Author Topic: Help with Pressure Cooking  (Read 3880 times)

Offline Wonder

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Help with Pressure Cooking
« on: April 29, 2012, 10:00:26 am »
I bought the 5 in 1 today and have tried pressure cooking for the first time tonight, unfortunately it's been a bit of a disaster and we will be eating much later than I thought. I assume the machine came to pressure as my understanding is that the timer won't start to count down until it has come to pressure, also when I released the valve there was a lot of steam coming out. I was cooking a rolled piece of pork which was put in my fridge visiting parent and am wondering if maybe it was still frozen in the middle. I had no idea the meat was placed there until this afternoon when I found it. Can any experts on pressure cooking tell me if my understanding of the machine coming to pressure would be right?

Offline EmeraldSue

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Re: Help with Pressure Cooking
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2012, 01:00:23 pm »
I wish I could help, but I don't have any experience with electric pressure cookers. My first stovetop model  had a valve that spun around when it came to pressure, I would then turn the gas down until the valve stopped spinning. My current PC has a little valve that pops up when it comes to pressure, and then I turn the gas down until just a little steam comes out of the valve. When the time is up, I turn the heat off. If I want a quick release, I pop the valve and a lot of steam escapes. If I want a slow release, I just turn the heat of and leave it for a while, and then when I release the valve, only a small amount of steam is released.
Did you accidentally release the pressure when it came up to pressure the first time? That would explain the steam escaping.
Hopefully someone with the same PC you have can help.
"A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen and this kitchen is delirious." Anonymous

jakodai

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Re: Help with Pressure Cooking
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2012, 01:23:31 pm »
I have the same pressure cooker, and I had never used a pressure cooker before so I got quite frustrated when I first purchased it. You'll know it's come to pressure, because it'll beep (and the machine has the kind of beep that's hard to miss) and a 'P' will be at the start of the time, so if you had 8 minutes for example, the display would read "P8:00". You only get a certain amount of time for it to come to pressure before it gives up and goes into keep warm mode, then the only way I've figured out to get it to let you try to select the pressure mode again is to release the valve and try again. Maybe there's another way, but once I found this way worked, I didn't bother trying anything else...

What I normally do is use the browning mode to bring the liquid to a boil, shut the lid, then select high/low pressure mode and just watch it for a minute or two, then I kind of push down on the lid which makes the valve (not the dial thingy that you turn to release the pressure, but the silver thing above that that looks like a tyre valve of sorts) and that pops closed, then it beeps and the P appears shortly after. Again, I'm sure there's a better way, but this way works so it's just what I do.

Having said (all of) that, I've only really cooked casseroles and risotto's in mine so far, so I can't really speak from experience regarding why your rolled pork took so long, possibly because it was still frozen in the middle, but I would have just assumed, depending on how frozen it actually was, that it would only need a few minutes more. From what you've said though, it doesn't sound like it actually got to pressure.

Offline Wonder

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Re: Help with Pressure Cooking
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2012, 12:08:37 am »
Thanks for the help. I think it was a combination of it still being frozen in the centre and also because it had stuffing in it some of the meat looked as though it was pink when it actually wasn't. I also hadn't weighed the piece and think it was quite a bit bigger than I first thought. I ended up overlooking it a little in the end but we are happy with our meat falling apart so all was good. I think I'll try a curry next and see how that goes.

Offline Wonder

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Re: Help with Pressure Cooking
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2012, 12:09:34 am »
Sorry forgot to add that the machine was definitely getting to pressure and I was getting the "P" on the timer so at least I got that part right.