Pressure Cooker Size

[JanetGroene]

My six-quart is heavier than I can handle for most dishes. If possible, get the small one for everyday meals for two and a larger one for canning. I can meat for outgoing but save jars, and stock extra lids, for canning fish if the catch is larger than we can eat in a day. (No refrigeration) If you have room for just one, get a 4-quart. Incidentally I find cast aluminum better for stovetop baking and it "seasons" better than stainless steel. Old, cast aluminum Presto cookers are found in thrift shops and you can still get gaskets for most.

[Ozbullwinkle]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Not sure what the advantage of storing two is....? One ought to be enough,

The obvious advantage of this Scanpan pressure cooker model is that it ticks all of the boxes and solves the dilemma of the OP being in two minds about which size pressure cooker to get. It also has 2 different pressure valves - one giving high pressure for food like roasts & stews and a low pressure one for food like vegetables & fruit. Both of these valves can be used on either the smaller or the larger base so you can cook smaller meals or larger ones as required.

As far as storage goes they would take the place of 2 pans that would otherwise have been on board anyway and you can of course use them as normal pans to cook in as well. If space is really that tight the OP could just leave one of the bases at home but she would have it for future use.

As I mentioned the cost of getting this pressure cooker with the 2 bases is cheaper than what you will pay for most other new "modern" pressure cookers on the market where you get one size only.

All this other talk about jar sizes & preserving food - the OP mentioned nothing about this as a requirement that will influence her decision - she just wants a pressure cooker to go cruising with and is just trying to decide on the best size. She also mentioned that her galley space is limited so she is hardly going to have space on board for storing numerous preserving jars.

The Scanpan Duo does it all.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Trish.

See Miss Vickie's wonderful site for everything pressure cooker, including:
http://missvickie.com/workshop/buying.html

[bobconnie]

All i can say about meat changing by being cooked in a pressure cooker is if it;s getting stringie you mst be useing really funny beef!! cus Ive even cooked horse meat in one and it came out like prime beef ! never had even chuck roasts come out stringie!! Of course we always cook them with a little thicking in the water and onions and garlic!! maybe I just don't understand what you are sayin ?? we have been useing one aboard for 30 plus yrs and won't leave home without it LOL

[swisscraft]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

All i can say about meat changing by being cooked in a pressure cooker is if it;s getting stringie you mst be useing really funny beef!! cus Ive even cooked horse meat in one and it came out like prime beef ! never had even chuck roasts come out stringie!! Of course we always cook them with a little thicking in the water and onions and garlic!! maybe I just don't understand what you are sayin ?? we have been useing one aboard for 30 plus yrs and won't leave home without it LOL

Yup, maybe that my english is not that perfect understandable its not my mother language - sorry for that
Nevertheless, I agree beef gets very soft in every pressure cooker - even a 25 year old cow will come out soft and tender
But the texture will be different if slowly cooked for 2 hours - and the beef sauce (I add as well onions and garlic) will taste like from another dimension. It will not get the same taste while cooking for 30 min than within 120 min or more - pressure is helping to cook faster, but is not helping to develop taste. If your liked your food for the past 30 years I would not change. Not mean to offense anybody with a pressure cooker. But there is a is a reason why a professional chef still cooks a perfect stew for hours right? There are sometimes no shortcuts in life....

[SailorTrish]

Wow, what a great response to my question. Thank you, all for your input. I have now abandoned the idea of a 2.5 quart model. I am intrigued by the ScanPan and intend on checking it out further. I also like the idea of being able to do some canning. Getting the jars I will be using first is a smart idea. Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts. I'll check back in with my final decision.

Trish
S/V FarAway

[Auspicious]

Hi Trish,

I hope I'm not too late to the party. I use a 5l pressure cooker. For the two of us I generally make enough for leftovers. With four or five aboard or for a potluck the extra space is nice. I haven't used it for canning. Mine has two small handles like a stock pot. As others said, try to avoid the one long handle so many cookers have.

If you aren't familiar with cooking in a pressure cooker you might consider a specific cookbook. Most pressure cookers come with a guide but I have found any one of the books by Lorna Sass to be very helpful. Highly recommended. There is another well known author named Miss Vickie that I have not been impressed with although others are pleased. You should also find helpful information in any old copy of the Joy of Cooking from the 50s or 60s.

I use my pressure cooker regularly for stews, roasts/braises, and potatoes. I sometimes use it for risotto. Regular rice is just too easy in a regular sauce pan to monopolize the pressure cooker.

