New to pressure cooking, basic question.

cleogrl · ‎03-19-2010

I bought a Cooks Essential 4 qt pressure cooker (never had one before), which I have yet to use. LOL. I'm getting my nerve to prepare something and I had a basic question about how long to cook things.

I've been on youtube and I've watched a few people prepare dishes, however, they're making large meals for families. I'm single and will be making mostly smaller portions. One woman I saw placed several frozen chicken breasts in the cooker along w/ salsa, if I only use 2 chicken breasts and decrease the liquid, do I decrease the time? Same thing w/ pasta, if I only use 1/2 lb pasta and less sauce, do I shorten the time? Appreciate any tips. Thanks.

terrier3 · ‎03-10-2010

I think you need a minimum amount of items and liquid, depending on the size of the pressure cooker to get enough steam going to cook the food.

I just use the recipes that came with the Cook's Essentials cooker...and freeze the leftovers.

Poodlepet2 · ‎03-09-2010

This is where I think it's a good idea to get a cookbook made for pressure cookers and I highly recommend Bob Warden because he has simple, delicious food with easy to find ingredients. The empty space between your food and the max fill line is called the head space. The bigger the head space, the longer it takes to build pressure-and if underfilled, your liquid can evaporate long before the pressure ever builds. You have a great piece of versatile equipment. For now, follow recipes as they are given so you will learn the ins and outs. If you really like it but find you make much smaller quantities of food, consider Fagor stove top models that come in all sizes and are perfectly safe to use.

Poodlepet

Kachina624 · ‎03-10-2010

Pressure cookers are not like microwaves where the cooking time varies depending on the amount of food being prepared. It's more dependent on what type of food is being cooked, like veggies are soft and just take a few minutes whereas a steak is more dense and would take a lot longer. There are many charts available to guide you until you have enough experience to be able to judge for yourself. If you are cooking a certain type of meat the cooking time would be the same whether using a 4 qt cooker or an 8 qt cooker.

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cleogrl · ‎03-19-2010

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I really appreciate it.

cleogrl · ‎03-19-2010

On 8/10/2014 Poodlepet said:
This is where I think it's a good idea to get a cookbook made for pressure cookers and I highly recommend Bob Warden because he has simple, delicious food with easy to find ingredients. The empty space between your food and the max fill line is called the head space. The bigger the head space, the longer it takes to build pressure-and if underfilled, your liquid can evaporate long before the pressure ever builds. You have a great piece of versatile equipment. For now, follow recipes as they are given so you will learn the ins and outs. If you really like it but find you make much smaller quantities of food, consider Fagor stove top models that come in all sizes and are perfectly safe to use.

Poodlepet

Thanks for taking the time to explain this. I might get the cookbook. I made some pasta and it came out ok, but a little sticky. Now I realize I might have underfilled the pot. I wasn't even sure I had turned it on correctly and now I realize it was taking time to get to pressure and was probably evaporating the liquid I did put in there.

adoreqvc · ‎03-09-2010

Bob Warden has a few nice pressure cooker cookbooks with great recipes.

Amazon.com has them both, as do other web sites.

first one is Bob Warden's Slow Food Fast Paperback – July 13, 2014

Below is the link to take a look and QVC used to carry it but sold out.

http://www.amazon.com/Bob-Wardens-Slow-Food-Fast/dp/0984188711/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407753524&sr=...

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Here is another one he published also at Amazon:

Great Food Fast (Best of the Best Presents) Bob Warden's Ultimate Pressure Cooker Recipes

http://www.amazon.com/Presents-Wardens-Ultimate-Pressure-Recipes/dp/1934193798/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF...

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Bob Warden does infomercials and also comes to QVC and demo's items being sold.

I have both of his pressure cooker cookbooks and love them. Nice detailed pc cookbook with loads of photographs.