[quote=Earl;157436]Great Northern Beans

2 cups beans
6 cups water
1 T. oil [to curtail frothing]

cook for 25 minutes, let pot sit to cool and de-pressurize

add salt/pepper to taste

I use a 6 qt. Mirro pressure cooker

For me 25 minutes gives a very soft bean and should be eaten or added to other ingredients without further cooking. If you want beans a bit al dente you may need to lesson the cooking time.

I cooked some a couple days ago and put them in a great White Chili recipe from CHOPTAG President JerryL which he served at a function sometime back.[/quote]

earl you did not state that you soaked the beans for X hours so i'm wondering if you pc them without soaking them? i suspect that the answer is no because that's a LOT of water to use for 2 cups of beans! i've used a pc since 1985 for cooking brown rice and different beans. i always soak beans for at least 6 hours before pc them and i use an equal amount of water as there are beans after they soaked.

My new stove has a ceramic top. The henny penny sky is falling appliance repair man who came to work on my dishwasher said not to use a pressure cooker to the ceramic top. I am not sure this is true. Do any of you use a pressure cooker on a ceramic top stove?

I understand how the big canning pressure cookers might be too heavy and would not risk that. That may be what he was thinking of.:?!?:

You will see both you can use and you can't. The applicance store doesn't bother telling you the full info on these stoves. I bought a ceramic top stove when we built our home 2 years ago, I love to cook on it but do not pressure can on it. I do BWB jelly etc. in tall stock pot for the recommended time (usually 10 minutes). The bunner goes off and on while you are cooking and this causes a problem as well as the heavy weight of a canner. Kat has a smaller canner and she uses her stove (maybe she and others will comment on this for you)

Neva

I just want to cook the roast in a small inexpensive p cooker from Wal-Mart. What makes me think the appliance man is wrong is he thought it would be too heavy and get too hot. I think he must not be thinking of the small pressure cooker. Also french fry grease gets hotter than anything I think.:?

Reading this thread got me thinking about the fact that a pressure cooker might be the very thing to deal with my less-than-tender free-range geese and hens. I'm wondering what kind of pressure cookers you all like, or perhaps this is the wrong thread for that?

I own an 8 qt. Presto, a 22 qt. Mirro and a behemoth American Foundry 41.5 qt. canner.

The Presto is made of stainless steel, which is a just a tad easier to clean versus aluminum. All three work equally well but unless you do a LOT of canning, I wouldn't buy anything larger than an 8 quart size. It's perfect for larger cuts of meat, stews, etc.

Mischka, I don't want it for canning since I freeze everything; I was thinking of cooking with it. I do want stainless steel, and I was looking at Fagors and Kuhn Rikons for ease of use. You don't think an 8-qt is too large? I tend to do lots of stews also.

An 8 quart size is perfect because you don't want to overfill a pressure cooker. Having some space around the food is necessary, so that the atmosphere inside can build up and do it's job properly.

Another reason you don't want to overfill a pressure cooker is to avoid having the food inside boil up and clog the steam release valve.

Aha, that's good to know. Thanks, Mischka! Kuhn Rikon has a 7-something that looks good. Maybe I can hint about it for Mother's Day...

[quote=matilda'skid;157933]My new stove has a ceramic top. The henny penny sky is falling appliance repair man who came to work on my dishwasher said not to use a pressure cooker to the ceramic top. I am not sure this is true. Do any of you use a pressure cooker on a ceramic top stove?

I understand how the big canning pressure cookers might be too heavy and would not risk that. That may be what he was thinking of.:?!?:[/quote]

I think you can buy electric Pressure Cookers. Look at Williams Sonoma's web site. They are on sale for $99.

[quote=RiverRat;158075]Reading this thread got me thinking about the fact that a pressure cooker might be the very thing to deal with my less-than-tender free-range geese and hens. I'm wondering what kind of pressure cookers you all like, or perhaps this is the wrong thread for that?[/quote]

I'm not sure if you know this, but Kentucky Fried Chicken pressure fries their chicken and has always done so, beginning with Colonel Harland Sanders himself.

Check out this link -------> [URL]http://www.kfc.com/about/pressure.asp[/URL]

It's the best way to turn a tough bird into a tender one. :D

[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/Harland_Sanders.jpg[/IMG]

Just checked back on this thread. I've ordered a pressure cooker and have been reading some cookbooks, and they seemed to say that you need to use a fattier meat for the pc. So it was reassuring to find Mischka sharing a recipe for an eye-round roast, since I'd like to use the pc for deer meat as well as other things, and that's very lean.

Any suggestions about how long to cook a free-range chicken or goose? I also read that overcooking can result in tough, stringy meat, which is just what I'm trying to avoid!

Here's a delicious sounding recipe for a whole chicken in a pc, by the way, but I think it's a younger bird than mine are:

[url]http://www.recipezaar.com/pressure-cooker-whole-chicken-369106[/url]

When cooking cuts of meat in a pressure cooker, it's very crucial that you do [B][U]not[/U][/B] add too much liquid.

Liquids cannot be compressed, unlike a gas (i.e. the air in your pressure cooker). If the meat is mostly covered in broth or water, it will not benefit from pressure cooking and it will be tough, since you are essentially just [B]boiling[/B] it. [I][U]You want the pressurized steam to cook the meat.[/U] [/I]The temperature of compressed steam is much hotter than water, as water cannot reach above 212° F before it converts to steam.

This is why food cooks much faster in a pressure cooker versus other methods. ;)

I use 1 cup of water at most when I PC cuts of meat. Don't worry about it evaporating before the meat is cooked. It takes quite a long time for 1 cup of water to be converted to steam and then escape through the tiny opening in the weighted valve. Your meat will be cooked well before this happens.:yes:

Thanks, Mischka. That sounds like an excellent rule of thumb. I will remember that!

All I did to the beans before cooking was sort out the culls and wash. I read somewhere that if you bring the pot to to steam on med-heat it will help keep the hulls from separating. I'll try that next time.