Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The Cuisinart 6 Quart pressure cooker, truly is a Kitchen Magician! I have not stopped playing with this thing, since I pulled it out of the box. For a 21st century family-man, the chef in the family, discovering this electric pressure cooker is like rediscovering a whole new way to make potatoes, to steam rice, to cook dried beans from the pantry, to make chorizo paella, chicken noodle soup, marinara, the list goes on and on...And almost everything, in 30 minutes or less! Amazing. Pros: 1) Click and go functionality. Saute, Brown, Simmer, Low Pressure, high Pressure, and keep warm. Click your choice, then minutes, then start. Couldn't be easier. 2) Safety comes first: After reading the instructions, and becoming familiar with the appliance, I feel safe, knowing that it has like 7 safety features. 3) Versatility: I am not just pressure cooking potatoes in this thing...I am doing all one-pot wonders, starting with frying my onions and garlic, or browning my brussell sprouts, then boiling my water, then pressure cooking, then simmering in the noodles, etc. My stove and oven miss me so much. Poor things. 4) no-stick pot: This is the easiest pot to clean, and I have made probably 20 dishes in it so far. Cleanup is a breeze, holds up in the dishwasher. 5) Cuisinart is a name you can trust. 6) 6 quarts, perfect size. Don't go any smaller. Cons: 1) Directions: Kind of lacking. The pics are a little old-school diagramish. I was left scratching my head on clean-up, for example, like um, how to you take the lid apart...Left figuring stuff out on my own. (see tips) 2) Recipes: Good, but I was wanting more. (see tips) 3) No accessories: No keep-warm lid, no steam pot, no inserts. Checked the cuisinart website, and no accessories sold there either. 4) Maximum fill line: The pot doesn't have one, and I wish it did. It has measurements, but with pressure cooking, you're supposed to not go farther than like 60%. A line would be nice. 5) Pot would not come to pressure a couple times, as previous reviews mentioned, would just turn to "keep warm"...BUT this was while already cooking in the pot (browning) at high temps with olive oil(for example, when I was browning paella in oily chorizo), and then attempting to immediately switch to pressure cook...so I am of the belief that this might be a safety function of the thermostat. The instructions manual talks about the thermostat disallowing the pot to go to pressure if the temp exceeds a safe temp, and I was essentially frying with minimal water, meaning, I think my pot got too hot to pressure cook the food I already had been cooking. Just a guess. Both dishes turned out perfect when this occurred, I simply cooked on brown to finish. Safety comes first. All other times, everything worked normal. Rice, beans, veggies, soups, no problemo. TIPS: 1) Cleaning the lid: Take lid off, pull the little knob thing underneath, the lower plate comes right off, and you can clean the upper and lower lid with a clean cloth. The silicon seal comes right off also, and can be cleaned as well. Scary to do first time, because the manual is not terribly clear. After that, all fear is gone, and please, DO clean your lid. 2) Cookbooks: Do yourself a favor, and buy a couple companion cookbooks. I highly recommend Lorna Sass, "Cooking Under Pressure", and more specifically, I enjoy her book entitled "Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure." She is the pressure cooker goddess, yiou can not go wrong with her. You'll learn lots of new ways to look at how to prepare your recipes with the pressure cooker, and you can see some of her at work on youtube, she has a blog also. I also recommend the book "The Everything Vegetarian Pressure Cooker Cookbook". I have tried almost 10 recipes so far. Great! So, don't go at it alone. Buy a couple cookbooks. 3) Beans and grains: With white rice, honestly, I don't really think you need to add any oil. The manual suggests this as well. With beans, yeah. Add oil for sure. The pot gets pretty messy, so don't forget to clean the lid after. Now, I tried beans straight from dry, and I tried them after pre-soaking. Both turned out fine. 4) Veggies: delicate stuff, like veggies, really have a tendency to overcook. Try using the "low pressure" setting to help, and just pressure cook them for 1-3 minutes max, with quick release...Keep the super delicate veggies, like broccoli, for the steamer. Not everything must be cooked in your pressure cooker. The right tools for the right foods, etc. On the other hand, artichokes are amazing. 8-10 minutes, with some lemon, and you're golden.