old pressure cookers

15 years ago

I ran across 2 pressure cookers I had stored. They are both old aluminum ones. One my husband had that was his moms, Presto, and one I think my dad bought me the other at a garage sale, Mirrow. Both probably 35 years old or so. I have never used one before and am cleaning out storage area. I need to get rid of at least one, or both. I know I need to get new seal/ring, also a release valve, I am now sure the Mirrow one as what I would call a typical valve.

Any way, what are your thoughts. I feel I should at least try to use it to see if I like it. I found a few good looking recipes but I am not sure I want to try. I know they got really nice new models that I am sure are easier to use but am not looking to buy one, just try one of the ones I have.

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Comments (9)

susan_on
15 years ago
I have a pressure cooker/canner that I use for canning, but I am in the process of learning more about them myself. Here is a good site for you to learn more about pressure cookers. There is lots of info here:

Here is a link that might be useful: missvickie.com
ruthieg__tx
15 years ago
Heck I would keep both. I love mine and use them often. You will be surprised how fast you can cook something and how easy they are to use. If you don't have a manual you can download them from the internet, and lots of recipes are available. I don't think age of one matters at all, the basic models haven't changed all that much and many people buying them today actually older separately the old fashioned jiggle type valve because they are easier and more accurate to use. You can still buy parts and they are easy to put in. I have 4 different pressure cookers including a canner and I use them all depending on what I am cooking. There are serveral places you can buy parts...I will list one of them for you but you can even check your local Ace Hardware store. If you live in an area where people do a lot of canning, Ace usually carries them. There is another internet place I think called American or All American that I have ordered from. Just google and you will find them. The model number is usually on the bottom of the pot or on the lid (handle).

Here is a link that might be useful: Pressure cooker parts
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You are comparing apples to oranges. :) First, it is never recommend to use PC manuals for canning instructions, cooking only if you want but there are better sources. They are too outdated for canning instructions. Second, you are talking about cooking in this instance but are comparing the times for making soup with to making stock. Soup and stock aren't the same thing. Stock is much thicker, less watery, more intense flavored, and has a higher fat content. The end goals for soup and stock are very different. The soup instructions are for a way of quickly making soup with the meat still in a good tasting form. But the goal for making stock is to get as much of the flavor and marrow cooked out of the meat and bones and into the stock and the water reduced somewhat. So yes, the cooking times when making stock will always be much longer than when making a soup. Now obviously if you don't want to cook that long for stock that is your choice. But then you'd be canning soup and not stock. Hope this helps. Dave
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A lot of folks flying around the airport but no one is landing. No dispute on the basic facts of what temperatures certain substances (water, oil) vaporize or explode. But no one is accounting for the dynamics of the process, which are explained in Colonel Sanders patent that he took out on his pressure frying method for cooking chicken (U.S. Patent No. 3,245,800). What happens when you apply heat to a mixture of liquids having different boiling temperatures in a closed environment with a small orifice vent (i.e., a stovetop pressure cooker)? What happens when you distill a mixture of liquids having different boiling points? Here's what happens. Assuming you are applying enough heat to the liquid mixture to reach the boiling points, each liquid will boil off in order of their boiling points, lowest first to highest last. More importantly, the temperature of the entire mixture of boiling liquids and vapors within the closed environment will remain at the equilibrium temperature of the lowest boiling liquid until ALL of the lowest boiling liquid is vaporized out of the system. At that point the temperature of the enclosed liquid and vapor system will begin to rise until it reaches the equilibrium boiling point for the next-highest boiling liquid. In our chicken frying example, the two most important liquids are the water contained in the chicken and its coating, and the frying oil. Water boils at 212 F at atmospheric temperature, and at about 250 F at 15 psi, the pressure used by Colonel Sanders with his old Mirro pressure cookers. Oil boils at some ungodly high temperature, one obviously dangerous, but one that will never be reached in the pressure cooker unless and until ALL of the water in the chicken and its coating are vaporized and vented out the pressure cooker's vent. But in order to vaporize all of the water in the chicken, you will have to cook it for a good bit longer than the eight to ten minutes the Colonel used to cook his chicken. As long as there is any water remaining in the chicken (and with the cooking times involved here, there always will be), that water will continuously vaporize out of the chicken and maintain the pressure cooker at 250 F and 15 PSI. The danger comes in when the process is neglected. If the heat is left on long enough, and all the water is driven out of the chicken and vented to the atmosphere, the temperature inside the pressure cooker will begin to rise until it reaches the equilibrium boiling point of the next-highest boiling liquid, the oil, at 15 PSI. If that happens, look out. It is because of the possibility of neglect leading to the complete evacuation of water from the cooker that the stovetop pressure cooker manufacturers have uniformly regarded pressure frying in their equipment as unsafe. Bottom line - it is possible to pressure fry chicken in a stovetop pressure cooker, but the process has to be controlled and monitored carefully so that you never approach the point where all of the water is removed from the chicken (the chicken would be long past ruined by that point anyway). The safety of the process depends entirely on the operator. If there is any question of whether the chef has sufficient skill and attention span to monitor and control the process (and for the pressure cooker manufacturers, they just cannot presume that all their customers do), it's just much safer to use a purpose-made pressure fryer, expensive as they are.
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Thank you, ci_lantro, that's very kind of you to look! I did order the Fissler this morning. I can't believe I spent that much on a pressure cooker (actually I got the set with the 8L and 4L) -- but then I said the same about the Vitamix, and I haven't regretted buying that. Oh well, I rarely buy shoes or clothes so there we go. The Presto is a very nice price, you're right! It would be interesting to measure the bottom disc. My old one was about that same diameter at the top but its disc was only 8 inches. If I had more storage space I'd probably end up with multiples (the Fisslers stack so that already uses less room than my old one, which was also actually a set of two). In case anyone with an arthritic relative (or who has arthritis themselves) is interested, I did find the Calphalon in a store and it looks very nifty, with that one-handed operation. I could tell that it would be too small a capacity for us, though. (However, for my parents...)
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redcurls
15 years ago
If you're only going to keep one, I'd be sure and get it working with all the parts in place before you discard the other one. I know I kept one of my old ones for the "pot" alone. Good quality pan. But I understand if you don't have room. I'm trying to downsize myself.
Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
15 years ago
I checked years ago for a gasket for my old 6 qt Mirro and it was $17 plus shipping, so I am just limping along with the existing one and don't use it but at 5 LB pressure, which is fine. The blow out plug is no longer available for it either, unless someone has recently started manufacturing them again. Needless to say, I have been a little tiffed with Mirro and would not buy another one of theirs.

