Comments on: I'm cooking everything I can think of in my Fagor multicooker

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 05:02:00 +0000

I make stew in three hours in my Rival. I only use it because this place has a crappy electric stove and the crock pot is better for even heating.

By: bcsizemo

bcsizemo — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 04:19:00 +0000

All I know is I can cook a roast for 12+ hours on low in my Hamilton Beach unit and it might loose a 1/4 cup of liquid. The Rival unit would have charred the roast and proceeded to burst into flames by that point.

Higher temps or not, government mandate or not, what Rival has created is not a slow cooker.

By: jamie

jamie — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 02:08:00 +0000

You are most welcome! You made my day with your reply! :)

By: Bizket Jones

Bizket Jones — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:46:00 +0000

I… I love you.

I have been avoiding anything with teflon in it for years and have been using a standard pressure cooker. In my heart though I have dreamt of finding one of these electric multi use ones with either cast iron or stainless steel inside. This is *EXACTLY* what I have been looking for. I can now relegate my huge pressure cooker to canning duties. thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou

By: duncancreamer

duncancreamer — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 23:59:00 +0000

Yeah, I totally misread that headline.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 23:16:00 +0000

Not that I’m aware of, and it wouldn’t remove any more “nutrients” than any other sort of boiling or stewing.

Pressure cookers cook much hotter. That’s the whole point. Nutrients decompose at specific temperatures, so pressure cooking does destroy nutrients that are preserved by normal cooking techniques.

By: Analog Kid

Analog Kid — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 23:12:00 +0000

“The only negative thing about the Fagor…. ”

…is it’s name.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:23:00 +0000

More lemon juice. More olive oil. More garlic. That’s pretty much the only difference between blah hummus and delicious hummus.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:20:00 +0000

That’s a rather tender subject.

By: zdislaw

zdislaw — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:24:00 +0000

Yes indeedy, three electric pressure cookers of different makes I’ve owned over the past fifteen years or so have all had a “browning” feature (some also have had a “saute” setting which is, apparently (though imperceptibly), different than “browning.” For me the most important bits are how venting works and how easy to lock the lid is.

By: Sparg

Sparg — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:09:00 +0000

Wouldn’t that be “mein Wolfgang Puck”? ;) Ja, ja, lustiger Mensch.

By: Brad Zimmerman

Brad Zimmerman — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:39:00 +0000

They were already under a lot of pressure; give ‘em a break.

By: MrMonkey

MrMonkey — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:33:00 +0000

Put a bird in it!

By: James Penrose

James Penrose — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:13:00 +0000

The only FDA-approved method for cooking left to us is the use of a flame thrower or thermite to immediately raise cooked food’s temperature to a minimum of 180 degrees for everything.

Slow-cooking is evil as is anything less than really well cone.

Watch “Good Eats” videos with Alton Brown to find out just how many ways of preparing or serving food will get the FDA mad at you. (Shown in a comic way with tons of good information)

By: ryuthrowsstuff

ryuthrowsstuff — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:50:00 +0000

Not that I’m aware of, and it wouldn’t remove any more “nutrients” than any other sort of boiling or stewing. In which case the “nutrients” in question would remain in the cooking liquid. Pressure cooked foods do tend to taste flat due to the reduced cooking times, so its common to salt them heavily or add an acid component like lemon juice.

By: haineux

haineux — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Either during or after his “jaw fell off” he was told that he could no longer eat/drink in any semblance of a normal fashion. He wrote a book called “Nil By Mouth” which was, in my lame opinion, heroic because it showed that even with such a horrid thing, one can still be happy/productive/etc. (In any case, it helped me over the loss of my elderly Dad, who died of a series of small but terrible problems that effectively destroyed his stamina.)

By: Gyrofrog

Gyrofrog — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:15:00 +0000

I’m gonna try that recipe. I’ve made hummus at home for years, and all along the results have been inconsistent. (As opposed to store-bought hummus — at least the results are consistent, if it doesn’t always taste like hummus). Probably I’m trying to make too much at once (because everyone in the family will eat a lot of it). Considering it’s such a simple recipe, I feel I have never gotten it right.

First place I had hummus was at the old Falafel House in Arlington, TX. It’s been the yardstick against which I have judged all other hummus. At least the pictures in this recipe look just right.

