Never heard of it until this post. Sounds useful!

This advice is about 25 years old and may not apply to every school, but in my day you could only get busted for stuff in plain sight. Every room had a microwave under a towel.

And every balcony a Hibachi and a pony keg . . .

For me, the logistics of washing dishes in a dorm room were just too much trouble to make actual food. We were allowed a microwave and coffee-maker, etc. but no hot plates. I never got in trouble for my grilled cheese sandwich maker and that (and the microwave were our handiest appliances because there was little-no dish washing needed.

It wasn't until I got in an apartment-style dorm setting that I bothered to make real food and at that point, we had a little kitchen with a stove/oven.

It's definitely a neat appliance though!

I see cooking meals in a dorm room as taking time away from all the student's other activities.

Oh, stop the presses. I found a multi-cooker that looks like the Swiss Army knife of dorm cooking appliances. Actually, it "looks" just like a rice cooker, which is good - incognito.

Fagor Electric Multi Cooker
It supposedly (I'm wondering if this is too good to be true) does all of these things:
- pressure cooker, low and high pressure, w/ cooking timer
- rice cooker, can boil or use a steamer basket, uses the pressure cooking feature
- slow cooker, either 190F or 212F, cooking times up to 9.5 hours, not under pressure
- warmer
- browning, I'm not sure what temperature the pot can reach but the manual says that the BROWN setting allows browning food in oil
- delay timer, up to 8 hours before cooking starts

And it is cheaper than the Cuisinart. $90.

I think I'll get a multi-cooker of some sort in the spring so that Daughter-san can try cooking in it.

I agree with Ruthanna, and I think a small fridge would be a better investment for a dorm room, unless the dorm room is especially spacious. I lived on campus when I was 18-20 (and then moved off campus), and all I needed was an electric kettle for making tea. I lived in a residential college instead of a dorm (everyone was assigned to a college upon admission), and we were provided with all meals except Saturday and Sunday evenings, and so those were our main opportunities to eat out. I often bought my food at a deli, and so a small fridge was sufficient. As a freshman, my roommates (there were four of us in a suite) filled the fridge with beer and drinks, and so food storage was not an option then. I do not know whether dorms provide meals or not, but I would assume that that is an option.

When I went back to university for my second degree, I lived off campus and cooked almost all of my meals, but I was very experienced at cooking by then. A Multi-cooker would be great for someone living off campus while a student, but I sort of think that it requires one to have a kitchen. I probably would have bought that instead of a crock pot if I had known about it, but it does not seem to be quite as efficient as a pressure cooker, based on the cooking times in the Amazon reviews. If the dorm does not provide meals, however, it might be a good idea but would still require one to have a small fridge.

Lars

I agree, if we're talking dorm cooking in lieu of a meal plan. I think it's a bit much to expect a college kid to shop for healthy meals, cook one pot wonders with limited tools, and then to add insult to injury walk everything to the bathroom sink for cleaning. BUT, if we're talking about having an appliance available to cook the occasional meal, this seems more exciting than a microwave.

Definitely a meal plan rocks. Dorm food has come a long way from the steam table starch that I ate in college, compared to which Top Ramen soaked in a bowl of hot water was an upgrade. But Daughter-San likes cooking so something like this might be fun. I mean, suppose you have a craving for beef Pho and the dining hall is only serving boeuf bourguignon and sushi? First world problems deserve respect too!

When the DSes were undergrads, their school insisted the only cooking related appliances be rented from the school, and those were fridges and microwaves. By the time DS 2 graduated, the dorms had these in all the rooms, and no additional "rent" was required. I think you need to find out the policy of the specific school.

I've got the Fagor and love it. I use it often. I used it yesterday to sear and pressure cook an Italian style pot roast that I served with pasta...

Would I send it to school with a possibly inattentive teen to pressure cook? No way. Will they always use the correct time, correct setting, enough liquid, be very careful of it while in operation - most of the teens I know might not ;)

I see an issue with clean up with an appliance of this size too, it's going to awkward in a bathroom sink. My nephew does great with just small microwave and mini fridge in his dorm room, most of the things he's eating in his room are more 'heat and serve' type things, not actual entrees. It's going to spatter some with the browning feature, it's hot. Works beautifully for searing meats before slo or pressure cooking but you'd have to trust the cook to use a spatter screen consistently if in tight quarters and not using this on a wide expanse of counter or an island.

Dorm food has come a long way, and even when kids (parents) have paid for that service, eating out with friends always such a temptation for them no matter what's being served in the dining hall.

