Presto Pressure Cooker

My dad sent me a Presto Pressure cooker for Christmas. I'll admit I was a bit nervous about using one at first, (let's be honest... lots of pressure.... me at the helm.. this could lead to some kind of explosion), but the directions seemed pretty simple and so I decided to give it a whirl today for our New Year's dinner. I  decided to try a roast, which the instruction booklet claimed would only need to cook for 45 minutes. After browning the roast in a small amount of oil in the bottom of the pressure cooker, I placed the roast on the rack provided, added onion, spices and 2 cups of water, and closed the lid by lining up the arrows and twisting securely shut,(okay, my husband had to help me a bit here, I missed the arrows the first go round, he pointed them out... duh!! ),  until the handles were aligned.

There is a pressure regulator that you place on top of the vent pipe. I started the burner at a medium-high temperature and waited until the pressure regulator began to rock gently. Then I gradually decreased the temperature until it maintained it's gentle rocking motion. It seemed to like a medium burner setting best. At one point it stopped rocking (yes, I had turned the heat down a tad too much), and I had to turn up the temperature a bit to get it to start rocking again. I stayed in the kitchen and knew that as long as I could hear it's gentle hiss and spit sound created by the steam coming out of the vent pipe and rocking the pressure regulator that all was well, or at least I hoped it was, who can tell? When the temperature dropped too much I could tell by the cessation of sound and the regulator stopped rocking.

After 45 minutes, I turned off the burner and removed the pressure cooker by lifting it up, not sliding, off the burner and placing it to the side. I guess if you slide the pressure cooker off the burner, it can cause damage to the stove top. This may be true of any heavy pan, but the directions seemed to stress this, so I will too.

This recipe required that you wait for the pressure to drop of it's own accord. So after approximately 10-15 minutes, the pressure indicator dropped and I opened up the lid. Other recipes say you can drop the pressure quickly by placing the pressure cooker under cold running water, or place in a pan of cold water. This will drop the pressure almost immediately.

After opening the lid, there was still most of the liquid available to make gravy with. The roast came out moist, tender and tasty. Seems like a great way to cook something in a fraction of the time! Who knew? I guess our Grandmothers did! My grandmother uses a pressure cooker to cook most of her foods to this day, and has as long as I can remember.

My dad also sent me a Pressure Cooker cookbook and it has everything from appetizers, soups and sauces, meats, poultry, seafood, vegetables, desserts and even bread! This will be a fun addition to the kitchen and I'm looking forward to my next adventure in pressure cooking. My husband wants to try crab legs next!