I have an unused (new) one that's been in my cupboard for quite a few years.
About 40 years ago my wife and I used one regularly, then they became less "fashionable" and we lost the habit.
It's the only cooking appliance I'm now unfamiliar with. I'm fairly adept at all other techniques/appliances.
Does anyone use one regularly and what for mostly?

yes, i have PC and use it for making chicken soup..its delicious quick and easy

I like a nice fatty bacon hock done in the pressure cooker.

Lovely on crusty bread.

I bought one this year as I don't find slow cookers fit into my timetable.
Not used it much as frankly it scares the bejesus out of me and the instruction manual reads like you have a live bomb in the kitchen when you use it
However I agree with RJ2 about bacon hock and also bacon joints - works very well. I've also cooked curry successfully too.
I've also cooked lambs heart as a sort of stew - chopped them up with the veg. One thing I have noticed is that veg can get overcooked - I tend to now use the PC to cook the meat and do things like carrots seperately as I like them to have a 'bite'.
But be aware that although the pressure part of cooking may only take, say, 15mins you also have to bring it up to pressure and let it cool enough to open it up - so actual cooking time could easily be doubled.

I have a 'high-dome' pressure cooker, used it for years, changing the rubber gasket every few years.

It's never 'blown-up' or anything like that, you simply have to be sensible. If I'm making a stew, I put the meat, onions and garlic in and pressure cook those. Divide into freezer portions, then add potatoes, other root veg etc when I take a freezer portion out.

When I have a fridge full of veg that I'm not going to use, I bung them all into the cooker and make the most divine stew. Chicken carcase and onion, celery and carrot - voila - perfect chicken stock in half an hour.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I always use every scrap of a chicken carcass to make stock but I simply use a large pan and leave it a few hours.
I must get around to trying the PC.

Orangemaid - what's the chicken soup recipe in a PC?

aww its lovely ( mum's recipe )

I use chicken thighs and pressure them with an onion and cook them with water, not too much, just so there covered
put onion in the basket, for flavour
bring to pressure and time after for about 20 mins
take out once cooked, and cut chicken off bones( it just falls off bones)
add the chopped carrots and chopped potatoes( to the stock), and the onion (in basket) and a chicken stockpot..i use Knorr
bring to pressure again for around 15 mins or so
add cooked peas, and bit of salt
then just add the cut chicken to the PC and stir soup..Lovely with hot buttered toast dipped in

I have a wonderful electric pressure cooker. I use it to cook joints of meat, soups and stews. It also doubles up as a slow cooker. Clever thing it is. 😊

Thank you.
And Mum.

And what's the name of that little beast?

i just made some soup now..it's delicious Have some tomorrow, i like to freeze it as well..comes in handy then

I also made some today.
"Spicy" roast parsnip and butternut squash.
About eight portions - so it'll get frozen.
The "spicy" is just a teaspoon of paprika and a dash more curry powder - enough to get a mild but warming aftertaste.
As I reached for my casserole saucepan I contemplated using the PC but chickened out as I need to practice on something first

aww sounds nice, enjoy it..yea, freeze them , comes in handy and quick meals lol...hope you get used to it, they are good appliances..i just use mine for the soups,but might try to do other stuff at some point

The Instapot Duo is going to be my next electric pressure cooker - on sale at beginning of Nov in UK via Amazon. Brilliant machine that even makes yogurt, is a slow cooker and steamer as well.
If you want some veggie pc recipes have a look at Jill Nussinow site - just bought her excellent Fast Food PC cookbook - cooked garlic ang ginger aubergine in 3 mins and risotto in the same time - both were delicious.

I start a thread about the fact I've yet to use my PC and you bring that shiny new gadget to my attention.
Cruel

It's this one.

http://www.qvcuk.com/Cook%27s-Essent...N-_-1-_-802308

Wow - Half the price of the Instantpot Duo and seems to do the same jobs?

Do make sure you've let the pressure down completely. I once just removed the weight after cooking a stew. Did you know that gravy can hit the ceiling

The instantpot does more things - like youghurt and rice.Theres also a difference is in size, the cooks essentials is 4 ltr whilst the Instapot is 6 quarts - about a litre larger.
The devil is probably in the detail - my beef with the slow cooker I have is I cant say to it "start cooking in three hours so you're just finishing as I get home". My beef with the rice cooker was that I couldn't adjust the time for different rices/grains.
Its all a learning process, but it can prove expensive when you buy clever stuff thats just not quite suiting your needs.

I'm feart of them so I just use the mahoosive pot to make soup so I always have some for the freezer.

Why not just buy a timer plug?

It does rice.
4litre is more than adequate.
Put a slow cooker on low and you don't need a timer to start three hours before you get home.
I have a very inexpensive and effective yogurt maker.
£55 as opposed to £109.
Other than that I totally agree.

My slow cooker needs to be powered on to set the timer so thats not a solution for me

But why would you need to set the timer on the slow cooker?
Is it one of those that is too complicated for it's own good.

Mine has 4 settings. Off, Low Auto High.
Turn to auto and switch it on and it'll be happy for 8-10 hours. If I only wanted 4 hours i'd use the timer plug.

Mine you switch on then tell it to be either hi or low heat. You then put in the time.
But I'm out from 8 til 6ish so thats 10 hours - too long for most of the recipes I'd want. Plus it has a 20 mins warm up time and for low heat you're supposed to preheat the food.
So I can't get it to switch on using a timer as it won't know what its supposed to be doing
In my ideal world I'd prep the cooker the night before and it'd wake up say mid morning and get on with it without preheating etc.
As it goes, since there's only me, its not too much of a drag to bulk cook stew/curry etc on the hob and freeze portions for nuking when I want them.