Brand of pressure cooker used by Martha Stewart
I was curious ... while watching an episode of Martha Stewart's "Cooking School" (making soup stocks), she demonstrated the way in which a
pressure cooker could be used to make chicken stock in "2/3 less time"
than the conventional method using a stock pot.
I am somewhat familiar with the various brands of cookers (mine are
made by Fagor) and was unable to identify the one she used in her
program. It looked very similar to a Fagor model, where the pressure
valve internally regulates the pressure so no steam escapes during the cooking process like the older cookers do (with the "whistle").
The cooker she used had a rather large round royal blue colored pressure indicator. At the end of the cooking process which was 30 minutes (according to her instructions for the chicken stock) , she pushed a black oblong piece near the handle to release the steam to quickly bring down the pressure. There was so much steam coming out, she had to change her position to still be viewed clearly on camera!
When I saw all the steam coming out, I thought of how much easier it is to just run a little cold water onto the cover and only have the steam come out for a few seconds once the cover can be removed. She did mention that if a person doesn't want to wait for pressure to come down using the steam release method, they could do the water on the cover method.
Maybe she used that method so as to not have to lug the whole cooker over to the sink, take it back to the stove, and use a ladel at that location to
strain the stock.
The cooker interested me as a potential backup to Fagor due to its apparent similarity in design and function. Kuhn-Rikon is out of my price range.
It was useful to watch this episode as the issue of the chicken fat and gel-ing which results from making chicken stock does take place during the conventional making of chicken stock. If a pressure cooker is used, I wondered what would happen to the fat and the gel-ing given that the cover is sealed during the 20 to 30 minutes of cooking. It never occured to me that an initial cooking time is still required to have some of the fat and gel come to the surface of the water to be skimmed off before the final cooking process takes place where the lid is sealed.
She also made comments about how the color of the chicken stock is lighter than what occurs when the conventional and longer cooking method is used, but due to the nature of the pressure cooker, the flavors are more intense.
I have yet to make chicken stock, but a simple vegetable stock was made successfully, though it took me a few tries to get the right ratio of vegetables to water for flavor. I can see how making chicken stock is much more involved!
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Chemicalkinetics
Jan 19, 2013 07:44 PM
<The cooker she used had a rather large round royal blue colored pressure indicator.>
Well, in her website, there was the T-fal, but T-fal is red, not blue:
http://www.marthastewart.com/948298/how-use-pressure-cooker
So maybe you are thinking about Fissler Blue Point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB-KPZ...
Fissler is only marginally cheaper than Kuhn Rikon.
<I have yet to make chicken stock>
I am the opposite. I making nothing but only chicken stock in my pressure cooker -- ok, I should say almost nothing. Yes, the chicken stock does look a ligther. Good luck.
