The Kuhn-Rikon pressure cooker allays all fears. The cooker is solidly constructed out of heavy gauge 18/10 stainless steel. The cooker features a spring-loaded main valve and an automatic lid-locking system--the lid cannot be removed until the inside is at a safe pressure. Furthermore the pressure cooker has two safety release holes and a back-up valve for a total of five safety systems. The pressure valve has a spindle with markers on it so you can see how high the pressure is inside – no guessing. Cooking with pressure is not a gimmick--the pressure inside the airtight vessel allows temperatures to get very high in order to cook food more quickly. Few nutrients are lost since little water is used and cooking steam is not vented.. We enjoy Indian food. So for our test, we made Indian style chickpeas. This is a dish that usual takes over an hour to cook. Amazing! Using this cooker, the total cooking time was only 15 minutes--on average cooking in a pressure cooker takes about 1/3 the time of regular cooking.. Even better, the chickpeas tasted wonderful. The handles stayed cool on the range top. The insulated bottom kept the food from burning during the cooking time.
Using a pressure cooker does require a bit of learning. You can't exactly peek inside to see how the food is doing. Dishes usually seem to take a lot less water to cook (since water doesn't escape during the cooking process). Kuhn-Rikon does provide a cookbook that is a valuable guide.
This week, the pressure cooker is a new kitchen friend - one that I will continue to use & enjoy. Kuhn-Rikon makes fourteen different sizes of pressure cookers--one of them will be right for you. For recipes and more information go the Kuhn-Rikon web site at http://www.kuhnrikon.com.
