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Where to get a good pressure cooker?

8K views 9 replies 9 participants last post by  margaret zorzi 
#1 · (Edited)
I'm really torqued. I've just lost my 2nd pressure cooker. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/mad.gif I grew up in Germany and we had the same pressure cooker for 25 years. My parents just tossed it a few years ago because there were no more parts available for it and it was too heavy for my mom to lift.

I bought a 6L Fresco pressure cooker 7 years ago. Last October one of the valves needed replacing. Turns out that this model of pressure cooker was discontinued years ago. No legacy parts. Searching Google you can't even find pictures of it. It was a great pot, with lots of pressure but I was disappointed at the lack of parts support. It's a stainless steel model, nice and heavy. I still have the pot, just can't do what I want with it.

Out of desperation I bought what I could find locally. A Lagostina Pronto 6L. What a piece of *&^%. Can they even call it a pressure cooker? Does it even make pressure? When I got it home I found that the handle only had one screw holding it on. The nut was not even tapped with threads.

Today, one of the valves gave it up, the stem flew out of it. I've never been happy with this cooker due to lack of pressure and quality of the appliance. I'm desperate again. I cook food for my dog. Every three weeks I spend an entire day to cook 3 weeks' worth of dog food. I need to cook in 3 days. If I don't have a pressure cooker, I can't get the bones soft enough for him to eat (not like this Lagostina did a good job of that in the first place), nor be able to process the quantity of food required to make 3 weeks worth of food. I don't have the time to cook more often.

I've checked the net and cannot find a decent supplier of pressure cookers. I'm in Canada. It seems we get stiffed, and end up with a whole lot of garbage up here. All I can find are these Lagostina thin-walled aluminum jobbies. Short of going to Germany and buying one there, does anyone have any leads on a really good pressure cooker? I'm out another $160 for this junky thing, at the time it was the best I could find locally. Willing to pay for quality product.

Please help!
 
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#4 ·
As mentioned already, Fissler is a good option (they do make awesome cookware, from what I have used), but another good choice is Kuhn Rikon, Swiss made and regarded as the Rolls-Royce of pressure cookers (I think that tag came from a NY Times review?). They make a 5.4litre and 7.4litre, as well as pressure cooker stockpots and saute pans. If you spent $160 on a poorly made pressure cooker, then the roughly $200-250 for a really good one shouldn't be too shocking. I got mine from cutleryandmore online, you can find Kuhn Rikon online as well.
 
#5 ·
I'll second the rec for a Kuhn Rikon. I have quite a few pressure cookers here and have used this type of cooker for over 40 years now. Until I got my Kuhn Rikon a few months ago I found most of them to be pretty similar in function. Most of my current ones are made by Fagor and have held up very well, all are stainless steel, I got rid of the old aluminum ones years ago. The Kuhn Rikon I have is a 12 litre and stainless too, it is made to tighter specs than the others as far as I can see by the way it performs. It needs much less liquid than that reccomended by the manufacturers of any of my other cookers, it comes up to pressure much faster and strange as it seems the flavors of the foods coming out of it seems to be more intense, I can make the exact same recipe in the KR and one of my Fagors in a side by side test and the KH food will have a much more intense flavor. The Fagors are quite reliable and parts are pretty available but I wish I had made the investment in a Kuhn Rikon long ago and had the pleasure of its use for many years, now I am looking to get the smaller set from Kuhn Rikon for when I am not making enough to feed and army.
 
#9 ·
I have a Fagor, made in Spain. I love it, both as a pressure cooker and as a very well-made stainless steel cooking pot. I bought mine on line from Williams Sonoma (I had a credit with them.) They make a range of sizes and are rated very highly when I researched them with Cooks Illustrated, etc. I recommend this brand highly. It's my first-ever pressure cooker, and the first time I used it I lost all fear of using  a pressure cooker.

Mezzaluna
 
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