Slow cookers and pressure cookers

It's not surprising to me.

The only stovetop pressure cooker I ever got on with, ever used more than once, was a little 3L (or whatever the equivalent is in pints or whatever) 1970s skyline. For today it had a very odd lid that didn't rely on clamps - in order to blow the entire vessel would have had to destruct, and it was impossible to put the lid on incorrectly.



I used it for years, until the main seal perished, and I couldn't source another, and that was that for that pressure cooker.

The electronic ones feel safer, and should be a lot safer, if the electronics works as advertised.

Pretty sure that on 2 out of my 3 older ones they don't - it's just blurb to sell them.

Not had one actually blow up - but having a few meals worth of superheated pressurized food forcing it's way out of the main seal isn't funny to clean up. Thing is that should never happen, if the pressure or temperature sensors are working, and even if not the main vent should stop the pressure getting that high - that is its job, practically its only reason to exist.

So I used to trust these things, a lot more than stovetops - now I only trust them a little more. They have lots of additional safety thingies, problem is how do I know they actually work until they are needed?

 

The only moment I've ever enjoyed was in the early 70s, when my mum was doing the Christmas pudding in her huge Swan pressure cooker that I couldn't even lift.

I've no idea what went wrong, but the pudding started spurting out of the steam vent and pebble-dashing the kitchen ceiling. My mum yelling at it to stop, followed by a stream of profanities that would have made a docker proud, is still one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed...

 

@Wonko Which model IP did you end up ordering?

 

The Duo Plus

We only have 3 models in the UK

The Duo, the Duo Plus and the Duo Evo Plus.

Although most have more than one size available.

 

There are so many models now and they probably all work basically the same. I think the only difference is the Duo Evo Plus has handles on the liner so that you can use it on the stove top. It also heats to a higher temperature so that the slow cooker works better than on most of the IP models.

 

My test slow cook sausage casserole is now on - set it for 9 hours on 'more' (high) as I'm concerned about the ability of this thing to actually slow cook.

As I'd quite like to eat some of it for tea I did something I've never done for any slow cooked dish, I precooked the sausages, and a spare slice of pork loin that needed using up - so there should be no issues with eating it even if it doesn't visually seem to have gotten hot enough in the next 4-5 hours.

Obviously this slightly invalidates this test, but not entirely, I will be able to tell, in possibly several hours, how well it;s doing and from that judge how much prep (e.g. pre browning/cooking) needs to be done for future things) will be needed in future.

I am fully aware that I could pressure cook it, all from frozen, in 40 minutes lol

Last night I did a test rice pudding in it.

Perfectly fine, but even though the recipe and ingredients were the same as I've used in the big cosori (on the one occasion it cooked it without issues) and the baby cosori, it was different - perfectly okay but not the same - which is odd.

In case anyone's 'concerned' about a diabetic eating so much rice pudding in the last few weeks (it was my tea last night, instead of the pork loin with steamed veg), I'm using low GI sugar free sugar, and not actual sugar, in it.

...and it seem taking the piss Saturday is here - the IP duo on amazon is now £60 (from the £85 it's been since I noticed it's price a few weeks ago, and the price it was yesterday, black friday) - the evo is out of stock but yesterday it's price, both from the official UK stockist, and from amazon, was not just above the pre black friday selling price (£118 - a price it has not dropped back down to during the 'sale'), but above RRP, until it went out of stock.

The model I purchased is of course still the same price lol

ETA - 3 hours into the slow cooker sausage casserole test.

No sign of simmering (this thing is on it's maximum setting), I can feel some heat when leaning over the top of it, condensation on the lid, which if shuggled clears enough so I can see, possibly, evidence of pinkish tomato foam on parts of the surface of the casserole, which both indicates convection is occurring, and that it has tomatoes in - which is odd as I didn't put any in (I used a packet mix for sausage and onion casserole, not one for sausage and beans or sausage and tomato - I had several, all of which need to be used up, and this is just a test - albeit hopefully an edible one).

Not impressive so far - whilst I don't like slow cookers boiling stuff, when on the highest setting, and left alone for hours, I would expect to see simmering.

Today, as the IP is busy, I am still proofing dough on a storage heater.

ETAA - At 5 hours I removed the lid, small amount of very gentle simmering is visible, so I tested it.

It's cooked, however the sausage seems cool in the middle - not a problem as I'd largely precooked them on a grill last night before going to bed - knowing I wouldn't be up to doing it this morning - but puzzling nonetheless. My inability to do such things as soon as I get up is one of the reasons a pressure cooker is so useful to me, but some things just work better in a slow cooker.

