Cuisinart CPC-600 1000-Watt 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker, Brushed Stainless and Matte Black
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cuisinart CPC-600 1000-Watt 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker, Brushed Stainless and Matte Black
Customer Review: Cuisinart CPC-600 1000-Watt 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker
Summary: 5 Stars
What a pleasure. My wife and I have been using this almost every day since we have purchased it. Every thing goes in it that we seem to cook. If it is bratwurst, we first pressure cook them and then grill them. They fall apart. Same with the Italian sausage. In goes the pasta. In goes potatoes for making mashed potatoes. We will cook roasts in it, then transfer it to the triple slow cooker we also purchased and then do the next course, put it in the slow cooker/warmer/, do potatoes, put it in also. Then when we are ready to eat, dinner is ready and our household will serve themselves when they are ready. Want delicious ribs? Want pulled pork, pulled beef. Then buy this product. We went through just about every recipe in the user manual they sent us, and they are great. We even use the pressure cooker to make taco meat. It turns out great. You do the prep, put it in, and walk away and do whatever you want, because after the pressure cooking, it switches to warm and stays that way.
The unit is simple to use, has high and low pressure settings, along with brown, saute, simmer, and warm. You set the menu, and the time, and it does the rest. Made many soups with this, meat chilies, etc. Ham soup? Out of this world. Pea soup. To die for. Want mashed potatoes? Three minutes on low pressure cooking, and then drain and mash. Whenever we have a holiday dinner, the leftovers from the main course (ham, turkey, chicken) goes into this pressure cooker along with the vegetables, and the next day we have out of this world soup.
We even will put our pork chops in it, pressure cook them, then grill them, and they fall apart with your fork. People think I am a great cook because of this thing.
It is durable and dependable. Easy washed. Takes up very little counter space.
The only annoyance is that sometimes the pressure seal does not take hold like it should, so we have to tap the unit near the pressure ball to get it to seal. You know this when pressure builds up and you can hear it whistle. Does not happen all that often, but it does happen. No big thing.
It is very easy to clean, from the nonstick pan to the seals to the lid. Takes less than a couple of minutes for everything.
My wife loves this device. We only did sporadic pressure cooking before, but now at least 70% or more of our meals are pressured cooked in some way or another. Pressure cook in the morning, put in a slow cooker, and your dinner is done. 4th of July is going to be a blast. I am going to prepare ribs, pork chops, beans, pulled pork, brats, etc in the morning, put into my slow cookers, and then have a great party and watch the fireworks with the rest of the block. Serve yourself. Have a brewsky, and let the pressure cooker do most of the work. I only wish I had two more of them, which I will do in the future. That way I can prepare one food, put it in, and while it is being prepared, fix the next, and then the next.
We threw out the aluminum pressure cooker that is not electric and was terrible to clean up and maintain. This one is a breeze.
Oh, the meals it prepares is enough for 6 grown adults, but not any more. I do wish they made this in a 15 or 20 quart. I love to make big batches and then freeze them for the future. For instance, the green chili (chili verde with pork) I make in gallons size and then freeze smaller portions so that we can have it for the next 2-3 months. Yes, all of my pork for the green chili is done in this pressure cooker.
Customer Review: Poorly Designed
Summary: 2 Stars
At first blush, this product seems like a significant improvement over its more traditional predecessors, as its digital display and sturdy, locking lid remove a lot of the confusion and fear that the general public often feels towards pressure cookers.
Unfortunately, this appliance is riddled with design flaws.
As others have noted on here, the wiring in these pressure cookers would have to be considered faulty at best. Rather randomly these things will just up and stop working entirely, seemingly with no provocation whatsoever (I've had this happen to me once). Also, and I haven't read this on here before, but prior to its dying completely the unit I was using would occasionally shut itself off in the middle of cooking something and have to be restarted from the beginning. VERY annoying.
