Anyone cook using a pressure cooker?

I have heard using a pressure cooker can turn out moist meats in short amounts of time. Has anyone used one? Do you recommend a certain one? I guess they use to explode in the old days but now they have safety features to prevent that...

Talk to me people!

Kristen

LOVE my pressure cooker and they are very safe. You won't eat anything from the oven ever again. I store **** in mine...lol.
LOVE IT!
Linda B

My mom used the old-fashioned kind of pressure cooker for years.  She cooked, guess what, potatoes which we would then mash.  Never cooked meats in it, for some reason.  That damn thing freaked me out, although we never had any problem with it.  It had a little topper thingy that you'd put on the steam vent, and it would wiggle and whistle when the steam got up to pressure.  When the food was done you'd have to run cold water on the lid until the pressure indicator popped down.  Scared me to death!  So I have no interest in pressure cooking now, even though it's all electronic these days.  I've seen one on QVC that's pretty intriguing, but not enough to try it.

Good luck!  Seems like it would be a perfect cooking appliance for WLS peeps, at least those who haven't been traumatized in childhood, LOL!

Yep, I grew up with  my mother cooking in one, I use it quite a bit.  Right now Im on a kick of buying the large family pack of chicken breast, I cook them up in less than 15 minutes then shred it and divide into bags and freeze.  Meet is way softer and faster.  Wont blow up, just read the instructions that come with it, pretty straight forward.

cooking with a pressure cooker is great and safe.  Start with buying a new one... not one from a garage sale or an old one.  Then read the instructions.  Which will include telling you to NOT run cold water over it. 

Most Come with a recipe book.  You will learn to love it and some day it will earn an honorary place in the back of the cabinet with the crock-pot like mine has.   lol

Love my pressure cooker, love my crockpot... Use them both all the time! Made BBQ pork in the pressure cooker last week. Yum!

Glendary,
I have one that I bought about 4 months ago and yes, it does say to run cold water over it, or to sit the pot in cold water when you want to quickly depressurize the pot.  Kristen, I've used mine a few times but haven't found it to be anything spectacular.  I haven't quite figured out how to make tenderr cuts of meat.  I'd be interested in hearing other peoples' responses.

I use mine for canning... if you run water over it and cool the cooker to fast, it will break the jars.  My recipes say do not run it under cold water or take the pressure valve off.  Let it cool down by itself. 

I guess it depends on what you cook with it. 

Again, follow the recipes. They all vary

 Yes! They are the best for tough cuts, so beef chuck (think stew, pot roast, etc) or pork shoulder. Brisket (corned or not) works really well, too. You can do chicken, but I would stick with dark meat. Lorna Sass has written some brilliant recipes for pressure cookers, her first one is my favorite. You can convert any braised recipe for the pressure cooker.

Of course, my most favorite pressure cooker thing to do is beans, which isn't going to happen for a while!

I have a Kuhn Rikon and love it.

I have an electric one like this:

http://www.bing.com/shopping/9760-oval-shaped-6-1-2-quart-electric-pressure-cooker/p/2ED27B757F885113A6F9?q=electric+pressure+cookier&FORM=ENCA4

Mom used an old fashioned stove top one, it was really loud and always scared the crap out of me when she took the jiggler off the top to release the pressure.  I like my electric one because it pretty much does the guesswork for me.  I load it, lock the top, and turn it on.  It has a timer so it shuts down and has a knob on the top to let me know when the pressure has been released.  :)