I would for sure get one going before getting rid of one and think the Presto would likely be the easiest to get parts for.

I know they got really nice new models that I am sure are easier to use
Really, I think they are all about the same as far as ease of use. I particularly like my 6 qt size and think anything smaller might not be big enough at times.

Sue
nanny98
15 years ago
My old Presto cookers are still in use. One, without the gasket makes the best "old fashioned" popcorn(just that heavy duty pan and lid)...even tho I haven't done that in years and it is parked in the garage. Pressure cooking is the only way to cook artichokes, or potatoes (especially potato salad on a hot summer day. Nanny
User
15 years ago
I've had mine about 20 yrs and love it. But they can be very dangerous so have someone show you how they work. Seeing is the best way.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to use a pressure cooker
carol_in_california
15 years ago
I have two pressure cookers....one is stainless steel Presto I bought for our first wedding anniversary. It is now 47 years old and works well. I had to buy a new gasket about 20 years ago.....it cost under three dollars. I got it locally at a family owned hardware store. The clerk was elderly and said she would have to order it and I would need to pay the money before she would.
The other pressure cooker is an old cast aluminum one DH;'s aunt gave to us....the instruction booklet says 1974.
I use them both quite a bit and will continue to use them.
I bet if I had to order a new gasket for either one of them it would be more than three dollars.
I have no idea what a new pressure cooker would cost.
paleblue
15 years ago
Hi........hate to bring this up, but...they say it's
unhealthy to cook in aluminum. Got rid of all my aluminum
pots a long time ago. Check it out.
sheesh
15 years ago
Yes, check it out. The general consensus is that it is safe to cook with aluminum, aluminum being the third most abundant mineral on earth.

Is It Safe?

Many people are scared to use aluminum cookware as they believe it may cause Alzheimer's disease.

Back in the 1970's, some researchers in Canada reported the finding that people who had died with Alzheimer's had unusually high levels of aluminum in their brains. It sparked controversy Ã¯Â¿Â½" was aluminum the cause of Alzheimer's, or the result of it? Many people were alarmed by this and threw away their aluminum cookware.

More recent studies would seem to indicate that the increased levels of aluminum were due to the Alzheimer's itself. Brains which have already suffered damage from Alzheimer's will allow unusually high levels of aluminum in.

This is not difficult as aluminum is everywhere. The most common elements on Earth (in order of prevalence) are oxygen, silicon, and aluminum. It's in air, water, soil and consequently in the plants and animals that we eat.

So can using aluminum cookware harm me?

Current research believes that it is safe to use. To put it into perspective, many common medications contain aluminum.

* One antacid tablet may contain more than 50 milligrams of aluminum.
* One aspirin may contain between 10 and 20 milligrams of it.
* The World Health Organization says that an adult can safely ingest more than 50 milligrams of aluminum each day. People in the western world naturally consume about 10 milligrams each day and only 2 of those milligrams come from aluminum cookware.

There is a lot more info out there; just Google it.

I love my aluminum pressure cooker and use it quite often.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/232/Cooking-With-Aluminum

old pressure cookers

Comments (9)

susan_on

ruthieg__tx

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