Duromatic Stockpot 8.75-Inch 6.3-qt

Summary of reasons to like this pot: 1. Regardless of its being a pressure cooker, the pot itself is high quality; 2. It is easy to clean; 3. It is easy to use; 4. It can make cooking go faster; and 5. It forces flavor into meats and beans better. 1. I was surprised by the quality of the actual pot itself. I cook real food almost every day and have a nice pot set. The aluminum sandwich bottom for this pot is better than any I've tried before. When you're browning meats to enhance flavor and taking them off to brown onions and garlic, it is not uncommon to have scorched spots in the bottom of your pan because of where the flame hits it. The heating on this pan is so even, that the browning effect (where so much flavor is!) is even as well. 2. Because the browning is even, it's easier to clean, plus there are not too many parts to remove and clean. 3. Although it works a little differently than some pressure cookers, bringing items up to temperature first and then putting the lid on is easy. Wait for the first or second red line to appear (as directed in the accompanying cook book), and turn down the flame to very low. You'll get the hang of it quickly. 4. Cooking real food takes time. Chopping onions, vegetables, meat, etc. is a chore and there's way around this fact. Browning in the pan adds flavor, but also prep. time. Where a good pressure cooker can help you is to reduce the time needed to simmer and enhance flavors. Because so little steam escapes from this unit, all the flavors are forced together and intensified. Example: I have a bean recipe I got from a friend I've made regularly since 1998. It's simple, flavorful, has few ingredients, and everyone loves it. I make extra so that I can render the fat out of chorizo to make refried beans, which my kids love even more. If you did not soak the beans the night before, you have to boil them hard for 1 hour, pour the water out, rinse the beans, put them back in, add the other ingredients, and wait 1-1/2 to 2 hours. If you want beans tonight, you need to know in advance and start early. BUT, with this pan you can "pre-soak" in 10 minutes time and have the beans ready, from start to finish, in under 1/2 an hour. Stews, soups, broths all go ridiculously quickly and easily. Even when preparing ingredients to add to a casserole, using this pot makes the entire process shorter. 5. I'll admit, I really don't understand why, but somehow using this pot intensifies flavors. The first time I made the bean recipe I referenced above, both of my kids (14 & 16) like them better--and so did I. Same ingredients, same amount of water (I could have used a lot less), better result. That's been the case for just about every trusted recipe I've cooked in this thing. But in less time. Yep. This item's a little spendy. It's worth it.

This is the best pressure cooker I've ever had. The thick, heavy bottom makes it difficult to burn anything. the visual and auditory feedback it gives at the different pressure levels is indispensable. The fact it uses a fraction of the energy to cook things versus a normal pot is just icing on the cake. When the pressure is first building up, and you close the cover, the spring loaded indicator rod in the middle is down all the way. As pressure builds up, you can hear an increasingly loud sound as steam starts to get past it, until you hear a quiet "flump," which is when the pressure has become strong enough to cause the indicator valve to close and this rod to start to protrude from the cover. There is almost no noise at all until you get to the first red ring on the indicator (1/2 atmosphere extra pressure), and at that point there is a subtle change and you can hear an extremely quiet hissing sound. When it reaches the 2nd ring (one atmosphere extra pressure), this hissing increases ever so slightly. If you are going over the pressure level that is indicated by the 2nd ring, the hissing increases in intensity and urgency. as the pressure continues to increase, if you haven't attended to it, the hissing becomes more and more loud as one safety feature after another of the many that this pot has, starts to engage. All this feedback makes it very easy both visually and by sound to know exactly what's going on. That being said, when the pot is in normal operation, it is very quiet, and there is almost no smell of the cooking food at all. There are only tiny occasional very subtle wisps of steam. The vast majority of the steam stays in the pot. One other nice feature of the indicator knob is that you could pull it up before it would have closed by itself, thus closing it and capturing enough steam to allow it to engage immediately. If you press it down, while under pressure, steam rapidly escapes, but immediately stops if you let it go... this is a great feature, because it allows you to smell the food inside, using a puff of steam, that gives you an instant indication on how cooked the food is. This essential feedback saves a lot of time that would have to be spent taking down all the pressure, opening the pot, and seeing what's going on. So when I'm caramelizing bananas, carrots, or apples, a whiff of that puff of steam gives me an instant reading on how much longer I have to go for. Did I mention how fast things cook in the duramatic? many times faster than normal. I have even used this pot to make pasta in about 1-2 minutes, which is really cool. When it's time to depressurize the pot, you can either turn off the heat and let it slowly cool, or you can bring it to the sink and run cold water around the sides, which rapidly relieves the pressure. Again, the terrific indicator is with you all the way, as you can see it going down, and there is a loud sigh of steam that comes out of it when the pressure has become low enough for you to be able to open the pot. By the way, I suggest getting the pot under the turned-on vent hood for opening, because a bunch of steam will come out as you remove the cover. I had taken all of these features for granted, sort of like the way a BMW owner gets to commune with the road in ways a chevy owner could never comprehend, so I bought a supposedly high quality competing brand, just to see how that went. On the competing brand, there was an indication of pressure, but their indicator was not designed to be pulled up and so that really nice feature about allowing it to engage earlier than normal was missing. I had taken that for granted and didn't realize how much I used it... These other pots also consistently burned stuff I had... I cannot say why that is, but I guess the engineers who designed the other one just weren't as good as the ones at Kuhn Rikon.

