Last week I ventured into the world of cooking with a pressure cooker. One of my neighbors was raving about how it has changed her life in the kitchen by saving her tons of time. While having this discussion with my neighbor, my husband kept nudging me. I was heading to Costco the next day, which is where my neighbor bought her pressure cooker, and I found the model that she purchased. The brand I bought is by Fusion Life Brands and is the Power Pressure Cooker XL. It happened to be on sale, the reviews were good, it was less expensive than the Instant Pot Brand, and held more quarts than the Instant Pot. I took it home and it sat on my counter staring at me for two days.
After two days I finally opened the box, got on the Facebook Instant Pot group, called my neighbor for help, and almost had a panic attack. Oh the anxiety I felt! I’m not your typical anxiety ridden person, it’s rare that I physically feel anxiety. The learning curve for this new contraption was really high. The promise of super fast meals though took precedence over my anxiety. My brilliant husband suggested that I go on YouTube to watch a few videos. He knows all too well that I am a visual doer when it comes to learning. If I don’t see something done, it’s hard for me to do it well myself. The videos made it seem easy enough so I set out to make my first pressure cooker meal for dinner that night.
Don’t be like me and decide at 4pm to use your new pressure cooker for dinner 30 minutes later. You must wash the pressure cooker before use, then fill it with water and let it come to pressure to be sure it works, let the steam out, and then prepare your meal. I wasn’t prepared for the time it takes to reach pressure, which for my pressure cooker can be up to 15 minutes (much longer the first time I did it).
Very briefly, here is a run down on the 6 meals I made in the pressure cooker the first week I owned it and my thoughts on each meal.
Day 1- Very simple chicken with rice: Both turned out cooked to perfection with was amazing. Next time I would brown the chicken before laying it on top of the rice to cook
Day 2- Sloppy Joes (the beef was frozen when I made the meal): First I cooked the frozen beef on it’s own. Supposedly it is simple to do, which it was, but the beef came out very tough. I definitely wouldn’t de-thaw and cook beef in it again. Maybe this is in part because we use very lean grass fed beef, but I’m not certain. once I put the sauce in with the ground beef to make sloppy joes, it turned out great.
Day 3- Sweet potato goulash: I browned the thawed beef in the bottom of the pressure cooked which worked very nicely. Then I put the rest of the ingredients in the cooker and set it to cook. It all came out fine, but the sweet potatoes were mushy which none of us like at all.
Day 4- Steak and baked potatoes: I seared my marinaded steaks and then set them on a plate. Next I cooked the potatoes in the pressure cooker. My potatoes were quite large so I doubled the average cook time, but they still weren’t done. It took over 3x the average cook time and they still weren’t done (about 40 minutes). I would have much rather put them in the oven and freed up the pressure cooker for the meat. Apparently if you cook potatoes in it, you need to quarter them. After the potatoes were finally done, I cooked my seared steaks in the pressure cooker. They came out a bit overdone from the “meat” setting, and was basically steamed meat. YUCK in my whole family’s opinion. This was the most disappointing meal I have made in the pressure cooker. I did learn a lot though.
Day 5- Chicken to later put in a casserole: I put 7 pieces of chicken in the pressure cooker with 1 cup of liquid at the bottom and pressed the “chicken/beef” button. It cooked the chicken to perfection.
Day 6- Chili: I browned the ground turkey in the bottom first and then added the rest of the ingredients. After that it took 15 minutes for the chili to be cooked perfectly. This was my favorite meal in the slow cooker.
Here’s my summary:
-I do LOVE how fast the pressure cooker is for one pot meals. It has taken me time to add the time in that it takes to come to pressure. It almost doubles the time it takes food to cook. I wasn’t expecting that at all.
– It is great for one pot meals for sure like chili, soups,stew, a casserole that has liquid in it and is ok with a mushy texture like a chicken and rice casserole.
– I’m not a fan, nor is my family, of mushy food of any kind. We like a slightly crisp outside to our veggies and meat so the pressure cooker isn’t something I would use regularly to just cook meat or vegetables in. The pressure cooker basically steams everything as it requires liquid to reach pressure to cook.
– The liquid issue. Since liquid is needed for the pressure cooker to reach pressure, it steams everything. If you don’t like or want wet food, don’t use it for foods that shouldn’t come out wet. When I cooked my steaks in my pressure cooker, we were all sorely disappointed. I would have much rather cooked them on the BBQ, even in the rain.
– The pressure cooker is really fast for cooking, if your meal normally takes more than 25 minutes to cook. Very few foods will take less than that amount of time, including the time to reach pressure. There are several foods that I wouldn’t cook in the pressure cooker again, solely for this reason.
– My particular brand of pressure cooker is a PAIN to clean! I cannot stress that enough. You supposedly can put it in the dishwasher, on the top rack, though it is so big it would not fit on my top rack. It is certainly not non-stick and takes a whole lot of scrubbing to get even the simples of foods off of it. To really get it clean I have to use the scrubby side, a huge no no I know, of my sponge with soap even after soaking it. This is just about enough for me to return it. The picture below is AFTER I soaked it and scrubbed it with the soft side of the sponge.
All in all, I think the pressure cooker is ok and has a place in the kitchen. For me, I think it will be helpful to think of the meals I typically make in a crock pot. Those items will all come out WAY faster in the pressure cooker. If I would have been told that in advanced it would have greatly helped me in deciding what foods I would try to make in the pressure cooker. I hope that is helpful for you as well. I’m sure there are other foods that cook nicely in the pressure cooker, but crock pot meals will definitely come out well and faster in the pressure cooker.
There is a very big learning curve to cooking foods correctly. Thankfully there are large groups of people on Facebook that are willing to help at any given moment during the day in the Instant Pot group. The videos on Youtube are also very helpful. If you like foods steamed, have many recipes that have liquid in them, and typically cook a meal for over 30 minutes, you will likely love having a pressure cooker. Clearly, I haven’t had my pressure cooker for a long period of time, but I did my best to cook a variety of dinners in it to get a good feel for it. I hope my review is helpful for anyone looking to use one.
