Standardization of Cooking Equipment

I was asked a few days ago in a comment details about pressure cooking times. I tried an experiment yesterday in which I cooked the same thing in both a traditional stove top pressure cooker and the above machine, the results despite all time correlation calculations were vastly different all 3 times. I will thus advise anyone who is trying to reproduce the results of what I post regarding pressure cooked items to buy the Cuisinart electric pressure cooker otherwise you will get mixed results.

Comments

[Joseph Bayot]

I feel as though cooking strictly according to a recipe and then the discrepancies in cooking equipment, measure of what "medium heat" really means, etc. are what frustrate so many people about cooking/learning to cook. People feel as though recipes are like instructions that come with new furniture.

Good to know, Shola. Your praise for pressure cooking will weigh heavily in my mind when I have some extra cash. 5D Mark II first, though!

For other people who may be wondering besides me, it's this one, right?

http://amzn.com/B000MPA044

[SholaO]

Yes Joe.

By the way canon just came up with a very excellent 7D.
Unless you are a complete PRO, I would look into it.

[Joseph Bayot]

Full frame is the way to go for me. I was checking out the 7D at the PhotoPlus Expo this past weekend. I want my 24-105 to be a 24-105 instead of a 38-168 =) Plus, I love the low-light capabilities and full-frame viewfinder.

Oh, and I know it's a minor thing, but the shutter sound of the 7D is a tad bit louder and more noticeable, one of the things that annoys me the most about my current camera (Rebel XT.)

If you're looking to trade in your 5D2 for the 7D or the 1 series that your friend has... =)

[Barzelay]

Shola, I have experienced a lot of inconsistency of results between batches when pressure cooking. You could never tell someone to "saute the steak on high heat for 3 minutes per side" and expect the results to be the same each time. Yet I find "pressure cook on high pressure for 30 minutes in a Cuisinart 1000-watt pressure cooker" to give similarly varying results. This has occurred mostly with bean cookery. Cannellini beans from the same source, handled the same way, pressure cooked with the same amount of water, etc., will sometimes be done in 26 minutes, but then sometimes half of them are still hard after 40! Even within a particular batch, some beans are usually mush by the time all the beans are cooked. Have you experienced this? Do you have a set regimen of cook-release-stir-cook again?

[Jason]

Most professional vacuum sealers have guages that indicate the negative pressure in bars or psi, why aren't there professional pressure cookers that indicate the pressure with an adjustable relief valve?

Immersion circulators, cvaps, etc... it's all about more precision. Wouldn't it be nice to have a cooker that you could set to 20psi and know water boils at 228F/109C. If I recall, most pressure cookers got to about 30psi (double atmospheric), which boils at 250F/121C... but without gauges or standards, who really knows?

[Evan Sultanik]

Do you ever use the "browning" function on this pressure cooker? Despite the fact that they can theoretically provide better accuracy what with their PID controllers and all, I am always skeptical that electric appliances like this have enough power to provide sufficient heat to get some good Maillard action going.

[Jay C.]

My local Costco has the Cuisinart Pressure Cookers for $60. Quite a bit cheaper than my first one a year ago.