If you're asking only for opinions on the appliance, it's pretty darned great. I've had stove top pressure cookers for years, and slow cookers, but didn't use either as often as I do the Fagor. I'm just not sure it has a place in a small dorm room, and I'm not convinced all the ingredients could be purchased and on hand given dorm space more economically than the nearest restaurant.

morz, I'm glad you have this machine. Can I ask some questions?

- How well does it brown? Suppose your recipe is 1 lb of beef in cubes, in how many batches would you do the browning?
- How about the rice cooking, does it handle brown rice? Or do you have to repeat the cycle for brown rice?
- How quickly does it come to pressure? Can you use standard PC recipes or do you have to lengthen cooking times? When you release pressure, does it make a mess?
- And, how hot does it get on the outside? Is it a fire or other hazard?

Daughter-san told me that she thinks all dorms will include communal kitchens. When corrected, she was very disappointed. She said she doesn't want to eat nothing but dining hall food, and she likes cooking. Two summers' cooking in the camp's commercial kitchen, and cooking projects with me have given her a taste for home-cooking, I guess. At home she cooks or bakes maybe once a week.

This post was edited by johnliu on Sun, Feb 9, 14 at 21:23

The Fagor browns very well - much better than I had expected - it heats quickly and evenly. I'd brown a pound of beef cubes in probably two batches min, the inside browning surface is equal to about an 8" straight sided skillet so not what you could call large, but not so small as to warrant taking out and dirtying a pan with as quickly as it heats ;) Even with the depth it will spatter though - to keep from leaving spots to clean on upper cabinet fronts I use it away from my cabinets and put a spatter screen over the top.

It's insulated well enough I don't think I'd call it a fire hazard, not like having something up against an electric skillet, but I wouldn't sit it on a desk loaded with papers while operating either.

It comes to pressure very quickly, matter of only a very few minutes. I haven't actually timed it other than to smile, a guess would be more than 5 but less than 10. All my pressure cooked foods have been finished in the same time as they would have been in my 12 or 22 quart pressure cooker canners (minus the additional time those take to heat to pressure). The Fagor has two pressure settings, I understand low should be approx. 5#s and high 9 #s but of course I have no way of checking, no dials or weights on this appliance.

One nice feature is it will turn itself to warm when the number of chosen minutes to pressure cook is up, you don't have to be right there unplugging or turning it off. And no mess when releasing the pressure, you turn the little lever dial on top from pressure to steam to release. All that's ever come from it is steam, but I've never overfilled it either (capacity marked inside). I think it would be important for your daughter to know not to overfill.

And I'm sorry, but I haven't cooked brown rice in it. My brown rice of this last year has all been Trader Joe's frozen ;) Hope this helps with your decision....

Thanks! I think I'll get one. Maybe eventually we'll have two - one at home, one for the dorm. I have ideas of developing one-pot recipes for her. At home, this could replace my crockpot and my rice cooker (it looks nicer than either) and provide a third pressure cooker too.

I think the multi cooker would be invaluable. It would be cost effective, healthy and a great back up to the meal plan.

Having just finished with the last of 3 kids to go to college hereâÂÂs our experience:
All the colleges had a communal kitchen on each floor of the dorms and all the dorm rooms came equipped with dorm sized refrigerators and microwaves. There were several levels of meal plans one can purchase but if you lived in a dorm you had to subscribe to a meal plan. Meal plans are on a points or dollar system i.e. you purchase say 200 points are the beginning of the semester and every item you eat at the dining hall is billed against your point balance. Fresh fruits and veggies, yogurt, coffee and healthy meals had the highest point costs. It is conceivable that a student could go through all their points for a semester in the first 2-3 weeks. The trick is to budget the meal plan points so you don't run out or over buy. If you over buy the points can't be carried over but some schools let you spend the points at the end of the semester for over priced cases of juice, water, etc. or in one case iPods and iTunes gift cards. I'd rather spend the money on a multi cooker to help my student manage their points budget. My kids made sure to save enough points for finals week so they did not have to cook.

On a side note: DD formed a dinner club at college using the communal kitchen (be sure to reserve the kitchen if you do this). Each week a group of 7-10 would design and plan 2 or 3 dinners, collect the money and divvy up the chores i.e. shopping, prep, cooking, dishes, etc. It was all voluntary. The goal was to eat healthy, homemade, organic and grass feed. It really helped prevent the dreaded Freshman Fifteen.

I have a Nesco pressure cooker, similar to the Fagor unit.I can't recommend it highly enough.

