Best Rated Pressure Cooker

Presto 1781 23-Quart Aluminum Pressure Cooker/Canner


The USDA recommends pressure canning as the only safe method for low-acid foods such as vegetables, meats, and poultry. The Presto 23-quart pressure canner is more than adequate for any home canning needs. It's a professional-quality tool, made of heavy-duty aluminum, with stay-cool handles and a strong-lock steel lid. An accompanying rack fits down into the pot to keep jars up off the bottom, so that liquid can circulate underneath. And it can do double duty as a large pressure cooker. It's easy to cook healthfully with pressure cookers, since the food retains so much more of its nutrients and flavor.

The sturdy lid locks down during canning or cooking; an inner sealing ring keeps the steam in. In addition to a pop-up pressure indicator and a simple steam release mechanism, there is an overpressure plug that will let off steam if it builds up excessively. The pressure dial gauge gives an accurate reading so that pressure can be kept constant during canning. This pressure canner is also a cooker that's useful for weeknight dinners or for any meal that needs to come together quickly. An accompanying booklet contains more than 50 recipes, ranging from basic soup stocks to stews and pot roasts--even sweets like English Plum Pudding or Brown Bread! Tenderize lean cuts of beef or pork, or cook chicken, fish, or vegetables faster than you can in a microwave, and without losing moisture.

Nonabrasive cleansers are best for cleaning this aluminum pressure cooker, though occasional use of a fine metal polish will help the exterior keep its shine. The lid of the Presto 23-quart pressure canner is not immersible. In addition, the sealing ring should be removed after each use to allow cleaning of the inside rim of the lid. The dial gauge is delicate; detailed care instructions are found in the accompanying booklet. The vent pipe is simple to keep clean with a small brush or pipe cleaner, and both the air vent/cover lock and the overpressure plug are removable. The pressure cooker measures 14 inches in diameter (17 inches including handles) and 15-1/2 inches tall (including lid). Presto guarantees this pressure cooker with an extended 12-year warranty. A detailed instruction and recipe booklet is included; special safety issues that pertain to pressure cookers are clearly explained. --Garland Withers

All American 921 21-1/2-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner


This heavy-duty pressure cooker's large capacity is probably best utilized for canning (though it would also be great for a number of cooking tasks). A pressure cooker is generally recommended when canning vegetables and nonacid fruit, since the high heat that can be generated will kill more bacteria than a regular hot water bath. Made from cast aluminum, with sturdy screws to seal the lid to the pot, this pressure cooker requires no rubber or plastic gaskets or rings. Its 21-1/2-quart capacity holds 19 pint jars or 7 quart jars. A three-setting pressure regulator valve is included, and the pressure gauge gives a clear reading. Made in Wisconsin, this is an American classic. --Julija Gelazis

Cuisinart CPC-600 1000-Watt 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker, Brushed Stainless and Matte Black


Cuisinart updates a classic! Our brushed stainless pressure cooker is safe, easy to use, cooks up to 70% faster than conventional methods and cooks healthier, too. Steam trapped in the pot builds up pressure that creates hotter temperatures, and the pot is so tightly sealed that vitamins and minerals can''t boil away. Foods stay moist and flavors stay true. Features variable pressure and temperature settings, plus Browning, Simmering and Saut functions for perfect roasts, stews, vegetables, cheesecake or custard. The Cuisinart(tm) Pressure Cooker is absolutely safe, with a lid that has to be locked in place before pressure builds, and stays locked until pressure is released. Cook faster, eat healthier, with Cuisinart!

