Quote:
Originally Posted by GA Russell
I have a four-burner electric range over my oven. Can someone recommend a really good pressure cooker that does not offer many options, and is therefore relatively inexpensive?
For me, quality is more important than price, but I don't want to pay for options that only more sophisticated cooks would use.
PS - I'll be buying this from Amazon.
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I have several six-quart pressure cookers that I use all the time. In terms of build quality,
this one by Presto wins. It's made of thicker steel than my others and I'm less liable to scorch the food. The downside is that the pressure valve is covered by a weight, so there's no safe way to drop the pressure quickly without moving the whole thing to a sink and running cool water on it. There's also an aluminum version that's less expensive, but I've never used one.
I also have two that look similar enough to
this one that I think they're from the same German manufacturer. I bought those at Aldi for $40 each. If you're near an Aldi, they have a sort of rotation of kitchen gadgets that get sold once a year. Pressure cookers were last sold in November, I think, so you'd probably have to wait almost another year to get one there. In terms of build quality, they're clearly inferior to the Presto and I originally got the first one as a backup because it was relatively cheap. I ended up using it a lot more than the Presto, though, because I like the steam valve without the separate weight. The first one that I bought is now three years old and has started to leak steam around the edges of the valve while it's pressuring up (it still works and reaches pressure just fine, though). The second one I just got before Christmas (like I said, I think it was November) and it's almost the same as the first, but it has a rudimentary pressure indicator. It's just a cylinder with two lines (one for each ~10psi and ~15psi), but I like having it, especially while the pressure is dropping after cooking. There's also a pressure lever that can be moved in steps to release the pressure relatively quickly without the scalding contents shooting out of the valve. Aside from build quality, the downside to this one is that the lid isn't supposed to go into the dishwasher, unlike the simpler Presto.
Though I haven't used it, one that you might consider is
this one. It's a Presto, but has the other features that I like.