It browns, pressure cooks, slow cooks, and has a warm setting. I use it at lease once or twice a week. It's so handy.

Last night I pressure cooked a whole chicken in 20 minutes, took it out and in the same pan made chicken tortilla soup. Last week we had baby back ribs done in 15 minutes. Barley risotto in 20 minutes

I love that when it's done the pressure cooking, it switches to the warm setting, so I can sear a pot roast in it, turn on the pressure cook setting, take my son to hockey practice, and everything is ready to eat when we get home.

That looks like a good choice. Hope it is allowed. Good idea to get one ahead of time and get used to using it. Freshman year we were required to have the meal plan. Just a small fridge in the rooms. Years ago, but i remember our meals were good. Juice bar, smoothies, salad bar, etc. I always had restaurant jobs part time to help out expenses and did gain a bit of cooking skills from that and good meals along with it.
I never would have had the time at that age to shop and cook in my room. I don't even think a grocery was handy. Things changed after freshman year in apartments and near a Whole Foods, back when WF was bulk and much different than now...not expensive.

Since I have two non-functioning (non-electric) pressure cookers and the respective manufacturers have been completely unresponsive to my inquiries, I have been researching a bit about pressure cookers and wondering whether I should venture back into those waters. I came across this site, which some may find interesting.
I doubt daughter will be canning in the dorm (!), but some of the differences may still be worth investigating.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pressure Cooker info/scroll down for electric

If she is in the middle of cooking something, and the pot is full, is she then committed to stick around and babysit the pot?

I doubt that the pot will fit in a small dorm refrigerator or her allocated shelves -if she wanted to save the contents and run?

Tupperware and cookstuff take valuable real estate. Youngest dd still at university. I'm with Ruthanna.
Even if you don't want to refrigerate leftovers, her schoolmates may look unfavorably on stashed leftovers. Culinary school v university?

(some of those rooms are SO tiny there would not be space enough)

I didn't mean to be sarcastic. If I were her classmate, I would hang around just to see what deliciousness she was cooking up. And I bet she could make wonderful stuff with just onions and garlic and the magic pot. I just saw the problems before I could see the positives.

Well, Daughter-San received a Fagor Multicooker for a graduation and pre-college present. As she is off at camp, I took it upon myself to try out this appliance. So far I am very impressed.

The first project was a chicken soup. Like, if she were under the weather and wanted a big pot of restorative soup. The cooker easily browned pieces of chicken, then chopped onion, garlic, carrot, mushroom and flour. I added a can of diced tomatoes, some tomato paste, chicken stock, salt and pepper. Then switch to pressure cooker mode for 30 minutes, then handfuls of chopped spinach and cilantro. The result was a nice chicken soup in less than an hour. She could make this after one trip to the little store near campus, she could even use canned chicken, and she really likes making soup: daughter-San considers herself the "Queen of Chowder".

Tonight the cooker made beef stew. Cut up chuck and crumbled spicy pork sausage, browned. Then the usual stew fixin's including plenty of red potatoes, half a bottle of red wine, and pressure cook for 40 minutes. There was plenty of liquid; SWMBO ladled some out, we reduced it and made gravy with sour cream - not in the cooker. It was great. In the dorm room, she'd use more flour and make the gravy in the cooker, and would have to forgo the wine. It would still be good.

Daughter-San is going to love her cooker! I think I'll buy one for myself too. She's ordered me to put her name on this one.

This post was edited by johnliu on Mon, Jun 16, 14 at 0:34

John, it sounds like a great appliance! Your daughter loves to cook and has experience. I'm glad she's going to have the option. Great Dad, even if you did try it first. Smiles.

That will make her life much simpler than struggling with pots and pans in a student flat. It looks great.

A good appliance.

Looking at some of the reviews, I would make sure that the cooker will be in a well ventilated space. May be even raised on a shallow rack.

Many of this kind of cookers' electronic are heat sensitive.

I have a feeling that it can make rice and good bread also.

dcarch

Sounds great! Lucky daughter!

But...you do know she won't be allowed to use wine, right? Perhaps you should test out some T-total recipes for her?

It wouldn't have been allowed in my dorms--strict water only rules but the walls were wood--but we did have a kitchen. It would be much nicer using one's own appliance...

Did you get her a fridge? The little cube fridge and an old easy chair were our standard of luxury. :)

She asked for a mini fridge too. We're waiting until we see the size/layout of her dorm room, before selecting one. One of her friends gave her a Chinese chef's knife.

