Pressure cooker

My auntie bought us a pressure cooker as a wedding present 40 years ago! I've replaced the rubber seal once or twice, but otherwise it's needed no special treatment. I use it fairly regularly, and love its simplicity. I make scouse - 750g stewing beef and kidney, carrots, onions, potatoes and beef stock, cook for 20 mins on full steam - to great acclaim! Served with pickled beetroot, obviously! Must try the Jewish penicillin soup!

I got an excellent book from that supplier with a name like a South American river called "80 recipes for your pressure cooker" recommended by Nigel Slater and have had some success with 2 of them in the first week!
(It was chicken *soup *hummingbird - known jokingly as Jewish penicillin)

My mum taught me to use a pressure cooker in my teens, so I have never had any fear of them. I have a small one now, having previously had a Prestige Hi-dome.

I use mine all the time, it's wonderful for making cheap tough cuts of meat nice and tender. I love doing potroasts in it, the meat doesn't shrink the way it does when you do a roast and the flavour is more intense. I also use it for precooking cheap tough stewing steak and kidney filling for pies, and I buy lots of things like dried beans, soak them overnight and cook them the next day in the pressure cooker, then freeze them to be added to soups. As it only takes a third of the time I save a lot of the bottled gas that our cooker uses.