Another glaring design flaw that I ran into involves the actual structural composition of the appliance. This pressure cooker consists of 3 basic parts: The lid (self explanatory), the base (where all of the electronics are housed), and the pot (a removable bowl that fits inside of the base, it's where you actually put your food when you're cooking with this thing). Now, the decision to make the pot removable was probably a wise one by Cuisinart, as it certainly makes cleanup a lot easier, but unfortunately this feature also leaves the base of the cooker EXTREMELY vulnerable to damage whenever the pot isn't sitting in it. Here's why:
At the bottom of the base is a large heating plate which is raised about 1/2" or so above the rest of the base, with nothing beneath it but a large gap that leads directly to all of this appliance's (completely and utterly exposed) electronics. Now, imagine that one night you run the pot through the dishwasher... then imagine that the next morning you groggily forget to put the pot back inside the base before pouring some beans into your pressure cooker. You know what you've just created? That's right, a $150+ baby rattle! Those beans will fly straight down through the crack between the heating plate and the rest of the base and directly into the area occupied by this thing's wiring and circuitry. Worse yet, this machine is designed in such a way that there is absolutely no way to get them out of there other than turning the thing upside down and shaking it for an hour or four (admittedly, the lapse in awakeness that resulted in beans being poured down there was my fault, but there should have been something filling that gap to keep debris from getting on the electronics anyway). Oh, and just for the record, I poured beans into the components of my second one of these units... the first one died completely on its own.
Anyway, Cuisinart is well aware that their product breaks all the time, so they don't put up much of a fight when you request that they send you a new machine (which is nice), but since you have to send your original machine back to them AND pay for the shipping ($[...]), it's still a pretty sizable pain in the butt.
To be fair, when it's working properly this is a great little device, but unfortunately its flaws and frailties far outweigh the convenience it provides on the whole. If you're looking to get into pressure cooking, do yourself a favor and just get one of the traditional stovetop units... you'll be getting 3 times the appliance for 1/3rd the price, and the learning curve is only slightly steeper.
Customer Review: Review from a Bachelor's point of view
Summary: 5 Stars
I got my Cuisinart EPC-1200PC about 2 weeks ago. Living in a house all by myself it was always easy to stop on the way home and get fast food. I have missed "family meals" and "momma's cooking" since I moved out 15 years ago. I get over to my parents house to eat maybe 3-5 times a month. One night my mom showed me a similar EPC that she had bought and invited me over to eat a meal that she cooked in it. I was sold when I saw the ease and usefulness. After tasting how flavorful the food was I had to get me one. I did my research and decided not to go with the same model as her but instead this Cuisinart model.
My first attempt with this unit was a whole chicken. I skinned the chicken, quartered it and put it in the pot with just enough water to cover the meat. Set it on high for 10 minutes. It took the unit about 10-15 minutes to build up pressure so that the red stopper sealed and then it began the actual "pressure cooking". My first thoughts were "No way is this thing cooking, I don't hear the jiggle associated with pressure cookers" and then the 10 minutes were over and the manual says on chicken to release the pressure using the quick release method. I'll admit I was a bit worried about this part. The horrors of my childhood when my dad blew the top off of our pressure cooker making a whole chicken flash back in my mind. I threw a paper towel folded twice over the valve and with a pair of tongs turn the valve to the quick release setting. No worries here. Steam escaped rather easily and the paper towel did its job. After the pressure was released the units lid unlocks and you twist it to open. I remove the chicken to find it cooked perfectly, moist, tender and juicy. To boot I get 7 cups of stock out of it for a chicken soup I made the next night.
I have used this thing darn near daily since getting it. Sure it may take 10-15 minutes to build up pressure depending on how much liquid you put in the pot, but I cooked a Chicken and rice dish last night that took 3 minutes on high. We are talking about a frozen chicken breast and uncooked basmati rice here people. In 3 minutes. It took the unit about 10 minutes to pressurize for that dish and I let the dish naturally release pressure for 7 minutes afterward before quick releasing the remaining pressure. So in total it took about 20 minutes from start to finish. But its a one pot cleanup and I dare you to cook rice in 20 minutes on a stove top and compare it to the deliciousness that I created in this EPC. I see myself using this unit for many years to come and have not eaten out in almost a month now thanks to this little jewel. I save money by eating at home. I save calories by eating at home.
I consider myself a decent cook for a bachelor. I think this unit can only add to that as I will be able to try many more dishes in the future. The best feature about the Cuisinart is that you do not have to stand there constantly tending to it as you do a normal stove top unit. There are almost zero concerns about the dreaded explosion. I am still careful when I use the unit but I am not scared of it as I am my old stove top unit. I hated that dang thing. Do yourself a favor and get this unit.
Customer Review: A Happy Customer
Summary: 5 Stars
I live in Canada and have a sister living in the US. Every year around November, I would order from Amazon and have the items shipped to my sister so she can bring them up at Christmas. It has been working out very well over the past few years.