HawthoRNe: The Complete First Season


After memorable roles in films like Collateral and Set It Off, Jada Pinkett Smith earned the clout to top-line a TV series. If TNT's Hawthorne gets off to a hectic start, it calms down in the nine episodes to come. In the pilot, a patient jumps off the roof, a homeless mother attacks the chief nurse, her daughter (Hannah Hodson) stages a protest, and her mother-in-law (Joanna Cassidy) insults her. Fortunately, the jumper (Buffy the Vampire Slayer's D. B. Woodside), her late husband's best friend, survives. Christina's colleagues at Richmond Trinity have concerns of their own: Kelly (Vanessa Lengies) lets people walk all over her, Candy (Christina Moore) has boundary issues, Ray (David Julian Hirsh) can't catch a break, and Bobby (Suleka Mathew), who uses a prosthetic leg, has qualms about dating. As in Grey's Anatomy, drama commingles with comedy, but with less bed hopping and repetitive dialogue. Some of the humor works (the banter between Ray and Candy); some doesn't (the sleazy payroll officer). Hawthorne distinguishes itself most when the nurses advocate for their patients, pitting them against doctors, social workers, and administrators who make fateful decisions without the same degree of familiarity (Alias's Michael Vartan plays the chief of surgery). A better name for the series, the product of Providence creator John Masius, might be Rebel Nurse. As written, Hawthorne's tireless crusader doesn't ring completely true, but Pinkett Smith, the daughter of a head nurse, invests her with the believable heart and backbone fans have come to expect--and Mathew offers an equally empathetic foil. Notable first-season guests include The Wire's Wendell Pierce and Scrubs' Judy Reyes, while extras range from six blink-and-you'll-miss-'em featurettes to an interview with Pinkett Smith, who praises nurses as "everyday people who do extraordinary things." --Kathleen C. Fennessy


Stills from Hawthorne: The Complete First Season (Click for larger image)

S.W.A.T. - The Complete First Season


Tough but not swaggering, serious but not solemn, S.W.A.T. won over its 1970s television audience with several unexpectedly interesting elements: A degree of storytelling sophistication; visually exciting, guerrilla-like street violence; and a subtle but determined fascination with the psyches of the show's five principal characters. To a non-viewer, S.W.A.T. looked like a fatuously reassuring, law-and-order shill in the aftermath of the Vietnam war and Watergate. In reality, creator-producer Robert Hammer (a Peabody Award winner for the 1979 POW TV drama, When Hell Was in Session) managed to make an ideal, mid-'70s Aaron Spelling cop show with an extra emphasis on the human factor in peacekeeping.

Spun off from an earlier Spelling series, The Rookies, S.W.A.T. was the story of Special Weapons and Tactics, an elite branch of the Los Angeles Police Department assigned the most critical cases of urban violence in an American era of cult terrorism, snipers, assassinations, traumatized war veterans, and organized crime. Considering what the S.W.A.T. team is up against in every episode--shooters with sophisticated weaponry, psychotic revolutionaries, vulnerable takeover targets (nuclear reactors, etc.)--one might have expected the show to be swallowed up in gadgetry and fancy police protocol for extreme emergencies. But from the pilot (technically, a two-hour Rookies episode not included in this set) on, S.W.A.T. was clearly much more interested in the way team leader Lieutenant Dan "Hondo" Harrelson (Steve Forrest), Sergeant David "Deacon" Kay (Rod Perry), and officers Street (Robert Urich), Luca (Mark Shera), and McCabe (James Coleman) tried to understand the modern world even while keeping its meanest tendencies in check.

Inventive stories with occasional twists and appealing guest stars (James Keach, Cameron Mitchell, Annette O'Toole) keep one glued to the 13 episodes contained here. Among the best: "A Coven of Killers," starring Sal Mineo as a Charles Manson-like monster; "Jungle War," featuring Mitchell as a career cop and war vet facing an emotional breakdown; and "The Bravo Enigma," an apocalyptic tale of a curiously likable hit man (Christopher George) unknowingly spreading a plague through L.A. --Tom Keogh

Pressure Cooker


The culinary arts class at Philadelphia's Frankford High School is no cakewalk--just ask the inner-city kids asked to do their best and nothing less by instructor Wilma Stephenson. This acclaimed and inspiring documentary follows three seniors who face challenges at home and uncertain prospects for the future...just the kind of students that move Stephenson to action every day in the classroom. 99 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital stereo; bonus footage.