I have been cooking for a while, 23 years to be exact and if there was one thing I’ve always been scared of, that is a pressure cooker.

My mom married before she knew how to cook, so you can imagine the amount of experiments my family went through. At that time my parents lived in my grandparents’ house and my mother’s first cooking lessons came from her mother-in-law, which was not with the best intentions at the time.

It is beyond me how you can put a pressure cooker in the hands of someone who ( forgive me Mom, you are the best cook now) never boiled an egg before, without a simple instruction how cooking is done with this pot.

So, it figures, my mom blew up the thing, covering the whole kitchen ( ceiling included) with chicken noodle soup. Thank God nobody got hurt, but some say, you can still find traces of noodles in that kitchen.

Of course my mom never wanted to see a pressure cooker in her life again, and she devoted herself in condemning this “wretched pot” as she used to call it. She told me the story time and again, adding some reassuring details from time to time, like who got burned/killed by a pressure cooker. She would never, ever want to hear about a pressure cooker being used and at that point I was resolved that this is the most scariest thing in a kitchen and I should avoid it at all cost.

However, in the last couple of years I discovered that these “wretched things” pressure cookers are not extinct, even more people continue to use them very successfully.

Cabbage ready in 3 min?

Potatoes in 5 minutes?
Sounds pretty good to me!

You all know I love to cook, but I love more better having time. So if I can find something, anything to cook faster, I’m all for it.

“If the pressure cookers are so dangerous, how come people still use them?”, I asked myself and as a very good child I continued the tradition to doubt my mother’s words and to explore for myself the dangers of using a pressure cooker.

Now, I might be a good child, but I am a smart one too, so I didn’t tell my mom about my intentions. 😉

So, I got myself a nice Presto 6Qt Aluminum Pressure cooker.

Since I never used one before and I’ve never tasted food from one or even seen how one is used, I thought that it would be a good idea to write a review telling all the pressure cooker virgins out there what happened when I used it for the first time.

The box is here, I open it and here it is, my first pressure cooker, shines with promise of less time spend in the kitchen.

– It looked very sturdy, very durable kind of pot. Nice material, I would say it looked more expensive than the money it costs.

– One unpleasant surprise was that I would have to put together the pot. I am not screwdriver shy in any case, but attaching stuff to something that might blow me up intimidated me and I spent good 2 weeks waiting my better half to have the honor of attaching the handles etc.

– After my husband put it together we found out that he assembled the handles backwards ( it almost looks identical on both sides so it was easy mistake to make) and we couldn’t close it. He switched the sides and then it closed very easy. So easy in fact, that I can close and open it with one hand. Of course I don’t recommend doing that with hot things inside.

– The manufacturing lubricant was rather difficult to remove. I used regular dishwashing detergent and warm water, but it still took me about 15 min to clean it up.

I choose the ” Beef and red skin potato soup” recipe ( the link leads to the recipe), which is one of the most time consuming soups I make, because of the beef. I wanted to give the pressure cooker a really good test drive.
Once the pot was on the stove, I felt a rush of confidence and decided there is nothing to it. I added the ingredients as I always do for my soup, added the the water and closed the lid.

At this point I started to feel kind of nervous. All the stories my mom told me began to unfold apocalyptic images in front of my eyes but I got a grip and about 7 min after I put it on the stove, the pressure regulator on top started rocking and the real cooking began.

The pressure cooker made it for 15 minutes after the pressure regulator started rocking. So this makes what, 7+15 min=22 minutes total cooking time.

I can live with that ;-), for the extra hour I gained I could even go to a spa that day.

Now we can talk about a lot of things and this pressure cooker can have many advantages including faster cooking, but if the food tastes like ….well, you get it, the other relatively means nothing.

So, let’s talk about the taste.

– this was one of the most flavorful soups I ever tasted and I used nothing more than salt and pepper.

– The discoloration of the vegetables was minimal! Something I always wanted to achieve with a regular pot.

– The texture of the meat was more delicate than the one I cooked in the regular pot, without making it mushy.

-It saves me time

-That exact pot costs less that the quality you get suggests

-It saves me time

-It’s really easy to work with ( once you read the manual)

-It saves me time

-It is healthier to cook in a pressure cooker than in a regular pot

-Did I mention it saves me time? 😉

– It’s not dishwasher safe. Unfortunately for that price if you want to get a good pressure cooker you have to get aluminum, and you can’t wash aluminum in the dishwasher. However, since you are not supposed to store the food in aluminum too, it cleans very easy with water and warm soap right after cooking. I hate washing dishes by hand, but this really takes a minute.

Overall I would definitely recommend it and if I ever get on my mom’s good side again (after causing her almost a heart attack when I told her I got a pressure cooker) I’ll even get  her one! 🙂