I’ve used pressure cookers for 25 years. My current beauty is this “Fagor Splendid” 4-quart model. We eat delectables from it two or three times a week.
My pressure cooker is unlicensed, and it’s gonna stay that way. The gummit better keep its cotton-pickin’ hands off it and out of my kitchen.
How did I get started in this? There was a cooking demonstration at a Dillard’s in the Little Rock area in about 1989. The teacher was cookbook author Lorna Sass. No fool, I left for Wal-Mart and bought a cheap one there (she told us what safety features to watch for). And then to B.Dalton for Sass’ now-classic book on the device Cooking Under Pressure (since then I’ve bought her Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen and most recently Pressure Perfect).
There were no background checks or registration in the 1980s or recently on pressure cookers. That Mirro lasted through the last decade. I bought this sleek European model in late 2011 — on the Internet. Fagor is based in Spain, incidentally.
Those were innocent times.
Pressure cookers have gotten bad press from the beginning, but their energy efficiency kept them popular in many countries. In recent decades, though, essentially all of them have multiple steam escape valves and locking devices to prevent accidents.
Sadly, following the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon attack, we learn they can be a component in homemade bombs, or as they’re now called, IEDs, improvised explosive devices.
The pressure cooker is a mainstay for quickly cooking barley, rice, beans, stews, soups. It works great on meat and poultry, but as a vegetarian since summer 1990 (and in recent weeks moved all the way to being a vegan) I’ve found it superb for whole grains, including steel-cut oats, and preparing legumes without soaking them, allowing for less meal-planning for a change.
The stovetop pressure cooker suits me far better than an electric slow cooker (Crock Pot). The purpose is largely the same, oddly: To minimize the time getting dinner on the table after work.
It’s our right as Americans:
Healthy wholesome foods guarantee us a strong Constitution.
Copyright 2013 Ben S. Pollock
