Peterseaford, like you I was absolutely petrified of pressure cookers, had never had one in my life, my sister has had one for so many years I can't remember, she couldn't understand what my problem was, Last year we were looking on a site called www.kitchenwaredirect.com.au and saw they had pressure cookers, I rang them and asked how the pressure cookers worked and happened to speak to a person who had the same problem as me in regards to fear of them, she had bought a scanpan herself and as such recommended the scanpan for me, to cut a long story short we purchased one, (we got the large one) and am so glad we did, I used it all last winter and am about to pull it out again, so quick and easy to use, certainly not dangerous. It's the old ones where the thingie blows out the top if it gets too hot.

So all in all I would thoroughly recommend the Scanpan pressure cooker, probably a bit more expensive but you will save it in electricity and time. The after sales service is second to none and I have bought a lot of kitchen stuff from there since.

I have no affiliation to this site except the buying of their goods.

I had two Namco pressure cookers that belonged to my mother! So they were many years old, but still working, when I threw them out just a few years ago, (gave them to Vinnies) as they were getting too heavy for me. But if they still produce cookers of the same quality, I'd go for a Namco.

The newer ones are of course all much lighter.

Koko, I know the type you are talking about, that is the kind my sister has, I did quite a bit of research on them before we got ours and no, none are definitely not made like they use to be, and no they are not as heavy although my scanpan is fairly solid. I'm not sure if the Namco are still around, I didn't see any in my travels but that doesn't mean they are not out there. Unfortunately nothing is made like it use to be.

The newer Pressure Cookers are made of Stainless Steel

unlike the old one we once had and threw away which was

VERY heavy and took much longer to cool after taking a long

time to heat up to cook.

Remember the pitting of the older ones? I do not use aluminum

saucepans nowadays as there were so many bad reports re

cancer but I am not saying whether aluminium saucepans or

pressure cookers did or can cause cancer but I sure love the

stainless steel ones and do believe the stainless steel

pressure cookers far advanced to the beyond belief heavy

aluminium ones of late (something like the irons they used to use)

very heavy so we are lucky to have our new technology.

..

Always lovely to see you Peter but you do not come in

and tell us about your trips anymore. Miss you mate.

All the best and hope you and your wife are keeping good health.

Phyl.

I remember the irons Phyl, my grandmother use to have two coal irons sitting on the back of the stove. we have a steel iron (I don't use it of course) , it is made of solid steel and is very heavy. They use to heat it on the stove and use it like that. For us it makes a great door stop. ;-)

Peter,

Choice did a test not so long ago and recommended a Fagor Duo. Here is one but I don't recall what size Choice tested (6, 8 litre or whatever).



http://www.ledomaine.com.au/fagor-duo-8L?utm_source=getprice&utm_medium=cpc



They are not dear when compared with reasonable quality pots.



My mother often used a pressure cooker. On a farm it saved time and it tenderised. My objection is that it is difficult to add veggies and so on to keep individual tastes. That is, everything can easily end up tasting the same. I guess that is a problem with slow cookers too.

Koko, I know the type you are talking about, that is the kind my sister has, I did quite a bit of research on them before we got ours and no, none are definitely not made like they use to be, and no they are not as heavy although my scanpan is fairly solid. I'm not sure if the Namco are still around, I didn't see any in my travels but that doesn't mean they are not out there. Unfortunately nothing is made like it use to be.

I googled Namco, and quite a few links popped up, so they are still around......but like many good quality brands they tend to slip into the background to make way for disposable items.

Amazing really, the length of time for which I used them. The bigger one made a great stockpot, as the heavy material allowed me to leave a stock or stew, etc cooking for hours.