306 of 309 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars great value, sturdy cooker, May 13, 2006 This review is from: Presto 01362 6-Quart Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker (Kitchen) 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 soup in an hour!
Some might find this pot to be a little on the small side, but this pot works great for my wife and I. Although we have guests over regularly, I find the capacity of the pot to be very good. I would guess that this pot would work well for up to a 4-person family.
Pros:
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- Cheap, at $35, it's hard to beat
- Sturdy, I was afraid that the plastic handles would break easily, but they are in fact quite strong
- Stainless steel makes it great for browning meat pieces for stew or stock, and it heats up fast and holds heat well.
- Safe, you cannot open it when it's pressurized.
- Dish washer safe, though I prefer to wash it by hand.
Cons:
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- The handle can be tricky to hold with one hand. My hands are small, and when you've closed the top, the handle is kind of big. Luckily, I don't need to do this very often, and when I need to move it around, I just use both handles.
- The top cap can be tricky to clean. I usually soak it in hot soapy water, and then clean it thoroughly with Q-tip.
Watch outs:
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- The handle curves in a way that it catches any dripping liquid, I've hurt myself once when I wasn't careful at opening the cover.
- Do *NOT* remove the cap while it's blowing! The steam from inside is extremely hot and as soon as you remove the cap, the hot steam will shoot up faster than you can move your hand(s) away.
Tips:
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- I keep some water bottles in my freezer, and when I need to cool this off in a hurry, I can make a bath of cold water in my sink, put the hot pot inside, and throw the froze water bottles in. This usually cools it down very fast, great when I want to refrigerate it overnight to skim off the fat, and didn't want to wait too long for it to cool down.
291 of 299 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars good, October 15, 2003 This review is from: Presto 01362 6-Quart Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker (Kitchen) 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* quieter as it relies on an internal spring to maintain pressure as opposed to gravity for the Presto. The Kuhn-Rikon also allows less water to escape. I keep both of them but I haven't used the presto for 4 months now. Considering I bought the Presto in 1999, it's amazing that it works perfectly even though it got heavy use. I even put the rubber seal and the lid in the dishwasher every time and it still held up. It's my backup cooker now as I can't let go of something that still works fine.
177 of 186 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars price is right, does the job., September 18, 2004 This review is from: Presto 01362 6-Quart Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker (Kitchen) This is a no-frills pressure cooker. It could be a little bigger, but it does the job very well.
When 'boiling' food in a traditional pot, the food cannot exceed 212 degrees F (the temperature at which water boils). Under pressure, the boiling point rises... in this pressure cooker to about 250 degrees F. This means, of course, that food cooks faster (the reason people normally think to buy a pressure cooker), but the higher temperature also allows other 'reactions' to take place while cooking... For instance, the tougher fibers in meat will convert to gelatin, making the meat more tender. As a result, pressure cookers are great for braised dishes with tough meats, such as chili. For these purposes, this pressure cooker rocks.
Larger pressure cookers can also be used for canning (because the higher temperatures can kill more bad things. This pressure cooker really is not large enough for this task. If you are not a canner though, compare the prices of this against those larger models... I think you will be back looking at this one.
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