[theveggiequeen]

I am not a sailor but have sold many pressure cookers to people that sail. People either buy a 4 quart but usually a 6 quart cooker since the larger size is more versatile.

The Fagor Duo Combi set is the one mentioned and you do get 2 cookers and one lid. Since storage is an issue and that cooker has a long handle, you might want to consider the Fagor Futuro or the Futuro set. These cookers do not have long handles and work very well.

I suggest staying away from aluminum cookers, especially if you are out at sea. A newer, modern pressure cooker will serve you well.

I am a pressure cooking expert and have a new book, The New Fast Food, that teaches you how to cook beans, grains and vegetables. Someone else has to teach you how to cook fish and meat in the pressure cooker.

I can answer pressure cooking questions. I always suggest getting the largest cooker that you can store as you can cook 1 cup of rice in any size cooker but cannot overfill them and still have them work.

Cooking vegetables in the cooker is fast, easy and delicious.

[SailorTrish]

Hi All,

Thanks for all of the words of wisdom on pressure cooker size. After taking in all of the comments on size, I abandoned the idea of a 2 quart model and went with the Kuhn Rikon Duromatic 6 quart model. It has the short side handles for better stowage and is large enough to be used for canning. My husband chose the brand after much Internet research. (he has engineer brain ;-) and has to research everything.)

[chef2sail]

Pressure cooking is not for "gourmet" cooking". I has however many uses on cruising vessel where you dont want to heat you cabin up with the oven for extended periods of time roasting meats, want to preserve a Safe environement in a seaway where there is a lid on a beef/ chicken item. Understand it is a way of boiling/ steaming meats which is not always the best textire, but is a worthwhile tradeoff for the above reasons.

Vegetables dont do well in a pressure cooker or any covered pot for that matter as the plant acids cannot escape during cooking and tend to over soften plant structure as well as change the natural color. Impossible to get vibrant green veggies etc with a lid on really. In terms of gravies, the way to concemntrate floavors is reduction, which is counter to a pressure cooker, so by themselves the liguids are not of finished quality, but can be reduced where the flavors can be concentrated and adjusted. Commercial restaurants use steamers which are not highly pressurized usually for the veggies.

They have their place on a vessel and can be a geat way to do large cuts of meats. I would carry one if I was doing long term cruising.

Dave

Dave

[SailorTrish]

I have to disagree with Dave about pressure cooking not being suitable for "gourmet" cooking. In one of my recent posts on another pressure cooking thread I posted my recipe for lamb shanks in the pressure cooker. It sure tasted gourmet to me. I have seen pressure cookers used many times on Food Network gourmet cooking shows. Anyone else have any "gourmet" pressure cooker recipes they would like to share?

[jeremiason]

My wife Lori was raised in Europe and uses our pressure cooker frequently... I think pressure cookers in Italy are used more frequently than here in America. When I was growing up as a kid in California, most people frowned on them and my own family wouldn't use them, stating they would explode :-)

One thing we found in Meixco and Central America is the beef is not aged, which tends to make it a little chewy. The pressure cooker solves that problem, in addition to making a lot less heat in the cabin than the range or oven, due to cooking times.

Lori cooks several kinds of stews, meat loaf, roast beef and a number of rice dishes... I am sure I am leaving out a lot since she uses the pressure cookers severl times a week.

It is expensive, but Lori uses the RAPID CHEF - Six QUart Pressure Cooker.

Lori also uses several cook books for pressure cookers, including Pressure Perfect and Rapid Chef's own cook book.

[chef2sail]

I have to disagree with Dave about pressure cooking not being suitable for "gourmet" cooking. In one of my recent posts on another pressure cooking thread I posted my recipe for lamb shanks in the pressure cooker. It sure tasted gourmet to me. I have seen pressure cookers used many times on Food Network gourmet cooking shows. - Sailor Trisch

Maybe my choice of the word "gourmet" or our definations or standards for gourmet differ. Some of the TV Chefs ( many of whom I have met and cooked with) and the Food Channel are not what I use for criteria for "gourmet" cooking. This in now way denigrates them or their recipes. Many of those chefs are true televison personalities adapted for TV. Many have been qualified restauranteurs and chefs in the careers on their way up the ladder, but what you see on television on the "food Channel" is no more a true representation of the profession, than Greys Anatomy is a representation of what happens in a true hospital, or Law and Order is truely how the police and lawyers act. The Food Channel is a commercial enterprise for the personalities to make money as well as the network through sales of commercials as well as kitchen gadgets, cookbooks, etc. Again this is not meant to demean them or that the recipes they produce are not good ones, it is not what culinarians or professionals who are chefs use as their standards of excellance. It is not about food snobbery either. The difference in standards between a professional tailor and a housewife/ househusbands sewing usually are no comparison.

