Pinto beans from dry to perfectly cooked in 30 minutes. Blown away!

Woot!

I love my pressure cooker. It's the only way I can cook without getting annoyed!

It can be very microwavey in terms of simplicity of use. Some dishes are literally "throw stuff in, set timer."

I never knew! I've just been moving the unopened box from house to house What are your favorite dishes in it kurtmorelos

I prefer ones where you do not do browning...any additional effort beyond throwing stuff in and I may not do it lol! BBQ ribs are easy to do. Pasta, sauce, ground beef is pretty easy. Corned beef comes out...

...nicely though obviously more of a seasonal thing.

Did your pressure cooker come with a recipe book?

When I first got mine, I scanned the booklet for easiest recipes, fewest ingredients so I wouldn't get intimidated.

Not a bad comparison, Tam. A fast slow cooker.

i've been thinking about one for myself but it seems a bit much cooking just for me but ribs? in 30 minutes? i'm all in

Yeah the speed is really attractive. And since I work from home so much, it's an easy way to get something done during a break.

easy clean is the next qualifier.

I understand the electric ones are less scary than the old ones that would rattle. I don't have one because pressure things scare me.

ToriLok Look for one that you can program, that way you can set the cooking time after which it will automatically change to Keep Warm

Also the oval shape is more versatile than the round.

Its not scary like the old ones at all, there are tons of safety features in place. You can't even open the lid if there is pressure Hilda_Static

kurtmorelos It came with a very brief cookbook, maybe 5 recipes, and all of them with meat, and I do the veg thing I found some good online recipes though.

ToriLok It looks like a slow cooker, but it uses pressure to cook things super fast. Usually it takes about 3 hours to cook beans on the stove top, and they were done in about 30min

Apparently you can make stuff like rice pudding in it (one of my faves) but I haven't tried that yet.

One of the best things to make in a pressure cooker is dulce de leche from condensed milk. I can't even explain how delicious this is. How to Pressure Cook Sweetened Condensed Milk

My mom didn't use a rack, but she only made one can at a time. You can use the dulce de leche for a million things, or you can do what my mom and I used to do, eat straight out of the can with a spoon.

May have to try that, Hilda

Ooh, what you said about pinto beans has me intrigued. I've ruined so many pots of dry beans because I didn't watch the stove closely enough.

LettePonnier Yes, that's the thing. Even though I'm working at home quite a lot, I don't have time to really watch things. I really do need "set it and forget it."

That's how I use my crock pot - dump and set.

Never had a pressure cooker and while I do have a crockpot, I've never really used that. Always used low heat in the oven for tougher meats but due to my schedules and/or habits I always just went that route.

Old habits die hard.

But I have seen the TV ads for those and it's tempting.