great value, sturdy cooker
I bought this cooker 6 months ago from amazon for $35, and frankly, although the reviews I read on this product all said that it's great, I was very skeptical about the $35 price tag and was not expecting much. On top of that, both my mother and my mother-in-law warned me that cheap pressure cookers are dangerous, and I *must* buy something more expensive for safety reasons. I am just very glad that they were both wrong!
This is definitely one of the best purchases I have made on amazon. I still cannot believe they sell this for $35! The pot does not feel cheap at all. It has very sturdy handles, and a thick, heavy bottom, which holds in heat well. I like this pan so much that sometimes I use it instead of my skillet to sautee meat, because of the deeper pot + the cover, less cleaning up for me :-)
I love making soup and stock, but it usually takes up so much of my time when the stock is simmering. With this pressure cooker, I can make a meat-fall-off-the-bone...
good
This is nothing fancy, but it works wery well. Replacemenat parts are easy to buy. You can't open it if it's under pressure because it has a lock by the handle (safety feature). Actually I think it's very safe as it has other features as well.
I think one of the most important things to look for is what it's made of (after safety of course!). This is stainless steel which is good because you don't want aluminum (aluminum will stain and get eaten away with acidic food such as vinegar or lemon juice...).
Another thing to consider is that it takes time to heat up and cool down so even though all pressure cookers say it takes a lot less time to cook, they don't take the heat-up cool-down time into consideration, even though they are correct about the actual cooking time.
Good pressure cooker.
EDIT
In 2007, I bought a Kuhn-Rikon pressure cooker and I'm even more pleased with that.
It's quite a bit more expensive (4-7 times?) but a *lot*...
Excellent Product
This is an excellent pressure cooker. I also have the 8-quart stainless steel model by Presto and I don't like that one as much as this one. I like the little rocker on top better because I know exactly how much pressure it has. It is super easy to carry this extremely lightweight pressure cooker to the sink, run water over it, and in 5-10 seconds the pressure is down! It is not heavy or hot. You just have to be careful when you do this. I actually prefer this method of quick cooling to the method used in the 8-quart, which is to open the little weight and let the steam shoot out the top. That method takes about a minute, plus there's steam all over the place. That seems more dangerous to me than going to the sink.
This model is a smaller version of the 6-quart, so if you think this one is too small, that one would work for a family. This size is just right for one or two people. I always make very small quantities of food in it anyway as I don't like to have a lot of...
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