Cooking with a pressure as I stated cooker surely has a place on a boat for its ease, safety, timing and for use in canning. Many good meals can be made with them and recipes can be tweaked in order to adapt for use. Certainly having a sealed pot on top of the stove is advantagous safety wise over a open braised pan in the oven in passage making, and ceratainly the cabin is way cooler with the sealed "pot" on for 1/2 hour vrs the oven on for two hours.

There are quite a few good pressure cooking books written.
Re: Pressure Cooker Size
Quote:

Originally Posted by bobconnie
All i can say about meat changing by being cooked in a pressure cooker is if it;s getting stringie you mst be useing really funny beef!! cus Ive even cooked horse meat in one and it came out like prime beef ! never had even chuck roasts come out stringie!! Of course we always cook them with a little thicking in the water and onions and garlic!! maybe I just don't understand what you are sayin ?? we have been useing one aboard for 30 plus yrs and won't leave home without it LOL

Yup, maybe that my english is not that perfect understandable its not my mother language - sorry for that
Nevertheless, I agree beef gets very soft in every pressure cooker - even a 25 year old cow will come out soft and tender
But the texture will be different if slowly cooked for 2 hours - and the beef sauce (I add as well onions and garlic) will taste like from another dimension. It will not get the same taste while cooking for 30 min than within 120 min or more - pressure is helping to cook faster, but is not helping to develop taste. If your liked your food for the past 30 years I would not change. Not mean to offense anybody with a pressure cooker. But there is a is a reason why a professional chef still cooks a perfect stew for hours right? There are sometimes no shortcuts in life....swiss craft

This is absolutely correct. The breaking down of the connective tissue in a low grade cut of beef like a chuck roast ( which comes from one of the most exercised muscles in the steer) works better if done with slow low heat. That way the meat doesnt change texture. Real chefs are taught except in grilling to apply the least amount of heat to meat over the longest period of time to increase taste and quality and reduce shrinkage.
True chefs in restaurants do not use pressure cookers ( although you may see a verson of a high tech one on the Iron Chef- TV show of course). In 40 years I have never seen a restaurant kitchen ( family or upscale) equipped with one. Slow stewing/ or braising of meat is a far superior way of cooking then presssurized ( which is another form of boiling meat by the way- The temperature inside the pressure cooker is in excess of 212 degrees). Cooking in many ways is chemistry. Heat coagulates ( solidifies) protein at different temperatures. Real chefs are experts at finding these points out for what they are cooking and staying right near the edge without going over. Case in point why a lot of people cannot cook fish correctly and they tend to overcook it, same with products with eggs incorporated in them.
I have written this not to be argumentative but just to draw the line between percieved quality vs actual quality. Cooking is combination of art ( creativity) and a science ( technical chemistry and timing skills), and true chefs use both the left and right sides of their brains
I too have a 5 qt pressure cooker (ss of course- aluminium will react with acid foods and leach minerals) on board for canning and for safety at sea, however I tend to cook classically as I was trained that way, and use it sparingly.
Dave

[bobconnie]

LOLOL Down here in Louisiana we say Im a Gormand not a gourmet !! We would rather eat Well and tasty in big bunchs!! rather then Fancy and Gourmet!! when ya have a galley with 2 regular pans and a pressure cooker, 2 frying pans and a BBQ ya sorta got to go with Gormand and not Gourmet!! and some of us have even went months with little or no ice and no refridge at all !! its hard to be a goumet, but its easy to fill up with good tasty food !! LOL I think we will stay with our old fashion Gourmand ways !!!( or as the man said Gourmand means PIG) LOL

[rubyjean]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

LOLOL Down here in Louisiana we say Im a Gormand not a gourmet !! We would rather eat Well and tasty in big bunchs!! rather then Fancy and Gourmet!! when ya have a galley with 2 regular pans and a pressure cooker, 2 frying pans and a BBQ ya sorta got to go with Gormand and not Gourmet!! and some of us have even went months with little or no ice and no refridge at all !! its hard to be a goumet, but its easy to fill up with good tasty food !! LOL I think we will stay with our old fashion Gourmand ways !!!( or as the man said Gourmand means PIG) LOL

+1, Me too...I like my pressure cooker on the boat, saves fuel and time. Don't leave home with out it...Michael..