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: Lots of Good Parts
Summary: 1 Stars
My wife and I purchased this item a couple of months ago. It worked well the first two times we used it. The third time our luck ran out. It seems as though the digital circuitry simply quit working. Button press after button press was met with no response. Being a man, I couldn't let this go unchallenged. The pressure cooker had thrown down the gauntlet and I was quick to grab my screw driver and digital multi-meter.
Ten minutes later the workbench was littered with parts. A new episode of "House" was starting - so work on the pressure cooker had to end. Four weeks later I came back and looked with distain at the bench and decided that the risk of going insane was too high - so I decided to scrap the whole thing and purchase another brand.
So here's my final conclusion:
CONS:
- Quit working after second use
- Has no interpersonal skills what-so-ever
PROS:
- Lots of useful screws, bolts, nuts, and random pieces of metal that can be used for other home projects
- The 6qt pot can be reused for boiling things like lobster, oysters, or eggs.
- The absolute best part of the pressure cooker is the pot that is 'hard' connected to the chassis of the unit. Once this has been removed (5 min with wire cutters, phillips screw driver, and an 8mm nut driver) it makes for the PERFECT planting pot. It is about 10 inches tall, has a nice, black finish, and is riddled with 1/4 to 1/2 inch holes in the bottom. Put a plate under it and viola! - a perfect device for re-potting my newly purchased orchid.
It wouldn't have cost me $90 at a hardware store to purchase these parts - and the relay switch, LED readouts, bipolar transistors, resistors, capacitors, and diodes were absolutely useless - but at least I got a 6qt stove-top pot and a WONDERFUL planter pot.
Now, in the future, whenever I look at my gorgeous orchid plant I will always be reminded not to ever purchase another Cusinart pressure cooker.
Customer Review: Awesome tool for your ktichen
Summary: 5 Stars
I've only had this for a few weeks, but i've used it 3 times now (and I have a demanding career that keeps me out of the house most of the day) I enjoy using this small appliance so much, i am seeking out recipes just so i can use it.
Pressure cooking cooks your food faster because the water boils at a higher temperature while under a higher pressure.
So far I've made:
-Pot roast (complete with root vegetables) - 45 minutes
-beer braised chicken thighs (delicious) - 11 minutes
-Risotto (wonderful and easy) - 7 minutes
these times are the time under pressure but don't include saute or browning time.
Each has been delicious and so fast, it's amazing. I never realized I'd be able to saute and brown items before starting the pressure cooking - this means items are not just "steamed".
The locking mechanism makes me feel very safe because I know I can't open it prematurely. One time I did start the "high pressure" cooking without turning the nozzle back to "pressure". I was extremely tired and sick from a cold but it would have been nice if there was some way for the cooker to warn you. The result was that the steam was allowed to escape and pressure never stayed up.
The pressure cooker has the following options on the menu:
saute
brown
simmer
Keep Warm
high pressure
low pressure
Timer (stops the pressure cooking when timer runs out)
You can either "quick release" or "natural release" the steam. The natural release lengthens the cooking time by about 12 minutes, but it doesn't start until the pressure cooking is done.
The booklet that came with the pressure cooker has dessert recipes in it - I can't imagine making a dessert in a pressure cooker, but I will have to try it and report back.
Next mission: Corned Beef and Cabbage for St. Patrick's day...
Customer Review: Great product, especially if you're a pressure cooker -phobe.
Summary: 4 Stars
I used to be scared of pressure cookers. I'd heard that they were notoriously finicky, and I think my mom used to shoo me out of the kitchen when she used hers, with the rattley jigger top, and put the fear of God into me about the possibility of it exploding. This pressure cooker, however, has me completely at ease. I've had it for a week, and I've used it for an aspect of every meal I've served since then. It couldn't be easier -- just fill up the pot (which is removable, non-stick, and dishwasher safe) with the food, clamp on the lid, and set the timer to the proper cooking time. Once the correct pressure is achieved, the timer will count down, cook the food at pressure, and once the time is up, automatically switch to a warming mode.
Here's a recipe for chili that would normally take hours, that cooks in just an hour -- and that includes starting out with DRIED kidney beans.
1½ lbs. coarse grind buffalo (or regular ground beef, or ground turkey, or stew meat, cut into small pieces and trimmed of fat)
8 ounces dried red kidney beans (about 1½ cups)
2 cups coarsely chopped onions
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 can (14½ ounces) diced tomatoes
1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican
2 tablespoons good olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
1 jalepeno pepper, chopped (optional, or as hot as you want it.)
3 cups cold water
2 teaspoons salt
Brown the buffalo meat in batches in the pressure cooker, then put all of the other ingredients in. Clamp on the lid, and set it on high pressure for 60 minutes. Garnish with greek yogurt, chopped green onion, shredded chedder, avocado ... also great over baked potatoes. Makes about 8 servings.
Customer Review: Lousy manual and problems in operation
Summary: 2 Stars
Admittedly, there's a learning curve with pressure cookers, and I have not used one before. But this one comes with at least one part (hello, "condensation collector") whose packaging--a scrap of bubble wrap--is completely unlabeled (I nearly threw it away with the rest of the packing material) and is also misrepresented in the microscopic, inadequate product illustrations. As for the operating instructions, they are unclear, badly organized, and insufficient in too many other ways to enumerate here, and I say this as a technical writer with more than thirty years' professional experience. I'm not sure the "float" in the handle works--what is it supposed to look like when it "rises completely"?--and everything I've cooked so far has come out caramelized (though I have to admit that this unplanned effect didn't hurt the flavor, but that's my taste). In short, I don't know whether this contraption is malfunctioning or I'm not using it correctly--maybe some combination of both. Other reviews posted here suggest that the number provided for customer service will not lead to anything but more frustration. It's a handsome and potentially useful appliance, and I'd like to get it working properly.
P.S. I'm amending this review. I finally figured out how to work this thing, and now I'm giving it 5 stars. There was one very simple but crucial piece of information that was missing from the instruction manual, which is indeed lousy. Here's what you need to know: when you place the pressure release valve on the lid, be sure that the little projecting arm on the valve is precisely parallel to the lid's handle. If you do that, the cooker will get up to pressure, and the digital display clock will count down, just as it's supposed to do. That's it. Enjoy!
Customer Review: Never owned a more poorly designed, defective appliance
Summary: 1 Stars
I received the Cuisinart Pressure Cooker for Christmas and was very excited to use it. After assembling it I have a great pressure cooker chili recipe that I had been cooking with conventional methods that I really enjoyed. The pressure cooker would greatly reduce the time it would take to prepare (not to mention the recipe I had was intended for pressure cookers in the first place).
Unfortunately, the Cuisinart Pressure Cooker failed to pressurize or function it all. It did work well on the browning setting, but have many pots that can do that.
Air was escaping through the float valve, which according to the manual (and customer support) is not supposed to happen. I disassembled the lid and reassembled it, to no avail. I removed the seal from the float, cleaned it (even though it had never been used) and reassembled it and still had the same problem, steam escaping the float valve. The device would never count down, it would go from pressure to warm after it had reached a certain temperature.
Cuisinart is sending me a new lid, but I don't think it will help. Examining the float mechanism it is easy to see how steam could escape, there is only one seal and it is on the bottom of the float. Air moves around the float before the it is up (when it is supposed to seal). If air can escape before it seals, why would it seal in the first place?
Of course, I have to return the defective lid to Cuisinart (I get to pay the shipping). I will most likely ship them the entire unit and tell them not to send me one back. One more crappy appliance off store shelves is a service to everyone.