The Slow & Pressure Cooking Thread

Very interested too!

 

I grew up with one and had one myself for ages. Use it for cooking bacon joints, beetroot, making soup, cooking oranges for marmalade and such like.

 

Sounds delicious!

Don't have a pressure cooker ... well, I did buy a cheap one a few years ago but it was very low on the pressure front so never ended up using it Come to think of it ... I haven't even seen it since we moved here (Mr "M" packed the kitchen )

Slow cookers are more my thing, especially in the hot weather! Yup, you read that correctly, I use it in the hot weather - that way I don't heat up the kitchen with an oven
For the most part though, I use it to make a "base" in quantity so that I can freeze the base in portions and then defrost and use it make an actual meal. For example: a minced beef "base" made in the slow cooker would be a quantity of minced beef (quickly dry fried to brown), chopped onions, chopped carrots, chopped celery, tin of chopped tomatoes stock and then some soya mince (1. to make it a bit healthier; 2. to make it more budget friendly and 3. to make the quantity go further. Because it is cooked alongside the real minced beef and over a longer period of time it picks up the flavour brilliantly and Mr "M" never knows he is eating any soya mince ). I throw it all in and leave it to do its business. Do note that I haven't seasoned it, nor added any herbs! This is just a "base", the seasoning comes when I make it into something else. Once cooked, I strain it, cool it, bag it into portions and then freeze it. The strained liquid (scrummy stock!) is frozen separately.

From that base, I will defrost a portion, add a few more ingredients, and make the "meal":-

* bolognaise sauce (half for that day's meal and the other half for lasagne the next day)
* Chilli sauce (half for that day's meal and the other half making enchiladas for the next day)
* Scotch mince (savoury mince in gravy); half will make the meal, the other half will make a cottage pie.​

I also use whole joints/chickens in the same way (still separating the scrummy stock)
When the large supermarkets had half price beef and pork joints (Christmas time), I buy up as many as I can afford/fit in my freezer. Once cooked in the slow cooker, they are also portioned up and frozen to be made into "quick" meals another time. (Chow mein, tacos, fajitas, pasta bakes/ salads, risottos, pies, curries, soups etc.).

If I see stewing beef on the reduced counter, I snap it up because one recipe I do enjoy from the slow cooker is Geordie Beef with dumplings (no stock added, just a bottle of Newcastle Brown ) That never gets portioned up and frozen

I quite like liver and bacon cooked in the slow cooker but not all of my family eat liver, so we don't have that often.

On the sweeter side, one of my favourite's is a mixed fruit compote. I buy a bag of mixed dried fruit (the ones with the large pieced of dried fruit such as you get in Lidls with rings of apples, apricots etc) throw in some sultanas and add half a litre of orange juice then let that simmer away on Low for 6-8hrs. It is delicious hot with cream/custard but equally lovely cold and served on hot porridge. Smells very Christmassy too

Remember you can cook a steamed pudding in the slow cooker too. Just make your favourite as normal, put it in your pudding basin, cover tightly with foil, pop into the SC and add water to half way up the basin. Cook on High for 3 - 4 hrs.

 

A rule of thumb when converting oven recipes to slow cooker recipes:

If it would take up to 30 minutes in an Oven, allow 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hrs on HIGH or 4-6hr on LOW.
Up to 45 minutes in an oven, allow 3hrs on HIGH, or 6-8 hrs on LOW
If up to 3hrs in an oven, then allow 4-5 hours on High and anywhere between 8 - 12hrs on LOW.

Much depends on your slow cooker, the size of the pieces of food inside the slow cooker and the quality of the food you use. It's a rough guide but it does give you something to aim towards if you have a favourite recipe which you'd like to try in the SC.

 

I have 4 pressure cookers from 4 liters up to 24. The big one I generally only use for canning.

This is an excellent source for recipes and cooking times for both meats and vegetables.
Fastcooking.ca - Pressure Cookers: High Quality, Stainless Steel Fagor Pressure Cookers sold at the New Generation Pressure Cooker Store

I downloaded the cooking times and condensed them to a list of the things I am likely to cook and have the laminated and taped on the inner side of a kitchen cupboard door for quick reference.

What is your rice pudding recipe? Sounds interesting.

 

Wow @"M" loads of good tips there

I've got 2 slow cookers..1 small one donated by next door and a big one from tesco. No idea how much they hold but both were being used Xmas time, smaller one for soups just for me or making compotes, the big one for stews, mince dishes and gammon joints. And one very gross bolognese you may recall.. I now brown or seal meats before using them as I don't want a repeat!

I'm yet to invest in a decent slow cooker book and get out it's full potential.

Never had the joy of using a pressure cooker but the past few months it seems like they're "coming into fashion".. I've seen and heard about them a lot!

 

I mostly use a hay box

 

Thank you @fat controller I will use it in my sun oven. Solar cooker without paying electric or taxes

 

Oops, @fat controller pressure cooker it is...... slow/fast cooking all in one thread does mess with my old addle pated responses

 

what do you cook in there...fermented shark?

 

Gurry usually

 

Very popular during WW2 . I don't think Curry's stock them now