Pressure Cooker Perfection: 100 Foolproof Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

We got this when we cooked out of our pressure cooker a lot. We used a few of the recipes in this book and enjoyed them. They are easy to put together and helps make your day a little easier without having to plan to much on cooking something over a hot stove. Good recipes that are easy and not pricey to make. Enjoy.

Perhaps my expectations were too high because this book is from ATK, but I somehow expected it to help me use my pressure cooker like never before. It didn't, but I've been using a pressure cooker for many years. I took a second look at the book trying to picture it as a person new to pressure cooking would see it, and I have to admit that it would be a great guide for someone who is new to (and perhaps even a little afraid of) pressure cookers.

Pros:
- Provides basic information on pressure cooking.
- Has reviews of pressure cookers for those looking to buy or replace a pressure cooker.
- Has a decent selection of recipes. (It's not ideal for vegans or strict vegetarians.)
- It's a beautiful book and would make a nice extra gift to accompany a pressure cooker.

Cons:
- Doesn't seem to appreciate electric pressure cookers.
- Sometimes lumps too many things together into neat little charts with categories that are too broad. Seems to me like book layout aesthetics were put ahead of content quality.
- I used the rice recipe and ended up with a gloppy mess (I pretty much expected to because of the water to rice ratio, but thought I'd trust ATK - bad choice).
- Omits what seems to me (a veggie lover) to be half the known vegetables of the world.

Not bad. There wasn't as many recipes as I would have liked. There are two recipes for the same stew and two for the same pot roast which further cuts down on the recipes. Most of the meals are things I would cook though and the ingredient list is mostly common pantry things. They are not the kind that require quail eggs, caviar and the bark of an exotic tree from a lone mountain top in Nova Scotia. This should make a great beginners book. No canning recipes to be found.

Some good information and instructions for using a pressure cooker, an explaining the way that they work. That part of the book is well written and interesting.

The recipes however, are grim. The vegetarian black bean chilli with mushrooms? Yikes - needed more than an hour on the stovetop afterwards to reduce the liquid to get something passably edible. The pork vindaloo? I'll tell you, that recipe is the complete antithesis of the word "foolproof". If ten people were to make that dish, how many do you think would get a scorched mess on the bottom of their pot? Putting that much flour in that little liquid is a disaster. I use a stovetop cooker - currently with a quarter inch of scorched "sauce" on the bottom of it.

I'd this pass on this book.

This cookbook has turned out great meals for me...WITH my Electric cooker. It's hard to duplicate the steps cooks who found their recipe failed, had taken. But my cooker...with care taken to separate instructions for stove top vs electric pots...has turned out outstanding dishes. Incidentally I am an honors grad of a fine, culinary institute. I know how to cook!

nice book very informative

the mac and cheese recipe is worth the cost of this book. i have made it at least a half dozen times. love the pasta recipes, the soups and the roast recipes. not sure about the cooking rice bit, i had a ricey starchy shower going on in the kitchen!!! (asks for way too much eater, and when i emailed the ATK site, they stated this was correct-i now use miss vickies' rice recipe to perfection!) risotto and beans are great as well . i ouwld definitely purchase again, keeping in mind there is a learning curve and not all the recipes will work as planned. i use a manual pressure cooker form fagor, but this book also has adjustments for an electric/automatic pot.

The very best..Wish there were more recipes.Tthere are alot of pictures and tutorials ..Its a good book to have..I use it alot.

I've wanted to get started with Pressure Cooking but had no idea how to go about it. This book changed that!

I love America's Test Kitchen and I appreciate this book because it makes Pressure Cooking seem do-able and the recipes are awesome!

This is a great practical reference book for the Pressure Cooker Novice (that would be me). If you've never used one or seen one used (strange but true, my mother isn't real fond of cooking and the only appliance I ever saw her buy was a microwave) then this book has a lot of important information about buying your first pressure cooker, about the food that goes into it and what happens when it is cooking, in other words whether it needs more liquid or less than using a crock pot, the only other strange dinner cooking device I am familiar with is a crock pot.

But the recipes themselves leave a bit to be desired, they are all kind of run of the mill and meat centric main dishes which is really too bad. I was hoping for some more Indian recipes, that was my original interest in this book. Eor years I've run across Indian recipes, especially for Dal that included the use of a pressure cooker and since I didn't have one and wasn't sure how safe they were or how to use them, I had to go without.

But, on the upside, this a book from America's Test Kitchen, which means all the recipes are tried (and tried again and again) and true and if you follow the recipe and directions exactly you should get the results you hope for.

Here's a few of the more try'able recipes from the book;

Osso buco
Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto
Rustic French Pork and White Bean Stew
Tagine with Dried Apricots and Honey
Whole Roasted Chicken (it would be nice to do this in the summer so I don't have to heat up the entire house by using the stove)
Artichoke and Chickpea Tagine
Pomegranate Short Ribs
Pork and Hominy Stew
Beet, Apple and Walnut Salad