My sister, who gave her the multi cooker, bought a graduation gift for another college-bound kid this month. That was also kitchen-oriented. The boy asked for a Nespresso machine.

The dorm has a kitchen that the students can reserve. We're going to check that out too.

Coconut, he's a great Dad BECAUSE he tried out the cooker, don't want to send her off to college with something that doesn't work well, now would we? (grin)

It sounds like a very useful appliance, I'll bet your daughter will get plenty of use out of it and have the option of some healthy cooking to boot.

Annie

Well. Glad to know that the boy has his priorities straight. :)

Do check not only in the student handbook, but also with the dorm supervisor, to make sure your daughter is allowed to take her knife. There is often a limit on knives. Also check about the multicooker. My guess is even if it's not allowed in the room (actual cooking with actual cooking smells often isn't), it'll probably be allowed in the kitchen. That would be great because she won't have to deal with other people's messes.

OTOH, she should never ever trust that her things will still be there in the dorm kitchen if she leaves them there. Even in our private lounge, we had guys coming in and grabbing things before we could stop them. With the mini-fridge, at least the only marauders she'll have to contend with are the roommate(s) and friends.

Often a meal card can be used for food items from campus cafes, delis and shops, in lieu of an actual meal, though there are often limits on how many times that can be done. But if your daughter is the type to skip meals here and there, she could get fruit, cheese, rolls, etc., on her meal card. Probably not too many ingredients, but a talk with the kitchen manager could also be fruitful. Most of the meal money is for labor rather than food, and sometimes a nice kid can get interesting things from the kitchen, perfectly legitimately.

Johnliu
Oh, dear, I think you may have led me to purchase another kitchen toy. It would be really nice to replace 3 small appliances with one. In reading about it, I came on the following stainless insert that works in place of the original teflon coated pan.
I think this might be a very good addition, especially if I were using at high heat to brown before cooking.

Several of the reviews mention that it works perfectly with the 6-qt Fagor.

And notice there is also a strainer basket set available. Looks less interesting, but again, FYI.

What do you think?

Here is a link that might be useful: Secura pressure cooker insert

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Tue, Jun 17, 14 at 8:36

Further reading led me to this cooker. The Canadian made Instant Pot has much better reviews than the Fagor and comes with a stainless steel liner. It may cook at a slightly higher pressure than the Fagor.

Appears to be slightly smaller and the same weight as the Fagor.
Wonder if anyone here knows anything about this one.

Edited to add this link to a review on Mother Earth News:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/best-electric-pressure-cooker-zb0z1404zmat.aspx#axzz314DGUHEa

Here is a link that might be useful: Instant Pot

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Tue, Jun 17, 14 at 9:56

The Instant Pot appears to have a sturdier cooking pot (stainless steel) that is not Teflon-lined. It is a little more expensive. I think it would be worth checking out, for sure.

The electric pressure cookers appear to operate at lower pressure (high is about 12 psi) versus the stove top models (my Kuhn-Rikon's are 14 psi at high). This should translate to slightly longer cooking times. But I doubt it matters much in practice.

America's Test Kitchen was negative on electric pressure cookers, but based on my limited experience, I am positive.

It would be terribly groovy if someone would make a pressure cooker with a fan and thermoelectric cooling feature. It would be able to cool down to about 40F below ambient, so in a 75F house it should maintain as low as 35F. You'd be able to brown stuff in the evening, then add the remaining ingredients and have it brought to and held at refrigerator temps overnight, and the next day it would execute the programmed cooking, maybe a combination of pressure, slow, and warm-hold, to produce dinner.

This is a link to the "Instant Pot" website. A really impressive site with lots of info.

I think I am convinced.

My only reservation is that the slow-cook cycle is barely below boiling--190-210 F. I like my Nesco roaster because I can cook all night at 20-40 degrees below that. Wish this one went that low.

Hmmm, the "keep warm" function is from 145-172 F. The high end of this sounds like a true "slow cook" to me.

Anyway, FWI.

Here is a link that might be useful: Instant Pot Website

They have a Bluetooth, iOS/Android compatible model coming too, per the link below.

Alas it appears to be local control only, not controlled over the cloud via WiFi/internet - so you won't be able to monitor and control your multi-cooker from work . . .

Here is a link that might be useful: iPot

âÂÂ----The electric pressure cookers appear to operate at lower pressure (high is about 12 psi) versus the stove top models (my Kuhn-Rikon's are 14 psi at high). This should translate to slightly longer cooking times. But I doubt it matters much in practice.---âÂÂ

You can easily find out the PC cooking temperature by pressure steaming a cup of cooking oil. Release pressure quickly under running water, measure oil temperature immediately. Make sure you cover the oil so no water drips into the oil.

