefolded. But they only sell a 6.5 liter one. That will accumulate dust around here. But I like it's price. And I admit, a pot is not something I excitedly throw a lot of money out for. So I'm searching the net while trying to figure out what is important to me. So far it is the medium size, stainless steel, dishwasher fit, a system for quick release, difinitely not second hand.
And of course I came up with a new question as well: Does it smell less when cooking with a pressure cooker? I have an open-plan kitchen (I love it) and when I cook with all my very unswissy spices, sometimes the smell lingers for two days and that sure is a bummer. So would this tool eliminate/reduce this?
An other thought:
Reading about them, it says not to fill a pressure cooker more than 2/3.
If that is so, there is no point in getting smallish ones as a 6l one is only 4l in reality?
(As you don't HAVE to fill it 2/3).
Right?
Hi Curley,
I have a Sicomatic Econtrol 4.5 lit in Silargan material. If you want to go for a bigger size, the 6.5 litres in Steel/Edelstahl looks fantastic. The base is dishwasher safe, a huge plus.
The 4.5 litres is more than sufficient for 2 people for regular use. I have cooked meat for 8 people in it (because meat cooks in its own juice mostly). For regular use, the 4.5 litres is a very handy size. I do not have the insert (didn't buy) because I have an inbuilt steamer. But with that insert you can make steamed food (fav recipe - cut chicken in small pieces, mix with soy sauce, sesame oil, lime juice/vinegar, pepper, chunks of ginger and spring onion, put in a bowl and steam for 15 minutes).
Lentils and beans I usually do not cook more than 50-100 gms at a time (a handful really). So you can cook pretty small amounts as well. But of course you can cook a lot more. While most pressure cooker says beans to water is 1:2, with this model, i go for 1:1 and hence the volume stays very manageable.
Really helps with the smell. Indian woman in an open plan house - i have to be always be careful that I dont smell of curry/fresh off the boat.
We had to replace our existing steel kitchen set after we moved to Switzerland (induction) and we went for Silargan in black hence the pressure cooker follows that scheme. Otherwise I love stainless steel as material. We bought everything together at the WMF factory outlet in Waldshut. They usually have up to 50% discount and nearly all the models and sizes are available. That apart, the WMF outlet in Landquart is quite big too.
I put my pressure cooker (top and bottom) in the dishwasher. If the valve or seal craps out, they are easily replaced. I also keep a screw driver in the utensil drawer to tighten the screw in the valve. They’ve not needed replacement.
We had induction in our first flat and had to replace everything.....I bought demeyre, which is wonderful, and it goes in the dishwasher.
I put almost everything in the dishwasher.
I just ordered a crockpot Express (essentially the same as an Instant Pot) from nettoshop.ch for around 130CHF and I have used it almost every day since getting it (2 weeks ago)
It comes with a non stick pan inside which I have read is a better feature than the instant pot as its easier to clean
I am an instant pot convert, my life has been changed so much so, that it's lead me to post on EF for the first time in donkeys years
Potatoes soooo quick to cook. Small ones like for raclet I steam for 4min, with 1 cup of water on the bottom it comes to pressure like in 5 min. I quick pressure release so I never wait for pressure to come down itself.
Baked potatoes all process takes about half an hour, than just put them under grill until crisp and ready to eat. In oven it takes an hour or more to bake them.
Yes, of course you can, but first you need to release the pressure. I cootsome staff that way, for example if I cook something with beef first I high pressure beef for like 10 min and than add vegetables or potatoes and pressure again for some minutes so like that I’m sure that my meat is nice and soft and vegetables still tender not too soft.