learn to fearlessly operate a pressure cooker

My boss gave me the recipe for his excellent BBQ ribs. He used a pressure cooker instead of boiling, smoking, or grilling the ribs. The recipe said to “Place ribs in pressure cooker with onion, garlic, sugar, salt and cook for 40 minutes.

When time was up I removed the ribs from the pressure cooker and the meat fell off the bone. I kind of knew 40 minutes was too long a time when I noticed on the cooker’s handle that the thing cooks potatoes in a fraction of that time. It made great pulled pork, but I am going to have to reduce the time.

Anybody have an idea how long to cook half of a rack of pork ribs in a Presto Pressure Cooker?

Pressure cookers are awesome! In Rio de Janeiro, almost everyone has one. Otherwise, you won’t be able to cook feijoada, the official dish of Rio! It’s black beans with Portuguese sausage and pig hocks. Don’t knock it, it’s great! I make this dish when I can. You can use a pressure cooker as a “shortcut” too for making dishes that require long stew times. In my family, we pressure-cook pork for about 20 minutes to make super-tender adobo. This way, we don’t have to wait an hour for pork that’s “fall off the spoon (Filipinos eat with a fork and spoon.)” quality. YUM!

I use this occasionally and love it more than the slow cooker. Gets meals done fast and always very flavorful.

Low-acid foods (all vegetables, meats, chicken, fish, and even some fruits like tomatoes) need to be processed in a pressure cooker / canner if you are going to do home canning.

I was real scared my first few times too, but practice makes …. well, not perfect, but definitely less scary!

I’d starve if there was no pressure cooker.
Luckily,

there is.

I haven’t cooked beans yet, but I did learn how to make a roast (did one this morning) and I feel comfortable handling the thing now. Woo hoo!

My grandmother used a pressure cooker all the time. She made marvelous meals of beef roast, or corned beef, or chicken with potatoes, carrots, onions or cabbage. The pressure cooker would tst-tst-tst on the stove and voila!—dinner. Her cooking was always scrumptuous!

We bought a pressure cooker on sale for 1/2 off and it’s still in the box. I need to read the directions, overcome my fear, and cook something fabulous.