Twenty years ago we had an aluminum pressure cooker on board but it didn 't like the salty atmosphere and we abandoned it to corrosion.

We got converted back to these miraculous devices when we used a stainless steel one on an extended cruise down the Antarctic Peninsula.

For the long distance cruiser gas is a very precious commodity and a pressure cooker is a very economical way to cook and cook quickly. Since then we have been using them extensively though they remain deeply unfashionable ashore.

I wondered how many others carry and use a pressure cooker in their galley?

We carry a 1960 's aluminium model still going strong. I suppose as a former chemical engineer I always treat pressure vessels with some respect. It has never been pressure tested but it does have a pressure relief valve!

We carry a pressure cooker (SS newer version) but have not used it as much as we thought we might. The fresh food we ate usually didn 't require so much cooking. The few times we used it to cook beans and tougher cuts of meat, it worked brilliantly. I am, however, very respectful of pressure cookers as I remember my mother 's spraying beet soup all over the pale kitchen and my sister, who was making paper pulp, sprayed papier mache all over her workshop.

I would be very interested in cruiser 's recipes for pressure cooking. I have heard it 's possible to even bake bread in a pressure cooker but would have no inkling about how to do so. Does anyone have any advice?

Vice Commodore, OCC 

Can 't talk to the bread issue but can say we use a pressure cooker aboard all the time - works great. Also a newer SS version. One pot meals in a heartbeat! And easy clean-up means less water used too!

Bill Balme

Caramor has a Kuhn Rikon Duromatic pressure cooker because it was the only company that did one small enough to fit on one of our hobs.

Potatoes in 4 mins, sponge pudding in 10 and meat stew in 20 really does save on gas.

Here is a bread method but the bread is steamed rather than baked, personally I like crust so am prepared to spend the extra 20 mins in the oven.

Prepare bread dough, place it in a container which will fit inside the pressure cooker.

Fill with water up to trivet (more if you are worried there is a risk of the cooker boiling dry), place bread (in its container) in, cover loosely and let the dough rise.

Cook for 20 mins at full pressure. Let it cool, remove lid, then let it cool again.

Loaf will be a little slimy but should be fine inside.

I did meet an Irish/German couple in Lanzarote and they were cooking flat breads in the pressure cooker.

Good luck!

Kath

I, too, use a Kuhn Rikon Duromatic stainless steel pressure cooker aboard (the 20cm one, which is a good size on a small cooker), on an almost daily basis. It 's perfect for boat cooking, as it has a spring-operated regulating valve. Mine is getting elderly, but is doing fine. It doesn 't need its rubber parts renewing too frequently, but when I was waiting for some parts to be sent to me, I bought an aluminium Presto, with the wobbling weight kind of valve. Not good, on a boat. It 's this type of valve which sprays food when it comes unseated - which it will do, in a rough sea.

My cruising diet relies heavily on dried pulses and grains, as I can carry large quantities aboard, very easily. Having set beans to soak at breakfast time, they only take 10 minutes to cook in the evening. There are so many one pot meals and pulse-based meals from different parts of the world - red beans and barley (tchulent) from the Jewish culture, chick peas and couscous from N Africa, dhal and rice from India, maize and beans (githeri) from E Africa ... all so much nicer than tinned meat and fish, when you 're well into a passage and the fresh stores are finished.

When you make bread directly in a pressure cooker, you 're really only using it as a dutch oven, removing the gasket and valve. I 'd advise making bread (and other things that need heat greater than boiling point, such as popcorn) in a dedicated thick cast aluminium pan of the Anolon or Circulon type, which are hard anodised. Make a small quantity of rather wet dough with only one or two cups of flour, and flip it over halfway through. You can get a good crusty loaf this way.

I also bought a Kuhn Rikon 6 litre reassure cooker , after doing much research and it is absolutely fantastic .
I am a complete pressure cooker convert now fantastic for pulses and one pot meals .
Having done the research and compared notes with other boat cooks the Kuhn Rikon is so easy to use and efficient , no hissing and spitting !

Agree. Ours is perfect too.
Simon

We have Prestige small stainless pressure cooker. It's been used every day since purchased 5 years ago and is brilliant!

On being told that it's easier to have a small pressure cooker because some stoves cannot get a bigger device up to pressure, I bought a small French aluminium one in Morocco. I don't like it as it's not anodised and always looks tarnished, and scouring away at it makes me think I might be ingesting too much aluminium. I will probably replace with stainless steel.