I bought this mainly for canning and pickling and it works perfectly. I'm thinking I would like vegetable baskets to make more flexible use of tge pressure cooker.

Dopo aver utilizzato per anni WMF Pro e Lagostina Tower ho voluto acquistare questo prodotto (versione 6L diametro 22 cm con manici corti) di cui avevo visto ottime recensioni. La consegna è stata velocissima con l'involucro originale in perfette condizioni. Effettivamente la pentola è costruita molto bene con materiali di ottima qualità e con elementi valvola estremamente semplici totalmente costruiti in metallo; quest'ultimo aspetto è stato decisivo nell'acquisto considerato che il gruppo valvola della Khun Rikon non è cambiato dal 1980 e quindi oltre che stracollaudato è sempre disponibile come ricambio contrariamente ai gruppi valvola della WMF e della Lagostina che sono composti da più parti di cui alcune in plastica che usurandosi, col tempo, portano alla rottura della valvola stessa che poi non è possibile sostituire perché i ricambi non sono più disponibili . Dopo averla utilizzata circa una decina di volte devo dire che è molto silenziosa, velocissima ad entrare in pressione e a portare a compimento la cottura utilizzando pochissima acqua. L'unica cosa negativa è il libretto di istruzioni che è veramente minimalista e che per quanto riguarda l'indicazione dei tempi di cottura è, per alcuni cibi, non molto preciso. Complessivamente anche tenendo conto del costo consiglio caldamente questo prodotto. AGGIORNAMENTO. Dopo 2 mesi di intenso utilizzo, confermo la recensione. In definitiva una eccellente pentola a pressione. Cucina con pochissima acqua, rimane in pressione col fuoco al minimo e molto rapida nella cottura.

I bought this to replace an aluminium pressure cooker of the same size. Now, it's not a wide 8 litre, but a tall 8 litre. It also doesn't come with basket/seperators so you will have to purchase those seperately. Considering the price of the item I found this a bit disappointing. There are several differences between my old pressure cooker and this one. Firstly, it's so quiet. I mean, really quiet. Knowing which pressure level you are at is easy, thanks to markings on the valve - no more 'is this spinning at the right rate' etc. When I read the instruction booklet, I thought it was wrong honestly. I thought, how can I possibly cook food with so little water. So, I used the amounts my old pressure cooker called for. Mistake - it's surprising how little water escapes with this cooker. This cooker is also very economical on the fuel. I have a gas cooker and for most things it will maintain high pressure at just above the lowest setting of a normal ring on my cooker. To hit the lower pressure setting I use the small ring instead. To give an idea of cooking speed, once up to pressure, it takes four minutes for cut potatoes to be ready to mash. Casserole beef is done in around 20 - 25 minutes, so very speedy. I use water hot out of the kettle to add to the cooker to speed it up getting to pressure. One difference I did notice with this cooker is it doesn't lock into place as I'm used to. If you push it around all the way, the handles don't align. It's in the correct position with the handles aligned - just something to be aware of for those of us who are used to a locking system. All in all, if you can swallow the cost, I would heartily recommend this cooker for beginners and veterans to pressure cooking alike. It's well made, non scary, economical to run and hopefully will provide many years of faithful service, and the way fuel prices are rising, it will probably pay for itself in the first couple of months anyway :P

Es la primera olla a presión que compramos y me informé muchísimo por internet. Leí cantidad de blogs de opiniones y consulté con otros compradores. Todas las maravillas que cuentan de ella se cumplen con creces. Es algo asombroso. Cocina realmente rápido, con muy poca agua y como resultado obtienes unas comidas que conservan un sabor mucho más natural. Lo último que cocinamos ha sido 500 gr de lentejas (con su zanahoria, patata, puerro....) en 7 min. El resultado es increíble. Muy fácil de limpiar, no se ralla, muy segura, conserva el calor de lo cocinado durante horas. Se abre y cierra con un simple click, nada compleja, se desarma fácilmente para su correcta limpieza. Cuentan con tienda oficial Kuhn Rikon en Zaragoza. Tierne garantía de 10 años. Viene con una pequeña bandeja que se deposita en el fondo de la olla o encima de aquellos alimentos que puedan soltar "hilos" y que puedan atascar la válvula. La olla viene con su manual de instrucciones y con un breve recetario para los guisos más típicos. La recomiendo 100%

Très bon cuiseur vapeur qui change du Seb traditionnel. Il faut cependant acheter les paniers séparément et il en tient trois maximum dans ce modèle 22 cm 8 litres. Le « plateau » fait un peu cheap par contre, avec des bords un peu agressifs.