Presto 01370 8-Quart Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker

Naturally, a $200 pressure cooker will be better but you don't have to spend that much. The Presto 8 quart is the perfect size for me. I would not want anything smaller. I might cook one ear of corn but no problem. I just put the supplied spacer rack in the pot, add one cup of water, add the corn and cook under pressure for about 3 or 4 minutes. I then turn off the gas, manually release the pressure and remove the corn with some metal tongs. Add a little butter and enjoy.The advantage is time but mostly energy consumption. The amount of energy used to get the job done is remarkably less.My first Presto had rust around the inner rim. Apparently the rust proof coating did not apply properly during manufacture. I contacted Presto and they replaced it. The replacement has a good coating and no rust. The more expensive pressure cookers probably have a better grade of metal where the Presto only has a stainless steel coating on a cheaper metal. I guess it is similar to solid gold or gold plated. If they both look the same and work the same then why pay more?You need to stay near the cooker until it reaches pressure. Once familiar with it I can venture away once the stove burner is set to maintain proper temperature and pressure. The sound of the escaping steam is sufficient for me. It would be nice if it would whistle so I could venture further from the kitchen during heat up.I am fascinated with pressure cookers in how they increase the atmospheric pressure by 50% and speed up cooking and save energy. I would like to see more recipes for pressure cookers. The book that comes with this cooker is OK but the recipes are not the best. They are simple and adequate. The bean soup recipe was a disaster for me. The chicken soup was acceptable.If you are new to pressure cookers, try corn on the cob, if it is in season. For future efforts do not over fill the cooker and make sure the recipe has enough fluids to prevent burning on the bottom of the pot. Avoid the recipes where people tend to go out on a limb to be different. I made chicken soup where Italian sausage was used so spice it up. Very bad.Experiment. Have fun. Have some backup food for the microwave if you make a mistake.

I ordered this to cook on an induction hotplate, so I was concerned about the base diameter. Just so everyone knows, the base is 7-7/8", which is great and not appreciably larger than the base of the 6qt pot (7-3/8").I also tested the fit with mason jars: With the trivet in to keep the jars off the bottom, it holds 2 wide mouth quarts plus 2 wide mouth pints. Some other features I like: the safety interlock, the pressure release capability, the white gasket (doesn't smell like a tire factory, unlike the black kind which comes with the 6qt pot). The pressure control uses a weight instead of a spring: weights don't wear out or get `fatigue' so this is a plus.I also like that it is 8 quarts; this works out to a soup size of 4-6 quarts, which seems to be the minimum efficient size for a well-made soup; any smaller and you are forced to use partial vegetables, which is a pain. I use the same pot to can the extra. The canned soup is a real convenience when I don't have time to cook; pressure canned soup can be eaten right from the jar; basically, it is an MRE.The cook times are fast but not as fast as they are made to seem: The advertised time is `pressure time', which is very short. On each end of that there is warm-up (pressurization), and cool-down (depressurization, optional depending on what you're cooking). When cooking soup, you can speed things up by pre-heating the water while you put the soup together. The total time is still a big improvement over traditional cooking.Overall, I think pressure cooking is awesome and I think this is the best pressure pot available.updates:The second batch came in at about half an hour. I canned the extra. It seemed to work just fine; everything went smoothly and all the jars pinged.I've learned that this is an excellent way to cook tough meats like shank steaks. they can go from frozen to plate in about 15 minutes at 15psi.I added a Presto pressure gauge and created a thinner trivet; with a thinner trivet it fits four quarts perfectly, which I think is a huge improvement. The gauge makes canning much less dicey. Now it is extremely easy to throw together a 5-6-quart soup, eat one or two quarts for dinner, and can the rest.[Presto: these are things you should sell as options; IE, sell a premium version with the gauge and flat trivet for canning]