Re: pressure cookers was Re: Need recommendations on security

On 15.05.2006 09:15, Mike Easter wrote:

 --- Original Message ---

> User wrote:
> 
>> What was "between the lines" is the fact that we don't rush things
>> here, slow cooking is what gives Cajun Cuisine it's reputation along
>> with it's unique spices, etc. You can't pressure-cook a dish in 1
>> hour and expect it to taste the same as slow cooking it for 4 hrs,
>> like Gumbo and Etouffee for instance.
> 
> Superheated steam actually enhances natural flavors.  Typically when one
> adjusts recipes for pressure cooking one can use less seasonings to get
> the same taste 'sensation'  - and vegetable and meat flavors 'sing' and
> harmonize all the better.  Also, the airless environment and less
> exposure to both 'low' boiling heat and atmosphere air for hours
> prevents the loss by oxidation of some great flavor nuances that are
> often destroyed when a pot of vegetables like okra or tomatoes or 'light
> hearted' meats like crab or shrimp and chicken are beaten to death.
> 
> Show me a crockpot or stovetop pot cooking recipe you love and I'll bet
> I can improve on it.  Or, if not me, someone who knows pressure cooking
> better than I.

You can't successfully crock pot OR pressure cook an etouffee nor can
you do the same for a seafood (or any) gumbo or any sort of jambalaya.
Any dish, such as a gumbo for instance that is to contain any species of
seafood, eg., shrimp, crabmeat, oyster, etc. does not fare well in a
pressure cooker. Ask my wife, the retired cajun chef and french pastry
chef (trained in Paris) and VERY close friend of John Folse what she
thinks of crock potting and pressure cooking cajun dishes, then stand
back and duck. 8-) There IS a place for both but not in true Cajun
Cuisine - home style Atchafalaya Basin cooking. "Laissez Le Bon Temps
Roulet, Cher". :-D

> The business of filling the house with wonderful smells for many hours
> is another subject that needs to be taken into consideration.  If you
> want to fill the house with good smells for hours, put some bread in a
> homemade bread cooker or something, because the pressure cooking is
> going to get the job done so fast that the wonderful food cooking
> atmosphere happens right before everyone is ready to dig in, instead of
> teasing them so long before 'it happens'.
> 
> Another one of those 'instant gratification' plus and minus issues.
> 
>