Presto 8-Quart Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Presto 8-Quart Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker
Customer Review: Great Pressure Cooker
Summary: 4 Stars
I am not new to pressure cookers, I have a Presto Stainless 4 qt, and a very old 6 qt. aluminum Mirror. I love my Mirror because it is bigger and has a larger bottom for browning meats before pressure cooking them. But, I wanted a stainless steel, larger pressure cooker and so decided to purchase an 8 qt. After looking at the pressure cookers and reviews I was down to the Fagor and Presto brands. The Presto being more familiar to me and of a cheaper price was my pick. I am very happy with my selection. The cooker seems to work faster than my older models and, of course, takes more food quantity. After reading the description describing the changes in the old style jiggle top, and having to watch for the pressure button to rise I was concerned. Relax ladies, who liked to be able to listen rather than stand there and watch, the new pressure cooker is still basically a modified jiggle top that is set to the side. You still can hear it spit and spin as it gains pressure so you know when to turn the heat down. The only difference is that the jiggle top can now be turned to let steam escape. This is handy, although I still prefer the cold water method because when you let the steam escape through the jiggle top you might be getting your ceiling or surrounding cupboards wet - there is a large amount of steam that pours out straight up from the top. Another plus I like is that the rubber seal ring is white. My others are black and I like that I can see that the white ring is clean. For storage and handling the new short handles are great as opposed to having the one long handle which took more cupboard space and was harder to handle. I found the handles moved easily.
The only reason I gave this cooker a 4, rather than a 5, is because I was hoping the bottom would be larger. The dimension given on Amazon is the top dimension including the lip, and this pot narrows down a little to the bottom. After researching the other models they are all this way and the only way to get a larger bottom is to buy a much, much, more expensive brand. I wish Presto would consider this because when browning meat before cooking, it would be nice to have more room on the bottom surface for big cuts.
Customer Review: An essential part of my cooking equipment
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought my Presto 1370 about a year ago when I started cooking for my cat and was trying to cut down on the time involved to prepare his stew. Now, I use it two or three times a week for all kinds of food - even pasta. It has become an essential part of my kitchen routine and will for you, too!
This ain't your grandmother's accident-waiting-to-happen pressure cooker. This model is super easy to use. The lid locks firmly in place with a click, so you know when it is properly seated. It has plenty of redundant safety features. It is well made - you'll know you have a solid, safe cooker when you lift it. It's good quality steel - nothing sticks to the bottom.
The Presto 1370 comes with good, easy recipes to get you started, but I highly recommend you explore Lorna Sass' fabulous pressure-cooker cookbooks Pressure Perfect: Two Hour Taste in Twenty Minutes Using Your Pressure Cooker Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure to quickly expand your choices. Some of my favorite recipes are chili, brisket in beer and mustard gravy with smashed garlic potatoes, pozole (pork & hominy stew), beans bourguignon, vegetarian picadillo (a Cuban dish) and so much more. Combine pressure-cooked beans with vegetarian slow cooking Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals That Are Ready When You Are, and your meals will be ready faster and easier.
A note about buying from Amazon vs. discount stores: I did a lot of comparison shopping before I bought a pressure cooker. I went to several stores, played with the cookers in person and settled on this model as being most appropriate for my needs. The big surprise was that Amazon's price was a few dollars lower than the discounters I visited. Add to that free shipping, no sales tax and the postal service bringing it right to my doorstep, and I just can't beat it!
Customer Review: Excellent quality and instructions; 8 qt is a good size
Summary: 5 Stars
We are first time pressure cookers! Just received this and immediately put it to use making oxtail soup. Fantastic. What use to take 2.5 hours today took only 55 mins. (Meaning we started at 6:00 and were ready to eat at 7:00 instead of 8:30.) Plus, surprisingly, the carrots we put in at the begining came out intact and tasty, not mushy and flavorless as we had expected. The oxtails were cooked just right: the meat slid off and we were able to nibble quite a bit of the softened bones (which are a great source of easily digestible calcium).