By: Gyrofrog

Gyrofrog — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:03:00 +0000

I (jokingly) asked my dad, “just where is Hamilton Beach, anyway?”

“China.”

By: Cameron LiDestri

Cameron LiDestri — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:18:00 +0000

You do need the pricey one to get the pressure. My experience was the opposite, I bought and inexpensive stove top cooker, and had little luck with it. That’s when I found that not all cookers are the same. The low cost ones don’t get the pressure up high enough. Then I got the electric model (similar the the one in the post) and it’s been a dream. And quiet! I thought it wasn’t working for lack of a constant hiss if steam.

By: Jeffrey Martin

Jeffrey Martin — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:26:00 +0000

don’t pressure cookers remove a lot of the nutrients from the food because of the high temperature?

By: mikedt

mikedt — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:14:00 +0000

I too was surprised by how hot my new crockpot got, so I emailed them. They admitted that all the newer ones run much hotter – something to do with a fed reg of higher temps to prevent food poisoning.

By: bcsizemo

bcsizemo — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:09:00 +0000

I have owned a new Rival “Crock Pot” model, which has the ability to boil water on the warm setting. The internet can pretty much confirm that most, if not all, Rival models now run way to hot to be a crock pot. There was no slow cooking a roast for 8 hours…you’d run out of liquid in 4. Hamilton Beach had the best reviews from people who were upset by the newer Rivals. (At least at the time I bought mine years ago.)

I have also owned a Fagor pressure cooker. Like I mentioned below I never liked the way the pressure mechanism was designed. It didn’t offer a smooth transition from no steam (not enough pressure) to shooting steam (rolling boil). Perhaps it was just the model I had or something, but I much prefer the jiggler design. It is simple and works well.

By: bcsizemo

bcsizemo — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:05:00 +0000

I had just the standard pressure cooker, something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Fagor-Splendid-6-Quart-Pressure-Cooker/dp/B0000717AU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360666955&sr=8-1&keywords=fagor+pressure+cooker

I never liked the pressure mechanism for it. It worked, but to me at least, it seemed like it released a lot of steam. Basically the weighted valve would lift and allow the pressure to escape, but it didn’t work in a very smooth fashion. So you’d either have it just shooting a constant stream of steam or barely nothing at all. With the jiggler models you can dial in the heat fairly close so it is cooking at the right pressure, but not going crazy.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:27:00 +0000

Mine definitely boils. Apparently, they upped the temperature at some point because of foodborne illness concerns.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:58:00 +0000

I’m not even sure if mine can even get up to boiling. We leave ours at low, and there’s a timer that will switch it to just warm (but I can never remember how long to do specific things). The only downside is a crusty ring left behind at the waterline, but that just comes off with some elbow grease.

By: Rory Hamilton

Rory Hamilton — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:44:00 +0000

Electric pressure cookers can never get to quite the same pressure as stove-top ones. So I went for a Kuhn Rokin, pricey, but beautiful and I have not regretted it. http://www.amazon.com/Kuhn-Rikon-3344-7-4-Quart-Stainless-Steel/dp/B00004R8ZF/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1360654771&sr=8-3&keywords=kuhn+rikon+pressure+cooker My fave recipe is the pulled pork at Hip pressure cooking http://www.hippressurecooking.com/2012/04/mexican-pressure-cooker-recipes.html

By: ryuthrowsstuff

ryuthrowsstuff — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:34:00 +0000

Well the “regular” one wouldn’t need a browning function. Its just a heavy gauge steel pot until you put the lid on. I knew a girl who used hers to sear steaks.

By: ryuthrowsstuff

ryuthrowsstuff — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:33:00 +0000

Squid and octopus sometimes get braised for quite a long time.

http://boingboing.net/2012/12/11/giant-squid-finally-caught-on.html

By: ryuthrowsstuff

ryuthrowsstuff — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:30:00 +0000

ah yes I have chef friends who use pressure cookers with steamer baskets to do this. Apparently keeps the smoke contained so its not stupid to do in an apartment. Most of them seem to go with the plastic bag/smoke gun approach though. (interestingly most kitchen smoke guns just seem to be marijuana vaporizers that have been re-branded.)

By: Hegelian

Hegelian — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:15:00 +0000

Details, please. Did you have a multi-function model like the one above? Why did you hate it?