As seen from rec.food.equipment, on
Thu, 11 Aug 2005 06:59:22 -0400, "Ellen" > wrote:

>"Jeff" > wrote in message
...
>Ah yes, the ever famous "try not to like this dish too much because it's
>what was in the fridge and you will never have it again quite the same way"
>cooking method. My family seems fairly resigned to that :-)

What? With a shelf full of cookbooks? I thought that predictability was
the idea behind cooking by recipe.

>Why no potatoes? I like potatoes in my soup?

<shrug> So put them in, then. To my taste, they're too heavy/starchy
for soup. If you like potatoes, try dicing them up and putting them in
meat loaf in place of rice or bread crumbs. Killer good with the right
spices and such.

>I am absolutely floored by how fast this all is vs regular cooking.

I think it's the pressure that does it, as well as the increased
temperature. Cooking in water is, I think, the best method for
delivering the heat to the food, and a pressure cooker delivers it at
higher than boiling temperatures.

> And it
>all seems so natural and normal to be using the pressure cooker as opposed
>to the microwave where after 20 years I still can't seem to do anything
>other than reheating leftovers

That's the only thing I ever use a microwave for. I was introduced to
pressure cookers when a friend made a chicken in a microwave pressure
cooker (now how's that for a gizmo?). Of course I had to go out and get
one of my own and try it. I think I used it twice before getting a
stovetop model. I couldn't afford a good one, but fortunately a local
discount chain offered an aluminum 4-qt. model from Brasil that was
within my budget. It worked fine, never blew up, and I've been using
pressure cookers ever since.

> the most difficult thing has been to
>figure out which burner to use for stuff that needs to be pressurized to the
>first ring and not the second ring. Since there are all of two burner sizes
>on the stove ....

If the lowest setting on your smallest burner is too hot, I guess
you'll have to turn it off and back on. That's a nuisance, I know, but
this sort of pressure cooker needs to be monitored anyway.

Jeff