As noted above pressure cookers can go in the dishwasher, it also fits better then my thick slow cooker pot in my dishwasher, YMMV. I do find the slow cooker a bit harder to clean as foods tend to stick at the ‘dry out’ line and my dishwasher is not good enough to scrub that, but that’s because I have a crappy dishwasher.
I do believe I have recently seen a electric pressure cooker with a timer, but most are meant for stove tops.
One thing I do like about pressure cookers is that I am there while it cooks, and don’t leave something cooking for hours unattended.
The noise reminds me to check the food, and as noted it does not have to be loud, if it is you are cooking it in a method to drive out steam, not any quicker really, better to reduce it till it’s just a very low or even occasional hiss.
Finally the stock from the pressure cooker can be reused for the next meal. I don’t know how many iterations one would want to push this, but for once or even 2x it does add a lot of flavor, and can be stored after coldown in the fridge.
But that’s not how people use slow cookers, they’re usually used as a fire and forget mechanism. You are talking about waiting for the pressure cooker getting up to the correct pressure, reducing the heat, and checking every 10 minutes; while slow cooker users are talking about adding ingredients, pushing a button and going to work.
So has anybody tried one of those spangly new sear and stew in one slow cookers? The idea sounds promising, but my kitchen storage (and wallet) real estate is at a premium, so I haven’t tried on yet.
Yes they are different, but the food does come out similar.
While pressure cooking does require some attention, it is not much and is very quick (every 10 minutes really means only 1 check at most, 2 checks are hard to come by, 3 you would have to plan for months to set a world record). It’s the difference between fire and forget and get dinner out of it when you get home, or lets get this done really quick and enjoy a great meal.
Mrs. L.A. pronounced the pot roast good. She gave some meat to Creamsicle, and I gave some to Tonka. Mrs. L.A. said, ‘We should have pot roast more often. It’ puts the cats to sleep!’ Yeah, they were happy kitties.
I thought it was quite tasty, especially after smelling it all day. Not as good as dad’s, though. Next time I’ll use a 7-bone roast and cook it in the oven with bell peppers and onions in addition to the potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms. (My slow cooker isn’t big enough for all of that.)
We have one of these, and use it at least 2 - 3 times a week, much more often as a pressure cooker than as a slow cooker. It’s generally awesome, but every once in a while it will overheat and force us to turn it off and start over. It’s more frequently an issue with recipes that require prolonged sautéing of, say, onions or chicken with other dry ingredients, like spices. The most common offender is arroz con pollo.
But generally, I love it and it’s awesome, and it means that recipes like lamb stew no longer require browning in a separate pot, and can be done on a weeknight after work. I especially love the dishwasher-safe uncoated stainless steel liner - we used to have a Cuisinart, and after a while the Teflon started flaking off, and who wants to eat Teflon?
When I had a multifunction device that had both pressure- and slow-cooker functions, I never even used it as a slow cooker. The pressure cooker was amazing, and I loved it. Ten minute risotto, forty minutes for a tender, delicious stew. I wore it out in 18 months (user error, don’t ask), but I loved that thing. However, I replaced it with a $20 slow cooker. Essentially, my life came full circle and I was back to needing to do meal prep in the mornings. I’d have another one in a heartbeat, but electronic pressure cookers aren’t yet as cheap as slow cookers and I wouldn’t want a stovetop version.
On another thread I indicated that I’m not susceptible to most advertising but am influenced by social media, and so yesterday I found myself eying pressure cookers at the Metro store as a result of this thread. I ended up not purchasing one because I’m sorely uneducated, and prices ranged from 60 RMB to 400 RMB. None of these is electronic, and they’re all Chinese brands with presumably Chinese-only instructions, so here I am starting my research.
I have a Chinese stove which is awesome for stir frying and anything involving cast iron, but it’s frustratingly difficult to achieve a low flame for delicate things. Couple that with my distrust of the Chinese pressure relief system and I can imagine a situation where my fast flame produces pressure faster than the relief valve.