Re: pressure cookers was Re: Need recommendations on security

Ellen wrote:
> "Mike Easter"

>> rice a lot and like different cooking time rices together, I have a
>> technique for two staging my rices in a metal container inside the
>> cooker.  Sorta like you would cook rice in the oven.

That rice 'bowl' is a stainless mixing bowl that fits very nicely into
the cooker.  The cooker has a little plate with holes in it [cooking
rack] which is used for such as canning to get the stainless bowl off
the bottom of the cooker.  So, I put some water in the cooker with the
rack, and I put the dry rice into the stainless bowl with its homemade
chicken broth [which I make in the cooker and freeze;  that's another
story, that stuff is *awesome*] and some rice cooking ingredients.  If I
were only going to do something like the basmati instead of 2 stage
[which technique I may revise, because the white rice stage may be a
waste of time] then I would only adjust the cooking time a little tad
and the water a little tad.

> I really do like it for dried beans and also because I can have a mad
> idea to have something for dinner that normally takes a couple or so
> hours of cooking and start at 6 and have it for dinner before bedtime.

I have this 'pork and bean' recipe I love.  Naturally it bears no
resemblance to Campbells and there is no tomato or sugar whatsoever.
Some dried pinto beans 'imported' from Texas or CO because Texicans and
such know great pinto beans and there are wondermous pinto bean farms in
Colorado and Tx.  The pork roast gets browned on the grill outside
briefly before I cut it up for the cooker.  Some serious local CA heat
with seranos [those slick green guys, slice 'em up, whole thing, a lot]
and some other pepper ideas.  Yumm.

> Hrmm I always make rice in the rice cooker and somehow we pretty much
> have only basmati rice 99% of the time. I will try brown rice in the
> pressure cooker tho cause it doesn't do that well in the rice cooker
> -- or didn't last time I tried it.

It cooks slower than the rice cooker thinks it should.  I have a rice
cooker I never use, as most of the time I just cook white rice in a pot
on the stove.  Naturally it *must* be made from my personal chicken
broth which is so 'viscous' that when it is cold it gels and the
floating fat has already been removed.

The rice cooking is all about perfect timing with perfect heat and
precisely the right amount of water and no peeking or uncertainty about
the equation.  "Trust me, I'm going to turn out all right."  I suppose
the rice cooker is supposed to know how to do that, but somewhere along
the way I developed my own formula and I don't want to mess with
experimenting all over again.

> I made the best corned beef I have ever made using the
> pressure cooker

Oh yeah.  The cooker makes that a piece of cake.  I've done it with just
the corned beef, and with cabbage added [2 stage] and I forget how I did
the one with the potatoes.

>  I guess some memory of hearing people talk about having
> the old fashioned ones "blow their gaskets" all over the kitchen.

The one we had when I was a kid was 'dangerous' because it didn't have
the safety features of the modern ones.  Ours had the pressure gizmo
_affixed_ to the top and no other releases.  If it 'jammed' or failed
closed, you were cruisin' for a bruisin' when whatever finally blew,
because the top was locked on.

My current one the top is just weight.  If the hole inside were to get
stopped up with something, there's a plastic release hole which will
blow out.  Also, the way the handle/top works is another safety feature,
which can sometimes need some 'manipulating' if the safety feature
doesn't want to let you open the top when it should.

> She said that the jiggle thing broke or something and she
> couldn't afford to buy a new one at that time and then somehow never
> got around to it and still regrets that she never did :-)

Your mom's was newer than the one we had.  Ours didn't 'jiggle' - it was
severely attached to the top and designed to leak when a pressure was
reached.  It could fail open or it could fail closed or it could fail by
being inaccurate.  Not nearly as nifty as the jigglers.

-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin