I have cooked in a pressure cooker for many years. I usually just do a roast for veggie soup. Just recently I bought an electric one. It is a 6 quart presto and do I even like it. It is so quick and so much easier then a cooktop one. I ordered it online and it was around $60.00. My MIL used one all the time.

Beef short ribs, stuffed bell peppers, chicken noodle (or nearly any kind) soup, corned beef and cabbage, pot roast......just about anything that is best when cooked long and low.

I have been using pressure cookers since I was a kid back on the farm and in my humble opinion there are only two brands made...PRESTO and all that other junk......

The Presto units are nearly indestructable and you can still get replacement parts for models they made in the 60's, but then I don't know why anyone would need to order parts,,,I have my grandmothers pressure cooker from the early 50's and it still works perfectly.

The rubber rings are sometimes hard to find, even with the Presto. I'm glad you posted, as I haven't used mine for ages, and think I should get it out. I used to use it all the time, when the seven kids were home!

My mom used to cook a chicken in one years ago I think she only used ketchup in it and it was so good

Cheri, are you planning to only cook or will you be wanting to can - it makes a difference on type and definitely on size. If you wanted to can too, it has to be large enough to hold 4 quart-sized jars on a rack or is too small to be considered a canner by todays guidelines. I can in two vintage Mirro's, but new products would be Presto for value, or All American gasketless if your budget is larger.

If cooking only, you have a lot more choices open to you. I have an electric Fagor for cooking only, love it. I've enjoyed it more than anything I've bought for my kitchen in a long time.

I have both Presto and Mirro and I see no difference in them. Of course mine are not electric. I have two of the big 7 quart canners and a smaller canner probably holds 4 quarts. They are Mirro. I also have my Grandma's Presto cooker that I never use, it needs a gasket and a smaller Presto cooker I use once in awhile. I may even have another couple of the Mirro cookers in my pantry.

Sue

Marilyn, the later Mirro cookers and canners aren't what they once were....they don't come close in quality to my 40 yr old 22-qt Mirro canner, and that strange little locking mechanism in the handle that was added was a really bad idea IMO. Mirro as we knew it 'is no more'...

"In 1983 Mirro was purchased by Newell Companies, who later moved its manufacturing operations overseas. By 2003, there was nothing left of the original company still in operation. "

I have Presto and Mirro, large and small and haven't had any issue finding parts. Ususally it's just the ring but they are easy to find especially on the internet. I would like to have an electric.

Cheri;

You asked what ppl cook in a pressure cooker..

The simplest answer I can offer is, as a rule of thumb, anything that you would cook in a dutch oven in your oven is a prime candidate for a pressure cooker.

The question then becomes, why use a pressure cooker in place of the dutch oven?

Answer- The pressure cooker reduces both cooking time and energy cost..

When you first get your pressure cooker it will come with a simple cookbook. Until you get comfortable with your pressure cooker you will want to pay close attention to the cooking tips & times listed in that cookbook because a pressure cooker can reduce the cooking time by as much as 75%. By example, a tough cheaper cut beef roast that may take 3 to 4 hours in the dutch oven will be done in under an hour in the pressure cooker.

Now consider the energy savings....

You purchase electrical energy from your power company in KW/hr units. 1kilowatt(KW) hour is 1,000watts for a period of one hour and the national average is $0.11 per kw/hr

If you put a large roast in a dutch oven and put that in a 350DegF oven it will take at least 2 and perhaps as much as 4 hours to fully cook tender so for the purpose of illustration let us round that to 3hrs.

A standard residential stove has oven burner elements that range between 3,000 & 6,000watts, depending upon what make an model you have, but for illustration, let us use the smaller 3,000watt element. That means for every hour you operate the oven you are using 3kw/hrs of electic for an average cost of $0.33/hr, thus if you cook that roast in the dutch oven for 3 hrs it cost you $0.99 for the electric.

The surface burner heating elements average 1800 watts, or 1.8kw per hour, so if you were to put that same beef roast in a pressure cooker on the stove top the cook time would be reduced to about 1 hour and the energy cost would be 1.8kw x $0.11 = $0.19.

Taking this to the next level, the Quisinart 8qt electric pressure cooker is rated at 1,000watts so if you cook that same beef roast in the electric pressure cooker it would still take one hour but your energy cost is now 1 KW/hr for an average cost of $0.11.

One of the 1st things I got when we were 1st married, 57 yrs. ago, was a big 6 quart Presto pressure cooker...Without that cooker, I think we would have gone hungry, lol.....Besides cooking faster, the meat will be so tender, you only need a fork to cut.....Just in the last couple of months, I found a smaller, 4 quart at a "junk" store and gave up my bigger one.....It truely was the best thing I had in the kitchen and served me very well.....

I have, use and like my 6 qt stovetop model...think it is Mirro. If you are only going to have one, I suggest the 6 qt size, no smaller.

I fix beef pot roast in mine, adding the veggies when the meat is almost done.
I cook pork tenderloin roasts.
I'm going to cook some pinto beans. I'm sure it will cut down on the cooking time.
I've cooked raw peanuts, making boiled peanuts since they are not available around here in IN.

Hmmm...next time I want to just heat a precooked ham, I'll try my pressure cooker instead of using the oven for so long.

I never saw a pressure cooker till I met my husband. He had an old beat up Mirro. He'd been taught how to cook by his mother. Madewonderful mashed potatoes, the ultimate comfort food. We've bought two Prestos since. Love them for vegetables-they are great for making mashed potatoes and for quick cooking carrots. The vegetables come out hot, fresh and firm. I use mine about once or twice a week. I use the microwave a lot more often. But of course a micro is not a substitute. I lost the pressure top once, looked everywhere. Wrote to Presto and they sold me another. Don't you know, about a week later the original top showed up?