I have just got my first pressure cooker and I have seen GOD!

I've never used a pressure cooker, though. No room for another appliance right now (my kitchen has as much horizontal surface as a small desk), but sometime in the future, who knows.

despite all the talk i still think it's easier to boil potatoes for mash rather than use the pressure cooker (but maybe i'm doing something wrong)

3.71 lbs of cubed lamb, browned in the bottom of the pressure cooker in a little oil with 4 cloves garlic and two white onions, salt, pepper, pinch nutmeg)

Pour in one can of Trader Joes Moroccan Tangine Simmer Sauce and just enough water to cover meat.

Pressure cook for 10 minutes, remove, release steam.

Put in a few handfuls of fresh green beans and 3 small zuchinnis, roughly chopped.

Pressure cook 15 more minutes, remove from heat, release steam.

Result: a yummy lamb stew that tastes like it's been simmering for hours.

mmmmmmmm

I've got an Instant Pot on the way from Amazon - it was on sale for the same price as a good slow cooker and can do pressure and slow cooking. I don't know what to do with it first.

Pressure cookers are awesome for beans. You'll never go back to canned. Toss unsoaked dry beans in the pot, cook them for about 30 minutes, and they'll be great - as good as if they'd simmered all day.

I don’t think I understand why instant pots are seen as safer than old school pressure cookers. Is there anyone around who can explain?

what is actually unsafe about pressure cookers to start with? lol, it isn't like there has been a spate of pressure cooker casualties.

I have only heard stories. I suspect it’s mostly a myth at this point but supposedly modern instant pots have massive safety improvements over pressure cookers and I’m browsing about trying to figure out what.

instant pots are just easier than old-school hob heated pressure cookers and generate less heat in the kitchen. All that shit with putting different weights on the steam release is such a faff.

Modern stovetop pressure cookers have all the safety features of the electric ones, the idea they're dangerous is a hangover from some shitty ones where the emergency release valve wouldn't work in the 1950s.

the thing that bugs me most about my instant pot is when you set it to pressure cook for x minutes, when them minutes are up it bleeps to let you know. But it doesn't actually stop heating the pot until you press cancel.

but otherwise a flawless piece of kitchen hardware

Calzino, I can definitely get mine to shut off when the timer is up. Now, it definitely holds pressure for much longer than either of my stovetop ones.

The thing I get frustrated about with the instant pot is when i forget to close the vent valve, and it boils away the water before I figure it out. But otherwise I now use it was more often than my stovetop ones just because it doesn't need as much tending to.

I do agree when I got my first pressure cooker, people would flash a look of fear when I mentioned it. So people do have this idea that they are dangerous. But mostly its just the danger of making a huge mess.