âÂÂ---America's Test Kitchen was negative on electric pressure cookers, but based on my limited experience, I am positive.-----âÂÂ

Positive, negative, electric PC. :-)

âÂÂ---- It would be terribly groovy if someone would make a pressure cooker with a fan and thermoelectric cooling feature. It would be able to cool down to about 40F below ambient, so in a 75F house it should maintain as low as 35F.---- âÂÂ

There is a sous vide cooker which may be on the market soon, which can cool down food to safe temperature after sous vide hot cooking. WIFI smart phone remote controlled.

dcarch

JohnLiu
Yes, I read about the iPot. Since I lost my last iPhone somewhere in the house with the battery dead as a doornail and have replaced it with a new one clothed in an electric pink case so maybe I CAN find it, I am not sure I am a good potential owner for the coming iPot. But then again, it might be harder to lose a pressure cooker.

Dcarch
I am pretty sure the electric pressure cooker cannot be placed under running cool water to lower the temperature/pressure quickly.

But my, we live in an age of wonders, and patience is a virtue.

I am going to try to wait until the next generation Instant Pot to order.

My university banned most cooking appliances, and it was likely to force students to buy expensive meal plans at their dining halls then any safety or electrical-capacity issues. Nonetheless most of us had hotplates, toaster ovens, and small microwaves, and various specialty cookers They're easy to hide.

The ban on cooking appliances often has as much to do with electrical capacity concerns as with fire safety. The microwave/mini-fridge combo that my son could rent for the dorm room was built so that the fridge didn't run when the microwave was using power so the combined load stayed acceptable.

Two things, one, I want John to be my dad!!

Two, I had a friend who's son got kicked out of his dorm for having a pocket knife. And he didn't even remember that he had it. That was Temple University. They had to kick him out because they had a zero tolerance policy. It was just for one semester. He had to move home and commute. Weird but true. That was about 8 years ago though.

Totally cool that some dorms now have communal kitchens! I lived in one for a summer semester but it didn't have a cafeteria. I totally melted the carpet because I was carrying a pan back from the kitchen to my dorm to eat it and I set it down to open the door and didn't realize it was hot enough to melt the carpet! Nice brown circle burned into the carpet by my dorm door! I loved that arrangement back in the day, but yes, college cafeteria food had some a long, long way since then, some places around me are even doing the whole "local" produce thing with college gardens too. Lots of veggie options that I would have never dreamed of. I had to exist on broccoli cheese casserole back when I lived in the dorm. My dorm room cooking consisted of peanut butter and honey on saltines. But I went to the farm market and got fresh ground peanut butter and comb honey! Ramen in the hotpot and tea, what more could a college student ask for!

Daughter-san returned from camp. After sleeping for 36 straight hours, she made albondigas soup in her multi-cooker. Big success. Nummy nummy. Taught me a trick. Girl has been building her cooking chops over the summer!

Briefly, the recipe was: cut up a chicken and with the carcass make stock (only 30 min in the pressure cooker), use the meat for something else. While the stock is cooking, make meatballs from ground beef, hot Italian sausage, onions, garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper. Chop and set aside carrots, potatoes, celery, more onions and garlic, more cilantro, a bit of spicy pepper. Brown the meatballs, then in turn brown everything else, and everything goes back in the cooker with the stock, to pressure cook for 15 minutes. Add some lime zest and juice, adjust seasonings, add (this is the new trick for my old dog) some milk. The whole process took about two hours; if we'd used ready made stock, maybe would have been an hour.

She is sold on her cooker and plans to make something else in it this week - beef stew, maybe.

I'm a little late to the party, but just wanted to weigh-in on the InstantPot. I've had several pressure cookers over the years, including the old wiggle jiggle ones and a couple of electric ones. By far, I've been the happiest with the InstantPot. I've used it for just about everything, but rarely use the 'programmed controls' and set everything manually. I wish there was a low/high pressure option, but so far, I've not had any issues. Oh, the one bad side is that you really can't brown meat in it, it's a waste of time.

Just wanted to pop in and say thank you to everyone for their InstantPot reviews. I've ordered the IP 7 in 1 and it should arrive next week. Can't wait!

I'm not agree with Cathy. Last year I bought a multi cooker and every day I cook delicious brown meat. I use Redmond 250 and I happy, because I can cook and save my recipies. Cathy, did you try to turn over your meat????