Next batch (yep - I have lots more £1 for 20 'sausages' lol) I will cook everything basically from frozen, only using saute mode to brown the outside of the frozen 'sausages' before slow cooking.

And I'll see what happens

 

I recently moved and one of the bits I pulled from the loft and brought with me was an old cosori pressure cooker. I thought this had been retired to the loft as it's a bit dinky at 2L, useable capacity around 1L, so only good for 1 or 2 portions, and I prefer to cook much larger portions of the stuff I pressure cook.

But I've brought it with me, I could do with a smaller pressure cooker for some things, and it's no longer a 'got to get it out of the loft to use it' situation, so I 'tested' it. By which I mean I turned it on, intending to do a water test (pressure cook a few hundred milliliters of water to check the seals and heater are still okay).

I didn't get that far, as I discovered another reason why it was put up in the loft, one that it seems sensory trauma had caused me to forget.

It's loud, with every button press it emits a fire alarm volume sound, and getting to many things on the menu involves lots of button presses.

Not really useful to me.

So I bought a 3L instant pot, a better size for cooking a few portions of curry, than a 6L instant pot anyway, and silent.

So far it's only done water, and porridge (cooked twice, the first was okay, a bit too wet, so for the second batch I used about 100ml less water, which resulted in the damn thing not pressurizing and burning the porridge, still cleaning the pot ).

I may, even though I have 2 rice cookers, try cooking rice in it later, just to see.

And once my existing mince stew and dumplings (stovetop) is finished, maybe a simple chicken curry.

So far I like it, apart from batch cooking (which occurs in either my 6L instant pots, and some stuff that gets cooked in a stockpot, that used to be a stovetop pressure cookers base), I can see it being useful for some things, like curries, where making up enough to fill a 6L pot would just cost too much, for meat etc.

It did however cost (@£70 over 5 months) nearly what my 6L instant pot pro cost (on offer @£85) and it's nowhere near as capable, in that all it does, that's useful to me, is pressure cook. On the face of it a bad deal, but, I suspect it will be useful and fill a gap in my cooking capabilities, so that I don't have to try and not knock pans off the gas hob.

The fact it's smaller helps, in that it's also lighter, and, well, occupies less space, and as I have a lot of gadgets in cupboards at this point smaller is better for storage.

No idea how my next purchase (an air fryer, in a few months, saving up time) can be made to fit in a cupboard lol

 

I sussed out how to make better porridge in the 3l instant pot than I can in a pan. Only problem is that because of the minimum liquid component, needed so that it can pressurise, it's about a third more porridge than I would consider a portion. So a large thick portion of porridge. Actual porridge not the runny stuff people seem to think is porridge these days.

Also, for the first time, tried cooking boiled eggs in it, and it makes better boiled eggs than my egg boiler, probably faster as well.

I've been experimenting with rice and second time in got it up to a reasonable standard. A little firmer than I consider perfect but perfectly acceptable rice, all separated with no clumping, sticking to the base, or burnt bits. Which is more than my cheaper rice cooker can do in basic rice cooking mode.

I tried out the little 2l cosori pressure cooker, putting up with the beeps, and when it came up to pressure I could smell overheated wiring. Five minutes later it started venting via the main vent, which it shouldn't do unless it's overpressure and doesn't know it, so doesn't turn off the heater. Because of the smell I was right next to it keeping tabs (the smell could just have been coz it hasn't been used in years so possibly back to new equipment burn off).

But venting in that manner shows it has a problem, probably a failed pressure sensor, the same thing as wrote off my other cosori.

So I can now throw it out with a clear conchense, as it's faulty and not just annoying.

Contrary to what goggle says it is possible to salvage and finish pressure cooking part cooked rice, in another pressure cooker.

I am now attempting rice pudding in it, using a guesstimate of a dimly remembered recipe.

Tomorrow's dinning will probably be largely rice based.

ETA - actually I suspect the dimly remembered rice pudding recipe is basically a crumble mix recipe with rice instead of flour and an amount of milk that 'felt' right.

So it'll be interesting to see/taste what emerges.

 

@Wonko, I'm glad you've figured out how to make porridge in your instant pot. I've only made it on top of the stove, but a couple of times when I didn't notice the timer or put it on too high heat, it was just godawful to clean. Porridge (oatmeal in the U.S.) turns into a concrete-like substance under these circumstances. I ended up adding a lot of water to the pan and boiling it a long time before I could begin scooping the oatmeal out of the pan to clean it.