I have always wanted to try cooking with a pressure cooker but was afraid to. In fact I have an old fashion one I bought 6 years ago, it is still in it's box. When I saw the Cuisinart CPC-600, I decided to give it a try. By the way, the reviews helped. I purchased 2, one for my younger sister in Canada as a Christmas gift and one for myself. We loved it since first try and I had been using it at least 2 or 3 times a week. It got to a point that I would not want to cook without it. Last Sunday, February 27, I decided to make a beef stew for dinner. After browning the meat,vegetables, adding the water and seasonings, I put the lid on and set it to high pressure for 20 minutes. 20 minutes gone by, I still did not hear the usual hissing noise and the outside of the cooker was cool to the touch. I removed the lid and saw that there was no action at all. I unplugged it and plugging it back, closed the lid and reset it again. Waited for another 10 minutes, nothing was happening. Needless to say that we did not have the beef stew that night since it took a couple of hours to cook over the stove top. I was very upset that the heating element had stopped working only after 2 months!!
I wrote to Amazon reporting the problem that night and the auto response said that I would get a reply within the next 12 hours. True to their words, I got the reply first thing in the morning, although it was not what I was hoping to hear. Amzazon's policy is no return or full refund after 30 days and suggested that I contact Cuisinart to resolve the problem. At the bottom of the email, there was a link that I could click on if I was not happy with their reply. You bet I did and I was connected to a live operator rightaway. Amy C was the CS agent who handled my call. She was most professional and helpful. Not only she processed a replacement order, having it shipped to me in Canada, she also provided me with a prepaid return waybill to send the defective unit back. Just in case the return waybill would not cover the shipping charge from Canada to the US, she applied a credit of $20.00 to my account for future purchases. I was hoping I would get the replacment in a week or so, can't bear the thought that I had to cook without it for more than a week. To my pleasant surprise, exactly 24 hours after I spoke to Amy, my replacement arrived!!! What exceptional and outstanding Customer Service!!! I have since been on the phone, telling my family, friends, co-workers and every one that I know about my experience with Amazon. I have no hesitations in ordering from Amazon agin knowing that they will make it right if something goes wrong . I can now use the same box from the replacement to send the defective unit back. Your quick action has made me a very happy customer.
Keep up with the good work and many thanks to Amy C.
Florence
Customer Review: Still getting used to this but so far so good
Summary: 4 Stars
I have wanted a pressure cooker for about a year. I love kitchen gadgets and different ways to cook food. My husband and I were in Costco and I saw this exact item for $69.99. My husband put it in the cart and said Merry Christmas in advance. I was so excited to get it home and use it. The first recipe I tried was the chicken and dumplings from the instruction booklet. I followed the directions and got everything browned as written and all the remaining ingredients in the pot. I put the lid on and set it to high. I moved the pressure valve arm to the right as indicated in the booklet picture. After a bit steam began to stream out of the sides of the unit. I never used a pressure cooker before and did not know if it's normal. I googled for some help and by all accounts it seemed not to be normal. I let it go awhile to see if the float valve would pop up but it didn't. So after about 30 min I stopped the unit and unplugged it. When I flipped the pressure valve to the left to release any pressure nothing released. I opened the lid and very carefully put it back on and turned it while pressing down to make sure it locked properly. I turned it back on and restarted the process. Within 10 min the float valve popped up and it was working properly. In the end the chicken and dumplings came out great. I would however decrease the dumpling amount to half next time.
I used the cooker to make stock out of the turkey carcass at Thanksgiving and it worked awesome. Rich flavorful stock for my pot pie and soup. No issues this time. I made a pot roast and hubby gave it two thumbs up..awsome gravy too. The next recipe I tried was chili and this came out wonderful and the other day I made split pea soup. Also came out well although it did take about 20 min to get to pressure...not sure if this seems too long. The chili only took about 10 min but perhaps it was due to the amount of liquid called for in the soup recipe? Based on other reviews I will try keeping the pressure valve arm exactly parallel to the lid handle and see if that might by my problem. (I usually turn it all the way to the right. Other than that I love the cooker just need more practice).
****A side not.... if you are looking for a great cookbook for an electric pressure cooker check out QVC.com. The book is by Bob Wharton and is called Bob Wharton's Slow Food Fast. It is a cookbook specifically for electric pressure cookers (none to be found at my local Barnes and Noble). The chili recipe is a good basic but I tweaked it a bit as most probably will (also thickened it with cornstarch and tomato paste as it was more brothy and not as tomato tasting as we like). The split pea soup was awesome and super simple. For novice pressure cooker users it's a great way to see recipes and how they relate to an electric cooker and how long to cook items but they can be tweaked to suite your taste very easily.