Tomorrow we will make collard greens (20 mins), and the day after that...who knows?
My wife and I are stoked and glad we took the plunge. The instructions that came with the Presto are excellent.
Wondering whether to get a smaller one? We are very happy we got an 8qt model because the instructions clearly say not to fill over 1/2 way for soups and beans, 1/3 for most other dishes. Smaller would cramp our style. Tonight we ended up with 3 qts of oxtail soup to freeze--after completely stuffing ourselves with what we just made fresh. That was using two pounds of oxtails, lots of vegetables, and enough water to fill the cooker 1/2 way.
The quality of the stainless steel pot and lid seems great. The pot is very heavy and works well for browning meat.
+++++++After six months, this has become an essential part of our weekly cooking, saving us lots of time. I had a few small issues cleared up quickly by Presto's friendly customer service staff. Great, lasting quality.
We use it to make: collards, black beans, pot roast, smothered turkey wings, turkey soup, chicken soup (using a whole chicken without having to cut it up first), chicken caccitorri, bourbon beef, pinto beans, ox tails, spare ribs (prepped for oven bar-b-que)...
Customer Review: Very Good Pressure Cooker
Summary: 5 Stars
I was in the market for a pressure cooker since my existing pressure cooker (aluminium construction) was showing its age. I was lucky to be in a Kohl's store where I found this 8 quart Presto Stainless Pressure Cooker. While they were selling the brand new in the box units for @119.99, the display item was for sale only for $37 (I do not know why they lowered the price this much). Since the display item had everything except the outer box and it was not even a returned item, I bought that without a blink. After about two weeks of use, I can say with confidence that this pressure cooker is worth every penny (even for the $119.99 price tag). It looks really expensive, the stainless steel is of high quality and the pressure regulator is very good. It makes very little noise. Unlike my old pressure cooker which used to make a large noise when it used to release steam, this one makes only a little noise as it releases steam at a constant rate. The heat had to be controlled to maintain a constant flow of steam. People who are burning their food using this pressure cooker are perhaps keeping the heat at high for the entire time. You have to start high but will have to lower the heat as soon as steam starts coming from the pressure regulator. I was worried initially about it not having a long handle. But it appeared to be no problem at all. My cooking requires me to depressurize the cooker several times during the cooking process and adding additional content items and I am able to do that with extreme ease. I am really very excited about this pressure cooker. One other thing is that if it is needed, I can get any parts for this pressure cooker online and they are not very expensive either. Compared to its size, it is also not very heavy which makes it very easy to clean. Hope this review was helpful to whoever is deciding to buy this pressure cooker.Customer Review: reliable stainless pressure cooker
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently returned a magefesa 6 qt pressure cooker at Costco because the gasket would not seal reliably. We bought the stainless steel presto to replace that, realizing that a tall pot is really helpful because you cannot load a pressure cooker too close to the top. This is large enough to do a large pot roast in the basket on the trivet (included) which places the bottom of the roast about 1 inch up from the bottom. Added water and vinegar are used to deglaze after browning the roast and stay in the bottom to give enough liquid to prevent boiling dry. With the roast in the basket there is still enough room to put plenty of onions and other vegetables on top. My wife likes the old jiggle weight on our old 4qt stainless presto (from 1975) which still works very well but is not big enough. This DOES NOT have a jiggle weight, it is a more modern valve that vents continuously. You do not need (or want) much heat after the liquid in the bottom starts to boil. I use this cooker on a Max Burton induction hot plate. It works very well but I wish the Max Burton induction plate had a power setting of 2.5 on the scale of 1 to 10 (2 is not quite enough and 3 is a little energetic). I am pleased with this Presto stainless steel 8 qt cooker. The gasket seals reliably, it works on the induction hot plate, and it comes with a trivet and basket to keep whatever you are cooking off the bottom (to prevent burning). My one wish is that the included stainless basket was 3/4 inch larger in diameter, the basket is about 8 1/8 inches in diameter and will actually fit in our old 4 qt stainless steel presto with the jiggle weight. Knowing what I know now, I am glad I bought it.